20. How to Leverage Hyatt Points with Dr. Bonnie Koo

Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher-than-average expenses to travel the world. I'm your host, Devon Gimbel, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset if you know how to leverage them. Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often? Let's get started.

Devon: Welcome back to the podcast everybody. Today I am joined by a close friend of mine, Dr. Bonnie Koo. Bonnie is a dermatologist and money coach for women physicians, and most importantly, a points travel convert. She is joining me on the podcast today to talk about one of our shared loves in the points travel world, which is the World of Hyatt Hotel Loyalty Program and some of the amazing value that Hyatt Points offer. 

We are gonna be digging into all sorts of aspects of the World of Hyatt program to give you all some ideas and inspiration for how you can begin to leverage the value of Hyatt Points. But first, I want to welcome Bonnie to the show. Bonnie, thank you so much for joining me today.

Bonnie: I'm so excited to be talking about all things Hyatt with you.

Devon: Me too. Now, I know that you just returned literally like today or yesterday from a stay at a Hyatt property booked on points. I definitely want to hear all about that. But first, I want to go back a few years to the beginning of your points journey because you have not been earning and using points for all that long. 

As I recall, you were not so much resistant to the whole idea of earning and using points back then. But shall we say unenthusiastic. Like I remember having conversations with you back in the summer of 2020. Obviously, the world was entirely shut down due to the pandemic. No one was traveling, no one had any idea when we would be traveling again. You casually mentioned something during one of our chats that shocked and horrified me, which was that you went and cashed out all of your Chase points. Do you even remember this happening?

Bonnie: Yes, I do.

Devon: So bring me back to that point. So you obviously had been at least earning some Chase points. But what was your philosophy around points at that time? Why did you decide, if you can remember to, just cash out all of your Chase points in the middle of 2020?

Bonnie: Yeah, so I had been collecting points for, I want to say, maybe since even residency or maybe after residency. I had a friend during residency who was really into points. I thought she was a little crazy. Also, I thought like she was lying about all the value she was getting because she was a resident. She was taking all these trips, which trips that residents don't typically take.

So honestly, in my mind, I was like she must be getting some funding from her parents, which not a problem at all right. But she kept saying it was from points, and I literally didn’t believe her. Now, you told me, this is a bit of a side note, that they used to give much higher signup bonuses back in the day.

Devon: Yeah, things have definitely changed. I think the signup bonuses themselves are actually higher now. But you used to be able to do a lot of things with credit card signups that you can no longer do these days. There were far fewer rules about like the number of times you could sign up for one given card or the frequency that you could sign up for one specific card and earn a signup bonus on it.

So way back in the day, this is even before I started doing this, I've heard stories about how people would sign up for one specific credit card essentially every single month. They would get just another copy of the same credit card. They would be able to earn that signup bonus many, many, many times over the course of a year, which is no longer the case whatsoever.

Bonnie: Yeah, so I started collecting points a while ago. Then I used them. I just didn't use them the way that I know how to use them now because of you. Because before the pandemic, actually Matt and I took a trip to was it Paris? Oh yeah, when I was pregnant. So this was before the pandemic. I booked everything through the portal, which now I know you shouldn't do that. But still, I did get free tickets, hotel stays. So it was still fantastic that it was pretty much free. 

But then yes, during the pandemic, I forget what it was, you'll remember, but Chase had some way to cash in points since no one's traveling. I don't even remember the value. I don't even want to know. Don't tell me how much they gave you. It probably wasn't a lot. I cashed in a lot of points. It's been blocked out of my mind Devon.

Devon: Listen, we all have points indiscretions in our past that maybe we would do differently if we have a choice to over again. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, right? I think that you are probably actually in the majority in 2020. I think points themselves are worthless and valueless until you do something with it. 

So I think that it makes a lot of sense, especially during that period of time where people were sitting on points balances. If the primary way that people had been using them, which was to redeem them for travel, was completely off the table, I can completely understand why people would say well, I have this right now inherently valueless asset, I actually want to derive some value out of it. If the way I can do that is to cash it in for a statement balance or cash it in for gift cards. Of course, that makes sense compared to saying well, I'm just going to hang on to these points that I don't know if I'm ever gonna be able to use again. 

I think I was probably in the minority of people who just by sheer virtue of being obsessed with points just really firmly believed that at some point the world would open back up again. So anything that I was continuing to hoard during the pandemic I would be able to use at a future time. But, again, I think that what you did was actually much more in line with what I saw a lot of very reasonable people doing with their points during the pandemic. So we don't need to dig up all the details.

Bonnie: This is all your fault, by the way Devon, because you should have started your business earlier.

Devon: Well, exactly. So that was one of my biggest points indiscretions is that I waited this long to start talking about points to everybody. But let's come back to that place where you essentially cashed out all of your Chase points, right? 

Bonnie: I think so. 

Devon: Yeah. So clearly, at some point, things started shifting in the world, right? Things started opening back up again. So after that time, sort of mid-2020, when you cashed out all of your Chase points then help me understand kind of what happened next in terms of your interest in points, you're interest in earning them and using them?

Bonnie: I'll have to be honest. Okay, I have a really horrible memory. I don't remember. I know it was because of you, but I don't know when the like light bulb switched on. You might have a better idea of that. You might remember. I don't.

Devon: I have some memory of this. I just want to say that for those of you who listen to this podcast, and you don't happen to know me in real life, you are incredibly fortunate. Because for the people who are my friends, especially the last couple of years, I can be somewhat obnoxious in terms of talking to them about points and amazing things.

Bonnie: Persistent. 

