where you can make your own travel itineraries. The true value with these points lies with the transfer to other partners. For my Hollywood trip, my interest was in the Hyatt transfer partner. Ultimate Rewards points transfer instantly on a 1:1 ratio. After checking availability with my Hyatt Gold Passport account online I can have the Hyatt customer service rep on the phone, navigate to the UR website, transfer UR points to Hyatt, wait for instant Hyatt confirmation then ask the Hyatt rep to refresh her screen and and like magic the points appear.
The Andaz West Hollywood is a trendy upscale property available for only 15K points per night, my 3 night stay would require 45K UR points to be transferred unless I had any Hyatt reward points earned from my Hyatt credit card. When I called the property in February to reserve my August stay I was told no reward availability existed (no cause for panic) I just outright booked three nights at the best rate offered of $299 per night (I knew I was not paying that rate) at the very least I had a place reserved. Since this property is popular I knew cancellations would occur, I mean it was only February, so I called every week or two to find availability and finally in early June rooms were suddenly available, but I had only enough points to cover two nights in full. I transferred my UR points to Hyatt and booked the two award nights instantly saving $598. The 3rd remaining night I changed to the government rate of $265 saving another $34. All I have remaining is to reduce the cost for the final night. This is what I meant in my original post of where my total cost for two so far of $268 would go down. I currently have 7,281 UR points and 839 Hyatt points for a total of 8,120. I need 6,880 more to reach 15K and have the 3rd night totally free. Given that my trip is in August and its June I still have time to earn the points using either my Hyatt credit card or any of my other Chase branded credit cards. Knowing the many tricks to earn 2x, 5x or even 10x the points on standard purchases I believe I can easily make up the deficit. However, as I stated earlier this property is popular and I don't want to push my luck. What can I do? It just so happens that Hyatt is offering up to a 30% bonus on the purchase of points thru June 30. Many times purchasing points is not the best option but if you have a set plan in place and know your needs a points purchase can work in your favor. If I did no more everyday spending I could purchase 7,000 Hyatt points, receive a 700 point bonus because of the promotion and have a total of 15,680K. The cost for the purchase would run me $168 far below the going rate of $299 or the government rate of $265. But wait you say, the total is still 420 below the 15K needed. That is correct. I would gain 168 additional points from Chase for using an ultimate rewards branded card for the purchase of the points and the remaining 252 would come from bonus points that have not yet posted from a previous purchase. So the total cost of my trip to Hollywood has dropped to $188 (lets not forget the $20 airfare for two). What I'll do is buy whatever remaining points I need on June 30 the last day of the Hyatt promotion. I suspect the total I need will be significantly less therefore further dropping my cash outlay for this 4 day trip, Stay tuned to see what the bottom line expense finally does total.
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