Now book Hyatt suite upgrades online with points

World of Hyatt allows members to upgrade a room booked at the standard cash rate to a standard or premium suite using points. In some cases, this can be a slamming deal (as we look forward to illustrating on an upcoming trip). While I had to chat with the Twitter team to book such an upgrade on a cash rate when I booked a couple of months ago, Monkey Miles reports that this capability is now possible online for some properties. Note that as I ran searches for this post, it quickly became apparent that this is not yet online for all properties. I found many situations where a suite upgrade using points should have been available but wasn’t showing online. Still, when it is available, this beats having to call or take to Twitter.

Here’s an example of how it works when available: you must book a room at the “standard rate” in order to upgrade a paid night to a suite. Upgrades come at standardized pricing when available: 3K points per night for a club upgrade, 6K points per night for a standard suite upgrade, or 9K points per night for a premium suite upgrade.

Note that this is a different thing than a standard suite Points + Cash rate. That’s an entirely different thing that I rarely find to be worthwhile. The chart above applies when you are paying the standard cash rate — and again, those upgrades can only be applied when you book the standard rate. They don’t work on any discounted rates, including the “Member rate” or any kind of “Members save more” rate or AAA rate or corporate rate. They don’t even work on a Hyatt Prive booking that is booked at the standard rate (I tried). You just have to book the standard rate.

Still, this can be an incredible value in some cases.

For instance, I looked up a random night at the Hyatt Regency Rochester in Rochester, NY. A standard 1 king room was $179 at the standard rate.

However, when you click to view points rates, the column on the right side below shows that you can book the Skyline suite for $179 + 6,000 points.

While I can’t speak to the quality of the Skyline Suite, I can speak to the value against the cash rate. It is phenomenal. The cheapest advance purchase no-refunds price for that room on that night is $753 before tax.

Saving about $600 over the cheapest cash rate for 6,000 points is a smoking deal if you would have considered booking the cash rate. Of course, you probably wouldn’t have been considering booking a suite at the Hyatt Regency in Rochester, New York on a random Wednesday this summer unless you’re really jonesing for a garbage plate. Still, it illustrates the point that huge value is possible.

And those who are good at crunching the numbers can stop screaming at their computer screens: in the above example, a standard suite could alternatively be booked at that property for 13,000 points per night. In reality, you’re paying $179 to save 7,000 points over booking it all on points, which actually isn’t a great deal after all. Indeed, these suite upgrades are a much better deal at higher-end properties where a standard suite would cost a lot more points. I chose this property specifically to show the outsized cash value but also to remind you that these upgrades really aren’t very useful on low-tier properties such as this one. When you’re looking at a property that ordinarily costs 20K or 25K or 30K per night for a standard room (and therefore more for a standard suite), this can present incredible value when cash rates are low (and particularly so when there is a super luxurious suite available as an upgrade).

For ideas about places where you can really leverage suite upgrades, see: Finding extreme luxury in Hyatt premium suites.

Unfortunately, as I noted above, I found many hotels where standard and premium suites were available for all-points bookings and should therefore be available for upgrade on a paid rate, but the “Lp Suite Pts Upgrade” column just didn’t show up. Similarly, I didn’t see this functionality at any of the foreign properties I searched (though I obviously didn’t search all of Hyatt’s footprint).

Greg actually reminded me of this program feature a few months ago and as I said I have a booking coming up that I am very excited about sharing when the time comes, but in the meantime this is a good reminder that this is a great way for non-elite members to enjoy incredible suite awards. Remember that though this online functionality appears limited right now, the Hyatt Concierge on Twitter can also help with this. I consistently find Hyatt’s Twitter Team to be the absolute best in business when it comes to customer service. That’s not the best in “the” hotel/travel loyalty business, but the best Twitter team I’ve experienced from any business big or small. So if you don’t see a property that you think should be available, don’t hesitate to send them a message as they are usually pretty responsive and are always good at getting the job done.

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