Devon: Right, persistent. We can be nice and call it persistent. Bonnie was one of those unfortunate few people who because we have been friends for a number of years was sort of on the receiving end of lots of my harassing points text messages, especially over the past couple of years. Part of the reason for that is because for people who I know love travel, to me, it just seems like such a no brainer to be able to turn their expenses into points so that they can travel either more than they're used to or equally as much but in different ways. 

So Bonnie, of course, was receiving lots of pestering text messages from me. I think the first time that you did a points redemption that I can remember, and this was, again, completely because.

Bonnie: I think you did it for me, or you helped me.

Devon: I didn't fully do it for you. I found it for you but then you did it. I remember thinking again, because I know how much you love to travel that it just didn't make sense to me. I think that's what was happening in my brain. I was like Bonnie is so smart, especially around things that are financial, money, financial adjacent. It just seemed like all the people who I personally knew, you were the one person who it just seemed to me like such a no brainer would be really interested in learning about points and using them and using them at a really high level. So it just never made sense to me that you were like eh, I don't really see the value there.

Bonnie: Basically you were confused is what you're saying. 

Devon: I was very confused. I kind of had this idea that, and I think this is what happens for so many of us in just different areas of our lives, right. Until we have a personal experience with something, it's challenging for us to really evaluate whether or not it is something that's going to be a good fit for us. I just had this sense that if you had one experience of using points that was tangible. 

It's one thing to hear people talk about stuff, and it's like okay. But when you have an actual experience of booking a flight using points or booking a hotel stay using points, and you see the cash value that that saved. I think that that's a wonderful way for people to really get that tangible experience of wait a minute, this is what points are really about.

I remember that you had messaged me saying that I think your family, you hadn't made plans yet for sort of the upcoming winter break vacation. You were thinking of different places you could go. I said this is how you can use points. You're going to have options of great things you can do with points. 

So, again, for all of you who don't know me in real life, you're very lucky because I will take it upon myself unilaterally to start looking for points, trip options and sending them to you if I know you. So knowing Bonnie and kind of an idea about you wanted to do sort of like a beach vacation or somewhere warm so you guys could get out of the New York area in the winter. I started just saying what are easy trips to take from New York using points? From my memory, the very first points trip that you took is when you and your family went to the Bahamas using Hyatt points. 

Bonnie: Yes. 

Devon: So tell me more about that trip. So I, of course, unabashedly went and searched out a potential option for you and then sent it to you but then you took it from there. You did the booking. You obviously went on the trip with your family without me, as it should be. But tell me more about that first points booking experience using your points.

Bonnie: Yeah, well, the fun thing is, and I'm sure you do this too. You talk about doing this is looking at what the how many points it costs, and then also looking at the cash price. Because this was pretty close to the winter break. I mean the cash price was something stupid like $15,000 for five nights. I mean it was just stupid. Like, do people actually pay that? I mean, I guess some people do. So that was just incredible to see that cash differential. 

But I will tell you, in the back of my mind, I'm like yeah, but this isn't really the price. Because if I booked earlier, it'd be whatever. But it doesn't matter, right? Even if I booked at a normal time, it still would have been expensive because of the timing. But yeah. It was really weird to not have to pay for the hotel. I mean, it was really fun. 

The way I think about travel now is I know we all have different goals. I know all of your friends who do this have different goals. My goal isn't to get like a whole trip fully paid for. That's fun if I can figure out flights and hotel, but to me it just like increases a travel budget that I already have. It subsidizes it. So I can take either more trips, or I can take nicer trips, or both.

Devon: Yeah, I completely agree with you. That's exactly how I personally use points as well. So for this particular trip, tell me a little bit more about what property did you guys go to, how long did you stay, and just what was that experience like for your family travel?

Bonnie: Yeah, so this was a trip that definitely changed me in terms of points that I got really into it. So we went to Grand Hyatt Baha Mar. For those of you that don't know the property, it's in the Bahamas. It's on the island of Nassau, which is kind of like the main island people go to. Many of your listeners may know about a place called Atlantis because that had been there for a long time. It's kind of a big resort with lots of pools. It's really like designed for families. So Baja Mar is a newer property. 

It's one of those properties kind of like Mayakoba has like three different hotels, but it's the whole, I don't know what they're called, but you know what I'm talking about, right. It's like three different hotels, but it's like one kind of property. So there's Grand Hyatt. There's also a rosewood and I think an SLS hotel. I don't know. Some other hotel that's not Hyatt. That's where I went. It's a newer property. So newer is always like nicer, but it was really, I was gonna say really nice. It was super vague.

But they had so many pools. Everything was really clean. They had a waterpark there. It was wonderful for kids. Now, the one thing, I don't know this has changed. So people message me now because they know I've been there. But it’s so easy to get to from the East Coast right? It’s like direct flights from wherever to the Bahamas and so close to Florida. So there's a casino there. No one was smoking because I heard because of the pandemic. So I don't know if people are smoking now. Do you know? 

Devon: No, I have no idea. I haven't been to that property.

Bonnie: Because you can't walk to anything without walking through the casino. So that's the one thing that I was like I need to find out because I actually would like to go again because it is so easy to get to. It's easy. Like we know what it's like. I like going to the same places again. I know some people are like I want to go new spot. But like if you have a place that you like and you know, I don’t know. There's something comforting, at least to me, about having a spot that you go to time and time again.

Devon: Yeah, I agree. So you guys take this family trip to the Bahamas. You used points. So like you said, your objective was not necessarily to get every single aspect of your trip paid for using points, but to have the hotel booked entirely using points and not have that out of pocket cash expense I think is an enormous value. We'll get into a little bit more some of our favorite uses of Hyatt points. But is that the state that really changed things for you in terms of how much you like Hyatt? Because I know now you are a really big Hyatt fan.

