What money, make the P&C reservation which doesn't require prepayment. Cancel the reservation to get back more points before the stay date - no money ever changes hand.

To play this game you must be staying at an IHG Hotel and not a Hyatt or any other chain

Since P+C doesn't take cash until the stay, does this generate points for free?

And given IHC's recent policy of closing accounts for anything they call abuse, how likely is an account to survive doing this?

I assume that the poster was thinking that this would be an IHG like arrangement, which would result in a roundabout way of purchasing points. Which, of course, is not the case with Hyatt, but means that the poster wasn't being ridiculous in at least considering the idea.

this again will not work for Hyatt or SPG AFAIK. For IHG once you book C&P you are charged for the $$ portion, When you CX the res you dont get the $$ refunded but instead get x amount of pts put into your acct. Then those pts are yours to use as you see fit

I believe with Hyatt & SPG when you cx the res the $$ was never charged so no refund is necessary so you dont end buying any pts like with IHG

You are correct.

I've been having 50/50 luck with P&C on the smaller Cat 3 and Cat 4 properties, when I can't find a 20k Marriott or IHG or a 30k Hilton property to burn points on, or when I really value a 4pm check out.

It's not the best use of points, because most of the Cat 3/4 properties aren't really worth $175-$200/night. But I get a stay credit out of it and occasionally a closed lounge bonus, and I have enough Hyatt points that I need to spend them when close to useful.

I have updated the Wiki, since it still contained a lot of speculative info that has since been pretty much confirmed.

I book about 90% of my stays on Points + Cash. I thought I had experienced every possible way of the Front Desk messing up my P+C reservation:

1. Charging me for both my portion (e.g. $75 for a Cat. 3) and HGP's portion (e.g. $50) at check-out

2. Assuming it's a straight award stay and not charging me anything at check-out (rare, but the most favorable result).

Now, for the first time, a wily third P+C screw-up has appeared!

3. Only charging me the HGP portion ($50) and not my portion ($75) of the bill :)

How do you generate enough points to make this possible?

My route is UR via Ink card and Staples.
As to post before. Never had an issue until my last few stays. Now each p&c was screwed up, either 1 or 3- either charged the reimbursement amount from Hyatt or both. Not sure what changed. Problem for me is the amount of time wasted straightening it all out.

Credit card spend can generate lots of points.

Finding P & C nights has been at any place I want to stay has been a pain. Trying to use up my DSU's. Tried emailing couple of places to see if they participate in P & C and all I get is an email saying they will get back to me and nothing more. My schedule is very flexible. Are there any hints to finding a P & C night other than just calling and asking?

You don't have to contact the individual properties. Central reservations or the Hyatt Concierge here on FT can check availability of P&C. If you're flexible, put together a list in your order of priority and go through it with central reservations on the phone or ask the Concierge to check for you.

Not impossible, even without a credit card.

Current promo is 65K for 25 nights. Add say 15 diamond amenity bonuses if you move around a bit and you get up to 80K. If you spend those on C&P in Category 2 that's 20 nights there (80K / 4K)... The cash portion also gets you another 6.5 x 25 x 55 = 9K more points which covers another couple of nights.

So, stay on Cash & Points in Category 1/2 hotels and you can come close to being self sufficient on points, as long as you have enough to get started...