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About a month ago World of Hyatt launched a new promotion giving elite night credits and bonus points when buying Mr & Mrs Smith gift cards. Greg and Nick discussed the offer on the podcast, but it turns out we never actually wrote about the promotion on the blog, so here you are!
The Deal
- Buy Mr & Mrs Smith gift cards from a promotional link & earn the following:
- 5 base points per dollar
- One elite night credit for every $300 of gift cards you purchase
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
- To participate in the offer, you must be a World of Hyatt member in good standing and make a qualifying purchase of a Mr and Mrs Smith gift card through this link between October 26, 2023 and March 31, 2024.
- For qualifying purchases, except for those made with World of Hyatt points, you can earn:
- Five (5) World of Hyatt base points per eligible dollar spent on a qualifying gift card
- One (1) Tier Qualifying Night credit for every $300 USD spent on a qualifying gift card
- Purchases made with these gift cards toward hotel stays will not be eligible for additional World of Hyatt Base Points.
- Gift cards can only be used to pay for a room reservation at the time of booking with Mr and Mrs Smith through https://www.mrandmrssmith.com/. Cards cannot be redeemed while at the hotel and cannot go towards any extras.
Quick Thoughts
When first reading about this offer a few weeks back when it launched I was less than whelmed. It turns out that Greg and Nick had the same view on the podcast. While I appreciate that Hyatt is trying to reward World of Hyatt members for stays at Mr & Mrs Smith properties while they work on integrating them into the program, it’s not exactly the most enticing of opportunities.
The reason why is due to some of the small print. When buying the gift cards you earn points, as well as elite night credits for every $300 you spend. However, when it comes to redeeming the gift cards you can only do that at MrAndMrsSmith.com which means that you can’t double dip on points earning and elite night credits. That’s fair enough, but it removes some of the incentive to buy these. You can buy these gift cards using Hyatt points but a) that’s poor value and b) you won’t earn points or elite night credits.
The other key sticking point is that these gift cards can only be redeemed for stays at Mr & Mrs Smith properties – none of Hyatt’s other brands unlike how Hyatt gift cards work. If you’re going to tie up your money in Mr & Mrs Smith gift cards, you’ll want to have a very good idea of when you’ll be redeeming them for paid stays. You can also only redeem the gift cards towards the room rate ahead of time; you can’t pay for room charges, food, spa treatments, etc. during your actual stay with these cards.
That’s not to say that this is a worthless promotion though. If you know that you have Mr & Mrs Smith stays on the horizon, buying these gift cards in order to also earn Hyatt points and elite night credits certainly makes sense. It could be particularly handy during December if you find yourself short of a night or two for Globalist status. Being able to buy a $300 Mr & Mrs Smith gift card at the end of the year to push you from 59 elite nights to 60 for Globalist status and the associated Milestone Rewards at that level would be worth it even if you didn’t ever get a chance to use the gift card for a stay. Booking a mattress run night at a category 1 Hyatt property would make more sense in that scenario, but that might not be an option if you don’t have any cheap Hyatt properties near you.
Another nice feature of this gift card offer is that the points you earn are base points rather than bonus points. The only way to get lifetime Globalist status is to earn 1 million base points which equates to $200,000 of lifetime spend with Hyatt on pre-tax room rates. That’s a substantial amount, so being able to inch closer by buying these gift cards could be handy for some people who are on their way to spending that much.
Note that payment for these gift card purchases appears to be processed by a company called Redeam. That means it’s unlikely to code as a travel purchase, nor will it code as 4x on a World of Hyatt credit card. Update: There’s a good surprise here. Kirk has confirmed in the comments that buying these gift cards did earn 4x points on his World of Hyatt card, plus he earned the 30% bonus points from having Globalist status. That’s a total of 10.5 points per dollar which makes this more rewarding if you were planning on buying these gift cards anyway. Another commenter has shared that they also earned American Airlines AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points due to their partnership with Hyatt.
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When do the elite nights from the gift card promotion post?
Well that settles it. Now every card and variation is sold out. I guess that’s what happens when you procrastinate a bit too long. Bummer.
Just tried to purchase cards. Could only add a $100 gift card to my cart although they all say available (except for the $1,000 which is already Out of stock).
Tried to add more than $100 and couldn’t. Super annoying and somewhat pissed off.
Has anybody heard any rumors about what is going to happen tomorrow 4/1? Seems a little odd that Hyatt has not made any announcement. I heard something about 4/24 being a big announcement date. I am a little surprised Hyatt didn’t just extend the date from 3/31 to 4/24 for gift cards. Maybe they will tomorrow?/
It was nice that the gift card codes are immediately sent via email to be able to use for a booking.