Bonnie: Yeah, I think that's basically when the addiction started. What I tell people, Devon, now is I'm like this is like my video game because I feel like people can relate to that. Because a lot of men and women are really addicted to some kind of video game, whether it's Candy Crush, or whatever they're playing these days. I don't even know. 

Because I do feel like I have, I don't think I'm as obsessed as you but I'm pretty obsessed. It comes in waves though, right? Because I do get tired at some point because I'm not as good as you. At some point, I kind of give up. I'm like I can't figure this out. Kind of like P.S. I'll just text Devon later for type thing. 

But yeah, I think learning about the different hotel chains, mostly from you and the group that you created. It was very clear to me very fast that Hyatt was probably the hotel chain to become loyal to because of the redemption. Obviously, there's pros and cons, right? So Hyatt has a smaller footprint. It's not like Marriott where there's like a Marriott literally everywhere in the world. Hyatt is not like that. I have booked many Hyatt hotels since that. When was that? We’re in 2023. I think that was 2021, holidays of 2021 like winter holidays. Because the following year I booked, I really got into. I really like the idea of going away somewhere warm. That was the first time we did that by the way Devon as a family. Then I was like this is a really good idea.

But I don't think I ever thought to do that because I think in the back of mind I was like well, this is really expensive to go somewhere warm during this time. Now, you and I are big planners. I know not everyone is, but now I'm like you. I know exactly when the calendar opens up because we also text about it. So you mention it. I'm like oh, yeah, that means I need to do it. So like, I think I booked the following Christmas a month or two after I got back. Then I went to the Puerto Rico property the following year.

Devon: Yeah. So just as an aside, I think that that is one of the things that is so amazing to me about points is that, and especially since we're talking about Hyatt during this episode. Is that Hyatt opens up its award booking calendar about 13 months in advance. So if you are in a position where you are able to make your plans in advance, especially around those really, really high demand and so usually very expensive times to travel. 

I'm thinking sort of traditional winter break time. If you're based in the United States, sort of those last two weeks of December. There's a lot of times that there's going to be a few weeks sort of in March that are really, really high demand travel times. If that falls within schools kind of traditional Spring Break schedules. 

So if you're able to plan 12/13 months in advance, especially for hotel stays. One of the amazing benefits to me of the Hyatt program is that because you can lock in those stays using points, that the number of points that it takes for you to book a room, it doesn't fluctuate as wildly as the cash price does. So especially during times of year where the cash price for a certain hotel booking can be double what it might be during less popular times of year, the points price isn't going to rise that high. 

So you can lock in really, really great hotel stay redemptions using your points, again, especially when you can book ahead. That's not to say that, if you can't book 12 months ahead, there's going to be no options for you using points. There are still going to be options. Like you booked your Bahamas trip three, four months before you traveled, and you were able to book.

Bonnie: Yeah. I think it was like October. It was late.

Devon: Yeah. So I don't want people to get the impression that if they're not planning 12 or 13 months out, they won't have any options. But certainly if you do have the benefit, the ability to plan that far out, you can start booking hotel award stays, especially for those really high in demand travel times enough ahead of time that not only are you secure the room, the dates that you want. But, again, the points prices are going to be so much more competitive than the cash prices are going to be. 

So you had this first experience staying at Hyatt, and you've mentioned that since then, which has been about a year and a half since this first experience, that you have become very loyal to Hyatt. So tell me a little bit more about what are some of the other favorite Hyatt Points redemptions that you've had since that very first one.

Bonnie: Okay, so that was the Bahamas. I'm just trying to think like in order. Okay. Then we went to Hyatt Regency Puerto Rico. Again, easy flight from New York to go there over the winter. Basically the same identical type of trip. Like seven nights. I don't remember exactly. That was also a very nice property. 

I was trying to remember if I only paid points for the hotel. I think I paid cash for the flights. What sucked about the flights though is I did book three of the flights pretty early. Because sometimes it seems like it's good to book certain flights in advance. Other times, it's better to wait a little bit. But I think for like winter holiday months, it seems like the earlier the better. Do you agree?

Devon: I do agree. I think especially if you're trying to plan travel for a family or more than one or two people. Again, during those really high demand travel times, this is just my personal opinion, it makes so much sense to just the first chance you have to be able to secure a decent price for something just to grab it and not look back. 

A lot of airlines will offer you adjustments if the prices do end up falling on cash price tickets for flights. But I think especially post pandemic, travel has been in such high demand. For a long time, the volume of what was available was still low, right? Because so many airlines had decreased their flight schedules, had decreased just their operating crews that it felt like it took a long time for capacity to come back up. 

So there was huge demand and much lower capacity. I feel like we're still kind of experiencing the effects of that when it comes to looking for flights. Again, especially if you're looking to book multiple tickets during really high demand travel times.

Bonnie: Yeah, I actually just was reading an article saying that after this summer they expect to see kind of like going back to normal and how this summer is like insane. Anyway, the reason why I said that is because I ended up booking a fourth flight for my bonus son later that year. It was like stupid expensive. I don't want to tell people how much that ticket cost. Anyway. I actually haven't taken that many trips since then, but I've booked a lot.

Devon: Yeah, tell me what you've booked. If you happen to know off the top of your head, just an estimate of how much cash you think you're saving by booking using your points. 

Bonnie: Yeah. So actually back in April, we took a family trip to Southern California to go to Disneyland. Oh my god, I really struggled with where to stay. Because there are a bunch of Hyatt’s in the area that are close to Disneyland. I was like scouring the highest groups. There's a lot of Hyatt groups besides Devon's group. Like, where people stayed, if they felt it was worth it. 

