Finding and Booking Hotels

My last post focused on how to search for flights to use your points ((read here) and this post, as the title suggests, focuses on hotels; includes which hotels chains you can book on points, some hidden fees, and some advantages.

I know hotels are not a priority for some and I can appreciate that. For years, we were a short-term rental family too. But now that my kids are a little older and we can all go to bed at the same time; hotels also can have their conveniences.

Finding and Booking Hotels

Let's start off by reviewing transfer partners. Not always, but often times, you will be able to use less points/get more value out of your points, by transferring flexible points from the bank to specific travel partners (hotels and airlines). If you don't know how to transfer points, you'll want to take a look at this post.

Each bank has their own set of partners, some which overlap and some that are interdependent to only one bank (which is just another reason to diversify your points across different banks!).

Chase Hotel Partners

• Hyatt
• IHG
• Marriott
• Wyndham

Capital One Hotel Partners

• Accor (2:1 ratio)*
• Choice Privileges
• Preferred (IPrefer) (1:2 ratio)*
• Wyndham

American Express Hotel Partners

• Choice Privileges
• Hilton (1:2 ratio)*
• Marriott

Of all the hotel partners, Hyatt has been a long time sweet spot. This is because historically Hyatt has had a 3-tier standard award chart - meaning the amount of points it costs to stay at a Hyatt are fixed, The amount of points is not tied to the cash price. Hyatt point cost depends on what Category (Luxury) Level the hotel is (Levels 1-8 or A-F for All Inclusives) and what time of year you're traveling: Off Peak, Standard, or Peak. In February 2026, Hyatt announced changes to it's award chart that expand the 3-tier points costs to 5-tier. You can read more about the award chart changes and Hyatt specific tips and tricks here.

A major downfall for Hyatt is that it has a smaller footprint (less hotels) not only in the US, but internationally.

Unlike Hyatt, most of the other award partners use what's called dynamic point pricing; which means that the point price to book a stay will vary, depending on the cash price. Because of this, most other hotels, when booked on points, cost a significant amount of points more during peak travel times (and in general, compared to Hyatt).

However, there are still opportunities to find some great non-Hyatt stays! Let's go through some hotel booking tips and tricks

Hotel Booking Sweet Spots

Transfer Ratio

If you scroll up to the list of hotel transfer partners, you'll see an asterisk (*) on some. This is because these hotels don't transfer at a 1:1 ratio.

Both, American Express to Hilton and Capital One to Preferred Hotels, transfer at a 1 to 2 ratio; meaning you DOUBLE your points when you move them to from either of these banks to the corresponding hotel.

Amex to Hilton, 1:2 transfer

Book # Number of Nights, Get a Free Night

This is another fav sweet spot to be aware. Unlike Hyatt, other hotel chains will offer a free night if you book 3 or 4 nights on one reservation, under certain criteria.

• Hilton 5th Night Free: If you have Hilton Silver Status Silver (earned by staying 10 nights, 4 stays, or spending $2,500 in a year on a Hilton card) , then you can get 5th night free on award stays!

• One of my favorite ways to utilize 5th night free is by holding the American Express Platinum Card. With this card, you will earn a hefty sign up bonus (here's my post on "Good" sign up offers) AND this card also comes with Hilton Gold Status.

• I used these benefits when I booked Tabacon Resort in Costa Rica. Booking on Hilton, the hotel was 80,000 points per night; so 80,000 * 5 nights, would have cost me 400,000 Hilton points. Because I was transferring Amex points and got the 5th night of my stay free (thanks to my Amex Platinum), then I needed 80,000 * 4 nights, 320,000 Hilton points. Because of the 1:2 transfer ratio, I needed only 160,000 Amex points (to book a 5 night stay that would have cost 400,000 Hilton points!)

• I know the high Amex Platinum Fee scares a lot of people, but this one example of utilizing just one Platinum Card benefit, saved me over $500 (compared to having to pay for the 5th night of our stay); not to mention all of the other "easy" benefits this card now has like, $300/yr Lululemon, $300/yr streaming credit (pays for our Disney/HBO!), and $400/yr Resy credit.

• IHG 4th Night Free If you hold the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card, IHG One Rewards Traveler Card, or IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card, then when you book 4 consecutive nights with points at an IHG property, you would pay 0 points for the 4th night. If you want a bit of a longer stay, you could book an 8 night trip and pay 0 points for nights 4 and 8!

• Marriot 5th Night Free All Marriott Bonvoy members automatically will receive the benefit of 5th night free, when using points to book five consecutive nights, under one reservation.

Free Breakfast

That's right, some hotels include free breakfast - which can be a huge cost savings!

• Hyatt Place: most Hyatt Place hotels include free breakfasts and several we're stayed at have more than just cereal and prepackaged muffins! (Note: some Hyatt Places are transitioning to needing Hyatt Discovery Status (10 nights) or higher, to qualify for free breakfast)

• Hyatt (with Status): Similar to Marriott, if you have top tier Hyatt status (Globalist) OR if you have "temporary" Globalist status (which is to say, you've been gifted a Guest of Honor), then you are eligible for free breakfast/food/beverage credit for up to 2 adults and 2 children. My Hyatt post mentions how I obtain Guest of Honor (GOH) awards.

