The Andaz Maui at Wailea is the single most-searched Hyatt redemption in Hawaii, and as of May 20, 2026 it also happens to be one of Hyatt’s most changed. The property is Category 8, cash rates routinely blow past $1,000 a night, and under the new five-tier award chart a standard room can now cost anywhere from 35,000 to 75,000 World of Hyatt points depending on the date. This guide walks through the exact points math, the cheapest way to actually acquire those points in 2026, and the one benefit that makes an award stay materially better than paying cash.
Elevate Miles Verdict
The Andaz Maui is still one of the best cash-to-points arbitrage plays in Hawaii, but only on Lowest and Low nights under the new chart — 35,000 to 45,000 points against a $900+ cash rate is a clean win. On Upper and Top nights (up to 75,000 points), you’re better off paying cash with a credit-card travel credit and pocketing the points. Whichever way you go, the biggest hidden benefit is Hyatt waiving the $58.71 resort fee on every award night.
Below I’ve broken down what a night at the Andaz Maui really costs across every acquisition path — transferring Chase points, buying Hyatt points during a sale, using a Sapphire Reserve travel credit, or booking through Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts — with the arithmetic you need to pick the cheapest one for your dates.
The Property: What You’re Actually Booking
Before we get to points, it’s worth being clear about what the Andaz Maui is and isn’t, because a lot of the “aspirational Hawaii redemption” writing about it overstates the case. The property sits on 15 beachfront acres in Wailea with direct access to Mokapu Beach, and its 320 accommodations include two-bedroom suites, beachfront villas with kitchens, and rooms with incredible views, each with a private lanai. Ka’ana Kitchen handles farm-to-table breakfast and dinner, Morimoto Maui is the on-site Japanese-fusion spot, and there are three ocean-facing cascading infinity pools plus a lagoon pool and an adults-only tranquility pool.
Reviews are consistent: it’s a Category 8 hotel with cash rates around $1,500 a night for a base room, the Ka’ana Kitchen breakfast spread runs about $49 per person, and on standard nights peak dates can now push up to 75,000 points a night under the new chart. It is not a Four Seasons — no one is claiming five-star polish at every touchpoint — but it is easily the best redemption per point in Wailea, and the location on Mokapu Beach is the strongest of any Hyatt in Hawaii.
Wailea sits on Maui’s south shore, about a 30-to-40-minute drive from Kahului Airport (OGG). Go Hawaii, the state’s official tourism site, notes that South Maui offers upscale dining in Wailea and ocean views that draw visitors year-round, with the best travel windows in April, May, September, and October. Winter is whale season, summer is family season — the “off-peak” concept barely exists here, which matters enormously once we get to the new award chart.
The 2026 World of Hyatt Award Chart, Applied to the Andaz Maui
Hyatt overhauled its award chart on May 20, 2026, and Category 8 got hit hardest. The chart expanded from three redemption levels to five — Lowest, Low, Moderate, Upper, and Top — within each of the existing eight categories, with the changes taking effect in May 2026. For a Category 8 property like the Andaz Maui, that means the new range is roughly:
| Tier | Points per night (Category 8) | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest | 35,000 | True shoulder dates (rare on Maui) |
| Low | ~45,000 | Slower weeks between demand cycles |
| Moderate | ~55,000 | Most typical dates |
| Upper | ~65,000 | Busy weekends and shoulder holidays |
| Top | 75,000 | Peak school breaks, whale season, holidays |
The old chart topped out at 45,000 points on peak nights. The points price for Top-tier Category 8 properties is increasing by 67%, from 45,000 points to 75,000, and if you compare the existing middle Standard tier to the new middle Moderate tier, customers can expect to pay more across the board. In plain English: there is no cap on how many nights a hotel can classify as Top, and the new policy does not guarantee a minimum number of Lowest nights per year. Hyatt has said adoption will roll out gradually in 2026, but the ceiling is now materially higher than it used to be.
