Daily Getaways 2014: Hyatt Points Less Than 1 Cent Each

One of my favorite Daily Getaways offers is purchasing Gold Passport points from Hyatt. This will be available on Wednesday, June 4. Like many other sales, this one is marketed not as a chance to purchase points but rather something more specific, like “three nights in a suite.” But really, you’re getting 72,000 points that you can redeem any way you like.

My personal preference is to save my Gold Passport points for Points + Cash awards at Category 5 and 6 properties since they’re still elite-qualifying, cost half as many points, and the cash co-pay is generally well under half the daily rate.

You could book six nights at the Andaz Maui, a Category 6 property, and pay a total of 75,000 points and $900. Combining the cash co-pay, the ~$700 paid to Daily Getaways, and a few thousand points you already have in your account, your out-of-pocket cost is about $1,600 or $270 per night. If you’re a Diamond member you could even upgrade it with a Diamond Suite Upgrade. But through traditional means this hotel sometimes costs over $600 per night. I think a Points + Cash redemption like this is a better use of those 72,000 points than three free nights in a suite at a Category 4 property.

You’ll need to be waiting patiently when the offer becomes available at 10 AM Pacific (1 PM Eastern) because there are not many packages and will sell out quickly. You are only allowed to purchase one of each package, but that still means with multiple computers you may be able to snag multiple packages and credit them all to the same account.

Pay with an American Express card to save 10% automatically. The final cost per point will be just under a penny and varies only slightly between packages. (The prices above include the 10% discount.) But if you really care about the best deal, you should aim for 40,000 points.