Limited-Time Offer: Earn 4 Free Nights With the World of Hyatt Credit Card!

For years, Hyatt was our favorite hotel chain in the world – and it wasn’t particularly close. A fixed award chart, reasonable rates, and outsized value at top-tier properties made World of Hyatt points the gold standard.

That all changed when Hyatt overhauled its award chart this spring, and the results have been painful – higher prices, more unpredictability, and luxury stays that now cost as much as 75,000 points per night. Safe to say, we’ve softened our stance on Hyatt in the last six months.

But there’s one corner of Hyatt’s portfolio that came through largely unscathed: The everyday Category 1-4 hotels. And that’s exactly where the new limited-time offer on the *world of hyatt card* delivers. New cardholders can earn 4 free night certificates after spending $5,000 in the first three months of account opening. Each one is good for a night at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel.

That’s arguably a much better deal than the card’s previous welcome offer of up to 60,000 points, which required $15,000 in spending to earn in full and only awarded a lump sum of 30,000 points, with the remainder earned through an increased spending bonus. Sure, points are more flexible … but these free nights are more valuable. Category 4 hotels now charge as much as 25,000 points per night, so four certificates could be worth up to 100,000 points in award stays.

Add in the card’s annual Category 1-4 free night starting in year two, complimentary Discoverist status, and bonus points on Hyatt stays, and this $95-a-year card is still one worth keeping long-term.

Read on to learn more about the World of Hyatt Credit Card and this new limited-time offer.

World of Hyatt Credit Card Overview

• Welcome Offer: bonus_miles_full
• Earn 4x points for every $1 spent at Hyatt hotels.
• Earn 2x points for every $1 spent on dining, airfare (purchased directly with the airline), local transit, and fitness club & gym memberships.
• Earn 1x points for every $1 spent on all other card purchases.
• Receive one free night at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort each year after your cardmember anniversary date (starting in your second year).
  • Plus, you can earn an extra free night at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort if you spend $15,000 in a calendar year.
• Get complimentary Hyatt Discoverist status. 
• Includes trip interruption and cancellation insurance, secondary rental car coverage, lost or delayed luggage reimbursement, and purchase protection.
• No foreign transaction fees.
• Annual fee: annual_fees

Learn more about *world of hyatt card*

Full Benefits of the World of Hyatt Credit Card

Welcome Offer Bonus

bonus_miles_full

Annual Free Night Certificate

In our opinion, this is the best ongoing perk offered by the World of Hyatt Credit Card. That alone can easily justify the card’s $95 annual fee.

Each year of card membership on your account anniversary (starting in the second year), you will also get a free night certificate, again valid at any Hyatt category 1-4 property. There are no blackout dates: So long as a room is available at the hotel, you should be able to redeem the certificate. Your free night will even count towards elite status!

Plus, you can earn an additional free night certificate at any category 1-4 Hyatt property if you spend $15,000 during your cardmember anniversary year.

Category Spending Bonuses

You will earn a total of up to 9x total points per dollar spent at Hyatt: 4x points per $1 when you use your card, plus the 5x points per $1 you earn as a World of Hyatt member.

You will also earn 2x bonus points per $1 spent at restaurants, on airline tickets purchased directly from the airlines, on local transit and commuting, and on fitness club and gym memberships.

You’ll earn 1x points per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases on your World of Hyatt Card.

Hyatt Discoverist Status

So long as you keep the card open, you’ll automatically have Hyatt’s Discoverist status for as long as you have the card. Discoverist status gets you:

• A preferred room within the category booked
• A 10% points bonus on eligible Hyatt purchases
• Complimentary bottle of water
• Free premium internet
• Priority check-in
• 2 p.m. late check-out

See the World of Hyatt website for a full breakdown of Hyatt’s elite status tiers. 

Get 5 Elite Qualifying Night Credits

If you want to climb the rungs of Hyatt status even more, you’ll also get five elite night credits towards World of Hyatt Elite Status each year.

You will earn two additional elite qualifying night credits for each $5,000 you spend on the card. There is no limit on how many additional elite night credits you can earn.

Annual Fee

The World of Hyatt Credit Card has an annual fee of $95, and it is not waived for the first year.

But thanks to the free anniversary nights and other benefits, this is a fairly small price to pay. You should have no issues getting more than $95 dollars in value out of this card each and every year you hold it.