The specific problem for Hawaii: properties in year-round markets like Hawaii will likely be priced at the upper end of category levels almost all the time because the islands don’t really have an off-season — summer brings families and school vacations, winter brings mainland snowbirds and whale season, and spring break fills every resort on Maui. Translation: 35,000-point Andaz Maui nights are going to be genuinely hard to find. Plan around 55,000–65,000 as your realistic expected price, and treat anything below that as a win.
One important note: the Category 1–7 free night certificate you earn after 60 qualifying nights does not cover Category 8 properties like the Andaz Maui. If you were counting on that certificate, this isn’t the property for it — you’ll need to bring actual points.
How to Actually Get Enough Hyatt Points for a Stay
Hyatt doesn’t have flexible currency partners the way Marriott and Hilton do, so there are really four paths to a Category 8 balance. Let me walk each of them with the actual math, then rank them.
1. Chase Ultimate Rewards, 1:1
This is the standard playbook and it’s the standard playbook for a reason. Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers 1:1 to World of Hyatt, and it’s widely considered the single best use of Chase points. Every 1,000 Chase points becomes 1,000 Hyatt points instantly. A 55,000-point Moderate night at the Andaz Maui costs you 55,000 Ultimate Rewards points. If your Chase points are worth ~2 cents each in general use, that’s about $1,100 of “value” transferred to cover a night whose cash rate can easily be $1,200–$1,500.
One caveat that showed up in 2024 and matters for this article: new Sapphire Preferred cardholders now transfer to Hyatt at 4:3 in some flows, so 40,000 Chase points equals 30,000 Hyatt points under the new rule. That devalues the transfer meaningfully if it applies to you. Sapphire Reserve holders and existing Sapphire Preferred cardholders still get the historical 1:1. Check your transfer screen before you commit.
2. Bilt Rewards, 1:1
Bilt also transfers 1:1 to Hyatt, which is what turns rent payments into award nights. It’s not a fast path — you’re building up 1,000 or 2,000 points a month depending on rent — but if you’re already paying rent through Bilt, watching the balance quietly compound toward an Andaz Maui redemption is one of the most productive things a Bilt account does.
3. Buying Hyatt Points on Sale
Hyatt runs points sales several times a year, typically as a 20% discount (dropping the effective rate to about 2.08 cents per point) or a 20% bonus (about 2.17 cents per point). The most recent promotion ran through October 5, 2026, dropping the cost per point to 2.08 cents each, with a floor of 3,000 points to trigger the discount. Members can normally buy up to 55,000 points every calendar year, sometimes doubling to 110,000 before any bonuses. Purchased points do not count toward World of Hyatt elite membership tiers, so this is a pure booking play, not a status shortcut.
Here’s the math for a real stay. At 2.08 cents per point, a 55,000-point Moderate night at the Andaz Maui costs you $1,144 in cash to buy the points, versus a cash rate that’s often $1,200–$1,500 plus the resort fee. That’s real savings but it’s not the “50 cents on the dollar” story you sometimes read. At 2.17 cents per point during a bonus promo, you’re effectively booking Category 8 properties for $759 (at the Lowest 35,000 tier) up to $1,627 per night (at the Top 75,000 tier) by buying points, which is a big range and can still be good value seeing as paid rates at those Category 8 properties also often cost $1,000 per night or more. Verify the current promotion in your own account before writing this move into your plan — the bonus percentage and cap move around, and some offers are targeted.
4. Points + Cash
Hyatt still offers points-and-cash awards at select properties. With Points + Cash, you pay 50% of the points required based on the chart plus 50% to 70% off the standard rate for the room type you’re booking. On a 55,000-point Moderate night, that’s 27,500 points plus a copay. It doesn’t always show at the Andaz Maui — the property is notoriously stingy with alternate award inventory — but it’s worth checking on any date the standard award is available. Search one night at a time.