• Hilton: With Gold Status or above (easily achieved by opening a Hilton card or American Express Platinum card), you qualify for Daily Food and Beverage Credit or Continental Breakfast (varies by brand and region)

• Marriott (with Status): With Marriott Platinum, Titanium or Ambassador status, guests will received $100 breakfast credit if continental breakfast isn't available; at select Marriott Brand Hotels (JW Marriott, Marriott Hotels, Delta Hotels, Autograph Collection, and Renaissance Hotels)

Family-Discount

Have a larger family or traveling internationally where room occupancy limits require you to book more than one hotel room? Select Hyatt properties offer family pricing discounts; when you book one room (on points or cash), you can add a second room at half off the standard room rate; but you must pay in cash! To take advantage of this offer, directly contact the hotel you want to book or World of Hyatt and ask for the "Hyatt Family Plan Rate". Not all Hyatt properties offer this discount.

Premium Card Benefits

In the past year, many of the major bank "premium" credit cards now come with hotel booking benefits in the bank's travel portal. Remember how I said we almost "always" want to transfer points from the bank to hotels to book directly? This is the exception.

• Chase Sapphire Reserve/Reserve Business both come with:
• Qty (2) - $250 "Edit" Credits a year: To utilize this credit, search in the Chase Travel Portal for hotels labeled "Edit" for a 2 night stay or longer. You can only use one credit at a time (they do not stack for $500 off). Using this credit not only will give you a $250 statement credit, but also gives you benefits during your stay like guaranteed late check out, possible room upgrades, breakfast for 2 and $100 resort credit (usually available to use at hotel spa, restaurants, and even parking fees). You can combine use of cash and points.
• Qty (1) - $250 Select Hotel Credit: This was added in 2026 and is a credit for select Chase Hotels booked in the portal. This credit DOES stack with the Edit Credit. If you're booking a 2-night stay or more, if your selected hotel is an Edit hotel and one of the brands that call under this category, you'll receive a total of a $500 statement credit!

• American Express Platinum Card

Summary

This post really was intended to cover tips and tricks of booking hotels with points; rather than the mechanics of "how to book" hotels on points. If you need help with the "how to", please feel free to reach out!

If you're overwhelmed, don't worry - that's natural. Earning points can be easy, but redeeming points and understanding how to redeem to spend as little points as possible, and/or maximize your point value is a skill that comes with time and practice!

If you're ready to use points to book flights, check out this post.

If you have points you're ready to use to book, but don't have the time or patience to go down the rabbit hole of possibilities that is award flights, I'm happy to do the work for you! Check out my award booking intake form!

If you want to open any of the cards I refer to, I would SO appreciate if you utilized my referral links to open cards. This doesn't cost you anything, but provides me with some extra points and keeps all of my content free! Thank you in advance!

Reminder, if you're viewing this through a Meta app, please open an external browser to apply. This protects your data and gives me credit. If you're interested in business cards, but want more information, as well as directions how to apply for them; read here!

____________________________________________

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know suggestions.

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Finding and Booking Flights with Points

We've talked a lot about how to earn points - basic info and lingo, where to start, best beginner cards, elevated card sign up offers, travel partners (Chase, Amex, and Capital One), how to transfer points from the bank to a partner hotel or airlines as well as my personal rules of thumb for how many points you should expect to spend on a hotel or flight booking. 

However, the time consuming part of using points can often be figuring out how to redeem them. There are many variables (and rabbit holes) to consider, especially compared to using points for hotels. Knowing how to search for award (points) flights, and what a "good" points price is, is a fundamental skill to maximize your points travel.

This post will take a deep dive into how we actually search for flights to book with points and walk you through the process I generally follow. I warn you in advance, this post is looooong, because I want you to know and understand all of the details so that you can repeat the process by yourself. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out via Instagram @justcallmehaha or email: justcallmehaha@gmail.com

More curious about using points to book hotels? This post covers the process!

Finding and Booking Flights with Points

Before going into detail, the general steps for searching and booking flights with points I follow are:

1. Determine Wants and Needs
2. Look up Routes/Airlines
3. Search for Flights 
4. Verify Award Flights Exist
5. Transfer Points and Book

These may seem obvious, but as with life, there are many different ways to come to the same results. My process varies a little, depending mostly on Item 1.

Step 1. Determine Wants and Needs

The more flexible you are with your wants and needs, the greater the chances of you finding award flights, often at the best price.

