When Should You Buy Hyatt Points? (Bonuses 25% to 40%) [2020]

Hyatt points are some of the most popular hotel points to purchase because of their great value. But you have a set limit on how many points you can purchase each year (which might change) and throughout the year bonuses and discounts come so you want to make sure that you are purchasing Hyatt points at the most opportune time.

In this article, I will tell you everything you need to know about buying Hyatt points including what type of discounts you can expect.

Related: Check out our updated list of all of the top hotel credit cards to find out which cards have the best perks!

How to buy Hyatt points

You can easily purchase Hyatt points online here.

Simply click on “Purchase Bonus Points” under “Purchase, Share, & Gift Points” and that will kick off the process. You’ll need to have your World of Hyatt number handy when making the transaction.

Once you proceed to the payment page, you will see the total number of Hyatt points you will have after your purchase.

It’s worth noting that you are not purchasing points directly from Hyatt but instead the transaction is completed by Points.com. Also, purchased points are not refundable and transactions are non-reversible.

You will need to purchase your Hyatt bonus points in increments of 1,000 and you will be allowed to purchase up to 55,000 points each calendar year. After you purchase your points, those points should post within 48 hours and will be ready to be used.

Hyatt has increased the purchase limit up to 110,000 points before so it’s possible that in some years you can purchase more (but you may need to be targeted).

Hyatt also allows you to transfer points between people so you could purchase the maximum amount of points with two accounts and then simply transfer points over from one account to the other.

Note that the transfer process is still pretty old-school as you have to fill out a paper form and mail or scan it in and then wait for them to process your request. (You’ll need the signatures of both parties involved.)

Also, it states that a member may combine the necessary number of points from their World of Hyatt account with those in another World of Hyatt account in order to have a sufficient number of points to redeem a particular award.

So basically you have to use those points for a specific redemption (but that may not always be enforced).

By the way, if you’re looking for some great ways to use your Hyatt points be sure to check out our article on the top category one through four properties. Also, we have an article on the top Hyatt category seven properties which is where you will find a lot of the most luxurious hotels in the Hyatt portfolio.

Tip: Use the free app WalletFlo to help you travel the world for free by finding the best travel credit cards and promotions!

Does purchasing Hyatt points code as travel?

You might be wondering if your purchase of Hyatt points will code as travel since after all you are purchasing travel currency. Well, unfortunately the answer to that is probably no it will not code as travel (though purchases with some cards did trigger travel in the past before).

So your best bet is to use a card that has good bonus spend on every day purchases like the Chase Freedom Unlimited. That card would earn 1.5X on your Hyatt point purchases and then you could transfer those points over to Hyatt for even more Hyatt points.

And if you are trying to earn even more Hyatt points then you should consider the World of Hyatt Credit Card. 

Typically, the World of Hyatt Card will offer a welcome bonus ranging from 50,000 to 60,000 points. The welcome bonus is usually structured in a way that offers you a bonus for a lower spend amount and then requires you to spend more money within a six-month period to get the full bonus.

For example, check out two welcome bonuses that we have seen on this card below:

60,000 point offer

• Earn 40,000 points after you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
• Plus, earn an additional 20,000 Bonus Points after you spend $6,000 total on purchases within the first 6 months of account opening

50,000 point offer

• Earn 25,000 points after you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
• Plus, earn an additional 25,000 Bonus Points after you spend $6,000 total on purchases within the first 6 months of account opening.

You can also get 4X spent with your card at Hyatt hotels. 

What are Hyatt points worth?

When trying to decide whether or not you should purchase travel points of any kind it is always wise to start with a baseline valuation.

In this case, we can use a WalletFlo Hyatt valuation of 1.57 cents per point. (This means that you would expect to get 1.57 cents in value for every Hyatt point that you use.)

It’s worth pointing out that this valuation is much higher than the valuation for other hotel points. For example, many people value Hilton points at about .5 cents per point. So Hilton points are nearly 3 times less valuable than Hyatt points.

This is why it is typically recommended to only transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards to Hyatt and not other hotel partners like IHG or Marriott because they don’t offer the same amount of value.

How much can you buy Hyatt points for?

At a standard rate, you can purchase Hyatt points for 2.4 cents per point. Below are some of the purchase rates:

• 1,000 Bonus Points: $24.00 
• 2,000 Bonus Points: $48.00  
• 3,000 Bonus Points: $72.00 
• 4,000 Bonus Points: $96.00 
• 5,000 Bonus Points: $120.00 
• 10,000 Bonus Points: $240.00 
• 15,000 Bonus Points: $360.00 
• 20,000 Bonus Points: $480.00 
• 25,000 Bonus Points: $600.00 
• 30,000 Bonus Points: $720.00 
• 35,000 Bonus Points: $840.00
• 40,000 Bonus Points: $960.00 
• 45,000 Bonus Points: $1,080.00
• 50,000 Bonus Points: $1,200.00 
• 55,000 Bonus Points: $1,320.00

Obviously, 2.4 cents is more expensive than 1.57 cents so you will be purchasing points for more than they are worth.

However, there are a couple of things to say about this.

First, often times when you purchase points it is to top off a redemption and most people agree that getting a sub par value on purchased points for a topped off award is worth it because it means being able to make a redemption that you probably are very interested in making.

For example, you might only be 5,000 points short to complete a three night stay at an awesome property like the Park Hyatt Bangkok and by purchasing 5,000 points for $120 you can enjoy that redemption. 

Second, sometimes you can get outrageous value for your Hyatt points and it’s possible that you could get more than 2.4 cents in value. For example if you were to travel to the Kentucky Derby and you wanted to stay in a Hyatt hotel, those rooms go for very high prices and your cents per point could come out to well above 2.4 cents. So in those cases, purchasing points is actually cheaper than paying cash.

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Buying Hyatt points for cheap (25% to 40% discounts)

At various times throughout the year, Hyatt will offer special bonus discounts when purchasing points.

For example, we recently saw a 25% discount when purchasing 5,000 points or more. This allowed people to purchase Hyatt points at a rate of 1.8 cents each.  

The big bonus you want to be on the lookout for with higher points is the 40% discount.  You may need to purchase at least 10,000 Hyatt points to trigger this discount but 40% is a super discount and allows you to purchase Hyatt points at a rate of 1.71 cents per point.

That is the type of deal where it could make sense to proactively purchase points even when you have no plans for booking a stay. These deals come around very frequently so you usually don’t have to wait around that long for a Hyatt points purchase discount.

Final word

Purchasing Hyatt points for optimal value is all about timing and getting those 25% to 40% discounts. If you can purchase Hyatt points at a rate of 1.71 cents per point you might even proactively purchase points but I usually recommend people to just hold off until they at least have a redemption in mind.