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Cash vs Points: The Actual Comparison
This is the part most guides skip. Here’s what a three-night stay in early June actually looks like across the four realistic paths, using a $1,200 average cash nightly rate and the property’s $58.71 resort fee, which is one of Hawaii’s higher resort fees and is not mandatory only in the technical sense — you’ll be charged it unless you’re on an award booking.
| Path | 3 nights, Moderate tier (~55k/night) | Effective out-of-pocket | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay cash | — | ~$3,776 ($1,200 × 3 + $58.71 × 3 resort fee + tax) | Earns Hyatt base points and elite nights |
| Transfer Chase 1:1 | 165,000 Chase points | $0 (resort fee waived on award) | Best path if you have the Chase balance |
| Transfer Bilt 1:1 | 165,000 Bilt points | $0 (resort fee waived on award) | Rent-payment stack; slower to build |
| Buy points at 2.08¢ each | 165,000 purchased points | ~$3,432 for points + $0 in fees | Caps out at 55k–110k/year per account |
| Amex FHR (cash rate) | Cash rate booking through Amex Travel | ~$2,832 ($3,776 minus 25% off select rooms) + FHR perks | Amex Platinum only; earns hotel loyalty |
Two things jump out. First, the resort-fee savings alone on award nights are worth about $176 across a three-night stay — Hyatt does not levy a resort fee on award stays the way some chains do, which is a real advantage over some other chains. Second, buying 165,000 points to cover a three-night stay hits the annual purchase cap in most years, so this is really a one-shot strategy per person per year, not a repeatable plan.
The clear ranking for most people: transfer Chase or Bilt 1:1 if you have the balance, buy points on sale if you’re short by 20,000–40,000 points, and only pay cash if you’re going during a Top-tier date (65k–75k points per night) where the points math flips against you. On a 75,000-point Top night at 2.08 cents purchased, you’re paying $1,560 in cash to buy the points — at that point just book cash directly and keep the points for a genuine sweet spot.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve Angle (Read Before You Assume)
A common question about any expensive Hyatt: does the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s Edit credit stack work here? Short answer, no. The 2026 Select Hotels $250 credit is valid on prepaid stays of two-plus nights at seven hotel brands — IHG, Montage, Pendry, Omni, Virgin Hotels, Minor Hotels, and Pan Pacific — and Hyatt isn’t on that list. The Edit by Chase Travel credit itself, up to $250 per qualifying prepaid Pay Now stay of 2 nights or more for a total of $500 in calendar-year statement credits, is limited to properties Chase includes in that curated collection, and the Andaz Maui isn’t currently in it.
What does still apply on a cash booking here is the plain $300 annual travel credit on the Sapphire Reserve, which posts against most travel charges automatically and can knock $300 off the cash portion of any stay. If you’re paying $3,776 cash, that becomes $3,476 with the credit — still a lot, but real money. It’s not a stack, it’s a discount, and it does work on the Andaz.
The bigger card play here is actually Amex Platinum, because the Andaz Maui is a Fine Hotels + Resorts property offering 25% off the nightly room rate on select rooms with FHR benefits stacked on top. On paid stays, FHR gives you daily breakfast, room upgrade when available, property credit, and late checkout — the kind of perks that a Category 8 Hawaii property normally makes you pay dearly for. That doesn’t replace a points redemption, but if you missed the award window, it’s the best way to soften the cash rate.
This is one property among several worth booking with points in Hawaii. We compared every Hawaii hotel worth booking across Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott, so you can see where this one actually sits.
Booking Strategy: Availability Games and Globalist Perks
The Andaz Maui has a reputation for making award inventory scarce. The hotel plays games with those looking to use Hyatt points to stay here — they would much rather have people pay cash, and if you search for a multi-night stay and any one night is unavailable, Hyatt will only show you far-more expensive suite availability or nothing at all. The workaround is straightforward: search one night at a time. If you find seven straight bookable nights, book them one by one, then match them together at the property on arrival.
Bilt Rewards’ free Awayz-powered Hyatt search tool is genuinely useful here — it shows a calendar view of actual bookable award inventory, which the standard Hyatt Points Calendar does not. Use it to spot the Lowest and Low dates before you commit any transfers.
Before you book, this is also the natural moment to check that your flights actually work. Award seats to Hawaii — especially from the East Coast — are far scarcer than award hotel nights, and pinning down the room does no good if you can’t get there. This is where seats.aero pays for itself.