To increase flexibility, consider the following:

• Travel dates: do you have to fly in/out on a certain day? Or can you put some wiggle room in your itinerary; adding a day or two to your trip? Or even considering a less popular time of the year to travel?
• Airports: generally it's ideal to fly direct whenever possible; but are you willing to consider flying from your home airport to another airport before a long haul flight to get a better price? (This is called "repositioning"). Are you willing to take a direct flight from your home airport to Europe and then take a quick/cheap flight to your final destination?
• Seat Class: is a business flight your priority? Or getting there as quick and cheap as possible?
• Number of Seats: Award seats can be limited. Are you willing to break up your group and seat some in business and some in economy? Or would you rather fly in pairs on different flights to get better seats or pricing and meet at your destination?
• BOOK ONE WAY flights! I know, this is *not* what you usually hear. There's been recent news how one-way cash flights are more expensive than booking roundtrip; however in the world of points and miles - booking one-way flights increases flexibility and therefore your odds of finding better priced award flights. Points flights generally do not cost more when comparing one way verse round trip. (It often nearly impossible to find great points pricing roundtrip for international flights).

In addition, your Needs will also be dictated by how many points you have and which airlines you can use those points to book with. Take inventory of your points with each bank and each airline.

Keep in mind, all banks have airlines and hotels they partner with, and while there is some overlap (such as Air Canada and Flying Blue), sometimes the only way you can book a specific flight is if you book through an airline alliance. Of course, the easiest way is to have enough points available with a bank to transfer to a given airline to book directly; but often times, you may be able to book flights for less points if you book on an airline's alliance partner. This is why point diversification is SO important! And why my top 3 beginner cards list spans across multiple banks!

For example, Chase is the only bank who transfers to United; but if you don't have enough Chase points to book a United flight; can you find that same flight on other Star Alliance partners, like Air Canada? Then you can transfer Amex or Capital One points to Air Canada to book your United flight.

I'll talk about airline alliances more below.

Step 2. Look up routes/airlines flying

If I know where I want to go, the first place I start to research is Flight Connections. I know lot of other people who use Google flights - which can provide some of the same information: it will tell you what airlines fly where and the cash price for a given date. I prefer Flight Connections and I'll explain here what information I'm looking for and how I find it. I use the free version of this website to learn which routes and which airlines are available to get to my destination.

Flight Connection color codes their routes, so you can easily determine direct flight vs stopover routes. For example, when I simple input "Denver" as my origin, you can see on the left and on the map a variety of places I can fly to.

(if the picture is blurry, you can click on it to load clearly)

Direct Flights: Let's say I wanted to go to Paris, departing from Denver. Once I input Paris as my destination, on the left of the screen, it tells me that Air France is my airline option to fly Denver direct to Paris, from May to Oct.

With this information, I would then move on to Step 3 and search on Air France and Air France's alliance partner airlines websites for a points flight.

In-direct Flights: Let's say I wanted to go to Lisbon, departing from Denver. Once I input Lisbon as my destination, on the left of the screen, it tells me there are no direct flights but gives me a list of cities I can fly through. Even this information is helpful to start your flight searches - you don't want to drive yourself crazy looking for a direct flight when it doesn't exist!

If you select one of the Stopover cities, Flight Connections will then show you airline options to get from your origin to your stopover city and then your stopover city to your destination. In this example, I could fly Denver direct to Munich on United or Lufthansa and then I could fly TAP or Lufthansa to get from Munich to Lisbon.

An alternative to Flight Connections is looking up routes directly on an airport website or looking up an airport code on Wikipedia. 

Step 3. Search for flights 

Depending on what kind of information Flight Connections gives me and what my flexibility is, I will either start my searches directly on the airline I want to fly on and then branch out to the airline's partnership in their alliance that my points transfer to OR I will use a third-party search aggregator.

Searching Airline Websites/Apps

For the Direct Flight example above (Denver to Paris), I would search directly on Air France's website for a points flight.

For the Indirect Flight example above, I have a few options. I know that Lufthansa does not have a direct bank transfer partner. So I can't move my Chase, Amex, or Capital One points direct to Lufthansa to book. BUT, I do know that Lufthansa is in Star Alliance, along with United and Air Canada! So I could go to either United or Air Canada's website and search for award bookings for DEN > LIS and/or DEN > MUC, MUC > LIS to see what my options are

Airline Alliances

Now, as I mentioned above, there are also Airline Alliances, which are groupings of airlines that have partnered together to allow you to book one airline's flight through another airline. Why would you want to do this? Because different airlines charge different points prices and have charge differently for taxes and fees! Or maybe you have points in one bank that you want to use but you want to fly an airline who's not a direct transfer point. Lastly, maybe there's a transfer bonus in the alliance of a flight you need to book that you could take advantage

This is an entirely separate post on its own; but it is important to understand and remember when booking flights. Keep in mind - yes, this is overwhelming and a rabbit holes! It's an intermediate skill to understand how to utilize

Keep in mind different banks have different transfer partners and this is a huge reason to use Airline Alliances. You can learn more about Airline Alliances here.

Third-Party Search Aggregators

A third-party aggregator is search tool that scans through multiple airline (or hotel) loyalty programs to report out flight availability bookable with points of miles. 

