
Hello~
Los Angeles is on fire. It’s been on fire for a week now. Thousands of people have lost everything they have… their homes, pets, schools, communities… everything. And even though our home has remained safe, at one point it looked like our daughter’s school was going to burn down. The fire was too close for comfort, and when I looked at the fire map, we were surrounded by active fires. I started to worry I wouldn’t be able to evacuate a 3 year old, a 5 year old and a dog in time, so we decided to leave before it became impossible to get out. This is where my stash points and miles saved the day.
Even though we had already used up a lot of our miles and points to book a last minute Bali trip over Thanksgiving, I still had a bunch of Hyatt points waiting to be used.
Here’s How I Booked It:
I jumped on Hyatt’s website and found 2 nights at The Mar Monte Hotel for half points/half cash. It cost me 21,000 points and $262 + taxes/fees to book it. If I had just paid cash it would’ve cost $448 + taxes/fees. Normally I wouldn’t suggest you use points + cash to book a stay, but this wasn’t a normal circumstance. Since we had just dropped a lot of $$ on Christmas, I decided it was worth it to use some of my points and spend less cash for this stay.


But what if I didn’t have a bunch of Hyatt points saved up already? This is where those travel rewards credit cards that offer flexible points and miles comes into play. In this case, knowing I wanted to stay at a Hyatt hotel, I would have transferred some of my Chase Ultimate Rewards points from my favorite card over to Hyatt to book this hotel.
Here’s How To Transfer Points From Chase Bank Into Hyatt:
- Login to your Chase Account.
- Navigate to either your Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve or your Ink Preferred card where the points are listed and click on Redeem. (Note: You need one of these 3 cards to transfer Chase points to their travel partners).



free hotel account number first, so there’s somewhere for your points to go.

TIP:
Before you transfer any points… go to Hyatt’s website and confirm there is award availability for the dates you want to book + how many points it will require. Once you know there are available rooms, transfer the points you need. Go back to Hyatt’s website, refresh your page so the points show up and book it. And that’s it.
I can’t tell you what a relief it was to be able to leave a bad situation when I felt like I needed to get out. Those 2 days away were just enough for the winds to die down, the closest fire to be contained, and for me to be able to re-set and re-charge just enough to be able to tackle the tough conversations I was having as a parent. It’s just another example of why I love credit card rewards so much.
Here’s To Hoping None Of You Ever Need To Spend Your Points & Miles This Way.
Cheers,

For Those Of You Looking To Donate To The Fire Victims, Here’s A List Of Helpful Resources: