How to Book a Hyatt Gold Passport Award Night

Hyatt, in my opinion, is one of the top hotel brands; and its loyalty program, Hyatt Gold Passport, is one of the best for booking exceptional hotel rooms for a reasonable amount of points.

Hyatt Gold Passport points can be collected in a variety of ways, most of which I’ve written about in previous posts. A quick overview includes:

• The Chase Hyatt credit card
• Transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned via the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, the Chase Freedom and Freedom Unlimited cards and the Chase Ink Business credit card, to your Gold Passport account
• Via paid stays at Hyatt hotels

As you can see, there are a number of ways to build your Gold Passport balance.

And once that balance is built, that’s when the fun begins. Using those points for free stays at Hyatt hotels around the world.

Which is the primary focus of this post.

If you’re familiar with hotel award stays, especially with Hyatt, you likely don’t need to continue reading. However, if you’re new to using points to get free hotel nights, the following may be of interest.

Booking an Award Stay

Hyatt Gold Passport points can be used to book free nights at any of the Hyatt brand hotels. The Hyatt portfolio includes: Zilara/Ziva (all inclusive resorts), Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Andaz, Hyatt Centric, The Unbound Collection, Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt.

For this booking example, I’m going to Washington, D.C., for a three-night stay in late August.

 

There are a variety of Hyatt hotels from which to choose for my selected dates.

A little further down the list I find the hotel I want…the Park Hyatt Washington.

Clicking the Select button shows pricing for various room types, and along the top, tabs with additional room/rate options.

Below the hotel image, and above the room rates listings is a check box to “Show Hyatt Gold Passport Points & Awards.”

Since I’m not wanting to pay for my stay at the Park Hyatt Washington, I check the box to see award availability/pricing for this hotel.

And I’m shown that I can redeem 20,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points per night for a free room at this hotel.

So for my three-night stay, I would use 60,000 Hyatt points. And that would be it…when using points for stays at Hyatt properties, there is no tax charged on your stay, and hotel/resort fees that would normally be required on paid stays are not charged, either.

Another nice option associated with the Hyatt Gold Passport program is the ability to use Points + Cash to pay for your room.

For a reduced amount of points – 10,000 rather than 20,000 per night in this example – and a $125 per night rate (rather than the $290 nightly rate) you can book the room.

What exactly are the benefits of Points + Cash? Primarily, it’s a way to stretch your Gold Passport points. If you’re short on points, you can use Points + Cash to use fewer points, and, basically, “buy down” the nightly rate at properties where you want to stay.

Actually, the Points + Cash option is a fixed amount depending on the category of the hotel.

In this example, the Park Hyatt Washington is a category 5 hotel. All category 5 Hyatt hotels cost 20,000 points per night for a Standard Room – and all category 5 hotels, when using Points + Cash, cost 10,000 points and $125 per night.

This chart is useful for seeing the points required for a night’s stay at each category, and, each category’s corresponding Points + Cash amount.

This link will take you to the chart on Hyatt’s website, as well as allow you to click on the Hotel Category numbers to see all hotels within that category. A nice feature if you only have so many points, and want to see on what hotels you should focus your attention.

The Points + Cash sidetrack complete, back to our booking example.

I’m going to skip the Points + Cash option, and only use points for this award stay.

I click the Select button in the Redeem Points tab to make the reservation.

If you haven’t already logged into your Gold Passport account, you’ll be prompted to do so at this point.

Once signed in, you’re taken to the registration screen where you’ll confirm your contact information and enter a credit card to hold the reservation.

As with any hotel loyalty program award redemption, even though the hotel room will be free, you’ll need to provide a credit card for the reservation to cover incidentals that may be charged to the room during your stay.

After confirming your personal information, entering your credit card details and double checking the reservation for accuracy – dates, location, property and amount of points to be deducted – click the Book Reservation button and your Hyatt stay is reserved.

Other Free Night Options

In my review of The Hyatt credit card, I discussed how the sign-up bonus provides 2 free nights at any Hyatt hotel, worldwide.

And I also mentioned how The Hyatt credit card provides 1 free night at a Hyatt category 1-4 hotel every year on your cardmember anniversary.

These free nights can, mostly, be booked online.

Simply follow the directions above. As long as you’re logged in to your Gold Passport account – and you have sign-up bonus nights or an anniversary night in your account – it shows as an option when the Show Hyatt Gold Passport Points & Awards box is checked.

Clicking the Select button takes you to the reservations screen where you can complete your free night booking.

Unfortunately, if you want to book the 2 free nights from They Hyatt credit card sign-up on consecutive nights, you have to call the toll free number to do so. The online reservations system does not allow for the 2 free nights to be booked for a 2-night stay.

Ridiculous, I know, but a glitch in the Hyatt online reservation system that’s more frustrating than anything, since a quick call to the 800 number takes care of the 2 free night booking.

Wrap Up

While Hyatt isn’t one of the largest hotel chains, it does, without question, have a nice variety of properties, worldwide, that should easily meet most of your travel needs.

If you’re not a Hyatt Gold Passport member, jump on Hyatt.com and search your favorite destination – or two – and see what Hyatt has to offer.

Then sign up for The Hyatt credit card and/or one of the Ultimate Rewards earning cards and start building your Gold Passport balance. Before you know it, you’ll be on your way to a fantastic, free, stay at one of Hyatt’s many incredible properties.

Are you a fan of Hyatt hotels? Comment on your favorite Hyatt property to help newbies to the Hyatt brand find their new favorite hotel.