Popular flight aggregator websites include: Points.Yeah, Point.me, Roame.travel,and Seats.Aero

These sites have free versions with limitations and offer a paid subscription that allows you to filter to meet your needs and set up flight award alerts. I have used Points.Yeah for free award flight alerts. Points.me has a free version if you're an American Express card holder, Amex.Point.me - however it's results are limited to flights that you can book using only Amex points.

I personally prefer Seats. Aero and am willing to pay the $9.99/mo fee for the Pro version when I'm in search of flights. It's also easy to unsubscribe so that when I'm not in need to book point flights, I'm not paying for a service I'm not using.

Here's an example of a Seats.Aero search. From our earlier example this is Denver to Lisbon: 

You'll see the "Program" whom you would book with is American and Alaskan, Now Citi Banks transfer to American, but let's say you've just started in points and you're following my Beginner Card List. So far you only have Chase and Capital One points. We can filter "Transfer Partners" for only those banks. That way, the results you receive are actually bookable with the points you have.

In this case, we get Qantas and Turkish Air as our top results:

You may have never even heard of Qantas (an Australian based airline) and maybe you're thinking, why would I fly a Turkish airline to go from Denver to Lisbon?!

Well, for Qantas, you're not actually going to fly on Qantas. You're going to utilize an airline alliance (learn more here), the Oneworld Alliance, of which Qantas and American Airlines are members of you. You're going to click the "i" information button at the far right in the photo above, and receive the pop-up that you are actually booking an American Airlines flight, but booking through Qantas (who is a transfer partner with Amex, Capital One and Citi Bank. In our example, we have Chase and Capital One points, so we'd look to transfer Capital One points... but first, go to Step 4. Verification)

Note the "Book via" information below:

Pro's for Using Aggregators: Time saver! Instead of search individual airline websites one by one, you can have the website do the work for you. You can filter down results to meet your needs; such as the points systems you have, maximum duration of your flight travel, etc. These websites do the legwork for you, of searching through airlines and airline alliances, to identify the cheapest airline to book a flight with.

Con's for Aggregators: They are not always accurate! The data on their websites may not have refreshed and flights availability may not exist.... which takes us to the next step of Award Flight Searches

Step 4. Verify award flights exist

Before you move ANY points, you should do a "mock" booking to verify that what you want to book exists and that you know the exact points and cash price.

Go to the airline website that you want to book on, do a search for your exact dates, number of people, departure and origin cities, as well as seat class. 

This not only ensures that the flight is still bookable ("phantom flights" are known to appear in aggregator results, where a flight is shown but the availability to book does not actually exist); but this also ensures that you know exactly how many points you need to transfer from the bank to the airline to book.

From the example above with Seats.Aero flight from Denver to Lisbon; you would log into your Qantas account and verify that the flight search results Seats.Aero provided is actually a real bookable flight.

Reminder, here's what Seats Aero told us exists: 

And here's what Qantas search results yield; in this case Seats Aero was correct and we have verified the award flight exists. You can move on to Step 5!

Qantas Search Results

Step 5. Transfer Points to Airline and Book Immediately!

As soon you find a flight you want to book; make the move and transfer those points!

In the example above, you'd move your bank points to Qantas and book your American Airlines flight!

Keep in mind, that points generally can only be transferred in the thousands and that once you transfer points, it's irreversible. IE - if you transfer bank points to a hotel or airline, the points are then "stuck" in the airline or hotel's program and CANNOT be moved back to the bank.

While most point transfers are instant, some can take up to a few days. Be aware of this when finding award flights you want to book. You can always google "how long to a points transfer from X-Bank to X-airline take". Some airlines will hold your flight while you wait for points to transfer and others will not. It doesn't hurt to call and ask!

When transferring points from the Bank to an airline or hotel partner, the name on the bank credit card must identically match the name on the airline or hotel account (and should also match the name on one's passport!). Because of this, you can't take your Amex points and transfer them to your Player's 2 Air Canada account. 

Good to Know Tips

Here are a few more notes to consider when searching and using points to book flights.

Points Pricing Rules of Thumb: While you certainly will find flights priced higher than this, you can also find flights priced low than this amount of points also. Typically lower points costs can mean higher taxes and fees.

• Domestic flight, economy one way: 12,500 - 25,000 points

• International flight to Europe, economy, one way: 35,000-48,000 points* + taxes/fees**

• International flight to Europe, business class, one way: 65,000-80,000 points* + taxes/fees**

• International flight to Mexico, round-trip: 40,000-50,000 points + taxes/fees

*Note: being Denver-based, I use United as my basis of thought; however, you can often find much lower options if you're willing to do a positioning flight to fly out of another large hub airport. A positioning flight is a flight you take to for the sole purpose of getting to another airport to start your primary trip

**International Taxes/Fees vary depending on the airport. For Europe, London Heathrow (LHR), is known to have the highest taxes/fees; often 2-3X's the cost of EU airports

Virgin Air and Flying Blue (Air France/KLM), often are cost less points for flights, but can have higher taxes and fees.

You CAN book a flight for someone else. If someone in your household has points or miles, they can book a flight for you, even if they aren't on the reservation. So in the above Transfer Points section, I say you can't take your Amex points and transfer them to your Player 2's loyalty account... but you can book a flight with your points for someone else if you need to.

