Hyatt Gold Passport Points and Cash Rate and Its Advantages
Hyatt changed its award chart earlier this month. With that, they have introduced Hyatt Gold Passport Points and Cash rates. Previously, you could only book award nights by paying fully in points. Now, in addition to a full award points chart, there is a second Points and Cash chart. This gives the option to pay for an award night partially with Hyatt Gold Passport points and partially in cash. Although these new Hyatt Points and Cash rates can only be booked online, availability is quite good. Every hotel for which I inquired for availability has had Cash and Points rates available.
Cash and Points rates also have a number of advantages that I’ll go over. Here are the new charts:
The chart has seven categories and each Hyatt brand hotel is assigned a category. You can think of taking the cash option as “buying back” Hyatt points you would otherwise use for the award at the rate on the right. In reality, however, Points and Cash rates earn points and are eligible for promotions so you could potentially be saving far more points.
In any case, here are the big advantages to the Hyatt Points and Cash Rate:
Ability To Use Other Points For A Cheaper Stay
The Cash and Points rate opens up the possibility to use our fixed value points to supplement our stays and make the stay potentially cheaper. In particular, I can use the points earned with my Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard or my Citi ThankYou Preferred card to pay for the cash portion of the Points and Cash rate.
- The Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard – Earn 2x on all Purchases currently comes with a $440 sign-up bonus that can be used as credit toward any travel expense. The card also earns 2 miles per dollar and each mile is worth 1.1 cents towards any travel expense. I previously wrote a full review of the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard.
- With my Citi ThankYou Rewards points, I can redeem them at 1 cent each and order Hyatt gift checks from the Citi ThankYou Rewards Center. I can then use these checks to settle the bill. I wrote how to redeem Citi ThankYou points for Hyatt gift checks at: Using Citi ThankYou Points to Pay for Meals and Hotel Incidentals.
Eligible for Diamond Suite Upgrades
Members who reach Hyatt Elite Diamond Status receive four suite upgrades good until the following February. Each of these can be used on any paid rate to upgrade a stay to a suite. A single certificate can be applied to a stay of up to seven nights. While rates booked fully with Hyatt Gold Passport points are not eligible, Cash and Points rates are eligible to be upgraded with the certificates. Now we can stay at Hyatt hotels with award points… and upgrade to a suite!
Points and Cash Nights Count Toward Elite Status
After every so many nights, Hyatt Gold Passport members earn elite status. The most rewarding of these is Diamond, which comes with complimentary breakfast, late checkout, potential complimentary upgrades and access to the elite club on the property which often offers afternoon and evening refreshments. At 25 stays or 50 nights a year, the status is not easy to achieve so it’s great to have every Cash and Points night count!
You can see a full list of Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond benefits. The benefits for other status tiers are on the same page.
The Hyatt Points and Cash Rate is Eligible for Promotions
Hyatt runs occasional promotions where award nights booked with points are not eligible. As an example, the current Hyatt “Endless Possibilities” promotion offers up to 50,000 bonus points after 20 nights (with smaller increments of points for every 5 nights). These promotions can be lucrative so I’m glad to have an opportunity to partake in them while using points for my stays at the same time.
The Cash Portion of Cash and Points Rates Earns Hyatt Gold Passport Points For Spending
Those of us who frequently redeem points for flights and hotel stays rarely have the opportunity to actually earn points on award stays. However, it is nice to get some points back to use for our next vacation. Hyatt brands generally offer 5 Gold Passport points per dollar for base spending plus an elite bonus depending on level.
How to Book Cash and Points Rates
The one downside to Hyatt Cash and Points is the inability to either check availability or book rooms online. You must call Hyatt Gold Passport customer service to do either.
That said, Hyatt Cash and Points availability is extremely good. Simply ask them to check for availability at your desired hotel for your dates and go ahead and book. You can check the category of the hotel online ahead of time by doing the following:
- Visit the Hyatt website.
- Type in your city or hotel into the Destination.
- Once your hotel comes up, check the button Show Hyatt Gold Passport Rates
As an example, the Andaz Maui at Wailea costs 25,000 points a night. From this, we know that this is a Category 6 hotel and the Hyatt Points and Cash rate will be 12,500 points + $150. But, of course, we’ll have to call to book.
Summary
- Hyatt now has a Points and Cash rate, which allows us to redeem an award night partially with points and partially with cash.
- This rate has a few advantages over using just points for an award night in that the Points and Cash nights are eligible towards promotions, earn points, count toward elite status and are eligible for Diamond suite upgrades.
- The cash portion can be paid with alternate fixed-value point currencies such as Barclaycard Arrival miles or redeeming Citi ThankYou points for Hyatt gift checks.
Thank you for explaining this!!! I looked at both the Hyatt Maui and Andaz and didn’t see cash and points online so I thought it was not available! My husband has a diamond cert he needs to use and this is a perfect opportunity to do cash and points vs points only.
Now I just have to decide which property. I would love to try out Andaz but we are traveling with a 10 year old so I might end up at Hyatt Maui. We have stayed there before but love to try out new properties when we travel!
I have been to both hotels and LOVED the Andaz Maui. Really hoping to get my review of it up soon :) It’s a very nice and serene place. That said, I am not sure I remember seeing too many young ones there so I don’t know how many activities are there for them… then again, Maui is such a nice island that you really can’t go wrong with either hotel.
Thank u. Since you recently stayed at both the Andaz Maui and the grand Hyatt in kauai, how do u suggest I breAk up a 10 night stay. This is my husbands and mines first Hawaii vacation.
I think Maui and Kauai are perfect for a 10 night vacation. This was my second trip to Maui and I am ready to go back any day to either island. :) The Andaz is one of my favorite hotels I’ve ever stayed at and very nice and completely new. The Grand Hyatt is nice too, but it’s just so hard to measure up to the Andaz. Maui is also a bigger island than Kauai and takes more time to explore. If I had to make a plan and had enough points, I’d probably start with Kauai and spend 4 nights there. I would then “move up” to the Andaz Maui and spend my last 6 nights there. In my case, I really did miss the Andaz when I went to the Grand Hyatt and I think I would have appreciated the Grand Hyatt far more had I not been spoiled by the Andaz first!
If I am doing the diamond run, how do I receive the 4 Hyatt suite certificates?
The automatically appear in your account once your account becomes Diamond under ‘Rewards’. This is done once you either reach Hyatt Diamond status through stays or if you are given the Hyatt Diamond challenge. They are good through the following February.
Thank you. I enjoy your site very much and have learned a lot. I keep referencing many of your articles. Thank you very much for sharing your wisdom. I am following in your foot steps and staying at the park Hyatt man in May.
That’s great! Another one of my favorite hotels and the location is superb :) Also glad you enjoy the site!
I’m 0 for 1 trying this. Called the Hyatt in Newport RI and was told none of these cash + points rooms were available. In fact there are none available from mid April on for the rest of the year! Do u think they will release some or are they just blacking out the entire summer?
Important. I just called Hyatt to book cash and points for grand Hyatt kauai and andaz Maui. The rep said that I have to be either diamond status or platinum elite to book. I told her that I am platinum because I have the chase credit card but she said it has to be platinum elite. Is this correct?
That seems odd. Having the Hyatt credit card makes you Platinum elite, but you should not need status to book. I called to check various availability and was never asked for my status. Perhaps as this is a new option, that rep may be confused about the process.