Deep Dive on World of Hyatt: Points, Perks and Status

Chris Hutchins (0:00)

I think Hyatt is the most rewarding hotel program out there right now, even after this year's devaluation. And I say that as someone who is a Marriott person for almost 20 years. So today I'm going to break down how to get the most out of Hyatt, why their top tier status is so much better than everyone else's, how to get the most out of the perks of status without even needing to have it, when to transfer points to Hyatt, how to maximize Hyatt points, and a lot more. If you're new here, I'm Chris Hutchins. If you enjoy this episode, leave a comment or share it with a friend. If you want to keep upgrading your Money, Points & Life, click follow or subscribe.

Before we get into this, I am just really excited because I've been a Marriott Bonvoy person for a very long time. I got my first Starwood Amex card back in 2003, and that was really the chain for years. That Starwood card was an amazing card. Then somewhere between Marriott Bonvoying everything, changing the name, getting rid of a lot of these standard awards, just overall going downhill, making it impossible to figure out if you'd get a free breakfast, and then coming out of the pandemic, having children and looking for something different. I decided to just dip my toes in the Hyatt Waters, if you will, and wow, I am all in, and for the last three years, it's been the primary chain we've used, the primary way we've used points, and I've really gone deep. So I am excited about this episode. I love Hyatt not just for some of the reasons I've talked about, but because, you know, we get real benefits with status, unlike a lot of the other chains, we'll dig into that. And there's just the ability to unlock a few things that you can't get anywhere else, like guaranteeing upgrades, still having award charts and that kind of stuff. Yes, the footprint is small, there are less hotels, but I've been able to make it work for a lot of the travel I've done, and a lot of the family trips we've taken. So here's what we're gonna cover. You know, we're gonna do a lay of the land, all the hotels, the brands, where they are, where they're not, how the Hyatt program works, when it comes to earning points, the cards, the status, the milestones. You'd be surprised at how many opportunities there are to earn perks and benefits, even if you can't hit top tier Hyatt status. And there's actually ways to get top tier status for a stay without even having status, because we'll talk about whether status makes sense and how far to go. We'll talk about the point system, what points are actually worth, when it makes sense to transfer from places like Bilt or Chase, and how to get the most out of the points, even in light of the recent devaluation, which, in my personal opinion, is not so bad that you should write off Hyatt at all. In fact, at least so far, it's better than most people thought. And then we'll talk about if you're booking cash, how to make the most out of Hyatt bookings, because there are multiple things you can do to get a better rate and to get way better perks and treatment while you're there, none of which actually needs you to go for status. There's a lot more. So let's jump in and talk about the lay of the land. All right, so let's start with the lay of the land, because when I say Hyatt, people think about a lot of different things. And right now, that's 38 different brands. They group the brands into luxury, lifestyle, inclusive, classics, and essentials. And what's important to know is that one of these buckets is a very large bucket. And so that is the Mr. and Mrs. Smith group. And the thing about Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which I don't even think I necessarily see on the Hyatt chart, but it is a partnership property. And that's that it really increases the size of the Hyatt footprint. When you think of Hyatt, there's about 1,600 hotels. If you include Mr. and Mrs. Smith, that's 3,000. It's not really a huge benefit other than if you are wanting to stay at one of those properties and you book it on Hyatt, you can earn points and whatnot from that stay. Otherwise, redeeming Hyatt points for Mr. and Mrs. Smith is not the best value and there's not a lot of reciprocal benefits. A lot of those bookings already include the kinds of things you get free with status. When I talk about Hyatt's footprint, I'm going to exclude those other 1500-ish properties and focus on the 1600 Hyatt properties of which, yes, there are a handful of luxury brands that I've really enjoyed. That makes up only about 230, 240 of the properties. When I broke this down, I used a little bit more of a liberal stretch than just the ones in the luxury camp. I've stayed at Ondaz's and Thompson's and many of them are really nice. And so I stretched a few of the brands to be what I would consider kind of higher end. So it's not truly just the luxury bucket, which for them is the Park Hyatt, the Alila, the Miraval, Impression, the Unbound Collection, but there are still other ones. There are some really amazing properties here in many, many major cities.