How and Why I Redeemed My Max Miles for World of Hyatt Points: A Slightly Troublesome Process
Last year, I wrote about the opportunity to earn Max Miles (which converts into most major airline miles and hotel loyalty points at a 1:1 ratio) from shopping online. The shopping portal works like most cashback sites (e.g. ShopBack and TopCashback) but Max Miles are awarded instead of the typical cashback. Max Miles can be transferred into your preferred frequent flyer program or be converted into hotel loyalty points once a minimum of 1,000 and 10,000 is reached respectively.
Photo Credit: Max Miles
I tend to stay in World of Hyatt properties when I travel and as a Globalist, you can get plenty of value from World of Hyatt points. Since there are very few ways to earn these points outside of hotel spend in Singapore (especially since we do not have a co-branded credit card), earning them via Max Miles from online transactions is a great way to pick up some additional points along the way. As mentioned earlier, the minimum number of Max Miles you need to convert them into World of Hyatt Points (or any other hotel loyalty points) is 10,000. The redemption process is not as straightforward as converting them for airline miles.
Photo Credit: Park Hyatt Niseko Hanazono
Redeeming Max Miles for World of Hyatt Points
Once you have at least 10,000 available Max Miles in your account, you may choose to redeem them for a Gift Card which you can then use to purchase the points directly from the portal - in the case of World of Hyatt points, it goes through Points.com. Once you submit a request, someone from the team will reach out via email to request more information about the point transfer.
After a couple of business days, I was given some 'disposable' virtual card details to purchase 10,000 World of Hyatt points from the platform. Now there is currently a 20% bonus on World of Hyatt point purchases so buying 10,000 points would effectively give me 12,000 World of Hyatt Points but this was not the case. Max Miles will adjust the value of the virtual card in accordance to any bonus or discounts offered by the platform.
Essentially, I can only purchase 9,000 points (and get 10,800 points because of the 20% bonus) using this virtual card. So I thought 10,000 Max Miles got me 10,800 World of Hyatt Points but I eventually received an email following the purchase to tell me that 10,800 Max Miles (instead of 10,000) will be deducted from my account manually. In other words, you can't take advantage of any offers or bonuses that are running when you redeem your Max Miles for points (and there is little reason to do so from a consumer point of view since the benefits will only be passed on to Max Miles).
Point transfers using Max Miles will count towards your annual limit and in the case of World of Hyatt points, each account is only eligible to purchase up to 55,000 points per calendar year so make sure you keep that in mind when doing the conversions (especially if you plan on taking advantage of the discounts).
The Athenee Hotel in Bangkok provides good value with its third-night free offers, but the hard product falls short of expectations. While the service is generally excellent, there are better-located Marriott properties that offer more value for your money.