Hyatt offering a targeted bonus (up to 40%) on points purchased

Hyatt is currently offering a targeted bonus of anywhere up to 40% extra points, when you purchase between 5,000 and 55,000 points. I was personally targeted for a 35% bonus, but have seen / heard of reports where members are offered up to 40% bonus points. The promotion is valid on purchases made by 31 July 2016. Here's my take on this promotion.

Hyatt sells points at the rate of US$24 per 1000 points (that's about Rs 1.63 per point). That said, their past promotions for bonus points upon points purchases (which we have not written about), have tended to be in the region of 30%. Only on a couple of occasions in the last 2-3 years, has a 40% bonus been offered, so this looks like the highest bonus one can expect. You can buy a maximum of 55,000 points (not counting the bonus) under this promotion.

You can access the promotion here.

Including my bonus of 35% (YMMV), the cost per point goes down to Rs 1.21 apiece. At a 40% bonus, the cost goes down further to Rs 1.16 per point. Our January 2016 points valuations show a value of Rs 0.70 per Hyatt point, though that's the overall average. There are some hotels where one can get much higher value per point. Also, there have been recent category reductions of several Hyatt India hotels.

Because of these reasons, one can stretch the value of a point even further. For instance, a back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests the following hotels to be of great value, even if you buy points at a 35% bonus under this current promotion - basically, where using points gives you a value of Rs 1.16 per point or higher (based on one-night's stay paid rate for 1-2 October 2016).

For instance, let's take a 7-nights stay (only for rounding up purposes!) at the Hyatt Regency Chandigarh. The paid rate will come up to about Rs 58,200. However, you can buy 25,000 points for $600 (or Rs 40,800), which yields 35,000 points including a 40% bonus. That's a straight saving of nearly 43% on the paid rate! However, that's only because we rounded up the points required. For stays of fewer nights at this hotel, you'd still be able to manage at least a 25% discount on paid rates.

And mind you, one can potentially get equally good value (or even better) at some overseas hotels too! For instance, a base room at the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa retails for about US$700 a night for mid-August 2016.

As a category 6 hotel, it costs 25,000 points for an award night, which can be acquired by buying 18,000 points (plus a 40% bonus = 25,200 points) for US$432. That's a straight 38% off on the paid rates.

Conclusion

I do not recommend buying points speculatively. However, if you have a stay planned (or in the process of planning), this is a great opportunity to see if buying these points will significantly cut down your costs. Alternatively, if you're short of a few thousand points, you could use this promotion to top up your account.

Readers: Are you planning to buy points under this promotion? What's your thinking?