by Emily Thompson, Newsletter & Partnerships Editor
In 2023, I found myself holding my breath as I confirmed a two-night hotel booking at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands. It drained my account balance of 50,000 World of Hyatt points — a nerve-wracking number to me, since it could have covered 10 nights at a lower-category hotel.
Many of my points and miles friends would laugh at my hesitation to spend 50,000 points. They love using their points and miles for higher-quality experiences like business-class flights and luxurious hotel stays.
But I learned to use points and miles to travel on a tiny teacher budget, and those habits die hard. Even now that I’ve been out of the classroom for a few years, I still try to stretch my points and miles as far as they’ll take me.
Still, I wanted to treat myself to a killer view, so I booked the Category 7 property and turned my attention to packing so I wouldn’t have second thoughts and cancel it.
For this particular redemption, I transferred points from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account. It’s easy to earn Chase points using some of the most popular cards: the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
It turned out to be well worth the splurge for me. I had a balcony with breathtaking ocean views that was perfect for watching the sunset — making it the perfect choice for my short getaway.
I can’t say I’m a full convert to the quality-over-quantity travel lifestyle, but I learned from this trip that there’s room for both Category 1 and Category 7 Hyatt properties in my travel life.
Trying to decide how to earn or spend your points? These might help:
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