Do all-inclusive resorts make spending on Hyatt cards worth it?

World of Hyatt has been busy lately, adding all-inclusive properties around North America and the Caribbean and expanding the Brand Explorer perk to include these new additions. You can redeem your Category 1-7 free night award at a growing number of all-inclusive properties.

Given these portfolio expansions, is spending on Hyatt cobranded cards more lucrative? Does the ability to earn a free night award and redeem it at these properties increase the value of spending on Hyatt credit cards? Let’s take a look.

Related: Hyatt finalizes Bahia Principe partnership, expanding all-inclusive portfolio

Earning and redeeming free night awards

World of Hyatt properties fall into one of two categories: Category 1-8 or Category A-E.

That’s because there’s a separate award chart for all-inclusive properties. That said, a Category 1-7 free night award can be used at all-inclusive properties in categories A to D.

You can receive a Category 1-7 free night award as part of Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards benefit by earning 60 tier-qualifying night credits each year with World of Hyatt. This would also qualify you for top-tier Globalist status.

Unfortunately, each person can only earn a maximum of one Category 1-7 free night award per year.

It is possible to earn these 60 tier-qualifying nights via credit card spending.

With the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card, you must spend $120,000 on the card in a calendar year to earn 60 tier-qualifying night credits. This would unlock top-tier Globalist status and the Milestone Reward of a Category 1-7 free night award.

By contrast, the spending requirement to unlock these same perks with the World of Hyatt Credit Card is just over $137,000 per year. Since this card automatically offers five tier-qualifying night credits each year (the business card doesn’t offer this), you’ll only need to acquire 55 tier-qualifying credits to reach Globalist status.

Of course, this assumes you aren’t staying with Hyatt at all during an account year. If you combine credit card spending with stays at Hyatt properties, you can achieve Globalist status without nearly as much spending.

Related: Easy ways to maximize Hyatt award redemptions

Is spending on Hyatt credit cards more lucrative now?

Now that we understand how to earn a free night award that’s valid at all-inclusive properties, let’s look at whether spending on Hyatt’s credit cards is more lucrative now that Hyatt is increasing the number of all-inclusive properties available for free night redemptions.

The costs below are based on two adults in a room. Additional people staying in the same room could skew the costs, so take that into consideration. Also, keep in mind that room rates can change depending on the season, availability and other factors.

Sample all-inclusive property costs

At the four all-inclusive properties I sampled, the average nightly price for two adults is $895. This information is purely based on nightly room rates and doesn’t take into consideration things like resort fees, any extras you choose to pay for, or transportation to and from the property.

Property name	Average nightly rate
Hyatt Ziva Cancun	$750
Breathless Montego Bay Resort & Spa	$730
Secrets Papagayo Costa Rica	$1,100
Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana	$1,000
Average from four sample properties	$895

What about earning and redeeming Hyatt points?

Unfortunately, each World of Hyatt member can only earn one Category 1-7 free night award each calendar year. After this, you’ll need to pay cash or use your Hyatt points.

Luckily, Hyatt assured me that the option to Pay My Way with a mix of cash, points and free night awards is being rolled out for all-inclusive properties.

The highest earning rate on either Hyatt card comes from spending with Hyatt hotels. Beyond this, I don’t find the spending categories on either card overly impressive. Since Hyatt is a Chase transfer partner, what if we consider earning a ton of Ultimate Rewards points instead?

Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points

You could earn more Hyatt points overall by using a credit card that earns Ultimate Rewards points and then transferring them to Hyatt. Consider the following cards with better earning rates than the Hyatt credit cards (and remember, cash-back earnings can be changed into transferable Ultimate Rewards points):

Breaking it down — does this provide more value?

Everyone has different spending habits, but the chart above shows that “how to get the most Hyatt points” may not necessarily include a lot of swipes on your Hyatt cobranded credit card. That’s because other Chase credit cards offer better earning rates in many categories.

The key takeaways for consideration are:

• A Category 1-7 free night award can be used at Category A-D all-inclusive properties, so make sure to double-check the category of the all-inclusive you’re considering.
• To earn this free night award, you need to qualify for Globalist status by accumulating 60 tier-qualifying night credits, which can be done through a mix of stays and credit card spending.
• Spending your way to World of Hyatt status without any hotel stays is possible but requires six figures of spending on your Hyatt credit card each year.
• If your interest revolves around free nights at Hyatt’s growing list of all-inclusive properties, you can only earn one free night award per year that’s valid on these stays.
• The best path to free stays here may be earning as many Hyatt points as possible, and this is likely via earning Ultimate Rewards — rather than using your Hyatt credit card.

Before I started digging into the numbers, I thought the data would say “yes” that spending on Hyatt credit cards is more lucrative now — because you can redeem for all-inclusive properties.

While you can use your Hyatt card to help you earn Globalist status, you can only earn one free night award that’s valid on all-inclusive stays each year through elite status. On the flip side, I can earn significantly more points for award redemptions by focusing on using the best card for each purchase and maximizing my Ultimate Rewards points-earning.

Bottom line

If Category 1-4 free night awards could be redeemed at Hyatt’s all-inclusive properties, this would absolutely increase the value of spending on Hyatt credit cards. Unfortunately, those awards cannot be used at all-inclusive properties.

Since you can only earn a single Category 1-7 free night award per year, this doesn’t provide much help toward stays at Hyatt’s inclusive properties. If you’re trying to earn free stays at all-inclusive resorts, look at your spending to see whether shifting to a card that earns Ultimate Rewards points would actually net you more points in the long run.

Earning an extra point per dollar across thousands of dollars in spending per year could really add up, and this may help you get more free nights at all-inclusive properties in the end.

Related: World of Hyatt card vs. World of Hyatt Business card: 2 valuable hotel earners