Chase Ultimate Rewards are perhaps my favorite transferable points currency and World of Hyatt is one of the most common programs I transfer points to. Hyatt is also a unique transfer partner to Chase (along with Bilt) as Amex, Capital One and Citi points do not transfer to Hyatt. I frequently redeem awards at 1.7 to 3 cents per point value on Hyatt stays. Award stays also have perks like counting as Qualifying Nights towards elite status and waived resort fees.
However, some properties can be tough to book free night awards due to high demand and limited rooms being made available for award redemptions. Award space can show as available and then be gone in an instant if someone books the last available room. It would be really terrible to see an available award, transfer points from Chase to Hyatt, and then not have the room available when you go to book. Much of the value of Chase points is the flexibility of having multiple transfer partners, but keep in mind that while transfers to Hyatt are instant, the transaction cannot be undone so if the award you are trying to book becomes unavailable, those points are now stuck in your Hyatt account.
For those of you who are newer to the miles and points game and nervous about the possibilities of having your points stranded, that might sound intimidating but fortunately there is a very easy and quick way to ensure you won’t lose the award space at the last minute and have your Chase points stuck in your Hyatt account.
How to avoid the risk of stranding your points
The simple solution for this case is to make the booking over the phone and to not transfer the points until the Hyatt representative confirms the space is available and holds it for you. Some airlines offer one to three day holds on awards and this works the same way; the room is held but just for a few minutes while you transfer the points in real time.
My experience with Hyatt is that they generally have very short wait times and the phone agents tend to be quite friendly and capable. Occasionally I’ve gotten a funny reaction when trying to make the booking (“sir, you only have 927 points in your account”), but I’ve had a 100% success rate when simply explaining that I wanted to ensure the space was really available and that I am prepared to transfer in the points right away. I would also highly recommend having your Chase account open on a computer or in the mobile app so you are in a position to transfer the points quickly once the room is held to not waste the agent’s time.
I’ve personally used this trick twice recently. The first was for me and my wife at the Park Hyatt Vienna, Austria. Needing to transfer almost 150k Chase points for the 5 nights, I wanted to be 100% sure the space I was seeing online was real before initiating the transfer. A quick 5-minute phone call later and the points were transferred, and the room was booked! The other was helping a friend on a trip to Paris. Since this was their first time overseas, I wanted to make it as simple as possible but the hotel we wanted, the fantastically located Hôtel du Louvre, was only available for 2 of the 4 nights they were staying in Paris. To make sure they had something to start, I helped them book a different hotel for the first two nights and continued to keep tabs on the Hôtel du Louvre to see if any more award space would open up. Some days there would be one day but not the other, or visa-versa, but after about two months I saw both days showing award space available! We quickly called Hyatt, transferred the Chase points once they confirmed the space was real and held, and a few minutes later they were booked!
I certainly don’t use this trick for all of my Hyatt stays, but in cases where you are transferring a large number of Chase points or are concerned about losing the award space, simply calling to confirm the space and then transferring the points in real time is a very easy and useful trick to avoid a situation where the space is gone by the time you have transferred points and try to book it.
TL;DR: Transferring Chase points to Hyatt for hotel award stays can be a great use of points, but transfers are one-way only. To be safe in the case where you are transferring a lot of Chase points or are worried about losing the award space, simply call Hyatt to confirm the space is real, have the agent hold it, transfer the points in real-time while you are on the phone and complete the booking.
Great tip! Thank you.