Most of these hotel groups, they're kind of trying to save the most amount of money, right. That's part of the goal. But then I decided to stay on site at Disneyland, and I don't regret it. But after we did check into the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach, which people universally raved about, and that was the first time I use a suite upgrade.

Devon: Yeah, tell us what a suite upgrade is, and why those things even matter?

Bonnie: Yeah, so I booked the room on points. Then if you have a suite upgrade award, and you earn them when you reach certain milestones. The milestones been meaning how many room nights you've accumulated. If a suite is available, you call and someone magically applies it, and then confirms a suite. So that was actually, I think that may have been my first suite stay as a family. 

So I remember we checked in. I remember Matt was like what is this place? Like, just shocked at the amount of room. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, to be honest. As someone who’s stayed at some, like oh who cares? It's like we're not there that long. But like, it makes a big difference. We're a family of three. Jack's five and a half. So it's not like we've got like 10 teenagers rolling around. But besides the physical space like I just felt like there was a lot more mental space and less opportunities to be annoyed.

Devon: I agree. I'm gonna jump in here for a second and just say that among the different hotel loyalty programs, I think they all, like you said, have sort of pluses and minuses, right? I don't think there's any one that's just the good one versus the bad ones. But I think for me, one of the reasons when I had never really cared that much personally about hotels in general or using points for hotels when I initially started traveling. 

The reason for me and my family, why that changed is because when we started traveling with our two young kids, regular hotel rooms were no longer going to cut it for us personally. Our kids have never slept in our room when they were infants. They'd always slept in their own room, and they have never slept in the same room as each other.

As people who have children may have experienced, especially when they're very young, everyone's on a different sleep schedule, right? Like infants might be sleeping every couple of hours, still getting up kind of all night throughout the night. Then when your kids are a little bit older, they might have bedtimes that are different. They're probably gonna be different than your bedtime. I am geriatric and exhausted all the time. So I go to bed at 8:00 p.m., which is fine, but my very normally functioning husband doesn't go to bed at 8:00 p.m., right. 

So when we would travel as a family, especially with four of us, there was no possible way that we were going to sort of sanely be able to share a 200 or 300 square foot regular hotel room where there might be two queen beds, but it's all one common space. That was just, for my family, never going to work. No one would sleep. Everybody would be miserable. I think that would just ruin the experience of travel. 

So personally, for me, the reason that I started getting really interested specifically in Hyatt and being able to use points is because if anyone's ever checked out the cash price of a proper like one bedroom suite basically in any hotel, I mean, I don't care where you are or when you're traveling, it is just excessively expensive, right? 

I remember starting to look when we were thinking about traveling as a family and just thinking there is no way in hell my family is going to pay $1,200 a night baseline just to be able to get a proper one bedroom hotel room just so that. Again, we can actually sleep and function. That was just not an option on the table for us. I have never been able to or chosen to spend that much money just for a hotel room. 

So, for me, Hyatt was such an amazing opportunity because one of the things that I think is very beneficial about their program is that they offer different room types that you can book outright using points. They're one of the rare hotel programs where, if they're available, you can outright book a suite level room entirely using points. That is an enormous advantage and benefit to me personally.

Where Bonnie mentioned using a suite upgrade award, which is a perk that you get, as she mentioned, either when you are a globalist which is sort of the highest tier of status within Hyatt’s Hotel program, or when you've accumulated enough nightly stays during the year at a Hyatt property to be able to be granted a suite upgrade award. 

But for people who are not going to go after top tier status or people who are not going to be staying 50/60/70 nights a year with Hyatt, I think the fact that you can just without any status at all outright book a suite using points at Hyatt properties is such a huge advantage. For you to know that from the very beginning of your stay exactly the type of room you're going to be in and be able to choose to have a sweet with a completely separate bedroom, I think, makes family travel possible without losing your mind. I think that that is incredibly useful. 

So I just wanted to come in and kind of add that asterisk as one of the things that I think is a huge benefit of the Hyatt Hotel program and being able to use your points, again, without having necessarily any level of status whatsoever. So, back to your story. You all stayed at this incredible suite for the first time in Huntington Beach. What other Hyatt stays have you booked since then?

Bonnie: Well, what I want to mention is that I was a globalist at that Puerto Rico stay and then also for the stay I just talked about. So I don't think we talked about the perks. So I got free breakfast at both properties. So the breakfast at the Huntington Beach property was like so good. Because it could be like hit or miss, right? 

So they had this weekend buffet because we were there over the weekend. It was amazing. We loved it. I don't eat that much breakfast at home, but on vacation I generally do because usually, you know. I was very impressed with the food service there. In Puerto Rico, there was also a buffet. It was not as good, in my opinion, than the one in Huntington Beach. 

Okay. So in the summer, we're going to Hyatt Regency in Boston, and I used a suite upgrade for that for the family. For myself, I don't care as much. I have a lot though. So I kind of need to burn some, and so I did burn one. I couldn't get one for this day that we're doing this winter. But I think also a lot of it has to do with like booking as far in advance as possible to use a suite, but it's not a big deal. Then also you might get upgraded for free as a globalist, but you can't count on it without the suite upgrade, right.

Devon: Yeah, absolutely. So you've mentioned a couple times now Hyatt globalist. So this seems like a really good time for us to dive into that aspect of the Hyatt Hotel program. So all of the different major hotel programs, they all have loyalty programs essentially that when you choose to preferentially stay with that hotel chain. The larger number of nights that you stay with them, then you can get increased status, which then gives you as the person staying in the hotel increased benefits with that hotel chain. 

Within the World of Hyatt program, they have a couple of different levels of status, but the highest level of status is what they refer to as globalist status. So Bonnie, can you just give us a really quick like brief primer on what is so great about high globalist status? As much as you can remember, how is it that you can actually go about earning globalist status if it's something that you really want to do?

