New World of Hyatt Credit Card Launches With Up To 60,000 Bonus Points
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
'Tis the season for co-branded credit card revamps and releases, as today Chase and Hyatt are announcing a new World of Hyatt Credit Card. This is not a refresh of the existing Hyatt credit card's benefits, but instead it is a brand new card with an improved bonus, some perks Hyatt loyalists are going to love, and a fun new bonus category that I have been just waiting for some credit card to offer.
New World of Hyatt credit card launches with a 60,000 point bonus
Hyatt points can do truly amazing things for families looking to enjoy a top notch hotel or resort without the usual associated painful price tag, and Chase is launching the new World of Hyatt Card with a big 60,000 point sign-up bonus. This bonus is awarded in two parts, with the first 40,000 bonus points coming after $3,000 on purchases in the first three months. The remaining 20,000 bonus points can be earned if you spend a total of $6,000 on the card in the first six months, which is pretty reasonable for a two-tiered bonus these days.
You can use these 60,000 points however you wish, whether that is for 12 nights at a Category 1 property such as the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque, 2 nights at a top-tier Category 7 property such as the Park Hyatt St. Kitts, or somewhere between those two award chart extremes.
This is a new card product, but the terms indicate that existing Hyatt credit card customers or previous Hyatt cardmembers who have received a welcome bonus for a Hyatt credit card in the last 24 months are not eligible for this bonus. This is consistent with how Chase has been limited customers to one personal credit card within each rewards card family in recent months. However, existing Hyatt Credit cardmembers can reportedly upgrade to this new card at any point. For a limited time, they are sweetening the deal with 2,000 bonus Hyatt points for those who choose to upgrade from the 'old' $75 per year Hyatt Card to this new $95 per year card.
Earn 4x points on Hyatt charges
Gone are the days when my Hyatt charges go on a Chase Sapphire Reserve, because the World of Hyatt Card is the winner when it comes to rewarding spending at Hyatt properties. The World of Hyatt Credit Card offers 4x points per dollar charged on Hyatt stays and experiences, including participating restaurants and spas. For me, this is now better than the 3x Ultimate Reward points earned in the travel category via the Sapphire Reserve.
Earn 2x points at fitness clubs, gyms, and more
Finally, finally, finally there is a credit card that will reward those of us with gym memberships with some extra points. This is a brilliant bonus category because most of those charges are monthly charges you just set as recurring charges on a card and then forget about. Now you can earn 2x Hyatt points per dollar for the gym charges you may have only been earning 1x on elsewhere.
In addition to gyms and fitness clubs, you will earn 2x points on local transit and commuting charges, including on ride share services. Those aren't quite as unique as the much-needed gym category bonus.
Earn up to two Hyatt award nights each year
The 'old' version of the Hyatt credit card awards one anniversary award night valid at a Category 1 – 4 Hyatt property, but the new card will do even better. The anniversary category 1 – 4 award night remains on the new card, but the World of Hyatt credit card will also give you an additional Category 1 – 4 award with $15,000 in spending on the card in a cardmember year.
I often use these award nights at hotels that are selling for $200 - $300 per night, so I'm more than happy to have access to another one. Within the last year, we have used Category 1 -4 awards at the Andaz Costa Rica, Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort, the Hyatt Place Keystone, and the Hyatt Regency Lake Washington in Seattle.
Earn elite status faster
The new World of Hyatt card will provide automatic Discoverist status, just like the older version of the card. However, it also offers 5 qualifying nights per year towards status just for having the card. The 5 initial tier-qualifying nights will credit into your World of Hyatt account within 8 weeks of your World of Hyatt Credit Card account open date. Every calendar year you will receive 5 Tier-Qualifying Night credits within 8 weeks of January 1.
On top of that, you can earn 2 additional night credits for every $5,000 in spending on the card. There is no limit to the number of World of Hyatt Tier-Qualifying Night credits that you can earn.
Top-tier Hyatt Globalist status requires 60 eligible nights in a calendar year, but you can drop that number pretty quickly if you are a heavy user of the World of Hyatt Card. You could target $15,000 in spending on the card each year to earn the additional Category 1 – 4 award, and that spending would also score you a total of 11 qualifying nights towards Hyatt status, leaving just 49 nights to earn Globalist status.
I suppose you could theoretically spend $140,000 on the card in a year to earn 56 nights from spending to go along with the automatic 5 nights given by having the card to secure Hyatt Globalist status just through card spend. I won't be doing that, but the math seems to check out.
World of Hyatt Globalist status unlocks some really, really good perks including waived resort fees, club lounge access, space available suite upgrades, free included breakfast for two adults and two children at locations without a club lounge, 4PM late checkout, and waived parking fees when redeeming awards.
I really like what Hyatt and Chase have done with this new World of Hyatt Card. They have found a way to reward World of Hyatt members of all types who use the card throughout the year, and they have upped the welcome bonus to a materially better level. Deciding whether to upgrade an existing Hyatt Credit Card or strategize how to snag the welcome bonus on this new card at some point will take some thought, but overall I'm very pleased with today's announcements. As a Hyatt regular, I absolutely want this card in my wallet. What are your thoughts on the new World of Hyatt Credit Card?