When planning to book a hotel, it’s best to compare all of your payment options.
In some cases, it makes more sense to pay with cash, while in others, it’s better to redeem points or use a Free Night Award.
World of Hyatt offers members the Pay My Way feature, which lets you customize the way you pay for a booking with any combination of cash, points, and Free Night Awards.
What Is World of Hyatt Pay My Way?
The World of Hyatt Pay My Way feature allows you to book a Hyatt hotel with a combination of cash, points, or Free Night Awards for a multi-night stay, without having to call in or make separate bookings.
In many hotel loyalty programs, it’s either cumbersome or not at all possible to pay for a single booking using a combination of cash, points, and Free Night Awards. Your best bet is usually to make multiple bookings, which sometimes results in having to switch rooms during a stay.
Not only does using World of Hyatt’s Pay My Way feature to book a stay using multiple options save you time, but there are also some strategic uses to get the most out of your points, cash, or Free Night Award certificates.
How Does World of Hyatt Pay My Way Work?
The option to use the Pay My Way feature shows up after you make an initial hotel search.
When searching on the World of Hyatt website, or through the mobile app, you’ll want to make sure the “Use Points” or “Show World of Hyatt Points & Awards” isn’t selected.
After searching for a specific city and selecting your desired hotel, you’ll see a list of room types with the cash price displayed.
From there, select your room type, and you’ll then be given an option to choose “Pay My Way” or “Book Now”.
It’s worth noting that not all room types or hotels offer Pay My Way. If it’s available, you’re only able to use this feature if you select a Member Rate or a Standard Rate.
Even then, it’s usually only the basic rooms that come with the Pay My Way option.
After selecting Pay My Way, you’ll arrive at a screen that lays out all of the options for each night of your stay.
With Pay My Way, you should see up to four options: the cash rate, any eligible Free Night Awards, the cost in points, and a combination of points and cash.
If you’d like to use a Free Night Award, and you happen to have more than one, you’ll be able to choose which Free Night Award you wish to redeem.
Once you make your selection, you’re able to view your total in cash, Free Night Awards, and points, before making your selection and confirming your booking.
How to Maximize World of Hyatt Pay My Way
Using the World of Hyatt Pay My Way feature is a great way to view all of your payment options on one screen, rather than having to go back and make multiple searches.
Being able to view all your options in one place can certainly help with the decision-making process, since there’s a clear picture of what you have available in one place.
There are many scenarios in which redeeming points for your stay is a great deal. On the other hand, paying with cash may make more sense in other situations, when the value you can get from your points is lower.
Indeed, the best use of World of Hyatt’s Pay My Way feature is the ability to select which specific night you want to use points, cash, or another payment method.
For example, suppose you’d like to book a three-night stay at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne.
In this example, the cash price of the stay is the same each night; however, the amount of points required differs on the second night.
For one night, you’d need to redeem 18,000 World of Hyatt points, while for the others, you’d only have to spend 15,000 points.
Keep in mind that this is a Hyatt Category 4 hotel, which means that if you have a Category 1–4 Free Night Award available, you can apply it to this booking.
There are a few different payment combinations available with the Pay My Way feature, depending on how many World of Hyatt points you have, and whether or not you have any Free Night Awards.
If you have enough points in your account and a Free Night Award, then the optimal play would be to use the Free Night Award for the night that costs more in points, and then use points to cover the other two nights.
If you don’t happen to have a Free Night Award available, and perhaps only have enough points to cover two of the three nights, you’d want to incorporate a similar strategy.
For example, you could use points to cover two nights at 15,000 points apiece, and then pay cash for the night that’d otherwise cost 18,000 World of Hyatt points.
Yet another option would be to play around with the Points + Cash payment option to customize the amount of points and cash you’d like to pay.
In this example, you could choose to pay $141.23 (USD) to save 7,500 World of Hyatt points on two of the three nights.
We value World of Hyatt points at 1.5 cents per point (USD). By using the Points + Cash payment option, you’ll be paying more than our target value to save 7,500 points, since you’d effectively pay 1.69 cents per point (USD).
In fact, if you instead chose to redeem an extra 7,500 points for the full 15,000 points required for the booking, you’ll be redeeming those points at a higher value of 1.79 cents per point (USD).
However, there are other situations in which paying that extra amount in cash makes the most sense, even if you have enough World of Hyatt points to cover the entire stay.
Two such situations are if you have a Hyatt gift card, or a Hyatt credit as a benefit from a Hyatt credit card.
With the World of Hyatt program, once you reach 40 qualifying nights, you can choose a Milestone Reward. At this level, one option is to receive a $100 (USD) Hyatt gift card.
If you have the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card by Chase, you’ll have two $50 (USD) Hyatt credits per year to use at participating Hyatt properties.
By choosing to pay with Points + Cash, you can use a Hyatt gift card or your World of Hyatt Business Credit Card by Chase to cover the cash portion, and save your points for a future stay.
Keep in mind that not all Hyatt hotels accept Hyatt gift cards. If you have one at your disposal, you can check Hyatt’s website to find out if your hotel is eligible.
Is World of Hyatt Pay My Way a Good Deal?
The World of Hyatt Pay My Way feature can provide good value in certain circumstances. When comparing the options, you’ll need to crunch the numbers to see which combination results in the best overall value.
However, it’s worth noting that there may be a few disadvantages to using the feature, too.
For example, only Member Rates and Standard Rates are eligible for the Pay My Way feature.
Member Rates can provide decent value, and may actually be the best rate available; however, there are often better rates out there, as long as you’re comfortable with stricter cancellation policies.
By choosing an Advance Purchase Rate or a Members Advance Purchase Rate, you won’t be able to use the Pay My Way option, but you’ll get a cheaper non-refundable rate.
From time to time, Hyatt also has property-specific promotions.
For example, if you’re able to find a “Pay for Two, Stay for Three” promotion, you won’t be able to use the Pay My Way feature. However, you’ll certainly get the best value for cash stays by taking advantage of a promotion like this.
If you’re going to pay for the majority of your stay using the standard rate with cash, then it’s in your best interest to book through the Hyatt Privé preferred partner program instead, as long as it’s at an eligible property.
You’ll wind up paying the same price as the standard rate; however, you’ll enjoy a suite of additional benefits, such as a property credit, complimentary breakfast for two, room upgrades, and more.
Book a hotel stay with Prince of Travel through Hyatt Privé and enjoy exclusive additional benefits at no cost to you, including:
Conclusion
The World of Hyatt Pay My Way feature is great for allowing you to see all of your payment options in one place, which helps you better decide whether to book with points, cash, a Free Night Award, or a combination of the three.
When making your selection, you’ll want to keep in mind that you might be able to save money by booking non-refundable, restricted rates instead.
If you’re going to pay for your stay with cash, you could also squeeze more value out of your stay by booking through Hyatt Privé, as long as the property you’re staying at participates in the program.
On the other hand, if you’d like to use a combination of points, Free Night Awards, and perhaps Hyatt gift cards or credits, then the Pay My Way feature can be a great way to optimize an upcoming Hyatt stay.