Hyatt’s 40% bonus on points purchases, stackable with a 20% rebate can certainly be a good deal — especially for elites, redeeming cash and points, at expensive hotels.
Thinking about how to really make the most use of this, I started to ponder the 55,000 point per year purchase limit for Gold Passport points (which used to be just 40,000).
Just like you can scale the Starwood 25% bonus on purchased points using family accounts, you can exceed Hyatt’s purchase limits using multiple accounts. And they don’t even have to belong to family members.
I find that most people aren’t aware of Hyatt’s generous rules for transferring points between members. Any two members may transfer points with no fee by filling out and submitting a form to Gold Passport.
That’s right – you can combine points between any members.
Combine your Hyatt Gold Passport points with any Hyatt Gold Passport member to redeem an award.
Submit your completed Award Request Form to:
Hyatt Gold Passport Customer Service
Post Office Box 27089
Omaha, NE 68127-0089, USA
Or fax it to 1-402-593-9449
The key rules are:
- You’re supposed to combine only to have enough points for a specific award, though in practice there’s no process I’m aware of that verifies this.
Member may combine the necessary number of Hyatt Gold Passport points from their Hyatt Gold Passport account with those in one other specifically designated Hyatt Gold Passport account in order to have a sufficient number of points to redeem a particular award.
- You can only do this once every 30 days.
A single member may only participate in a point combining transaction (transferring or receiving of points) once every 30 days
Here’s the form (.pdf).
I made a transfer about a month ago, and it was processed in hours.
Great way to get this shut down
There is another rule which is a secret but which I came a cropper with recently – BOTH accounts must have had a stay in the last 12 months. My attempt to move some points to my wife was rejected on this basis (she has a stay, I do not).
The availability of transfer is clearly stated. Why would Gary’s post shut this down? I plan to transfer between my husband’s account and mine To secure a 3rd Night at a category 6.
@Raffles – that’s not been my experience for what it’s worth
May have been a dodgy agent. Email was:
Thank you for contacting Hyatt Gold Passport; I appreciate the opportunity to assist you.
I would like to inform you that in order for a Points Combining Request form to be processed, both the participating accounts should have at least one activity in the past 12 months. As there is insufficient activity on your account, I am unable to process your request as of now.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any other assistance with your Hyatt Gold Passport ac
Perhaps they count buying points as ‘activity’, in which case this would work.
So how exactly is this a good deal, except to top off multi-night awards?
55k + 22k bonus = 77k points for $1320
Cat 6 and Cat 7 properties (generally the most expensive) require 25k & 30k per night respectively.
Unlike SPG and Marriott there is no 4+1 deal (i.e. 25% discount on 5 nights stays)
Ergo you need a room rate in excess of $440/nt just to break even … I’ve seen Park Hyatt Tokyo rack rates for less. Maybe a few C&P deals for Cat6, assuming you can find them…
activity… can be a Meal, Room or any activity that will register on your G.P. account, so you cannot transfer to a new account, it must be activated .
I just finished dealing with a faulty points transfer rejection. It was Hyatt ‘ s error in stating that one account was inactive, and I was well compensated for the hassle. It did take over a week to straighten out, but I was impressed with how they handled it once I got on the phone.
Note that the form has changed and it now requires you to specify an award #. i.e. you can only transfer if the receiver of the points has award travel booked. http://www.hyatt.com/gp/en/pdf/awdreqst.pdf
I wonder if they still require the activity within past 12 months? I didn’t see that anywhere on the Hyatt page that describes the process.
@Pete feinstein – you can transfer without filling out that line
@Gary I called Gold Passport and rep today she said yes we do need to have a reservation to associate it with. I said well that’s silly, you’re telling me that in order to have points transferred to me so I can have enough points to make the reservation I want, I need to somehow be able to make it already? So let’s say I need 100k points for my booking, I have 90k and need 10k from my wife, the only way to go about it is to pay cash and then have the 10k points transferred over and then convert it to points. Or I can have 100k points already, make the booking, and get 10k transferred over to me so I have an excess now. She said yes.
I have a feeling it just depends who you get over the phone.
@Rob right hang up call back