Contrarian Take: Hyatt Program’s Best Value Is In Low-category Redemptions

If you’ve followed this hobby for awhile, you have probably seen a heavy emphasis on Hyatt aspirational redemptions. To be clear, there are good reasons for that. For one, Hyatt still has a fixed award chart, and you will pay a maximum of 45k points per night for a standard room during peak season.

No, Mr and Mrs Smith properties unfortunately are not included and instead are subject to dynamic pricing. But the truth is, if you specifically want to stay in a highly desirable hotel like Park Hyatt Kyoto, burning Hyatt points will be your best bet, period. Assuming you can find award availability, that is.

In addition, some Hyatt properties are unique and the area they are located in doesn’t offer any other points alternatives. One obvious example is Alila Ventana Big Sur where you can get a $2k room for “only” 45k points per night, though a minimum stay of two nights is usually required. Is it worth $2k? Not to me, but it doesn’t matter what I think. If you want an all-inclusive resort  in Big Sur on points, that’s your only option. And plenty of people apparently pay the $2k per night asking rate.

But most of the time, IMO Hyatt doesn’t really have an edge compared to other hotel programs, at least not when it comes to aspirational properties. This is especially true now since Hilton and SLH became partners. All of a sudden, the market has been flooded with all kinds of unique options you can access via points. And the best part? You can redeem Hilton free night certificates towards them. Want to visit Costa Rica? You can stay in Rio Perdido or Tabacon resorts for 80-85k Hilton points per night or use certs.

My husband and I loved Rio Perdido resort

That’s a decent value and most importantly, cool places to visit. If you are fortunate to find award availability, you can  burn your Hilton stash (150k points per night) or certs on pool villa at Hermitage Bay, an all-inclusive resort in Antigua that goes for $3k per night.

True, you can also pay just 35k Hyatt points for Andaz Costa Rica which my family very much enjoyed. On paper it looks like a better deal compared to Hilton, but that’s not really the case. After all, you can usually buy Hilton points for 0.5 cents apiece and occasionally transfer them from Amex via 1:3 ratio.

By comparison, Chase has never offered a bonus on transfers to Hyatt and I doubt that will ever change. It’s 1:1 now and hopefully forever. The same goes for Bilt, the only other Hyatt partner. You will pay 2 cents per Hyatt point when they are on sale, not usually a compelling value proposition.

So, at the very least you are paying 1 cent per point and the opportunity cost of that Chase transfer is actually greater than that. After all, you can book travel through Chase portal and get 1.25 cents minimum per point, 1.5 cents with Chase Sapphire Reserve. I have stayed in a few aspirational Hyatt properties before, including Park Hyatt Sydney via free certificates. While I enjoyed it, I personally would never pay 45k Hyatt points per night for it and would instead seek a cheaper alternative.

I do understand that if you are Hyatt Globalist, your calculation will change. Hyatt offers an excellent value for its top-tier elites, no question about it. It has to, otherwise most people would switch to Hilton. In fact, after SLH has been integrated, I would argue it’s already happening. Folks are getting off the Hyatt elite-status hamster wheel as most desirable properties are going up year after year. Free breakfast can only be worth so much before it becomes too expensive.

Many members are very unhappy by how Hyatt value in Japan has been decimated during the last award chart adjustment. We are planning to go to Japan next year, but the change hasn’t affected us at all. I thought most Hyatt hotels in Japan were already overpriced before the recent “enhancement.” I had no plans to burn points there, and certainly won’t be doing it now. The opportunity cost is just too great.

Which brings me to the point of my post. In my opinion, where Hyatt really shines is its Cat. 1 and 2 hotels. Most medium-size cities in US have at least one or two of those, and very often they are conveniently located. No, they likely won’t come in handy if you want to do a road trip and plan to sleep in the middle of nowhere. That’s what Best Western and Choice points are for, and to a certain extent IHG.

But you can’t beat paying 8k Hyatt points per night for a clean/comfortable room with somewhat mediocre breakfast. This is where Hilton and IHG programs are lacking.

Some real-life examples

A few weeks ago, my husband had to have shoulder surgery and we needed to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM. Since we live an hour away, we had no choice but to get a hotel for the night. Hyatt Place Lakeland Center was the closest property. It cost us only 8k Hyatt points per night, despite it being high season in Florida.

Hilton property nearby was running at 45k Hilton points, and IHG property was inconveniently located and also expensive via points. Yes, we also could use Choice points for a dumpy-looking motel, but I’m a little too spoiled for that.

I would have paid $160 (tax included) for that Hyatt, but fortunately I had points at my disposal. In this case I got a solid 2 cents per point on something I would actually pay for otherwise. The hotel was fine, and they even waved $10 parking fee for being a Discoverist. Fancy! We stopped by after the surgery in order to take advantage of our free breakfast.

And there are many other examples. This fall we are flying to Connecticut and I needed to find a property near Bradley International airport. I did look at AirBnB, but it would cost me $800 to house 5 people for three nights.

Instead, I paid 48k points for two rooms at Hyatt House Hartford North/Windsor. We will be gone most of the time, so it’s mainly a place to sleep. And getting free breakfast certainly doesn’t hurt. Even if we went to McDonald’s, it would cost us $40 to feed 5 people each morning. So, it’s a savings of $120, which is not too shabby. No, it’s not the most exciting property, but it suits our needs and delivers excellent value. You can see Hyatt map of properties here and filter by category.

How you can accumulate Hyatt points

Aside from accumulating Hyatt points via paid stays, there are three ways to do it: Bilt, spending on Hyatt card and transfers from Chase Ultimate Rewards. The first two options aren’t terribly compelling due to lack of a meaningful signup bonus. I do think Hyatt card is worth having and I renew mine each year. I just don’t think the current offer is good enough given the alternatives.

What is compelling, however, is new 100k points offer on Chase Sapphire Preferred. This is truly a hot deal, and I rarely use those words on the blog. If you are in the market for a new card and plan to apply, I hope you consider supporting us, assuming you have found our content helpful. Thanks in advance!

Chase Sapphire Preferred (Nancy’s referral link and My referral link)

Earn 100,000 points after spending $5000 in the first 3 months.

• 3X points on dining, select streaming services, select online grocery stores
• 5X points on travel booked through Chase travel
• 2X points on other travel
• 1X points on all other purchases
• 10% anniversary points based on points earned during full year
• $50 annual Chase Travel hotel credit
• DoorDash DashPass for 12 months
• $95 annual fee

Note: You can only own one Chase Sapphire product, so you are not eligible if you already own the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. You cannot get the bonus if you’ve received a bonus on any Chase Sapphire card in the past 48 months. Chase likely won’t approve you for this card if you’ve opened 5 or more new credit cards in the past 24 months. See this page for more info.