How I used Chase points to save big in the Maldives

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As far as exotic locales go, the Maldives is in a class of its own. For those who love beach and island destinations, few countries can match its level of mystique and exclusivity. That’s with good reason. Across the Asian country’s 26 atolls sit a variety of luxury hotels that deliver the kind of magic that postcards are made of.

In fact, it was a yearning to visit one of these properties that originally got me into the points and miles game. The redemption that led to my Maldives bucket-list item being checked off is too good not to share — especially because it’s still achievable today (though the points price has changed, sadly).

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While I rarely stay at Hyatt properties, I can't deny that it has several properties in its portfolio that are tailor-made for points redemptions. One of those is the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa.

While rooms there start at just over $1,000 per night, you can exchange 35,000 Hyatt points per night instead. This amounts to a value of around 3 cents per point, which is an outstanding value in the points universe.

At the time, the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa was bookable for just 25,000 points per night, and my goal was to book an eight-night stay in an Indian Ocean paradise. It now costs 35,000 Hyatt points per night, so I would need to earn significantly more rewards to make this redemption possible today.

Given that I don’t frequent Hyatt properties enough to have a substantial points balance, I needed to use Hyatt as a transfer partner through one of the flexible-point currencies I collect.

Hyatt is a 1:1 transfer partner of the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, so I signed up for the Chase Sapphire Reserve and used its substantial sign-up bonus to begin the march to 200,000 points. (As of publish time, the Reserve is offering new cardholders 125,000 points after spending $6,000 in the first three months.)

Chase points typically transfer instantly to World of Hyatt, so once I earned enough points, there wasn't a holdup between transferring and booking.

Although this particular property costs more per night these days, Hyatt added another hotel — The Standard, Maldives — which can be booked for 29,000 points per night.

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The Maldives is a place where photos do not do justice to reality. It really does live up to the hype, especially if you’re visiting on points.

But even if an island stay isn’t on your bucket list, you can still apply this strategy.

No matter your aspirational destination, start by exploring your transfer partner options and then form a strategy to bank enough rewards. Bigger stays like this require multiple years of steady saving, but the payoff is immense.

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