Using Hyatt Points

Hyatt has long had some of the best rates for booking nightly stays with points of any hotel program. That’s still true in plenty of cases … but not nearly as often as it used to be.

In May, Hyatt scrapped its old off-peak, standard, and peak pricing for a new five-tier system: Lowest, Low, Moderate, Upper, and Top. The tiers apply across its eight hotel categories. Hyatt technically still has an award chart, but in every category a night can now cost double (or even triple) depending on demand.

The pain is mostly concentrated at the top end with Category 8 hotels – think fancy Park Hyatts and Andaz properties – that once topped out at 45,000 points now cost as much as 75,000 points.

But at the low end, Hyatt still shines: Many entry-level hotels actually got cheaper with the changeover. Think Hyatt Places, Hyatt Houses, and the occasional Hyatt Regency in a smaller city. We analyzed nearly 400,000 award nights at 1,200-plus Hyatt properties worldwide and found that:

• Nearly 93% of Category 1 award nights now price out cheaper than before.
• Almost 72% of Category 2 nights are cheaper.

Category 4 is a bit different. Two-thirds of nights held flat, but about a third went up, and none got cheaper – which is exactly why the card’s free night certificates are so valuable right now: Free night awards aren’t affected by Hyatt’s new pricing. A Category 1-4 certificate covers a night at any of these hotels, regardless of the property’s point rate that night.

Take the Hyatt Place Keystone/Dillon, for example. This hotel near Keystone and other Summit County ski resorts in Colorado is far from fancy, but during peak ski season you’re likely to see rates of 20,000, 22,500, or even 25,000 points per night.

Meanwhile, cash rates for those exact same nights start around $300 with taxes and fees included … and only go up from there.

With a free night certificate, you pay none of that. Use all four certificates from this offer, and that’s a ski week that would otherwise cost more than $1,200 or close to 100,000 points.

This is just one example, though. You’ll find plenty of ways to use these Category 1-4 free nights at hotels around the world, including some much nicer properties abroad.

Read more: A Fun and Easy Way to Earn Free Nights With Hyatt

Other Things to Know About the Hyatt Card

An Easy Path Top Hyatt Status

This is a big reason why we think having the card makes sense.

Just for opening it, you automatically get five elite nights. Additionally, you’ll get two elite nights for every $5,000 you spend on the card – with no limit to how many you elite nights you can earn through additional spending.

That provides an easy avenue to climb the status ladder from Hyatt Discoverist to Explorist to Globalist – one of the best status levels in the world of hotels thanks to suite upgrade certificates, free lounge access, waived resort fees, and two free night stays a year. Here’s how it looks for earning Hyatt status:

• Discoverist: Stay 10 tier-qualifying nights
• Explorist: Stay 30 tier-qualifying nights
• Globalist: Stay 60 tier-qualifying nights

The Chase 5/24 Rule

As with all Chase credit cards, the World of Hyatt Credit Card is impacted by the Chase 5/24 rule. And that means you may not be able to get this card depending on your credit history.

Here’s what it boils down to:

• If you have opened five or more credit cards in the past 24 months from any bank (not just Chase cards), you will not be approved for Chase credit cards, regardless of your credit score or history with Chase bank.
• The rule does not count credit inquiries, but rather card products you have applied and been approved for.

Learn more about the Chase 5/24 rule by watching our YouTube video.

Great Companion Card to Chase Sapphire Cards

Because Hyatt is a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, the World of Hyatt Credit Card makes a great companion card to either the *chase sapphire preferred* or the *chase sapphire reserve*. Yes, even after Chase reduced the transfer ratio for Sapphire Preferred cardholders from a clean 1:1, down to 4:3 just last month. 

Transferring from Chase into Hyatt is an easy way to replenish your Hyatt points balance to book award stays, and we think it’s the best way to use Chase points to book hotels.

Learn more about the *csp*.

Learn more about the *chase sapphire reserve*.

Bottom Line

For a limited time, the World of Hyatt Credit Card is offering 4 free night certificates at Category 1-4 hotels after spending $5,000 in the first three months. With Category 4 hotels now charging up to 25,000 points a night, those certificates could be worth up to 100,000 points in stays.

Hyatt isn’t the no-brainer it once was after this year’s painful award chart overhaul. But this offer plays right to its biggest remaining strength: affordable, everyday hotels where Hyatt still beats the competition. Add the annual free night and complimentary status, and it’s still a card worth keeping.

Learn more about *world of hyatt card*