January 10, 2023
POINTS BREAKDOWN
4 nights at The Eliza Jane hotel in New Orleans
$1905.03 cash including taxes and fees
or
63,000 points transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards to World of Hyatt account and
$0 cash out of pocket
If you’re anything like me, we work even when we aren’t at work!
Whether giving medical advice to a family member or offering a hand to a friend, a healthcare worker’s job is never done! So, when I found out that my brother and his girlfriend were planning a trip for his birthday, I had to jump into action. My brother had never been to New Orleans. They planned to drive, stay for a few days and tailgate an LSU game (Ugh, I’m an FSU fan lol). With all this new travel hacking knowledge and over 500k points (combined P1 and P2 points) sitting in my Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) account, I wanted to treat them to something special.
Hotel Travel Transfer Partners
Chase has three hotel travel partners that you can transfer points to: Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott. Of the three hotel brands, you get the best bang for your buck by transferring those rewards to Hyatt. Chase Sapphire Preferred URs are valued at 1.25 cents per point (cpp) if you book through the Chase travel portal. If you transfer UR to Hyatt, the average redemption is valued at 2 cpp or higher. Hyatt has a points calendar where you can find stays ranging from 3,500 points/night for a standard room in a Category 1 hotel during off-peak season, up to 90,000 points/night for a premium suite at their Category 8 hotels. I started reading blogs and searched Hyatt’s site to determine the best hotel available for their travel dates. Every post I read suggested a stay at The Eliza Jane. The Eliza Jane is a 196-room boutique hotel in Hyatt’s Unbound Collection portfolio. The Unbound collection includes upscale/luxury properties with unique designs that create a picture-worthy experience. There are 33 open Unbound Collection properties in 33 cities.
I had 39,000 points left over in my Hyatt account from a month-long stay at the Hyatt House in Tampa, courtesy of my insurance company during a major kitchen renovation (a busted pipe ruined my kitchen)! Hyatt attached my WOH member number to our stay and I accrued the points. The total points cost for 4 nights in November 2022 cost 63,000 points. The cash price per night was $409 which would have cost him $1905.03 out of pocket! I transferred the difference of 24,000 points (you can only transfer in increments of 1,000 points) to my Hyatt account and called them to book over the phone. Divide $1905.03 cash by total point redemption of 63,000 points= 3 CPP! 3 cents per point!!! An amazing redemption rate that cost me nothing out of pocket- just my typical daily spending and points leftover from a long hotel stay. Even if I didn’t have points already accrued in my WOH account, P1 and P2 accrued over 500k in UR since early 2022, which merely made a dent in our points bucket. I booked this room less than 30 days before his stay.
Last-minute bookings are possible for you too! Create a World of Hyatt loyalty account and start running award searches for cities you want to visit. You don’t even have to have any points in your account to search. Practice makes perfect and once you get the hang of it; the options are endless! I’ll see you in The ICU, LifeSavers.
