Hyatt’s Best Card Bonus In Years — Advertised As 5 Free Nights, Here’s Why You Will End Up With 7

One credit card initial bonus right now earns (7) free nights with Hyatt. The World Of Hyatt Credit Card (See rates and fees) is advertised as offering 5 free nights, but I’ll show you that it can actually be seven.

Here’s the offer:

Earn up to 5 free nights. Earn 3 free nights after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of account opening. Plus, 2 free nights after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first 6 months. Free nights can be redeemed at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort worldwide.

Here’s why it’s really 7 nights once you’ve spent the money now to earn the bonus.

1. The bonus is 5 category 1-4 free nights once fully earned ($15,000 spend on purchases in 6 months).
   
2. The spending triggers a 6th night from the card – this card earns a category 1-4 free night after $15,000 spend each year.
   
3. And the spending itself earns enough points for a 7th night. You earn a minimum of 15,000 points spending $15,000 (assuming none of the spend is in bonus categories, in which case you could earn even more). And a category 4 free night costs 12,000 points (off-peak), 15,000 points (standard), or 18,000 points (peak).

   So earning the bonus from this card actually means you’ll have 7 free nights available in a category 1-4 hotel. They’ve only ever made this offer once before, and it’s a great one. Here are some of my favorites properties that have been in this category.

   • Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress as my base for Disney World.
     

   • Park Hyatt Siem Reap was amazing as a place for French colonial architecture, the amazing Khmer temples like Angkor wat and overall affordable luxury.

     

     

   • Hyatt Regency Jersey City on the Hudson has amazing Manhattan views and is right at a PATH station for getting into the city quickly.

     

   • Hyatt Regency JFK at Resorts World is my go-to JFK airport hotel stay, a still-new feeling property with nice rooms, a nice club lounge, and strong Globalist treatment like upgrades. The casino complex next door is relatively quiet, but run by a Malaysian company there are some good Asian food options even.

     

   • Hyatt Regency Austin has just been renovated. It’s right on the water looking out at downtown. Generally food is good, rooms are nice, and it’s the place I first stayed often when getting to know my home town. I have booked staycations for the fourth of July a couple of times for perfect fireworks views.

     

   • Thompson Washington D.C. is a good hotel in a trendy neighborhood, directly next door to the Department of Transportation.

     

   • Hyatt Regency Sydney on Darling Harbour is a great base for exploring the city.

     

   You can also redeem category 1-4 certificates currently at Hyatt Centric Murano Venice, Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina, Park Hyatt Mendoza, and many more like the Manchester Grand Hyatt where I just had an amazing suite.

   

   The World Of Hyatt Credit Card is a strong rewards credit card. Points-earning for your spend is fine, not top of market, but what makes the card great is how well it plays with the Hyatt loyalty program, contributes to status, and how well that program rewards customers for incremental activity.

   When it first launched, I told a room full of the heads of travel brands issuing rewards cards that was convened by one of the payment networks that this was one of the two best products at the time which really “rides on the rails of” its loyalty program. And that remains true today. I have and have used this card for years.

   • But there haven’t been exciting bonuses for it. Hyatt itself has largely been a pretty conservative company, their points are expensive (and valuable) and they have a hard time getting creative.

   • Meanwhile, while Chase issues the Hyatt cards, they also issue Marriott and IHG co-brand cards. Those portfolios have had creative, and lucrative, initial bonus offers.

   • Finally that changed with this offer.

   The most recent offer for the World Of Hyatt Credit Card was for just 30,000 bonus points plus double points in unbonused categories for six months capped at another 15,000 points. That’s nothing like the ‘5 free night’ offers we’ve seen with Marriott and IHG and now with Hyatt, and personally I’d rather have one from Hyatt.

   A peak season category 4 hotel costs 18,000 points so 5 free night awards potentially are ‘worth’ up to 90,000 points. I do prefer points, since free night awards aren’t as flexible and do expire after a year.

   
   Club lounge at Category 4 Hyatt Regency JFK at Resorts World

   Key considerations with this card are that you get 5 elite nights each year as a cardmember, and earn an additional two elite nights for every $5,000 spent on the card.

   In addition to points and benefits of the card, Hyatt provides incremental rewards every 10 elite nights between 20 and 150 nights – rewards like confirmed suite upgrades, granting of top tier Globalist status for a stay, and more.

   They also offer another category 1-4 free night each year at card renewal plus a category 1-4 free night when spending $15,000 in your cardmember year. So you can spend on the card, earn the full five nights and then earn a sixth night.

   Ongoing spend earns 4x with Hyatt; 2x at restaurants, on airline tickets purchased directly from the airlines, on local transit and commuting and on fitness club and gym memberships. I use the card for my Hyatt spend.

   The World Of Hyatt Credit Card

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