Summary
As promised, this is ALOT of information, that hopefully is all valuable and will help you learn how to turn your points into nearly free travel!

If you're overwhelmed, don't worry - that's natural. Earning points can be easy, but redeeming points and understanding how to redeem to spend as little points as possible, and/or maximize your point value is a skill that comes with time and practice!

If you have points you're ready to use to book, but don't have the time or patience to go down the rabbit hole of possibilities that is award flights, I'm happy to do the work for you! Check out my award booking intake form!

More curious about using points to book hotels? This post covers the process!

____________________________________________

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know suggestions.

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Chase Transfer Partners

With all of the attention Hyatt got this week, announcing changes to their award pricing, a new transfer partner has been added to Chase somewhat under the radar. 

While I don't think this is all that exciting, I wanted to be sure to update my list of Chase Transfer Partner Hotels and Airlines. Remember - airline and hotel partners vary across banks, with some overlap (Air Canada and Flying Blue), but often not (such as Hyatt, United, and Southwest). You can find American Express transfer partners here and Capital One's here. 

Chase Transfer Partner Hotels and Airlines

Why do you want to transfer your points verse book travel in the bank travel portal?

Typically, bank travel portals all you to book travel trading in 1 point for 1 cent. Granted, Chase does now offer Points Boost, where depending on the cards you hold and travel you want to book, you may get up to 1.65 cents per point of value.

However, generally speaking, when you transfer your points to partner hotels and airlines, you can book travel directly through those programs for LESS points. Using less points to book travel, means that you can travel more! Currently all of Chases transfer partners are a 1:1 ratio

This post walks you step by step how to transfer Chase points to a travel partner. Keep in mind, you need a "premium" (aka annual fee) Chase card to have the ability to transfer. My number one recommendation is the Sapphire Preferred, due to it's benefits and low annual fee; but these cards also provide the ability to transfer points to partners: Chase Sapphire Reserve, Ink Business Preferred, or Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business  If you don't have one of these cards, then your points are "stuck" in Chase and you only way to redeem is through the Travel Portal.

But, if you open one of these cards, you can then combine your points amongst accounts and transfer existing points out to partners too!

Hotels

Chase has four hotel partners that you can do direct points transfers to:

Chase Hotel Partners

Airlines

Chase has 10 airline partners that you can do direct points transfers to. (Emirates partnership ended in 2025)

Chase Airline Partners

Don't see your favorite airline above as a direct transfer partner? Keep in mind that airlines unite together and have formed alliances that allow you to cross book among alliance airlines. Therefore, if an airline you want to fly isn't listed above as a direct travel partner; through alliances, you may still be able to fly a specific airline, as long as you transfer to their alliance partner and see the flight in the alliance airline's search.

This post discusses airline alliances in more detail.

For example, you can't directly transfer points to Lufthansa, but Lufthansa is in Star Alliance, as is United. Therefore, you may be able to search United and come across a Lufthansa flight that you can book by transferring points to and booking with United.

Summary

Chase is my favorite bank and favorite flexible points because not only are their partners familiar domestic brand names you recognize, at the same time; they have other travel partners that you can use around the world!

Chase Ultimate Rewards are arguably the most valuable flexible points. You can earn them from a variety of Chase credit cards: Freedom Flex or Unlimited, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Ink Business Preferred, Ink Business Unlimited or Cash, or Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business 

Each of the links above will lead you to specific details on each card. If you want to open one of these cards, I would SO appreciate if you utilized my referral links to open cards. This doesn't cost you anything, but provides me with some extra points and keeps all of my content free! Thank you in advance!

Reminder, if you're viewing this through a Meta app, please open an external browser to apply. This protects your data and gives me credit. If you're interested in business cards, but want more information, as well as directions how to apply for them; read here!

____________________________________________

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know suggestions.

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Hyatt Hype and 2026 Changes

Hyatt is THE favorite hotel chain of points enthusiasts; but why?!

Unlike other popular hotel chains (Hilton, Marriott, IHG), Hyatt has a standard award chart for pricing. What does this mean?

It mean that other hotel chains price their award stays (aka point stays) based on the cash price. As we know, cash prices of travel fluctuate all.the.time. There often is no maximum on the amount of points that these hotels charge. For example, the popular high-end Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedegral charges as high as a whooping 250,000 points per night (booked through Hilton) and that doesn't even include food/drinks!

Whereas, as of today, the maximum point price you'll pay for top luxury level Hyatt is 45,000 points per night! But sadly.... that's about to change

Hyatt 2026 Changes

On February 25, 2026, Hyatt announced changes coming to the award chart. Now - it's not uncommon for hotels and airlines to announce changes to redemption rates annually. For Hyatt this usually comes in the form of moving hotels from one category level to another (up or down); which in effect changes the points price.

However, up until now, Hyatt Award Charts had 3 pricing scales for any given hotel: Off-Peak, Standard, and Peak. Today, Hyatt shared that they are moved to 5 pricing scales, which essentially is a means to charge more points but maintain a standardized award chart. It's not a good change.

