Southwest + Hyatt = Vacations for $11.20 Per Person

Beginner Help, Chase, Hyatt

October 29, 2024

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The Southwest + Hyatt combo is a beginner-friendly, easily repeatable way to take multiple trips every year for a fraction of the cost. Let’s go over how to take advantage of this dynamic duo.

What are Southwest and Hyatt?

Southwest is a U.S.-based airline that flies to 117 destinations within the U.S., Mexico, the Carribean, and Central America. Their loyalty program is called Rapid Rewards, and they’re known for having great prices and excellent customer service. The most notable Southwest perk is the Companion Pass, which lets you bring a friend or family member on all of your Southwest flights for up to two years for free. You just have to pay the taxes, which are usually $5.60 per person per way.

Hyatt is a hotel chain with over 1300 locations around the world. Their loyalty program is called World of Hyatt, and members can be one of four tiers – Member, Explorist, Discoverist, or Globalist. Hyatt is different from other hotel chains because they use an award chart and assign each hotel to a category. Each category has an off-peak, standard, and peak price.

What is the Southwest + Hyatt Combo?

So what is the Southwest + Hyatt combo? Well, it’s the most beginner-friendly way to jump into booking trips with points and miles – aka award travel. This combo means taking trips using points to fly on Southwest and stay at a Hyatt hotel. The only out-of-pocket cost is the flight taxes, which are typically $11.20 roundtrip per person.

How to Earn These Points?

Flexible Points

There are many ways to earn the points needed for a Southwest + Hyatt trip. First, they are both transfer partners with Chase, which means you can earn Ultimate Rewards® (Chase points) in a variety of ways and then transfer them to Southwest and/or Hyatt.

Here are the cards that earn flexible Chase points:

There are four more cards that earn Ultimate Rewards®, but they won’t become flexible until the points are combined with one of the cards above. They are:

Not sure you qualify for business cards? I bet you do. Learn more here.

How to Transfer Points

Here’s how to transfer your points from Chase to either Southwest or Hyatt.

Log on to your Chase account and navigate to your Ultimate Rewards®. Next, click Travel, then Transfer points to partners.

After this, you’ll see all of the available partners. Select the partner you want to transfer to.

Next, enter your loyalty account information.

Then, enter how many points you want to transfer.

Finally, review the details then hit Submit.

If you want to learn more about transferring points, check out this article.

Co-Branded Cards

Chase also offers co-branded cards for both Southwest and Hyatt. These are cards that earn points specifically for the airline or hotel. They are not flexible.

Here are your card options for co-branded cards:

*All information about Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card has been collected independently by The Traveling Hansens. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Other Ways to Earn Points

There are a handful of additional ways to boost your points balance. These include:

Points earned from referring friends or family members to cards
Flights and/or hotel stays
Shopping portals
Dining portals
Putting your regular spending on your card(s)

How to Maximize Your Points

Southwest

The Companion Pass is the number one way to maximize your Southwest points. To earn the Companion Pass, you need to earn 135,000 Rapid Rewards in one calendar year. This can be accomplished by opening two Southwest cards – one business and one personal. The pass is good for the rest of the year in which it’s earned plus the entire following year. This means if you earn the pass early in the year, you can have it for almost two full years.

Another way to maximize your points is to keep an eye on your flights and check for price drops. Southwest does not charge change fees, so if you see that your flight has gone down in price, you can change it to the lower price and get the difference credited back to your Rapid Rewards account.

Southwest also has a Low Fare Calendar that lets you see the cheapest dates for your flight route. If you have flexible dates, this is a great way to make sure you’re getting the lowest price.

Hyatt

Similar to Southwest, Hyatt also has an award calendar that lets you see the lowest prices. You will need to look at the specific hotel and click on “Points Calendar”.

You’re looking for the green prices that are listed as off-peak. These are the lowest-priced dates.

Additionally, within the U.S., Hyatt House and Hyatt Place often have rooms that sleep larger families – sometimes up to six people. Plus, most U.S. locations offer free breakfast. So this is another great way to make sure you’re getting the most value from your points.

Example Trips

So what does this look like in practice? Here are some example trips!

Hawaii

Roundtrip flights from Dallas (DAL) to Oahu (HNL): 30,384 points plus $11.20 per person.

Five nights at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki: 20,000 points per night, for a total of 100,000 points.

New York

Rountrip flights from Los Angeles (LAX) to New York (LGA): 27,546 points plus $11.20 per person.

Six nights at the Hyatt Place NYC Times Square: 23,000 points per night, for a total of 138,000 points.

Chicago

Rountrip flights from Atlanta (ATL) to Chicago (MDW): 24,920 points plus $11.20 per person.

Four nights at the Hyatt House Chicago/West Loop-Fulton Market: 12,000 points per night, for a total of 48,000 points.

Cancun

Roundtrip flights from Denver (DEN) to Cancun (CUN): 27,390 points plus $123.81 per person. As you can see, the flight taxes on are much higher and that’s because it’s outside of the U.S. Flights within the U.S. cost just $11.20 per person, but international flights will cost more due to that specific country’s taxes and fees.

Four nights at the Andaz Mayakoba Resort Riviera Maya: 29,000 points per night, for a total of 116,000 points.

Wrapping Up

The possibilities are nearly endless for places that you can visit with the Southwest + Hyatt combo! It can be a budget trip with free breakfast for your whole family, or a bougie hotel for a couples trip, or anything in between. Once you learn the process, you can repeat it again and again to take amazing trips for pennies on the dollar.