Do you need a strategy to start earning hotel points? I didn’t have one. I was after free breakfast, and the points showed up anyway.
In March 2022, I was planning my first trip outside North America, with a few stops across France. I found a beachfront hotel in Nice, the Hyatt Regency Nice Palais de la Méditerranée (now the Hôtel Palais de la Méditerranée, part of the Unbound Collection by Hyatt), and booked it directly. Joining World of Hyatt was just part of making the reservation.
A month later, I picked up the Chase Sapphire Reserve, mostly for the travel insurance, not for points. But once I had it, I started comparing how I’d booked that Nice hotel against what the card could get me for the same room. Chase had a Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection program that came with real cardmember perks: breakfast for two every day, a €75 food and beverage credit per stay, and a shot at a room upgrade, early check-in, or late check-out.
So in May, I cancelled the original Hyatt reservation and rebooked the exact same room through Chase instead. Because Chase let me add my World of Hyatt number to the booking, the stay still earned Hyatt points on top of everything Chase gave me. One hotel room, rebooked once, ended up paying out 10,452 Chase points and 15,737 Hyatt points along with a stack of perks.
Fast forward to March 2024. I was planning a trip to the Dominican Republic, and I decided to try something else I’d never done: an all-inclusive resort. I picked one of the pricier rooms at Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana, which meant this trip wasn’t going to be cheap. That’s when I looked seriously at the World of Hyatt Credit Card.
I did the research first: the annual free night certificate, the welcome bonus, Discoverist status. Taken together, and weighed against what I already knew I’d be spending on Zilara, applying was an easy call. I filled out the application, got approved instantly, and put the $95 annual fee to work. Once I hit $6,000 in spending, the welcome bonus landed: 35,000 points.
Nice taught me that comparing your booking options is worth the extra five minutes. Zilara is where I decided to get serious about Hyatt.