Whether you want to be the social room on a group trip, spice up romantic time with some otherworldly views – or just stretch out, a suite can be pretty…. sweet. But ah, the costs. They can get you. When paying with World Of Hyatt Points, not so much.
Standard rooms in great hotels can stretch a budget and that makes suites, which go for anywhere from double, to ten times the cost or more, more of a pipe dream than a reality most people get to enjoy. But Hyatt, with the World of Hyatt loyalty program is changing that even further.
You can not only upgrade your Hyatt booking to lovely suites at great points rates as before, you can now book them online with ease. Here’s how to transform an ordinary stay to an extraordinary stay for as little as 6,000 points per night.
Upgrade To Suites With Hyatt Points
Most loyalty programs offer plenty of opportunity to use points for standard rooms, but few offer the ability to confirm suites with points in advance. Those that do tend to charge insane prices. Not Hyatt.
If you have a booking made with Hyatt, you can often upgrade to a Suite. If you pay in points, you can pay more points for a suite. If you pay in cash on an eligible rate, you can pay between 6,000 to 9,000 points per night to turn a standard room into a suite.
It’s 6,000 for a standard suite, and 9,000 for a “premium suite”, which could be like a penthouse. The World of Hyatt credit card offers 60,000 points as a welcome, which could mean 10 nights of suite upgrades alone! Not bad!
Now You Can Upgrade To Hyatt Suites Online!
Recently, Hyatt made suites even more attainable, by making upgrades bookable online. Before the change, you needed to ring up Hyatt to get suite upgrades with points confirmed, and for most people that was a level of hassle. Online is a totally different story.
To upgrade a cash booking to a Hyatt suite using your World of Hyatt Points, you need to book an applicable rate first. For suite upgrades, that means a standard rate, which can often be a bit more expensive than any discount rates Hyatt is offering.
Basically, you might pay a slight premium to be able to upgrade, so it’s up to you to figure out if its worth it.
The easiest way to lock in a suite while booking, rather than attempting to deal with it later, is to go to the Hyatt website and login to your World Of Hyatt account.
Enter the city or hotel you’d like to book, the dates you’d like to book and then wait for the results to pop up. Once you select a hotel, select ‘View Points’, which will show the prices for a ‘free night’ in a standard room using points, but also how much it will cost to book a standard room with cash and instantly upgrade using points.
If you’re having trouble finding ‘View Points’ it’s right above the room types and next to ‘View Rates’, which will show cash prices. When you select ‘View Points’ scroll your eyes over to the right side, where the cost to book a cash room and upgrade with points is displayed.
It typically says “LP Prem Suite Upgrade” to let you know you’re in the right place. The next step makes it ultra clear, when you see a price per night in cash and points. Again, you’re paying the standard cash price for a standard room, and using points to make it into a suite stay.
Hyatt Suite Upgrades: Worth It?
In the example above, you’re paying £299 (about $410) and 6,000 points per night for a suite with a lovely view. A standard room with a discount rate goes for £267, so you’re paying a premium of around £32 (circa $44) for the privilege of upgrading with points.
If you have lots of points, it’s probably a no brainer. If you don’t, it’s good to compare the cost to upgrade with points, with the cost you’d pay if you were to just book the lovely suite with cash in the first place, and earn more points instead of using them.
For this booking, the same suite you can lock in with points for £299 and 6,000 points per night is over £500 (nearly $700), so 6,000 points is going a seriously long way for you here.
There are going to be instances where the cash cost of a suite is only marginally more than the price for a standard room, and others where the value is more extraordinary than the value for this lovely London suite above.
GSTP Take: When Suites Matter
Road warriors will attest that complimentary suite upgrades rarely happen when you want them, like my $3600 Tony Bennett Suite upgrade in San Francisco, when I had a 10PM hotel arrival and 8AM hotel departure, with business the next morning. Ugh!
This is a cool way to get one when you do (want one). Traveling with family, or taking meetings, it’s a lot easier to compartmentalize things with a living room space.
Suites also often have things like better fridges, sometimes a separate sink or even a second bathroom, and all these things can be more useful than imagined. If you need some space, or just want more space, Hyatt presents the best opportunity to use your points to make it happen.
Don’t forget, Chase Ultimate Rewards Points can also be transferred to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio, which means you can earn points from a variety of sources. In fact, there’s at least 7 good ones to prioritize.
Have you booked suite upgrades with World Of Hyatt Points?
Hyatt has made some terrible changes to its point redemption program. Although hotels have plenty of availability, point redemptions are incredibly limited or unavailable. This is especially true for suites. It doesn’t seem to matter when or where you book.
Hyatt is playing some very manipulative games with their customers, and users should be very wary of their loyalty program.