Hyatt’s Gold Passport program presents one of the best values in hotel redemptions, with a standard guest room in their top-tier resorts being only 30,000 points per night (as opposed to 50,000 for IHG and up to 95,000 for Hilton). Given that Hyatt is also a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, it can be quite easy to rack up enough points for a multi-night stay in a high-end Hyatt. The rub with Hyatt is that, unlike Hilton and many other hotel reward programs, they only release a limited number of rooms for point redemptions. In this manner, their operations more closely mirror how airlines release saver award seats than how other hotel programs operate. They often restrict award redemptions even more over holidays.
Sometimes, however, you can get lucky, and now may be one of those times. Hyatt recently opened up a handful of rooms at two of their top resorts in Hawaii for Thanksgiving week: the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa, and the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa.
I’ve been planning a Thanksgiving-in-Hawaii for a few weeks now and have been monitoring all hotel reward programs. Hyatt had no general room availability for the last few weeks, but this changed a few days ago. Here’s a search for a room at the Hyatt Regency Maui from Tuesday 11/24 to Sunday 11/29:
And here is a search for a room at the Grand Hyatt Kauai for the same dates:
If you’ve been toying with the idea of Thanksgiving in Hawaii, and you have a handful of Hyatt Gold Passport points or Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you’ve got a window of opportunity to book a rewards room at either of two amazing Hawaiian resorts, and enjoy a view like this:
Michael Prodanovich is a contributor to Point Me to the Plane, and author of The Ultimate Guide to Free Travel.
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4 comments
What is this supposed to mean? “The rub with Hyatt is that, unlike Hilton and many other hotel reward programs, they only release a limited number of rooms for point redemptions.”
If the base room is available at the Hyatt Daily Rate it’s bookable with points. Some properties have seasonal blackouts but that’s it.
Hilton will give any room in the entire resort away on points – just raising the amount of points as rooms get booked. When I saw no availability for Hyatts in Hawaii a few weeks ago, I called Hyatt to ask why that was the case. They said they don’t do that, and that the only release a certain number of rooms in each category for points redemptions – much like an airline will only release a certain number of seats at a saver level. Once those rooms get booked, there are no more points/rewards-rooms available. They continually re-evaluate and sometimes add more rooms as time goes on, and thats what happened here.
Michael,
As Ben mentioned, you and the Hyatt rep you spoke with (perhaps you misunderstood – or he/she is clueless), but Hyatt like Hilton and SPG offer points nights at the standard award level if the base room is being offered as a regular paid night.
Some Hyatt hotels have been known to throw in a few inclusions and only offer the base room as part of a “package” and thereby get out of the requirement of having to offer award nights during high demand periods. This, however, is not in line with the spirit of the program and is usually corrected if one complains to Gold Passport.
You may want to correct this article. Thanks.
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