How to Earn Hyatt Gold Passport Points

While Hyatt Hotels are a favorite with frequent travelers and consistently rated among the top hotel chains by business travelers in the US, it’s perhaps surprising to note how few ways Hyatt lets you earn points in its Hyatt Gold Passport rewards program.

Maybe they think they don’t need to entice you with lots of ways to earn points becuase they know you’ll come back and stay with them anyway. Maybe they’re just being contrarian. Whatever the reason, if the Hyatt family of hotels is the one you prefer, you don’t have much reading to do in order to memorize all the ways you’ll be able to earn points. Luckily, the ways you can redeem those points are more varied – but that’s a subject for another article.

I will say that even though Hyatt might be a little stingy with the variety of point-earning options, they have what could be the best name for a rewards program. Not only does it evoke travel with the word “passport,” but it’s screaming luxury and exclusivity with the “gold” bit in there, too. And who wouldn’t want a gold passport? Genius.

How to Earn Hyatt Gold Passport Points

Hotel Stays
However few the options are for earning Hyatt points, at least you can earn them by staying in Hyatt Hotels. Earning points with Hyatt isn’t difficult, although it’s definitely challenging to keep track of since you can earn either points or miles (for air travel rewards) and there are different membership levels where you’ll earn different amounts.

To start with the hotels where you’ll earn Hyatt Gold Passport points are Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Resorts, Hyatt Place, Hyatt Summerfield Suites, and Andaz. Some websites report that AmeriSuites and Hawthorn Suites are also Hyatt partner hotels, but neither is listed on the official Gold Passport website.

For each hotel stay in the Hyatt family, you can choose to earn points or miles. The points you’ll earn will vary depending on what Gold Passport membership level you’re in, whereas the miles you’ll earn vary depending on the airline you’re planning to fly. You’ll want to consult the official Gold Passport site (linked below) for all the details, but here’s a quick overview of the two paths you could take.

Earning Points
With a Gold membership, you’ll earn 5 Hyatt Gold Passport points for every eligible $1 you spend at one of the Hyatt hotels listed above. With a Platinum membership, you’ll earn 15% more points, and with a Diamond membersip, you’ll earn 30% more points.

Earning Miles
With each of the airlines that partner with Hyatt, you’ll earn at least 500 miles per stay in one of the Hyatt hotels listed above. With some of the airlines, you can earn more than 500 points per stay – but that could depend on the airline and also where you’re staying. For instance, a Hyatt stay will earn you 800 points on either Air China or China Eastern Airlines, 750 miles on Virgin Atlantic, and 1000km on LAN Airlines.

Car Rentals
Given how few ways there are to earn Gold Passport points, the fact that Hyatt’s car rental partners list is a short one probably won’t surprise you.

By presenting your Hyatt membership card at the check-in counter of either Avis or Sixt, you’ll earn 300 points for every qualifying rental. You don’t need to stay in a Hyatt hotel, you just need to tell the car rental agent that you’d like the Hyatt points.

Hyatt Gold Passport members do get discounts on their car rentals from both Avis and Sixt – up to 20% on Avis and up to 35% with Sixt.

Vacations
If you like the idea of not only earning points to redeem on a vacation but maybe even earning points while you’re on vacation, then perhaps a Hyatt Vacation Club property is something you should consider.

In addition to the more than 400 Hyatt Hotels around the world, Hyatt Vacation Club partners with more than 1200 resorts around the world. Becoming a member of the Hyatt Vacation Club means that when you book a trip at any one of those properties you’ll earn Gold Passport points, too.

For every $1 you spend on the eligible room rate at a Hyatt Vacation Club property, you’ll earn 5 Gold Passport points. And again, if your membership is at a higher level you’ll earn more – 15% more for Platinum members and 30% more for Diamond members.

Event Planning
Do you work as an event planner, or just have a big event coming up that you’re responsible for? Let Hyatt reward you for your efforts with Gold Passport points for events you hold at a Hyatt property.

Once you’re a member of the Gold Passport program, you’ll get 1 point for every eligible $1 spent on eligible meeting revenue – and you can earn up to 50,000 bonus points per event, too. Bonus points are earned through things like guestrooms booked as part of the meeting, use of in-house catering, and any banquets you hold.

You can earn the points for yourself, or you can split them up to three ways among coworkers if you want to reward co-event planners for a job well done. Of course, if your company doesn’t allow for you to earn personal points on a company event, the company can accumulate points to redeem for future meetings or events held at Hyatt properties.

Special Offers
Hyatt regularly has special offers available where you can earn bonus points for stays in specific hotels or for booking specific things. Be sure to check the special offers section of the Gold Passport website (linked below) to find out what’s available when you’re booking your next trip.

To learn more about the Hyatt Gold Passpot program, visit the official Hyatt Gold Passport website.

photo by laverrue