Hyatt Hotel Award Charts

Based on the chart below, you'll see there is a large variance for hotel pricing. Want to book a Hyatt Place? If it's category one, it will cost you anywhere from 3,000 to 9,000 points per night?

Want to go to Hawaii and stay at the amazing Grand Hyatt Kauai? Currently it's a Category 8 hotel. If you want to go for Winter or Spring Break, you can expect to pay the Top price of 75,000 points a night. OUCH! With the current award chart the maximum peak pricing is only 45,000 points a night. This is a big blow!

2026 Hyatt Standard Hotel Award Chart

Hyatt All Inclusive Award Chart

Similar to standard hotels, Hyatt also has a number of all inclusive properties. These AI's have their own award chart and are categories as Levels A-F. 

2026 Hyatt All-Inclusive Award Chart

Hyatt Tips and Tricks

Now that I've covered the bad news; let's talk more about why Hyatt still remains to be a fan favorite and some tips/tricks you can use to book Hyatts for less points

Resort Fees

Any Hyatt stay booked on points does not pay a daily resort fee! This in itself can be a huge savings of $85/day or more (depending on the specific hotel and amenities offered)

Availability/Award Calendar

Two tips to mention here. If you do a search on Hyatt for a stay and receive results that there is No Point Availability, it may just be that one night of all the nights you want to stay isn't available.

See that "View Points Calendar" button? This is a newer Hyatt feature and while it's sometimes clunky (it doesn't work well in Hyatt app), it can be a nice tool to use because it shows you which nights in a calendar view are available to book for points. You can use the Points Calendar to adjust your dates/search to align. In this example below, I say I want to do a 3-night stay and the calendar shows me which dates are available to check-in to get a 3-night point stay:

Book Single Nights

This is a common strategy amongst point enthusiasts, especially for popular hotels at popular travel dates. Basically, most Hyatts generally release their award booking calendar ~13mo/395 days in advance. What you can do is book a one-night reservation 13mo in advance, as your date is released, to ensure availability to book (rather than waiting for the entire duration of your stay to be released). Then, once you have all of the individual one-night bookings made for the total duration of your stay, you can contact Hyatt to link/combine the reservations into one. This works - as long as you book identical room types for each night.

I like to follow this technique because at 13months in advance, flights aren't out yet! "Overbooking" a number of one-night reservations gives me more flexibility to figure out flights. For example, say next winter break we wanted to go to Hawaii after Christmas (Dec 26/Jan27). At roughly Thanksgiving 2025 time frame I would have started booking one-night Hyatt stays. If I wanted to stay in Hawaii for 6 nights total, I might have booked 8 one-night stays, which gives me flexibility on either end to cancel some of the one-night reservations, once I figured out my flights/travel dates.

All-Inclusives

I mention this in my Rules of Thumb for Point Cost post, but it's worth noting again here! When booking all-inclusive hotel, the standard point pricing (ie what's shown in the chart above) is for 2 room occupants. When you add more than 2 people to your search, the points price will increase - even double! 

For all-inclusives, Hyatt considers age 13+ as an adult. If you're traveling with kids 12 and under, instead of doubling the amount of points you're going to spend - consider paying the daily cash rate to add your kids!

You can book the reservation with 2 adults only (although ensure your room type can accommodate your total number of travelers, adults + children) and pay the daily cash rate to add children.

After you have a reservation, you can call and add in the children saying you want to pay cash. With this approach, instead of using points, you'll pay roughly $80-$130/child/day (depending on the specific hotel. You can do a World of Hyatt chat to ask the rate) to add in the all inclusive package.

Brand Explorer

Hyatt has over 20 brands of hotels under their portfolio. The Brand Explorer Award encourages you to stay at different Hyatt brand hotels and for every unique brand you stay at, you get a credit. For every 5 credits you get, you earn a Level 1-4 Free Night! This is a GREAT way to earn a free night certificate for a Level 1-4 Category hotel. This is also known at Hyatt Bingo!

Here's what my bingo card currently looks like. I stragetically booked a "Hyatt" brand hotel for a trip in April, so that I'll earn my second Free Night award

What's nice is there there isn't a time frame you have to complete the 5 stays. It's cumulative. But, once you stay a brand hotel, you won't get future credits if you stay at the same brand again. 

If you've done any Hyatt stays with a free World of Hyatt loyalty account linked, then you can check the status of your own Brand Explorer in your Hyatt profile:

Hyatt Awards

This leads me to Hyatt Awards. Like many hotel chains, Hyatt allows you to earn Milestone Rewards based on the number of nightly stays you have and/or the number of points you earn through spend at Hyatt and/or on Hyatt Credit Cards.

You can find all of the details here, but Milestone Rewards start at 20 nights a year. The rewards aren't amazing at this level, but they're still something!