Still need to get there
This guide is about the hotel, but on a Hawaii trip the flights decide whether the whole plan happens. Award seats to Maui are a lot scarcer than award hotel nights, so I always price the air side first. Search flights for this trip on Seats.aero to see which programs actually have space to OGG on your dates before you touch a single Hyatt point.
If you’re Globalist, the math changes materially. As a Globalist, daily breakfast is complimentary, which is meaningful when the spread normally runs around $49 per person, and parking is covered as well, plus Globalists can receive complimentary upgrades. That’s roughly $100 a day in included benefits for a couple — $300 across three nights, on top of the resort-fee waiver. It doesn’t make Globalist worth chasing solely for this property, but if you’re already qualifying, this is where the status earns its keep.
For anyone building toward a stay, the current transfer bonus landscape matters more than usual because there’s currently no direct bonus into Hyatt worth chasing (Chase has never run a public UR-to-Hyatt bonus). Your best move is stacking Chase spend and Bilt rent payments, then watching for the current transfer bonus tracker to time other redemptions so your Chase and Bilt balances stay dedicated to Hyatt.
When It’s Actually Worth Paying Cash
Points people don’t love this suggestion, but sometimes cash is the right call at the Andaz Maui. The property runs its own promotions that stack in interesting ways. Currently there’s a five-nights-or-more offer at 10% off plus daily breakfast at Ka’ana Kitchen, and an Extended Escape offer at 20% off plus a $400 resort credit on stays of seven nights or more. On a seven-night trip, that’s roughly $1,680 in room-rate discount plus $400 in credit, or about $2,080 shaved off the total — which is a bigger dollar swing than most points redemptions produce.
If your trip is at a Top-tier date (75,000 points a night, ~$1,560 in purchased points to cover), the property is running an Extended Escape offer, and you have Amex Platinum for the FHR 25% off, the cash math can genuinely beat points. Run both numbers before you transfer. For quick side-by-side pricing on cash rates and packages, bundling flight and hotel for Maui often surfaces prices you can’t get by booking each piece separately, and it’s worth comparing that number against your all-points path before you commit.
Comparison: Andaz Maui vs Other Wailea Options
Wailea has other award options, and honesty matters here — the Andaz isn’t automatically the right choice for every points profile. Here’s the practical comparison against the two main alternatives in the same neighborhood.
| Property | Program | Points cost (typical range) | Cash rate (typical) | Best-known perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaz Maui at Wailea | World of Hyatt Cat 8 | 35,000–75,000 pts | ~$900–$1,500+ | Resort fee waived on award nights |
| Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria | Hilton Honors | Dynamic, often 150k+ pts | ~$800–$1,600+ | 5th night free on Hilton awards |
| Wailea Beach Resort – Marriott, Maui | Marriott Bonvoy | Dynamic, often 100k+ pts | ~$700–$1,200+ | 5th night free on Bonvoy awards |
Verify the Hilton and Marriott numbers on your own dates — both are dynamically priced and the ranges above are indicative, not published rates. The point is that Hyatt is the only one of the three that still has a real published chart with a defined ceiling, and that structure is what makes the Andaz redemption predictable enough to plan around. If you’re comparing hotels on cash rates alone, side-by-side searching across Wailea properties for the same dates usually surfaces a $200–$400 nightly spread between them.
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Which Card Is Right for You?
- Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred if you don’t have a Chase-earning setup yet and want the cheapest path into a 1:1 Hyatt transfer — the welcome bonus alone typically funds one to two Andaz Maui nights
- Get the Chase Sapphire Reserve if you’ll book paid nights here regularly and want the $300 travel credit to offset the cash portion of trips where the points math doesn’t work
- Get the Amex Platinum if your Andaz Maui trip is on a Top-tier date and you’d rather use FHR (25% off select rooms plus breakfast, credit, and upgrade) than burn 75,000 points a night
- Get the Bilt Mastercard if you pay rent and want a slow, steady Hyatt balance building without changing your spending
- Skip a co-branded Hyatt card for this trip if your only goal is one Andaz Maui stay — the Category 1–4 free night the World of Hyatt card earns doesn’t help at a Category 8 property
The Small Print That Actually Matters
A few operational details that catch people out here, based on years of member reports:
- Parking on award stays. The property does not permit self-parking; valet is the only option and it runs about $50 per day. If you’re not a Globalist, that’s an added cost on award nights that doesn’t show up in the “resort fee waived” math.
