How to calculate Hyatt points value

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Hyatt points are a crowd-pleaser in the miles & points community. You can take some first-class vacations with them. Plus, you can earn Hyatt points in a flash with some of the best travel credit cards like The World Of Hyatt Credit Card. I opened this card myself this past January.

Short and subjective answer: A typical Hyatt point value is ~2 cents each (yes, it’s possible to get way more from them).

There are some downsides, too, but nothing that should deter you from collecting what are some of the most useful rewards in the game. So how does one figure out Hyatt points value?

3 important factors of Hyatt points value

Cash value

Let’s start with the information you care most about: Actual examples of the value you can receive per Hyatt point. As you’d expect, the “deal” you’ll get hinges on the cash price of the room along with the hotel category on the Hyatt award chart. Here’s what Hyatt charges for an award night:

Good value: Hyatt’s got a load of five-star hotels in bucket list worthy destinations like Paris, Tokyo and Milan. Below is a night at the Park Hyatt Milan, one of Hyatt’s most famous (and expensive) hotels. It can cost $740+ per night.

However, this hotel is a Category 7, so you’ll pay 30,000 Hyatt points per night.

That’s a value of ~2.46 cents per point ($740 per night / 30,000 points per night) — and a great use of your points.

Bad value: It’s possible to receive a much worse value for your Hyatt points. A night at the Andaz Mayakoba in Riviera Maya costs $245 per night (after taxes).

But this is a Category 6 hotel, so you’ll pay 25,000 Hyatt points for a free night.

Yuck. This is not the best use of Hyatt points — you’ll receive a value of just 0.96 cents per point ($240 per night / 25,000 points per night). Unless you’re flush with Hyatt points, you’re probably better off using cash for the room.

As you can see, the hotel location and dates will determine the value you receive from your points. You can’t “guarantee” an exact return rate.

Hyatt Hotels are always solid

I’ve said in the past that I’ve never been underwhelmed at a Hyatt hotel. They’re always clean and above average in comfort. That’s something I can’t say about any other major hotel chain. The fact that you can pretty well count on Hyatt hotels to be a clean, comfortable experience adds value to Hyatt points in my opinion.

Very small hotel footprint

Here’s the biggest strike against Hyatt: They’ve got a very small collection of hotels. To their credit, they’ve been inking deals and securing hotel partners to change that, and they’ve grown considerably! They’re still no match for other chains like Marriott, Hilton, and Choice in terms of sheer volume.

If you’re the kind of traveler that veers off the beaten path or likes to visit small towns instead of popular locations, Hyatt points are probably not good for you.  Hyatt is mostly found in big cities and picturesque destinations, not in your small hometown. This factor makes Hyatt points less valuable to many of us.

Hyatt continues to raise the prices of its most desirable hotels

Many of Hyatt’s most sought-after hotels continue to climb in category (I’m looking at you, Andaz Papagayo). If you collect points to stay at low-category unfancy hotels, you’re probably not affected by this problem.

Hyatt’s response to COVID-19

Hyatt points aren’t a bust for 2020, even with the sucker punch from the coronavirus. Hyatt has taken many measures to help their loyal members through the lockdown. For one, Hyatt has delayed the majority of their upcoming category changes until 2021. This is great news, because most changes were not good.

Also, Hyatt extending elite status for anyone who held status as of March 31, 2020. Any status set to expire in 2020 will now be valid through Feb. 28, 2022. Hyatt is also extending the life of all awards with an expiration date of between March 1 and December 31, 2020. The new expiration date will be December 31, 2021. This includes existing awards and awards that you may earn throughout this year with a 2020 expiration date.

Hyatt has prevented any expiration of Hyatt points through December 31, 2020.

Hyatt is even temporarily improving the way you earn elite night credits through their credit card. If you apply for The World of Hyatt Card between April 15 and June 30, you’ll receive 10 elite night credits instead of the standard five elite night credits that normally come with the card. And if you have the card, you’ll normally earn two elite night credits for every $5,000 you spend on the card. But between April 15 and June 30, 2020, you’ll earn three elite night credits, instead.

Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt

Remember, The World of Hyatt Card isn’t the only way to accrue Hyatt points quickly. You can also transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt instantly at a 1:1 ratio.

Transferring to Hyatt is one of the best ways to use Chase points. I’ve done it many times to save literally thousands of dollars. Most recently I’ve got my eye on the Viceroy Bali — one of the absolute best hotels in Bali, for a reasonable amount of points.

Chase points are exceptionally easy to accrue, with cards like:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®: 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card: 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $15,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening

Bottom line

When you’re trying to calculate Hyatt points value, there are a few things to consider:

• Cash price of the room (I find you can consistently receive a value around 2 cents per Hyatt point)
• Quality of hotels (Hyatt has a higher-than-average standard)
• Number of hotels (hotel chains like Marriott, IHG and Hilton each have thousands more hotels than Hyatt)

We generally consider Hyatt points to be worth 2 cents on average, though. Let me know the value you put on Hyatt points. And feel free to subscribe to our newsletter for more points analysis like this.