Missing World of Hyatt Free Night
Hyatt made a change at the end of last year, one that I am a big fan of, with their World of Hyatt Free Night certificate. They changed the earning time frame on the $15K free night for the World of Hyatt credit card from cardmember year to calendar year. That created a chance to double dip the cert last year for some. The double dip was great but the reason I really like the change is there is no more remembering when your cardmember year is and the date resets etc. This frees up brain space for me, especially with a two player system. I now know that January 1st means it is time to start spending towards the World of Hyatt $15K free night certificate. This is exactly how the Amex Hilton Surpass is set up as well.
Well, some of us got a head start and already completed our required spend, myself included. There was a great tip shared in the MtM Diamond group that let me knock off a third of it in one fell swoop. That shaved a month or two off my time frame for sure. The problem is I have a missing World of Hyatt free night certificate. The statement cut, but no cert posted, and I am not alone.
Update 3/23/22:
Rick at Travel on Point(s) let me know that he saw a cert finally post to his account today. I checked mine, as did others, and we are all showing our missing certs by the end of the month as promised. Be sure to check your accounts. We did notice that it was a day after the devaluation went into effect which is a little salt in the wound for sure.
The World of Hyatt $15K Free Night Usually Posts Quickly
I knew from previous years that these usually post shortly after the statement cuts where you completed the spend. I swear someone wrote about this in the past…oh yeah, me. Ha! Here are the dates from last year’s free night certificate:
- Completed purchase for $15K on September 7th
- My statement cut on September 17th
- Hyatt adds my free night certificate to my account on September 19th.
- I receive the email confirming I earned my free night certificate on September 27th.
Hyatt’s Response To My Inquiry
Well, this year my February statement came and went and no free night cert. My buddy Rick at Travel on Point(s) finished his in January and still hasn’t seen anything yet either. I reached out to our Hyatt contact to see if they knew what was going on. Our contact then reached out to Chase to get to the bottom of it.
After a few days there were able to figure out there was an error on Chase’s end. My guess is it had to do with the change over to calendar year but that is just speculation. I was assured that the owed free night certificates should be in everyone’s World of Hyatt accounts by the end of March.
Missing World of Hyatt Free Night – Final Thoughts
I figured there was something lost in translation here. If I am being honest, I expected a boilerplate, it can take 12 weeks response from Chase. I am glad we were able to get to the bottom of it and to facilitate them finding this issue and correcting it. Hopefully everyone sees their missing World of Hyatt free night certificates in their accounts at the end of this month like promised.
Had you earned your Hyatt free night and wondered what was taking so long? Do you like the change from cardmember year to calendar year too? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments.
 Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
I’ve casually thought about joining the MTM Diamond group, but haven’t made the plunge yet. Just curious if you want to share (okay if you don’t) what was the strategy for accelerating the spend on the card earlier this year (don’t have to give specifics just summary). Thanks.
There was a short term play where you could deposit money into an account and pull it back out without any fees.
I wouldn’t join Diamond solely for tips etc. it is more of a social group focused on meet ups and creating relationships around the country. We do have a spending focused podcast twice a month and a award booking one plus some other monthly chats / zooms etc.
Thanks for the response, Mark
Good to know about the MTM Diamond. I would be interested in that type of group, but might be a bit harder for me having a family and kid duties, etc. I’ve been in the travel hacking/cc churning for about 20 years now so I know most of those tips, but having social interaction would be good as well.
A family makes it a bit tougher to get out for the meet ups for sure but they are worth it I guess 🙂
Mine just posted today. Finally!
Mine finally posted yesterday after two calls to chase customer service. I finished the spend in January so it posted on my February statement. First customer service rep said it takes 6 to 8 weeks after it post to your account before the free night shows up. But I had the terms and conditions in hand during the call and told her that it was four weeks max. She then backtracked and said because of Covid they’ve extended it but I asked where is the documentation on that extension. She backed off that statement and said she made a mistake (more like a lie to get me off the phone).
Anyway, you can’t always trust what the CSR is telling you of course.
I contacted Chase last week on mine that was earned in January. They said they would manually add and wait up to 10 days (I think). Still not posted after a week.
Hopefully they get it corrected here in the coming weeks like promised
I am missing my regular annual certificate, and now I have a project.
Hopefully it doesn’t take too much effort on your part.
An email to Chase’s Executive Office revealed that the certificates will post by April 24th. That is not cool that it is post-devaluation.
That was a bit fishy for sure.
No question for me that calendar year makes more sense. But I’ve never been concerned about that. My issue has always been where I stand on qualifying nights based on $5000 spend near the end of the year. Chase won’t display exactly where you stand. Obviously if I’m 1 or 2 nights short of a statis jump and sitting on free night certificates, I’d head for a nearby Hyatt if I only knew for sure. I keep spreadsheet logs of amount and date paid on account and qualifying nights, but can never be sure where I’m at and when it will post. The nights show up within a couple of days after payment but how much carried over or the cutoff date. I don’t even know if its date charged or date paid on Chase bill that counts.
It should be based off the state the charge posts
I still am missing my 15k free night and hit the spend in november last year, do i email Hyatt or Chase or both?
The way I understood this is Chase kind of runs these so I would reach out to them. There is a chance your cert was caught up in whatever this issue was too. Probably wouldn’t hurt to message Hyatt, maybe can get some points out of it.