- The room you’ll get on a standard award. Standard rooms on points are typically garden-view, not ocean-view. If you want a view, either use a Suite Upgrade Award (Globalists), pay cash for the room-type upgrade at check-in, or book a premium room outright on points at a higher rate.
- Bookings before May 20, 2026 were honored at old rates. If you made an award chart booking before that date, even if the property shifted to a higher category, you were not required to pay the difference, and if your previously-booked property required fewer points due to the change, you received an adjustment with the qualifying points returned to your account. If you booked long-lead early in 2026, double-check what you paid.
- The property doesn’t play with the “Points Calendar.” The Hyatt Points Calendar shows dates with off-peak or standard award pricing but won’t show you actual availability that you can book with your points. Trust the actual booking flow, not the calendar.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the Andaz Maui cost per night with points in 2026?
It’s a Category 8 property under Hyatt’s five-tier chart, so standard-room award nights range from 35,000 points on Lowest dates to 75,000 points on Top dates. Most realistic dates fall in the 45,000-to-65,000 range. Cash equivalent varies but typically runs $900–$1,500+ per night.
Does the Category 1–7 free night certificate work at the Andaz Maui?
No. The Andaz Maui is Category 8, so it’s outside the Category 1–7 certificate range. If you have that certificate, save it for a Category 7 property like the Park Hyatt Aviara or Andaz Scottsdale.
Can I book the Andaz Maui through the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s Edit credit?
No — the Andaz isn’t in Chase’s Edit collection or the 2026 Select Hotels list (which only covers IHG, Montage, Pendry, Omni, Virgin, Minor, and Pan Pacific properties). Your Sapphire Reserve still helps in two ways though: the $300 annual travel credit posts against paid Andaz stays, and Sapphire Preferred/Reserve holders get 1:1 Chase-to-Hyatt transfers to fund an award booking.
Is buying Hyatt points worth it for an Andaz Maui stay?
Sometimes. During a 20% discount promo (2.08 cents per point), a 55,000-point Moderate night costs about $1,144 in purchased points, which beats the cash rate of a $1,200–$1,500 room and skips the $58.71 resort fee. On a 75,000-point Top night, purchased points cost ~$1,560 — often more than paying cash. Check the current promo and math your specific dates before buying.
Do I pay a resort fee on an award stay at the Andaz Maui?
No. Hyatt waives the resort fee on award nights, which at the Andaz Maui is $58.71 per night — worth about $176 across a three-night stay. Cash bookings pay the full resort fee.
How do I find award availability at the Andaz Maui when the site shows nothing?
Search one night at a time. Hyatt hides multi-night award inventory if any single night in your range isn’t available. Bilt Rewards’ free Hyatt award search tool (powered by Awayz) shows a calendar view of actual bookable nights, which is faster than clicking through hyatt.com date by date.
Should I book the Andaz Maui through Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts instead of on points?
If your dates are Top-tier (75,000 points a night) and you have Amex Platinum, FHR is often the better play. You get 25% off select room rates plus daily breakfast, room upgrade when available, property credit, and late checkout — real value on a Category 8 Hawaii property. On Lowest or Low dates, points still win.
Bottom Line
The Andaz Maui at Wailea is still the best Hyatt redemption in Hawaii, but the 2026 chart change means you have to be more thoughtful about which nights you burn points on. Target Lowest and Low dates (35,000–45,000 points) with transferred Chase or Bilt balances, use the resort-fee waiver as a real financial benefit rather than a footnote, and don’t force a points redemption on Upper or Top nights when a paid stay through Amex FHR or a Sapphire Reserve travel credit will beat the math. If you can only remember one number from this article, remember 55,000 — that’s what a realistic Moderate night now costs, and that’s the point where you should be running cash-versus-points comparisons on your specific dates every single time.
