Buy Hyatt Points at Deep Discount April 15: Be Fast

 

Update April 15, 9:10am California time. These Hyatt points were gone in seconds. I failed to get any set of points.

[Original post below.]

My advice is buy 24,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points at $225 with an American Express card or $250 for a different card payment through DiscoverAmerica.com Daily Getaways tomorrow. There is little chance you will not get $250 in redemption value from those points. You might even get $750 in value depending on how you use points.

Sale begins at 12 noon Eastern time, Friday April 15.

There are only 100 points packages for 24,000 points and fewer sets of points at higher price levels.

• $250 for 24,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points (100 items); American Express price = $225.00.
• $333 for 30,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points (35 items); American Express price = $299.70.
• $415 for 36,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points (15 items); American Express price = $373.50.
• $778 for 69,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points (15 items) = $700.20.

 

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

What exactly is being sold in the DiscoverAmerica.com Daily Getaways sale?

Hyatt Gold Passport’s points sale page on DiscoverAmerica.com is confusing with the offer stated as

“2 nights for $250 at Hyatt Hotels.â€

The main concern potential buyers have is whether there is a restriction on the use of points to the webpage ad for two nights at Hyatt Gold Passport category-3 hotels.

I purchased a set of 24,000 points for $225 last May through DiscoverAmerica.com Daily Getaways and the webpages looked almost identical and confused many members last year into thinking the points were restricted in use to the hotel category type listed on the page. Some potential buyers last year were concerned and reluctant to purchase these points with the implied restriction.

These sales are for Hyatt Gold Passport points and the points go into your Hyatt Gold Passport account. Assuming the program operates the same as last year, and I have seen nothing indicating a difference this year, then you should be able to redeem your deposited points online or by phone for whatever reward option you choose.

 

Value of Hyatt Gold Passport Points

First value is American Express rate and shows 10% savings compared to other card payment method.

• 24,000 set of points = $9.38 or $10.42/1,000 points
• 30,000 set of points = $9.99 or $11.10/1,000 points
• 36,000 set of points = $10.38 or $11.53/1,000 points
• 69,000 set of points = $10.15 or $11.28/1,000 points
• Maximum purchase is one package from each item type.
• Maximum four sets of points may be purchased per account member from these four items.
• The 24,000 points item is actually the lowest priced per 1,000 points.

 

How the sale works:

The rules allow one member to purchase one set of 24,000 points, one set of 30,000 points, one set of 36,000 points and one set of 69,000 points. Most of these Hyatt points packages will likely be gone in minutes. I’ll leave the buying strategy to the reader, though I seriously doubt one person can get through each item purchase to actually buy all four sets before they are sold out.

On Monday this week Marriott $1,000 TravelCards sold out in the first minute of the sale. There were still $250 Marriott Travelcards at one hour after the sale, but there was a larger quantity of Marriott cards than Hyatt point sets and the discount for Hyatt points is greater.

I think these will be gone in 15 minutes or less.

Loyalty Traveler tip on DailyGetaways sale:

On Monday during the Marriott sale there were items I clicked and the website returned a message of none available, but “try again in a few minutesâ€. I think this happens when the items are all reserved by someone in the process of buying, however, some of these buyers do not complete the transaction. Some items appear as unavailable and then become available after a few seconds or minutes. Keep trying. The website will post the item is “Sold Out†a few minutes after all the items are sold.

Spending Hyatt Points

Hyatt reward nights go from 5,000 points for category 1 to 22,000 points for category 6 hotels.

Hotels around the U.S. like Hyatt Place Fremont in Silicon Valley are category-1 hotels where room rates can be in the $100 to $150 range many days in mid-week. 30,000 points for $300 can possibly save $600 on hotel room rates at a category-1 hotel like Hyatt Place Fremont (6 nights = 30,000 points or $900 if $150 room rate).

On the other end of the scale are category-6 properties for 22,000 points per night like Park Hyatt Maldives ($600 to $1500/night) or my own locale’s Hyatt Highlands Inn, Carmel Highlands, California ($300 to $650 per night).

$700 for 69,000 points can save over $1,000 on a 3-night hotel stay at some Hyatt category-6 hotels for 66,000 points.

 

Hyatt Gold Passport introduces New Buy Points Feature

The new Hyatt Gold Passport option to purchase points through Hyatt Gold Passport for $24 per 1,000 points is limited to 40,000 points in a calendar year. This buy points option was introduced this month to Hyatt Gold Passport members.

The value of the DiscoverAmerica.com offer is obviously a big savings at a low cost of $9.38 per 1,000 points compared to the cost to buy points through Hyatt Gold Passport at $24.00 per 1,000 points. 

Yesterday there were widespread press reports in the media on this new Hyatt Gold Passport feature. I had been sitting on the story for a week waiting to combine it with this piece for DiscoverAmerica.com Buy Hyatt points post.

The ability to buy 40,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points each calendar year at $24 per 1,000 points is a needed enhancement to the loyalty program. I think $24 per 1,000 points is a good fair market value based on current hotel category assignments and reward night cost for Hyatt Gold Passport hotels.

And I think paying $9.38 per 1,000 points for a Hyatt Gold Passport set of 24,000 points through the DiscoverAmerica.com Daily Getaways sale is a Loyalty Traveler 5-key, one of the best deals of the year opportunity for hotel frequent guests.