How I’m Getting 17% off Hyatt Stays on Top of the 20% My Elite Rate

If ya’ll are not yet aware, Platinum & Diamond members received 20% off reservations at select locations until Dec 31, 2014. All you have to do is log in to see the “My Elite Rate” tab and make a reservation.

Well here is how I am getting an additional 17% off my stays. The tools I’m using are Milepoint Premium and my American Express Simply Cash business.card.

Milepoint Premium (currently sold out) lets me purchase giftcards up to $5,000 for the year at a 10% discount. Note that the giftcards are only valid in the US.

Because I have the Amex Simply Cash business.card which is automatically enrolled in the Open Savings Benefit, I get 5% off Hyatt purchases. I wasn’t sure if these gift cards would give me the statement credit but I can confirm that it does.

In addition to this benefit, the card comes with the option to choose a 3% cash back category. The options to choose from are airfare, hotels, car rentals, U.S. gas stations, U.S. restaurants, U.S. purchases for advertising in select media, and U.S. purchases for shipping.

Well I selected the hotel option and according to the agent I spoke with, this is stackable with the Open Savings Benefit. My monthly statement has not closed yet so I can’t officially state if it will give me cash back for this but I’m positive it will.

So if I were to maximize my 5k purchase of Hyatt GCs, I would save $500 from Milepoint, $225 from Open Savings, & $135 from the category bonus. The total of $860 gives me an effective savings of 17%. That is pretty good savings on Hyatt stays!

Also don’t forget to go through a shopping portal before making a Hyatt booking such as TopCashBack which currently gives you 3% cash back or Ebates which currently gives you 1.5% cash back.