And code “WELCOMEUS” for $50 off.
I never got a WELCOMEUS for $50 off. I just set up a Mr. and Mrs Smith late last year and stayed at first hotel in January by using gift cards. Where would I see the $50 off?
I just entered the code when making a booking. Unsure if it was only for my first booking or not. I found the code generically on a coupon website.
The site has been saying not available since yesterday. Any workarounds?
try on your phone? I was struggling on my desktop and phone ended up working for me yesterday morning time CDT.
Josh, what do you mean by the code WELCOMEUS for $50 off. Where is that for? In a future reservation or buying the gift card? Thanks!
sorry should have clarified! That code is for a booking on M&MS website. I bought $600 in giftcards to immediately make a booking at a hotel that only had 1 of the room type I wanted left!
It wasn’t working for me earlier today, but it is now. I have bought any gift cards yet, but no longer saying not available and is going into my cart. I have bought and used the cards for boutique hotels in New York and London that I have stayed at in the past with no rewards. Worked great with the Hyatt rewards. Everything came together with the hotel reservation and using the gift cards quickly. Only stumbling block that could happen is not being able to get a hold of Mr. and Mrs. Smith at some off hours but they are generally very good about making themselves available. There are lots of nice hotels in a wide price range in European cities like London and Paris that are not a part of any other loyalty program.
Do you get “Globalist” Benefits at MAMS?
no
FYI you can use up to 5 gift cards in a booking it says on their website
I have been trying all day. It keeps saying Not available. went through your Link (Not Available) called Hyatt Globalist Line, they suggested I call Mr & Mrs. When I called them, they were willing to sell me 3 x $1000.00 GC But told me you will not be getting the Promotional GC’s which say WOH on them. for the Promo Gift Cards, I have to go through Hyatt website, which is having the same issues?
available now. Just bought $5k worth this morning
TY, It worked. I hope the $3000.00 was a Good investment. By the way, are you suppose to get 40% Off the Room Rates with the GC?
I think that promotion was over in November and was only on certain hotels.
i tried in safari on my Mac and was getting errors, phone worked.
i am only able to add $100 or $200 cards in my cart. i have $200 FIND experience balance from my tier credits and noticed that is being applied as a $200 discount towards the gift cards. i’m not sure if that is a good value or not. can you earn hyatt points when you pay with gc for a stay?
Not sure if this has been mentioned – but if your American AIrlines is linked to your hyatt account, these gift card purchases also result in 1 mile/ 1LP per dollar spent on Mr and Mrs Smith gift cards in addition to earning hyatt base points and EQNs/
I don’t think this is all that bad of a deal for those who need the Hyatt credit card to get to 60 nights. Just as an example keeping it simple–suppose I bought $3000 of gift cards which generate 10 elite nights and used them on a fancy Mr. and Mrs. Smith hotel which cost $1500 per night (not a crazy number since I just got back from the Park Hyatt Zurich, which can cost something similar).
In order to generate the same 10 elite nights, if I stayed at a $1500 per night Hyatt, I would receive two elite nights and would need to put $20,000 on the WoH credit card to generate the other eight. That $20,000 on the WoH credit card has a significant opportunity loss, since I could earn 60,000 Hyatt points by spending $20,000 on a new Freedom Unlimited card vs. 20,000 Hyatt points by spending $20,000 on the WoH credit card. Using a round number of 2 cent per point, I’m saving $800 by spending two nights at a fancy Mr. and Mrs. Smith property vs. two nights at a fancy Park Hyatt if my goal is to generate 10 elite nights.
Of course, the savings go down as the hotel price goes down, but as long as the hotel price exceeds $300 per night, my return is positive.
FYI in case anyone is thinking of buying these to complete a status challenge they will not count towards the reduced qualifying night requirements.
Is the spend on gift cards cumulative? If I buy $500 now and another $400 later would I get the 3 elite night credits? Thanks
I purchased 2k of these a few days ago ONLY because i was going to be 6 days short on globalist this year AND my wife is turning 50 and it seems spending 1k a night for 2 nights in a “fancy” hotel is at the very extreme end of what i consider a logical deal. But hey. It is important both ways. Otherwise this is a bad ROI. Think about it.
Hmm… $2k would get you five elite night credits, so you would be one night short. Now THAT would be a bad ROI!! 🙂
Math is very hard…
LOL yes it is! I shouldn’t respond first thing in the morning.