Hyatt Improves ‘Pay My Way’ With Ability To Select Specific Free Night Awards

Updated: August 4, 2023, 2:02pm CDT

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Hyatt ‘Pay My Way’ Changes
How To Earn Hyatt Free Night Awards
Final Thoughts

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Hyatt has improved its “Pay My Way” feature, a tool that allows World of Hyatt members to redeem free night awards, book paid nights in cash, and use Hyatt points — all on a single reservation.

With the latest update, you can now choose the specific free night award that you want to apply to a booking. Here’s what to know about this incremental but important change for Hyatt members.

Hyatt ‘Pay My Way’ Changes

Pay My Way gives travelers the flexibility to use a combination of points, awards, and cash when booking a single Hyatt reservation. While not all rates qualify — and a booking must be 2 nights or longer in order to use the feature — it’s still a somewhat helpful self-service tool for guests that want to maximize value out of their Hyatt stays.

Now, World of Hyatt members can select the eligible award they would like to apply to their reservation when using the Pay My Way feature, rather than the booking site automatically using the eligible award that will expire first.

Pay My Way Hyatt — New Hyatt Pay My Way functionality to select a specific award. Image Credit: Hyatt

Previously, using an award online would automatically select the free night award that was closest to expiring to redeem. However, with 2 types of free night awards, Category 1-4 and Category 1-7, the system couldn’t differentiate between them. For instance, you may only want to use a Category 1-4 certificate, but the system would select the Category 1-7 since that was expiring sooner.

This new functionality now removes the need to call Hyatt customer care to change the award that was automatically applied.

How To Earn Hyatt Free Night Awards

With the World of Hyatt program, you have several ways to earn Category 1-4 free night certificates.

The easiest way to earn a free Category 1-4 night certificate is by holding The World of Hyatt Credit Card. Every year that you pay the $95 annual fee, you’ll earn a Category 1-4 free night certificate. Also, by spending $15,000 on the card in a year, you’ll earn an additional Category 1-4 free night certificate.

In addition to the credit card, you can earn a free night certificate by staying at 5 different Hyatt brands (known as the Hyatt Brand Explorer). Finally, staying 30 qualifying nights or earning 50,000 Base Points in a calendar year is yet another way to earn a free Category 1-4 certificate.

Hot Tip:

Earning 60 qualifying Hyatt nights in a calendar year will also earn you a lucrative Category 1-7 free night certificate.

Final Thoughts

Hyatt has now improved its Pay My Way feature to allow guests to select which specific free night award to use in a given reservation. Note that this only works for stays of 2 nights or longer, so for single-night bookings, be sure that you’re using the correct award.