Hyatt Status

Hyatt currently has 3 status levels: Member (no status), Discoverist (10 nights), Explorist (30 nights), and Globalist (60nights). If you’re not staying in Hyatts 30-60+ nights a year (I’m not!); then you also earn qualifying nights by having Hyatt credit cards and putting spend on those cards. 

For the Personal Card, you earn 5 nights towards status for holding the card and 2 nights towards status for every $5,000 you spend on the card.

For the Business card, you earn 5 Tier-qualifying nights towards status for every $10,000 you spend on the card.

This chart compares the Benefits of each level:

Globalist is the top tier status, which includes free breakfast for 2 adults and 2 children and/or Club Access (free food, discounted/free drinks, etc. Not all hotels have a Club), room upgrades including suites, highest point earn on eligible purchases (30%), and free parking on points nights.

Now, I am not going to hit Globalist. We did (strategically) hit 30 nights in 2025, which got us Explorist status. I could have pursued opening Hyatt Credit cards to fill the "gap" by earning qualifying points to get us to Globalist status through spend. However, even though I'm a devout Hyatt person, I like to keep our points flexible and therefore first focus our spend on earning flexible/transferable bank points.

BUT, one of my favorite Hyatt Awards is a Guest of Honor!

Guest of Honor Award

A Guest of Honor award, aka, GOH, is an award that you can earn (for 40 night stay) or be gifted (from other Globalists), which granted you "temporary Globalist status" for the stay you apply it to.

This means, you get to utilize all of those perks mentioned above. We have used GOHs around the world and saved THOUSANDS of dollars thanks to you! Free breakfast is huge - especially places like Hawaii and Maldives or as a family of 4 - when a hotel breakfast easily costs more than $100/day. Plus free parking is a great perk! In large cities, this can save you $60+/day.

How do I get my GOHs? I trade! I take my Free Night Awards I earn (see Brand Explorer above as one option) and I go on Hyatt Award Exchange Facebook groups to trade. Generally I can trade one Level 1-4 Free Night Award for 2-3 Guest of Honor awards.

When booking our trips for the year, I always take into consideration and plan out how I can maximize value using my GOHs.

Summary

Once again, this is a lot of material to cover - but provides oversight as to why Hyatt is so popular among points people!

Hyatt's standard award chart and Guest of Honor awards are my favorite reason to keep booking Hyatts. Keep in mind, Chase and Bilt are the only Hyatt transfer partners, which is why I try to save those points for Hyatt and use my other bank stashes to book flights!

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Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know my suggestions.

Wondering how I keep all of this information organized? Check out my Points Tracker!

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

My Everyday Cards

In points and miles, the "easier" way to make point earning sustainable is the ongoing opening of new credit cards to earn sign up bonuses. This strategy really is how you continue to earn enough points (without significant spending) to book travel and to keep replenishing your points inventory.

BUT....for some people, it's too much. It's too much to manage and too much to think about. When you're wondering:

What Card do You Use Everyday?

This post will cover cards which cards we use for every day costs based on type of spend. Keep in mind, 90% of the time, my household is working on a minimum spend on a new card to earn a sign up bonus, but there are times we aren't working on a new card spend. 

Everyday Spend Categories

Which Cards I use and Why

1. Groceries
Likely like many of you, groceries are a frequent purchase and a large portion of our budget. My first choice card for groceries is Chase Sapphire Preferred (learn more here), which earns 3x's times points per dollar spent for online groceries. 

This is great if you do online grocery orders for pick up (or Instacart), but if you shop in store, you won't automatically get 3x's points. This also excludes Target, Walmart and Wholesale Clubs.

One work around for in store shopping, is that if you shop at Kroger owned stores (in Colorado, that's King Soopers or City Market), you can add your CSP as your form of payment to in your Kroger Wallet. Then when you check out in store, open your King Soopers app, go to My Account > Wallet > and click "Kroger Pay" at the bottom. A screen will appear for you to select "Use at the register" and a QR code will appear for you to scan and pay. This method earns 3x's points on your grocery spend, even though you're shopping in person!

Grocery Runner Up Card: American Express Gold Personal (learn more here)

Now, Amex Gold Personal actually earns 4x's points on groceries (that's 1 point more than Sapphire Preferred); however, because I find Chase points harder to earn, I generally use my CSP for groceries when I can get the 3x's points.

But, there are some stores where the pay via app wallet hack doesn't work, and/or there are times when we have plenty of Chase points so I'll use the Amex Gold instead to work on building up our Amex point start.

Costco Tip: Costco doesn't accept Amex directly.... but you can order Costco through Instacart (even without a Costco membership! Although if you do have a Costco membership, enter it in Instacart for better pricing) and you can use an Amex card for Instacart!

I don't do this on the regular, but when I'm working on an Amex minimum spend to hit a signup bonus, I feel its worth both the spend and the 4x's points. Don't forget, Instacart is also on Rakuten, so you can earn even more points (or cash back!). Several credit cards offer Instacart membership, which gets your free delivery and reduced fees. Some cards (like Chase Ink Cash or Unlimited), even come with $20mo Instacart credit!