Bonnie: Yeah, I don't even remember how I first found out. I'm sure it was you. Then actually, I was having dinner with my brother who's a little younger than me. I had no idea, but apparently he was a globalist at the time. I was like why haven't you ever told me about this? I was mad at him. He got globalist lite, which I guess briefly I'll say is during the pandemic a lot of loyalty programs, hotels and airlines, just made it easier to get top status because they're trying to get people to travel again. So he got the globalist lite. It's since expired. It's like such a bummer. 

But so you need to have 60 nights, or was it 100,000 base points? I just learned about base points recently actually. I was like googling. I was like what are these base points? I don't understand. Anyway. But most people think about it as like 60 nights equivalent. Now like an asterisk. So the reason why there's like an asterisk there is because you either physically do 60 nights, or you can get night credit, room credit rather, using a Hyatt branded credit card. 

Devon: I'll just break this down a little bit more for people who are listening if they've never kind of been exposed to this idea before. So exactly what you mentioned. That to qualify for globalist status, and we'll talk about some of the amazing benefits that then you get when you are a globalist. But to qualify for globalist status, you either need to have, as Bonnie mentioned, 60 actual nights stays at Hyatt properties within a calendar year. 

So the clock starts January 1st. Everyone goes back to zero nights stayed for that year. If you stay in Hyatt Hotel properties for 60 nights over the course of the year, then you earn Hyatt globalist status, which is good for the remainder of that calendar year. Then all through the following calendar year, through like the end of then the next, next February. So you'll always have it for about at least 14 months, but you can actually hold your global status for longer depending on how early in the year you qualify. 

But here's sort of a very important, as Bonnie mentioned, asterisk, and I think very relevant especially depending on how much spend you have generally over the course of a year. This is being one of the topics in terms of the focus of this podcast, obviously about how can we leverage our expenses, especially if they're high expenses, in this world of points travel. This is an amazing opportunity. 

Which is that most hotel and some airline loyalty programs actually have an avenue where they reward you with sort of landmarks for reaching status when you actually put spend on their specific credit cards. So what's very different from how it used to be where you actually had to fly your butt in an airline seat in order to earn airline miles or airline status. You actually had to stay physically in hotels a certain number of nights to earn hotel status. 

Now so many status programs allow you to earn your way, at least partially if not entirely, to status based on credit card spend. So for those of you who do have the luxury of having high expenses, one of the things that you can always take into consideration if status in one particular program is important to you is to kind of earmark or allocate a certain amount of your expenses on an annual basis to help you reach that top tier of status in whatever program you're looking at. 

Specifically for Hyatt, what they require, again, is 60 nights of stay during the course of a year. So even if you don't actually have 60 nights where you're going to be staying physically in a Hyatt hotel property, you can earn the same version of nights, they're called qualifying nights, from putting spend on the Hyatt credit card. 

Hyatt has two different credit cards they offer through Chase. One of them is a personal credit card, one of them is a business credit card. For the business credit card, anytime you put $10,000 cumulative of spend on that credit card, you get rewarded with five qualifying nights that count towards your status. 

On the personal side, it's a little bit lower of an earning rate. I think it's when you put $5,000 of cumulative spend on a personal Hyatt credit card, you get two nights towards status. So you can imagine on the business side, for those of you who are running businesses especially if you are incurring a decent amount of spend, that if you are able to put $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 of business spend on the Hyatt business credit card, you can easily start earning your way up towards globalist status.

We won't get there immediately, but Bonnie, I do want to talk to you about how that factors into kind of your spending and your strategizing over the course of the years. How you decide like what spend to actually put on a Hyatt specific credit card to help you earn your way towards status. But talking specifically just about what you get if you do earn those 60 qualifying nights either from staying or a combination of staying and credit card spend. You get some pretty great things as a Hyatt Globalist. What are your favorite perks of Hyatt Globalist status?

Bonnie: The free breakfast is definitely super nice. I haven't always taken advantage of it because I was just like, as you were talking, I was like yeah. Even though I get the majority of my qualifying nights from the credit card spend, I preferentially try to stay at Hyatt. I think it is just more part of is because I can get so many points when I use my Hyatt credit cards, but also like I do feel loyal to them. Like I like staying with them. 

It sounds dumb, but even just the acknowledgement that you're a Hyatt Globalist. Like they just say it and usually they mean it. That's just really nice. Like you just feel welcome. Sometimes even get like a handwritten note. Every hotel is a little bit different in how they handle it. I think most places I have gotten some kind of upgrade. If they can't, they like profusely apologize. It's a higher level of service, right? Like, who doesn't like feeling like a VIP. Right? 

So I think those are the big perks is the breakfast, upgrades, waived parking, and that can be huge because parking at hotels, as everyone knows, could be like $40 a night, etcetera, etcetera. So getting that waived, especially when we were at Huntington Beach, like that was huge. To not have to pay like $200 worth of parking, right. Of course, we still tipped the valet peeps, but that's a big one. I'm trying to think what else. Resort fees are waived. There's probably something I'm not saying that's a good perk.

Devon: I think there's a lot of different perks, but I want to just give people a little bit more of a concrete idea about kind of how valuable these are. Because this, to me again, I think when we're talking about how can we really offset costs of travel using points. Having loyalty within a hotel program can be so valuable. So specifically within the Hyatt program, as you've mentioned, when you have globalist status, one of the things that you get is free breakfast. There's usually a limit on that in terms of up to a certain number of people.

But as I mentioned, I have a family of four. So when we travel, we've always had breakfast covered for a family of four. At a lot of hotels, as I'm sure people are familiar, food is really overpriced. If you're in a place where you can easily take a walk somewhere and get a reasonably priced breakfast, that's wonderful. 

