Is buying discount Hilton, Hyatt and IHG points a good deal this week?

Hilton, Hyatt and IHG all have promotions for buying discount loyalty points ending Monday. August 31.

Hilton HHonors points are on sale through August 31 at $5.56 per 1,000 points. The offer is 80% bonus points when you buy points at the regular rate of $10 per 1,000 points. Rates start at $10 for 1,800 HHonors points. You can buy up to 144,000 points for $800.

Hyatt Gold Passport points are on sale through August 31 with a 30% bonus points promotional offer. Rates start at $24 for 1,300 points. You can buy up to 71,500 points for $1,320.

Loyalty Traveler – Is buying Hyatt points with 30% bonus points a good deal? (August 9, 2015)

IHG Rewards Club points are on sale through August 31 with a mystery bonus points promotional offer. The offer is targeted for your specific member account. Or maybe it is just a randomly generated bonus from 50% to 100% when you login. My wife received the 100% bonus points offer and I received the lowest bonus amount at 50% bonus points for my account.

Loyalty Traveler – IHG Buy Points by Aug 31 with up to 100% bonus (August 8, 2015)

100% bonus points reduces the price rate to $13.50 for 2,000 points or $6.75 per 1,000 points. The discount improves as you buy more points, up to $5.75 per 1,000 points when buying 52,000 points for $299. IHG Rewards Club allows members to buy 60,000 points in a calendar year. The maximum number of points you can buy is 120,000 points for $690, if you are targeted for the 100% bonus points offer.

Is buying discount Hilton, Hyatt or IHG points a good deal this week?

Here are some examples of where I find value in buying hotel loyalty points for my travels. I am not purchasing any of these discount points this week, since I am in burn mode to conserve money, while I spend the next six weeks flying around Europe to earn American Airlines Executive Platinum through a 30,000 EQM elite fast-track offer targeted for my frequent flier account.

My hotel stays booked for the next few months with IHG and Hyatt convince me these prices to buy hotel loyalty points are good deals for discount hotel rates in places where I will be staying.

I am staying nine nights in IHG hotels in Czech Republic, France and Switzerland spending 75,000 points. Those hotel nights are about $1,200 in room rates. I already had IHG points to pay for the reward nights. Since I can replace those 75,000 points for $431.25 with the current sale, I calculate my average hotel night rate using points as essentially $431.25 for 9 hotel nights. $48 per night is a great deal. That is how I value points. I’ll probably be looking for another opportunity to buy IHG points at this price in a few months after my budget recoups from September travel.

For my September travels in Europe, I purchased 50,000 Choice Privileges points in July for $385. The three nights I booked in Norway hotels were priced at $550 and I shaved $165 off my lodging cost buying points and booking hotel reward nights the same week.

Loyalty Traveler – Choice Privileges points at 30% discount sale ends July 28.

Loyalty Traveler – Buy 16,000 Choice Privileges points for $123.20 through July 28, 2015

Hilton HHonors Points & Money Rewards can be great value

I wrote a post May 27, Hilton HHonors buy points $5 per 1000 to June 17 is good deal ,showing why I thought buying HHonors points is a good deal when the price was $5.00 per 1,000 points and you could buy up to 160,000 points for $800.

Of course, you do not need to spend $800 buying Hilton HHonors points. In my earlier analysis from May, I showed how I could take 14,000 points in my HHonors account, buy 18,000 points for $90 during the sale offer and book a 4-night hotel stay at Hilton Garden Inn Orlando International Drive North for 32,000 points + $180. The published low AAA room rate for the 4-night stay was $594.00. Buying $90 in HHonors points offered an opportunity to book a 4-night stay in Orlando at $270, making my out-of-pocket expense less than half of the published room rate. A hotel in Orlando at $67.50 per night was a good deal.

Hilton HHonors 80% bonus points purchase offer ending August 31 means my hotel discount rate Hilton Garden Inn Orlando analysis above would cost $100.08 to buy 18,000 points, instead of the $90 rate available in June and the average rate for the Hilton Garden Inn Orlando hotel would be $70 per night.

Hilton HHonors members can only buy 80,000 points per year, so if you bought 80,000 points in June during the 100% bonus, then you would not be eligible to buy more points during this 80% bonus points sale. Obviously, bonus points do not count in the 80,000 points annual purchase limit, which is why you can buy up to 144,000 points in this 80% bonus points sale.

HHonors Buy Points Terms

Points purchased do not count towards elite tier qualification Points.com and Hilton HHonors reserve the right to terminate bonus promotions at any time. All purchases must be made through the Purchase page on HHonors.com. The 80% bonus is available for purchases made between August 24, 2015 at 12:01am ET and August 31, 2015, at 11:59pm ET. All purchases are non-refundable. Offer is subject to change. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer. Points will be posted to the recipients Hilton HHonors account within 24 hours of the completed transaction. Buy transactions are final and non-refundable. All Hilton HHonors program terms and conditions apply. Hilton HHonors^TMmembership, earning of Points and Miles^TM and redemption of Points are subject to HHonors Terms and Conditions.

Hyatt Gold Passport

Hyatt Gold Passport is the deal I find least compelling for value.

Hyatt Reward Night Cost when buying points with 30% bonus points

• Regular rate = $24.00 per 1,000 points; 55,000 points maximum.
• 30% bonus points Promotional rate = $18.47 per 1,000 points; 71,500 points maximum.
• Hyatt Gold Passport category 1 reward 5,000 points  = $93
• Hyatt Gold Passport category 2 reward 8,000 points = $148
• Hyatt Gold Passport category 3 reward 12,000 points = $222
• Hyatt Gold Passport category 4 reward 15,000 points = $277
• Hyatt Gold Passport category 5 reward 20,000 points = $370
• Hyatt Gold Passport category 6 reward 25,000 points = $462
• Hyatt Gold Passport category 7 reward 30,000 points = $554

I analyzed this deal earlier this month showing a couple of hotel examples in Malaysia showing how buying points could reduce the hotel room rate 25%.

Loyalty Traveler – Is buying Hyatt points with 30% bonus points a good deal? (Augsut 9, 2015)

I purchased 24,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points for $260 through Daily Getaways in April.

Loyalty Traveler – Daily Getaways great deal to buy Hyatt points, if you can buy them today (April 10, 2015).

Hyatt’s August sale with 30% bonus points would cost $443.28 to buy 24,000 points. That price really limits the points value when redeeming for a straight standard reward night as shown in the table above.

Buying hotel points is a strategy I practice when the price is right.

Buying hotel points is a good deal when you can redeem them for lower cost hotel nights. The best savings tend to be when booking Points and Cash reward nights with Hilton and Hyatt and discount reward nights like IHG PointBreaks.