2. Dining 
This is another common expense in our household. When dining out or ordering directly from a restaurant, similar to above, my first preference is to use Chase Sapphire Preferred (learn more here), which earns 3x's times per dollar spent on dining and maximizes our Chase point earn. 

Dining Runner Up Card: American Express Gold Personal (learn more here)

Amex Gold Personal actually earns 4x's points on dining (that's 1 point more than Sapphire Preferred per dollar spent); however, because I find Chase points harder to earn, I generally use my CSP for for dining when I can get the 3x's points.

The Caveat: 3rd Party Delivery Services

This would be orders from Uber Eats, Door Dash etc. These services also earn 3x's points for CSP or 4x's points for Amex Gold. We have several credit cards that offer monthly credits as a benefit as well as "membership" for free delivery and lower fees. This includes:

• Amex Gold Personal: $10/mo Uber credit
• Amex Platinum Personal: $15/mo Uber credit + UberOne membership (free delivery/lower fees)
• These 2 Amex Card benefits stack, so we get $25/mo Uber credits and free delivery. I pay the remaining UberEats amount owed with Amex Gold to earn 4X's points
• Chase Sapphire (Preferred, Reserve, and Reserve for Business) all come with annual DashPass, which is free delivery/reduced fees for DoorDash. The Reserve cards come with $5 restaurant monthly credit. Even though this is minimal, I generally pair this with a door dash giftcard to order once or twice a month and use this benefit. Note, the Reserve for Business does NOT earn extra points on restaurants/dining.

3. Travel
It isn't as common for us to be spending cash on travel since we primarily book flights and hotels on points; but for the times we do elect to pay cash, I want to maximize our point earn.

Generally, my go-to card for this is the Ink Business Preferred (which currently has an elevated offer! details here). The Ink Preferred earns 3x's points on travel and does not have foreign transaction fees. IMO, this is a GREAT low-fee card to keep in your wallet, especially for international travel!

*An example of using these benefits: I opened this card for my P2 before we went to the Maldives; because we knew we would have a hefty bill for food and drinks at the hotel. Not only did we use the bill towards the minimum spend to earn a sign up bonus; but we also earn 3x's points on our bill because hotels code as travel!

Tip: When staying at hotels, I always try to charge any purchases at the hotel (coffee shop, bar, restaurant, poolside, etc) to our room. That way, when we check out of the hotel, all of our charges as charged by the hotel and we earn the points multiplier (3x with Ink Preferred or 4x points with Sapphire Reserve Business)

Travel Runner Up Card: Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business (learn more here)

This card earns 4x's points for direct purchase/booking on hotels and flights. This is a little bit better than Ink Preferred, but is also limited to hotels and flights; whereas Ink Preferred "Travel" costs can include airlines, hotels, rental cars, trains, third party travel services (like tours booked through Viator), etc.

4. Everything Else

This one is a no brainer for me; it's Capital One Venture Card (learn more here) or Venture X (learn more here). Both of these cards earn 2x's points on ALL purchases and have no foreign transaction fees.

Keep in mind, Capital One introduced "family rules" at the end of 2025, that they want you to open the cards "in order" to earn sign up bonuses on each card. That means, you'll want to open a Venture Card before the VentureX, so that in a 48-month time period, you're eligible to earn sign up bonuses on both.

(If you open VentureX before Venture Card, you will not earn a sign up bonus on the Venture Card until 48mo have passed from the VentureX sign up bonus)

At the time of publishing this post (Feb 2026); the Venture Card has an elevated offer! Learn more here.

Bonus Categories

Chase Travel Portal: When shopping for flights and hotels, it almost always costs less points to book travel by transferring points out of the bank to book directly with airline and hotel partners.

However, there are times that it IS cheap to book in Chase Travel Portal. For these bookings, I use Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business, which earns 8x's points on portal bookings.

Chase Freedom Quarterly Bonus: This post covers Chase Freedom cards and mentions that Freedom and Freedom Flex cards have quarterly bonus categories to earn 5x's points on purchases, up to a $1.500 purchase limit. I try to utilize the quarterly bonus as much as I can.

(Reminder: Chase Freedom is a no annual fee card that you can downgrade a Sapphire card to!)

Summary

So, while we generally are working on a minimum spend for a sign up bonus, the Chase Sapphire Preferred, American Express Gold Personal, Ink Business Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business and Capital One Venture Card (or VentureX if you already have a Venture and want more Capital One points) are always in my wallet and my go-to "back-up" cards!

Because of their extra point earn, the majority of these cards are "keeper" cards for me - meaning that myself or my Player2 (husband) will always have one open! (Just not the Reserve Business due to the annual fee). This post talks about when and why to close or downgrade cards.

If you want to open one of these cards, I would SO appreciate if you utilized my referral links to open cards. This doesn't cost you anything, but provides me with some extra points and keeps all of my content free! Thank you in advance!

Reminder, if you're viewing this through a Meta app, please open an external browser to apply. This protects your data and gives me credit. If you're interested in business cards, but want more information, as well as directions how to apply for them; read here!

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Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know suggestions.

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!