But if you're in a location where you don't have a lot of options to eat off property, being able to get a free breakfast is incredible. Especially when you're sort of thinking about maybe a traditional or typical family vacation that might be a week long. When you're talking about the hotel cost of breakfast for up to four people for seven days, that is not at all insignificant. That can range honestly from anywhere between a little over $100 a day up to $200 a day that gets completely waived off of your hotel bill, which I think is phenomenal. 

You also mentioned the free parking, which is fantastic. If you are a globalist and you book a stay completely on points, that does include free valet parking. So especially if you're staying at city based properties, that can be a lot of money. I know my family likes to take little weekend staycations down at the Park Hyatt in Chicago where we can take the kids to museums and just have a little bit of change of scenery. Valet parking at Park Hyatt Chicago is $70 a night, which again, that's not cheap, right? 

Parking in Chicago. I mean, I guess depending on your temperament can be varying degrees of horrible, not fun anyway trying to find parking spaces, everything that goes into trying to park downtown in a really busy city. So just to be able to pull up and have your car valet parked and not have to pay anything for it. We've saved a significant amount of money off of that. 

I think for me, personally, probably the number one absolute biggest money saver when it comes to Hyatt globalist status are those sweet upgrade awards that you mentioned. So for people who are curious about kind of the Hyatt Hotel program and how it works, Bonnie already explained what a suite upgrade award is. 

But essentially at the time of booking, you can book yourself into a base level room either using cash or points. It doesn't matter. If a standard level suite, which is sort of the base level suite that Hyatt offers, if a standard level suite is available to be booked during your dates of stay, then you can use one of these suite upgrade awards and automatically upgrade yourself into a suite for up to a seven night stay. 

So one suite upgrade award can cover up to seven nights in a suite, which is very different from how other hotel programs allocate or issue awards to get into a suite. Again, as long as there's availability, that upgrade is guaranteed. So you know at the time of booking, no I will be in this specific type of suite, again, for my entire stay. It can be anywhere from one to seven days. 

You pay nothing for that. But what you gain is that price differential between booking a standard level room and a suite level room, which, again, depending on what type of property you're staying at, the difference between the cash price of a standard level room and a suite level room for one night, it can be hundreds of dollars. It can be $1,000. If you use that, again, over several nights, one suite upgrade award, that can easily save you a thousand if not multiple thousands of dollars. Globalists get up to four of those a year. 

So this, to me, is probably one of, as a Hyatt Globalist, is one of my personal favorites about this. Because, again, not only is it the convenience of actually having access then to a suite level room that's just going to be more comfortable for my family to stay in, but it's an enormous cost savings. I love that it is, again based on availability, it is guaranteed.

I personally don't want to book a room at a hotel and not know if I'm going to be upgraded until I check in if I'm traveling with my kids. If I'm traveling alone, I don't care. Like I don't need suite upgrades. I don't need anything fancy. But if I'm traveling with little kids, like I said, that space really matters to me. So that is, I think, one of the biggest benefits of the Hyatt globalist program.

Bonnie: Yeah. Another benefit, actually, that as you were talking reminded me is the ability to book a points room without having the points. Like when I heard that, my mind exploded. So just in case you're like what are they talking about it? So I'll give an example because I have two reservations like that. The only problem is sometimes I forget which one did I use real points on or not because you can't really easily tell when you look at the reservation. 

So I have to like email oh, you’ve got a Hyatt concierge. You get like someone you can email to help you. I email mine all the time. I've heard varying degrees of quality, but mine is very responsive. So I'll just email him like hey, was this booking on? Is there a name for it? Do you know what they call these?

Devon: I would call it like a prospective points booking.

Bonnie: Prospective points booking. So yeah, basically, if a room is available, so a room has to be available on points. Then you either call the globalist line or email your concierge and say I would like to book this room without having the points. I think you need the points seven days before the state. So that's fantastic because for two reasons. 

Well, the main reason is that you can plan super far ahead. So I did this for spring break of 2024. When you're not exactly sure if you want to go and when you don't have the points for it, or don't want to part with the points at that time. If you don't cancel it, and you be you have to be really careful about cancellation policies, right? Because some hotels have 60 days. So one of the properties is actually the Grand Hyatt in Kauai, and that has a 60 day cancellation.

I think what I read, and you probably know this better than I do. If you don't cancel that time, it's not that you forfeit the points. You actually get charged a cash. I don't know how much they charge you, but it's a lot of money.

Devon: Yeah, so you definitely don't want to be in that position ever, ever, ever where your credit card is automatically going to be charged this just insane amount of money for hotel stay that you can't take. So word to the wise, always do check your cancellation policies when you're booking.

Bonnie: Yeah, and I have like all these notifications on my calendar, like getting close to that 60 days. Just to like make sure I remember that I have the booking. Because right now I'm like looking at flights, and the flights I don't like right now, but I have plenty of time. So that, I think, is an amazing perk to be able to do that. 

So I feel like there's one more. Oh, the guaranteed late checkout. I don't know how guaranteed it is, but just nice to know that I can stay another hour or two. I've never needed it until 4:00 p.m., but even having an extra hour or two. Like yesterday at Miraval, like I got I think 1:00 p.m. checkout instead of 11:00 a.m., for example. That just helped a lot. That way I could finish up a morning activity and not be rushed or having to pack up and check my bag in the front. I just don't like that. I like being able to finish what I'm doing, go back to my room, whatever. Freshen up, etc. before I leave. So that, to me, is a great perk.

