Hyatt is definitely one of my favorite hotel chains. Just last month some friends and I spent nights in the Park Hyatt Sydney and Park Hyatt Melbourne. They are beautiful properties and the staff members were all fantastic. Look for the trip report in the coming days (or more likely, weeks).
Anyway, while we enjoyed our rooms thanks to the use of Hyatt Gold Passport points, there’s no question that it takes a lot of points for the higher category properties. If you don’t have quite enough points to cover your stay, Hyatt has now made it even easier to make Cash + Points bookings by opening up the booking process online. That’s both good and bad. For those who use P+C regularly, it makes it easier than ever – no more calling Hyatt to book your stay! On the downside, it makes the option more visible to those who might not have known it existed and cause award room availability to shrink. Only time will tell if it makes a major impact to award inventory.
P+C reservations can certainly help you stretch your points but do be aware that for the top-level category 7 rooms you’ll still be shelling out $300 cash in addition to the 15,000 points. For our stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney, the $300 would have been a little less than half the cost of the room if we’d paid cash. Here’s the Points + Cash chart from the Hyatt website:
One more thing to remember about P+C nights is that they DO count as a paid stay. So if you’re chasing status and need paid stays, this is one way to stretch your cash.
In addition to the P+C changes, Hyatt made two more features available on the website:
- Upgrading your room to a Regency Club or Grand Club room – room types that come with breakfast included
- Canceling award night stays
All in all, these are good changes for the website and I’m glad Hyatt has made the upgrade.
2B Traveling 
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