Overview
There are many ways to accrue points for hotel and airline redemptions like credit card sign up bonuses, prior spend with a brand, and yes, even straight up buying the points. It might seem counterintuitive to buy points rather than the cash rate for the hotel room, but I used a recent booking I made at the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris, France to breakdown why buying the points was the best deal.
Process
The Park Hyatt Paris is in one of Hyatt’s highest categories of hotels (Level 7), and is one of the most luxurious properties in Paris. It also happens to be a great place to redeem points.
A quick search on Hyatt.com for Friday, April 22nd – Sunday, April 24th 2022 shows the cash rate for the base room, Park Room King, is $890USD per night.
When I changed my selection to search for a points stay, that same room is available for 30,000 Hyatt points per night.
I didn’t have 60,000 Hyatt points nor did I have enough Chase Ultimate Rewards to transfer to my Hyatt account, but that’s ok because I bought Hyatt points from storefront.points.com. I got an even better value because the storefront was running a special when I bought my points.
I bought 49,000 Hyatt points for $1176USD. And I got a bonus of 14,700 points for a total of 63,700 points, which was enough to cover 2 nights at the Park Hyatt Vendome. 👏🏼
Breaking it down
So let’s breakdown the cost of the points versus the cost of the cash rate for the weekend I was searching for:
Cash rate: $1790USD (includes taxes)
Hyatt points: $1176USD (points redemption stays don’t incur taxes)
That’s a savings of over $600!
And remember, the cash rate will fluctuate with demand but as long as the base room is available, the points rate will stay the same at 30,000 points per night. So it’s possible to get an even better deal! (This is ultimately changing as Hyatt has rolled out peak/off-peak points pricing on bookings after March 1 2022)
The most important thing to do first, is to check if the room you want is available on points for the dates you want before you buy the points and deposit them into your Hyatt account. You will want to act fast if your dates are available and what’s great is that points purchased from the storefront show up in your account instantly.
Elevate your experience
Hyatt often releases their suites for points redemptions as well. It’s more points per night, but I have often found their suites to be worth it. For that same weekend in April, the Park Hyatt Suite is available for 48,000 points per night or a cash rate of $1,361USD per night.
You can follow the method I outlined above to calculate the savings.
Again, Hyatt’s program is changing to peak/off-peak points pricing, so it’s possible that the 48,000 points per night could increase based on when you’re traveling.
Why this is better than redeeming points through the Chase portal
Many folks might think using the Chase Ultimate Rewards points to pay for a stay is the same as the process I’ve outline above, but it’s not! If you book a hotel stay in the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, you’re redeeming at a fixed rate of 1.5 cents per point (that’s if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card) or 1.25 cents per point (if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred) and effectively paying the cash rate equivalent.
The cost using the Chase UR portal is 59,728 points or $895 per night, which would be 119,456 points for the entire stay. That’s nearly double the amount of Hyatt points you’d need if you booked it directly through Hyatt! If you have Chase UR points you can transfer them directly to your Hyatt account and then redeem. Or if you don’t have UR points (like me) you can buy the points using the process above.
Considerations
Sometimes buying points is the best deal.
Be sure to sign up for a World of Hyatt loyalty account.
Double check the nights you want are available for points.
Purchase the amount of points you need for the room you want for the amount of nights you want.
Make the points reservation.
See you in Paris! 🇫🇷