Devon: Yeah, I agree. Now that we've kind of been talking about how much we both love Hyatt globalist status, and how amazing it is for us personally. Let's talk about the strategy that is required to sort of ensure that you maintain your globalist status. Because, like I mentioned, this is something that you have to re qualify for every single year. 

So once you earn globalist status, again, there's a time limit to how long that that applies to you. It's not indefinite and forever, unfortunately. So you do have to requalify for it on a calendar year basis. As of right now, as we mentioned, Hyatt requires that you have 60 qualifying nights stay to earn globalist status. So Bonnie, at the beginning of the year when it's January, and you've decided that you want to make sure that you requalify for globalist status during the calendar year. How do you personally strategize how you're going to be able to meet that 60 qualifying night minimum?

Bonnie: I have both the personal and the business Hyatt card. Basically my strategy is to use business spend because you do get more qualifying nights for the same spend. So as you mentioned before, for every $10,000 you spend, you get five qualifying nights and then you also get points, right? Because you get points and qualifying nights. I have not been good at strategizing. 

What I mean by that is I overshot last year, and I'm definitely overshooting this year. Because at the time this recording, and the year is not quite halfway done, I'm at 57 nights. I just checked. That was not the goal. Because the thing is I do have a decent amount of Hyatt stays planned for the rest of the year. So, I don’t know, at least 15 more actual nights spent at Hyatt. So clearly 15 plus 57 is over 60. 

I think, and I'm curious what your thoughts are, you don't really want to get that much above 60 because then you kind of get diminishing returns, right? I could have, I guess you could say, gotten points on something like Chase or American Express, which are a bit more flexible. I mean I love my Hyatt points. So I know I'm not going to not use the extra points that I'm getting.

Devon: Yeah, no. I think this is such an incredibly important point. Because when you're kind of considering, especially like your overall like points earning strategy during the year, right? Your overall kind of how can I optimize like all these different expenses I have and the different credit cards I have to be able to earn the most amount of points and be able to reach whatever my personal points travel goals are. 

I think you make a really, really important point that I want to highlight is that, especially when you are allocating credit card spend specifically to an airline or hotel cobranded credit card, because, again, you want that spend to help you earn status. At the same time, the drawback of that is that oftentimes what it means is that what you're missing out on is the ability to earn more points with that same amount of spend if you were to put it on a different credit card. 

Because a lot of these hotel and airline specific cobranded credit cards, unless you're actually using them for expenses related to that brand, you're going to be getting very low points return itself for a lot of your expenses. So what I mean by this is, like Bonnie mentioned, the Hyatt business credit card, right? So if she's putting business spend on that credit card because she wants the spend to help her earn those qualifying nights towards status. A lot of that spend is probably only going to be earning her from a points perspective, one point, one Hyatt point, for every dollar she spends, which is not an amazing points earning rate.

Bonnie: Yeah. So that’s actually good for you to mention is because the Hyatt Business card, besides the five qualifying nights per $10,000, they give you 2x, two bonus points for certain categories. What is it, top two or three categories per quarter? 

Devon: Yeah.

Bonnie: Right? So I do try to make sure I get at least. It's very painful to get only one point.

Devon: This is what I'm saying is. This is a tradeoff, right? So this is why you do want to have a strategy because I think, again, if you know that you're allocating spend to the Hyatt business credit card to help you achieve that certain level of status, then I think okay, we value the status. It's okay that we're also then going to have to give up a little bit of the points earning capacity of that same amount of spend. I think that's fine, right?

But again, what you're saying part of the larger overall strategy is but we don't want to just put more spend than we need for the status earning on that credit card. Because then you are missing out on the ability to earn more points or a different kind of points currency with that same amount of spend. 

So I have a very similar approach because I am very loyal to Hyatt. Usually at the very beginning of the year, and again because I compulsively travel plan. So I tend to know at least half of my travel for the year as of January, if not more. I'll first just lay out how many nights do I expect based on my current travel plans to stay in Hyatt this year. Whether that's 20 nights, 30 nights, 40 nights, whatever the case may be. 

Then I intentionally, whatever I think the difference between my actual night stay and 60 nights to qualify for globalists will be, I will intentionally plan out how much of my business spend am I then going to want to allocate, again to my Hyatt business credit card because it earns qualifying nights at a faster rate than the personal credit card does. How much of my business spend do I want to allocate to that credit card so that combined my actual stays and my nights from my credit card spend are going to equal 60. 

Now one thing I do want to mention, based on what you just said, is there's kind of diminishing returns once you've reached 60 nights is that the one thing that you do continue to earn, even though you've already qualified for globalist status at 60. So there's no higher status during the year. You're not going to get anything more status wise once you've hit globalist. Is that you do continue to have a couple of different perks that get added beyond 60 nights. 

So at 70 nights and 80 nights and 90 nights, you do earn additional suite upgrade awards. So again, depending on your travel plans, and if you're someone who can utilize extra suite upgrade awards during the year, then that can be of enormous benefit. If you're already using all of the ones you have and you don't need extra then I would consider that to be a diminishing return at that point.

Bonnie: Yeah, I'll definitely be getting another suite upgrade award. I'll definitely be hitting 70. So I have that same sort of strategy. I have an idea of an approximate number of nights at Hyatt because, like you, I'm a planner, but it's approximate, right? So I'm like okay, there's definitely 15 nights, but things can get cancelled. I'm like okay, what's the difference? 

What I generally do is one of the 2x categories is dining, and one is Facebook ads. So I do spend a significant amount on Facebook ads. So I just moved all my Facebook ad spend to that card. I usually put that on another Chase card because I get 3x there, but you know 2x isn't bad. So I obviously underestimated how many nights because you kind of have to keep track of this stuff. But it's fine, right? I definitely know I'm gonna get it. 

