Hyatt is our favorite hotel chain, so go figure we also consider The World of Hyatt Credit Card one of the best hotel cards on the market. There's never been a better time to add it to your wallet.
Forget earning just 30,000 or 60,000 Hyatt points with a ton of spending: Chase just rolled out an incredible new offer, giving you five free nights (to use at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort) after spending $4,000 in the first three months. That's the best bonus we've seen on this card, period.
That Category 4 cap means you can book Hyatt standard award nights that cost up to 15,000 points – or 18,000 points under Hyatt's peak-pricing system. Still, there are plenty of great Hyatt properties around the world you can book with this bonus. One hitch: You'll need to use these free nights within 12 months of earning them, so you'll want to have a plan to redeem them.
Beyond this best-ever bonus, this card comes with other great perks like Discoverist elite status, an annual free night award (category 1-4) starting in your second year, and earning additional bonus points in useful spending categories. With just a $95 annual fee, it should be a keeper for the long haul.
Just remember: Credit cards are serious business. You should never apply for a credit card if you're already in debt, and never charge more to a credit card than you can afford to pay off immediately … no matter how good the bonus offer is.
Read on to learn more about the World of Hyatt Credit Card and its current welcome offer.
Check out our full list of the best credit card offers!
World of Hyatt Credit Card Overview
- Welcome Offer: Earn five free nights at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort after spending $4,000 in the first three months from account opening.
- You must redeem these free night rewards within 12 months of earning them
- 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: $95
All information about the World of Hyatt Credit Card has been collected independently by Thrifty Traveler and has not be verified by the issuer.
Learn more about the World of Hyatt Credit Card (for full disclosure, this is not an affiliate link).
Full Benefits of the World of Hyatt Credit Card
Welcome Offer Bonus
You can currently earn five free nights at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. That's the best bonus we've ever seen on this card and has the potential to be quite valuable.
Under Hyatt's award chart, standard awards at Category 4 properties cost 15,000 points per night. But pricier stays during peak periods are also eligible for this bonus: Those cost 18,000 points per night.
Add them up, and these five awards could be worth up to 90,000 World of Hyatt points. That blows the standard offer on this card out of the water.
Each free night award is valid for one night in any available standard room within 12 months from issuance at Hyatt hotels and resorts. This detail means you'll want to have a plan for how to use these awards – unlike a big points bonus, they expire after one year.
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 9.5x 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 (with a 10% bonus thanks to your automatic Hyatt Discoverist status).
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 point per dollar spent on all other 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.
Best Use of Free Night Awards
Rooms that cost 18,000 points per night might not sound like a lot, but that's misleading: The World of Hyatt program has some of the best rates to book nightly stays using points of any hotel program, period.
Unlike most other hotel chains, Hyatt still maintains an award chart to serve as a cheat sheet for what a given property will cost in points. With this bonus offer, the amount of points doesn't matter as much as the given category – and that's especially great given Hyatt's implementation of peak- and off-peak pricing. Since peak Category 4 properties go for 18,000 points per night, this bonus could be worth as many as 90,000 Hyatt points!
The key to figuring out what's possible with this bonus is knowing which properties fit where in Hyatt's award chart. Thankfully, Hyatt maintains an easy-to-use list of properties broken down by category. If you're unsure where you want to go but just want to get maximum value out of your free night awards, start here.
So just how valuable is this bonus offer?
If you wanted to visit Washington, D.C. next spring during the National Cherry Blossom Festival, rooms at the Thompson Washington, D.C. are going for nearly $300 per night. By the time you factor in taxes and fees, a five-night stay would cost you north of $1,700.
But since this is a Category 4 hotel, you could instead use your free night awards and not pay a dime out of pocket. Even though it's pricing out at as a peak night at 18,000 points, you'd still be able to use your free night awards and save over $1,700 in the process.
Or maybe you'd like to travel to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day. As you might expect, rates during a peak holiday period like that aren't cheap: A stay at the centrally located Hyatt Centric The Liberties Dublin goes for more than $350 per night.
But once again, this Category 4 hotel is bookable with points – meaning you could instead save your money and use your free night awards.
If you planned to stay at this hotel for five nights you'd be on the hook for nearly $1,900 when all is said and done. Getting that kind of stay for free with a single credit card sign-up bonus if pretty valuable, if you ask us.
This is just the tip of the iceberg with what's possible with these free night awards, though. A few other standouts worth mentioning include:
- The Hyatt Regency Sydney in Australia
- The Hyatt Regnecy Sonoma Wine Country in California
- The Park Hyatt Mendoza in Argentina's wine country
No matter where you want to go, there's a good chance you'll be able to use these awards for a nice stay.
Read more: A Fun and Easy Way to Earn Free Nights With Hyatt
Other Things to Know About the Hyatt Card
An Easy to 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
Transfer Partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards
The World of Hyatt program is a 1:1 transfer partner of the Chase Ultimate Rewards Program. This means you can transfer points earned on cards like the *csp* or the *chase sapphire reserve* to bolster your Hyatt points balance and extend your award stays.
If you ask us, booking Hyatt stays is the best way to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points to book hotels.
Read our master guide to earning and burning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points.
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 1:1 transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards points, the World of Hyatt Credit Card makes a great companion card to either the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve®.
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
New World of Hyatt Credit Card applicants can earn five free night awards (valid at Category 1-4 properties) with the card's brand-new offer, easily making it the best offer we've ever seen.
Beyond the big bonus, the World of Hyatt Credit Card is worth holding onto long-term for the annual free night certificate and other perks like complimentary elite status.
Learn more about the World of Hyatt Credit Card (for full disclosure, this is not an affiliate link).
I just signed up for this card but only noticed 5 nights credit, did I miss something? Are they issued after the new year? I was not a Hyatt member prior to signing up for the card.
Thanks
Hi Freddy. The 10 nights will be applied for 2021, which should be reflected in your account after the start of the year.
Seems like a great deal on this card. My question: Why didn’t this card make your list for top Credit Card offers for December?
Hey Nadeem, it is a great deal and should absolutely be on that list. I published that before getting into the details of this card. I’ll make sure to add. 😊
Thanks Nick. I am thinking of applying for this card. Do I need to sign up and create a World of Hyatt loyalty account first? Also, I was on the card registration website and didn’t read anything about the “New cardholders will get 10 of those tier-qualifying nights in 2021”
Hey Nadeem. I would recommend creating your World of Hyatt account before you apply. That way you will have your number to use on the application. If you don’t they will automatically create one for you, and it can be a pain to track it down and get logged into your account.
Very interesting, I am looking at the application and I too don’t see any mention of the 10 free nights for 2021 any longer. The blue banner I used above in the post was directly from the application last week. This may be worth a call to Chase/Hyatt to see if this is still being offered.