Hyatt’s New Promo is Pretty Meh; Here’s How to Make the Most of It
Hyatt has announced its first global Bonus Journeys promotion of 2024, which runs from March 1st through April 30th. While Marriott’s promo offered 1,000 points and double elite credits per night, Hyatt’s new promo is pretty lukewarm by comparison. But there are still some ways to maximize your earnings and get some value out of it.
The Details
With Bonus Journeys, World of Hyatt members can earn 3,000 bonus points for every three qualifying nights (up to a total of 21,000 bonus points). This is valid at all Hyatt properties globally, including Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH), which are still part of the program for now (though that’s changing).
If you have either the World of Hyatt Credit Card or World of Hyatt Business Credit Card, you can earn an additional 1,000 bonus points for every three nights at properties in 18 international destinations. These include: Australia, China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.
Registration is required prior to your first eligible stay, and is open between February 22nd and April 15th. There is zero harm in registering, so even if your plans don’t include a Hyatt stay, we’d recommend everyone go ahead and register as soon as it opens so you don’t forget. The promotion is valid on your first stay. The good news is that nights are cumulative. You don’t need to stay three nights on one stay to earn the bonus points. Award stays count as well.
Analysis
If you max out this promotion over 21 nights in the selected international destinations and have a Hyatt credit card, you could potentially earn up to 28,000 bonus points. This is not enough to get excited about, but I value World of Hyatt points at approximately 2.0 cents per point, so if you are in a position to max out every requirement, you could potentially milk ~$560 in value out of this. I imagine most of us realistically won’t come close, if nothing else because the full value requires an extended international stay.
This is a slower time of the year for travel. Hyatt knows this… that’s why these promotions tend to come at inconvenient times of the year. Sure, you’ll have the spring break crowd, but most of these people aren’t going to be spending 21 nights in Macau.
We probably shouldn’t expect to ever see the Bonus Journeys promos of 2020 ever again. High inflation, high labor costs, and persistent demand for Hyatt’s quality product means there just isn’t an incentive for Hyatt to invest much in marketing anymore. I shudder to think about what this year’s category changes will look like, assuming they don’t go all-in on dynamic award pricing (which I think Hyatt very well might). We should know this relatively soon.
Bottom Line
Hyatt’s new promo is not very impressive, but it’s better than nothing. If you have some Hyatt stays planned in the next few months (or even if you don’t as there’s no penalty to register), you might as well register once it opens and earn some bonus points. But don’t go out of your way to chase this promo.