codesinvan

Just wondering if there are any other Canadians out there who have advice on how to earn Hyatt points.

There is no Hyatt Credit Card in Canada and we don't have Chase Ultimate rewards points. Hyatt is also not a transfer partner of Amex Membership Awards.

I think that leaves earning points through 'stays' as the only option.

Does anyone else have any tips on how to earn Hyatt points other than with stays?

gum

Avis is a partner of Hyatt Gold Passport. A car rental should deliver some points.

Sorry that I am not familiar with the details for the Canadian market.

austin_modern

Move to the US?

britishcanuck

That's what I did!

JetAway

Get a mailbox in the closest U.S. border community?

yerffej201

Unfortunately being in Canada that means there are no way to earn Hyatts from credit card spend. Best way is to move over to the US
Hyatt does allow transfers between any accounts, so if you know some (American) friends, they can transfer points to your account. If Daily Getaways comes back with Hyatt points, I'd definitely pick up a few there. If you're Diamond, the past promos they've had have allowed you to earn up to 65k points, so it's not bad.

LondonElite

shock

mahasamatman

I would hardly call that the "best" option for anything.

The best way is old school - just stay at Hyatts.

yerffej201

Well, let's just say it's much easier opening a Chase Sapphire Preferred and transferring 50k UR to Hyatt than putting $7.7k in base spend on hotels...

craigthemif

It's not exactly straightforward for a Canadian to sign up with the IRS under some spurious excuse, jump through some hoops over a period of months or years to get a credit history, then successfully apply for a credit card, then manufacture spend to hit the sign-up bonus target and pay back a US dollar debt... There are a lot of ancillary costs involved.

I just buy the annual maximum of points when the 40% bonus comes around (1.7 cents) and use those for P+C stays, especially when the big promos are in play. I've lost count of the number of times where the cash rate is $200+, but I can get a Category 1 or 2 at a handful of points costing no more than $70 (1.7 cents apiece during the promos) + the $50/55 co-pay. And I get many of the points back from diamond amenity + promo points.

MikeFromTokyo

Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through, no?

What about buying points when there is a promotion?

Or, Fairmont and other chains surely have affinity credit cards in canada and/or partner with Amex MR, etc...

JetAway

What do "Snowbirds" do when they spend several months a year at their U.S. residences? Do they get U.S. credit cards or use only Canadian ones?

mahasamatman

But that's not what you recommended. You recommended a life-changing move to the U.S. as the best option just for a few hotel points.

farnorthtrader

Most just use their Canadian cards, some USD ones from Canadian banks. There are a very few that get an actual US credit card from a US bank that has a Canadian parent (Harris Bank owned by Bank of Montreal, TD Bank owned by Toronto Dominion, used to be RBC Bank, owned by Royal Bank), but that is usually only Canadians who have purchased a US property.

As far as co branded hotel cards in Canada, it is pretty slim pickings. There is a Marriott card issued by Chase Canada, a Best Western card, and an SPG card issued by AMEX. All have pretty meager sign up bonuses. Even Fairmont, which was nominally a Canadian company, only issues a US card. Delta hotels never issued a credit card that I know of. Canadian Membership Rewards point only transfer to Hilton (1:1, a bad deal) and SPG (2:1, compared to 3:1 in the US), the only bright spot in the Canadian hotel points credit card game that I know of.

yerffej201

Let me rephrase: "move to the US" = acquire ITIN/SSN, build credit score, apply for credit cards.
It has nothing to do with moving or residency.