So I'm not spending any money at all on the Hyatt except for Hyatt spend. I am having that conference next March at a Miraval. So I'm only going to be charging Hyatt spend on that card for the rest of the year. Non-Hyatt spend will just go on my other credit cards.

Devon: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Because you just mentioned it, and I know this is a personal favorite of both of ours in terms of using Hyatt Points, is that the Miraval properties, of which there are three in the US, are actually part of the Hyatt brand. Tell us a little bit more, Bonnie, about how you've liked using your Hyatt Points at Miraval and what that experience is like. 

Bonnie: Yeah, I mean, it's such a great redemption value, right? What is it? 45,000 points for a “regular” room. This is an all-inclusive spa resort that generally is over $1,000 a night, and that could be $1,000 before resorts and taxes and fees, and they're significant. It’s like 37% after everything's said and done, but it is all inclusive. 

I actually think the all-inclusive perks of Miraval are pretty astounding. Like they will pick you up from the airport. Like all the meals, snacks, coffee, smoothies are included. Alcohol isn't it. It includes like a $175 a day credit to use towards spa. I always get a massage, a facial. There are certain paid programs as well. There's free yoga classes, but there are some more expensive yoga classes. 

So I, and all the tips are included. Honestly, that, to me, is kind of priceless. Because the only time I get cash is when I travel for tips. It feels horrible when you don't have the cash. Even if you do have the cash, you usually have twenties, right? So anyway, so I just love that it’s a no tipping property, and they're very clear upfront about it. So it's such a wonderful place, and I've been to a few all-inclusive spa resorts, Devon, and Miraval, I just think it's different. 

The way I could explain it just having been there recently and booked it exclusively on points. I did use a suite upgrade there. I didn't think it was worth it, but I had so many to burn. So it didn't really matter. It's just a place where it's the culture, I guess at Miraval, right? All the staff, it's like wellness and intention is just infused in the air. 

So I think this is for everyone, but especially as two people who are very into personal development and growth mindset, spirituality, like it's just a place that I don't know, fills all those cups. I don't know. It's just obviously, I can just talk on and on about it, but it's a great redemption.

Devon: Yeah, I agree. I think especially I speak to a lot of different women who even if they love travel, even if they have significant travel budgets for themselves and their families. One of the things that I hear over and over and over again is that people have a really difficult time, especially if they're taking themselves somewhere by themselves, right? Where you are giving yourself a weekend away from all of the other stuff in your life. 

I hear so many people say that it's very challenging for them to spend money if they're taking a trip by themselves. I think not only is Miraval an absolutely amazing location for those of you who, whether it's a solo vacation or a vacation with your partner or with some of your close friends. If you are looking for an adults only, which can be very nice if you want to just get away from just not only your own kids but all of the kids in the world. Adult only resorts can be really, really great.

The Miraval locations actually offers such an amazing opportunity not only just to have a really, really wonderful stay. But again, if you've ever had some qualms about spending any of your travel budget for travel that's just for you, or that doesn't include your entire family. I think being able to use points for this type of stay is such an amazing opportunity because then you don't even have to have any guilt associated whatsoever with where you are allocating your travel budget. 

It is such an enormous cost saver to be able to use, like Bonnie said, for the base level room for a single occupancy 45,000 Hyatt Points to have a night at an amazing all-inclusive that would otherwise cost easily $1,000, if not more. I think it's just one of the amazing and fun things about what you can do with points. 

So for those of you who are intrigued about the World of Hyatt and want to kind of explore this a little bit more. I will tell you that within the points ecosystems, you can either earn your Hyatt Points directly by staying with Hyatt Hotel properties, you can get a Hyatt cobranded credit card and earn points by putting some of your credit card spend on that.

Or you can also earn transferable points through the Bilt points ecosystem or the Chase points ecosystem because both Chase and Bilt points transfer one to one into the Hyatt Hotel loyalty program. So those are really good places to start thinking about earning points if a Hyatt hotel stay is on your mind. But before we wrap up our talk today, our conversation, Bonnie, I'm really curious if you have any final pieces of advice for people about how to maximize the value that they can get from using Hyatt points.

Bonnie: I think, I don't know if it's like a specific tip. But I think it's more like once you get into the Hyatt ecosystem, you'll probably get obsessed as much as Devon and I because of the stay. So I'll just give an example. I am going to Paris this summer, and you know this. I've been to Paris several times because I love it, but I've always had a much smaller budget. I'm staying in a very expensive hotel in Paris that I would have never paid cash for. Even though my income is so much higher than it was as a resident, I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't pay cash for this. 

There's a part of me that's like holy cow. I'm going to be staying at like this super fancy hotel in an amazing location in Paris next to all those super expensive shops which could be dangerous, such as Chanel or Maison, one of the LV stores. But I just think it's such a great, if you're into luxury like I am and don't necessarily want to pay for it all the time, I think Hyatt is probably one of the best loyalty programs to access that type of luxury.

Devon: I completely agree. Thank you, Bonnie, so much for joining me on the podcast today. I always enjoy talking to you, especially now that you are as interested in points as I am. For anyone who wants to follow you, figure out kind of what you're doing in the world, where can people find you? 

Bonnie: Yeah, so it's pretty easy. My Instagram handle is Wealthy Mom, MD. That's the name of my podcast, name of my website. So just Google Wealthy Mom MD, and you'll find me.

Devon: We'll link everything up in the show notes to make it very easy for people to find you again, Bonnie, thank you so much for joining me today. I so appreciate your sharing all of your wisdom, especially about the Hyatt Hotel program.

Bonnie: Thanks so much for having me.

Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of Point Me to First Class. If you want more tips on turning your expenses into travel, visit pointmetofirstclass.com to learn more. See you next week.