Hyatt Gift Cards at 25% Off
I often write about gift card deals over at Frequent Miler’s Great Deals and occasionally break them down into further detail here on Miles to Memories. I have even written a beginner’s post on gift card arbitrage and Noah from Money Metagame wrote an advanced guest post on the topic.
Even if you aren’t into learning to buy and resell gift cards, there are still quite a lot of opportunities out there to save money on gift cards for merchants that you frequent. I have covered this to some extent in my “Ninja Tricks” series, but today I came across an amazing deal I wanted to share.
The Pursuit to Keep Diamond
Last year I obtained Hyatt Diamond status through the defunct Hyatt Diamond Challenge. After completing 12 nights within 3 months, I earned my Diamond status through February 2016. Unfortunately I have learned to love it and plan to requalify.
Since I am not a huge fan of paying for hotels, I use Hyatt’s Points + Cash to reduce my out of pocket costs. These bookings still qualify towards elite status and generally are a very good deal. Fortunately, there are ways to save even more.
Common Hyatt Gift Card Discounts
Probably the most common Hyatt gift card discount comes from American Express OPEN. By using an American Express business card, you can save 5% automatically on Hyatt gift cards. Sometimes Hyatt also releases coupon codes that stack with this discount. In the past I have seen up to 15% off via this method.
Today’s eBay Deal
Today I was able to do much better than that. For the past few days SVM Gift Cards on eBay has been selling $200 Hyatt gift cards for $175. (Limit 2 per user id.) Not a terrible deal by itself, but not one I jumped on and I’m glad I didn’t.
This morning I awoke to an email offering 5X eBay Bucks on a $150 or more purchase. (This offer is targeted.) Normally eBay gives you 2% in eBay Bucks on purchases, but with the 5X promotion that turns into 10%. Additionally, Ebates (personal referral link) has been running increased cashback at eBay and is currently paying out 4% in the gift cards category.
Here is how the math works out:
- Up front cost of 2 cards: $350
- eBay Bucks earned: -$35
- Portal cashback: -$14
- Total Cost: $301
- Total Facevalue: $400
- Discount off face value: 24.75% (17.75% with normal 2% in eBay Bucks)
Real World Meaning
This basically means that I will get 25% off all Hyatt spending. For example, a category 1 Hyatt is 2,500 points + $50 in cash. Now I will only be spending $37.63 in cash for that night. (This is simplified since there are taxes too.) That really is an incredible deal in my opinion.
Bonus Deals
eBay also has a number of other gift cards on sale. Even though the 5X eBay Bucks says it only applies to a single $150 or more item, I discovered it works as long as the total is $150 or more. The discounts mentioned in this post apply to all gift cards. You can find the full list of cards on sale here. (Remember cards sold by Paypal Digital gifts also have been known to earn 5X Ultimate Rewards with Chase Ink.)
Conclusion
This is a fantastic deal for those of us who love Hyatt and are trying to keep our Diamond status. While those who like to buy and sell gift cards may like this deal too, it goes beyond just being a good deal for them. It is a good deal for all of us.
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Shawn,
I haven’t seen any 5X EBay bucks deal in forever! How about you? Do you think EBay is just waiting until pre-holiday shopping season?
The last one was 3X a couple of weeks ago and I received a 4X about a month ago. 5X hasn’t come for a long time! We are due!
[…] the value I receive from upgrades and lounge access/breakfast. I also heavily use points + cash and discounted Hyatt gift cards to make things cheaper. But what about the other […]
Is “limit 2 per user” a hard and fast rule? I can’t find it anywhere on the ebay listing. Am I just missing it? I’ve got about $10K in hyatt spend coming up in the next month and could really use a discount like this on at least some of it.
If you try to add more than 2 to your cart it will tell you the limit.
Thanks for the reply! Do you see any repercussions in doing multiple transactions of 2 GCs?
The system won’t allow you to buy any more than 2. If you try to do another transaction it won’t allow you to add them to the cart. If you try to circumvent this with additional accounts or checking out as a guest then eBay may shut you down. They are pretty good at identifying this and I know a few people who have been shut down. It really stinks because this is a great deal. I wish they had a higher limit too.
I’ve been warned previously when my daughter purchased the same gift cards once. She is an adult living on her own now. Should I chance it.
I, too, loved my diamond status. I lost it last year, but got the Hyatt card. I am doing some MS on that card and hoping to regain diamond this year. Don’t want to do tons of mattress running, but am shifting more toward staying at hotels when I could crash with family.
One of our problems is that with two kids and a husband who enjoys the travel perks, but would certainly object to hotel hoping, we don’t really do one night stays. I’m not sure if we will end up requalifying on stays or nights. We average more than two nights/stay. It would help if Hyatt came out with another nights based bonus promo.
Can you use Hyatt gift card outside US and Canada?
U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. “att Gift Cards are valid for use at participating Hyatt-branded hotels in the United States, Canada and Caribbean. This includes Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt, Park Hyatt, Andaz and Hyatt Residence Clubs. Participating Locations: https://www.certificates.hyatt.com/ParticipationLocations.aspx
I’d like to see more about how you are keeping your Hyatt Diamond status. I’m going to have a rough time re-qualifying without doing stupid mattress things, so any tips would very helpful.
Maybe I’ll post about it. Mostly a lot of 1 night stays, but I could go a little more in depth.
Can you use ebay gift cards for these purchases? It isn’t giving me the option in the ebay checkout (only paypal appears) – i’d like to get an extra 2% by purchasing ebay gift cards from gyft.com for 2% in portal CB and then use those ebay gift cards to make the purchase.
You should be able to. I didn’t on this deal for a specific reason, but I was able to use them on the Chevron/Texaco deal.
Just be careful to log into PayPal (from your eBay shopping cart) BEFORE you apply your eBay gift card code. I made the mistake of not doing that, and it ended up ignoring the eBay gift card code I had entered, and charged the full amount to PayPal. I should have noticed it was happening, but I made the wrong assumption that the fact I had entered the eBay gift card would be good enough.
I bought eBay gift cards first with my Chase Ink for 5x points, and then bought the Hyatt gift card with those. You need to enter the gift card code in the promo field and click apply.
I don’t seem to get the 5x bucks, it is only the normal amount for me. Maybe the offer is targeted?
Yes it is targeted and I apologize for not pointing that out more directly. I have added stronger language to the post to make that clear.
The offer is targeted and you need to click the link in the e-mail in order to activate the bonus bucks.