World of Hyatt Credit Card Upgrade Offer Debate
The blogosphere is on fire over the last 24 hours about the new World of Hyatt credit card. It is an amazing card that I was approved for myself last night ($$$ 🙂 ). But I have a debate on my hands…is it worth upgrading my wife’s Hyatt card even though the reported/proposed upgrade offer will probably be minuscule.
Terms of the Offer
Some of this is based on things I have read and some of it is me putting the pieces together. So take this all with a small grain of salt since I don’t have a direct confirmation on this from Chase at this point. I would guess emails will be sent out to current card holders within the next week or so like they did for IHG and Marriott.
The upgrade offer for current members is believed to be:
- 2,000 Hyatt points for the upgrade
- $20 annual fee increase (I assume it will be billed upon upgrade too)
This locks you into the higher annual fee going forward. You also would get the World of Hyatt card’s new earning structure and perks. 2,000 Hyatt points are worth $36 to me so you are coming out a little ahead on that point. That is a cost of 1.25 cents per point though, which isn’t great.
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New Earning Structure & Perks
The upgrade offer isn’t worth considering because of the bonus though. It is worth considering because of the improved card you would be getting. The new card’s earning structure and perks are vastly improved. This is what would be added for the $25:
Earning Structure
- 4 points per dollar at Hyatt (instead of 3)
- 2 points per dollar on gym/fitness memberships, local transit including ride-share (this is in addition to the restaurant and airline category you already get)
Perks
- Earn a category 1-4 free night after $15,000 in spend. This is in addition to the free night you already get yearly with the current card.
- Earn 2 elite night credits for every $5000 in credit card spend.
- 5 elite night credits for carrying the card to go along with the Discoverist status you already receive with the current card.
Who Should Product Change
The answer to this question depends on your personal situation. This is a card worth upgrading to if you are going to put spend on it. A lot of the increased value revolves around spend. I think everyone should consider putting $15,000 a year on this card for the second free night. That free night is worth up to 15,000 points or $270 in value from Hyatt points (1.8 cents per point valuation). That would give you a potential return of 3.6% on $15,000 of non bonus spend (plug in your own valuations to get your return rate).
If you are unable to complete the spend or use the free night then you are better off staying with the lower annual fee card.
Anyone who values Hyatt status should also perform the upgrade. Being able to get elite night credits based on spend is immensely helpful. Since the elite credit isn’t capped, as far as I can tell, you should be able to spend your way to Globablist status if you wanted to. I would imagine this would get you another free night when you hit 30 elite nights and 60 elite nights too.
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One Thing to Consider
If you are close to resetting your 24 month clock on when you received the previous Hyatt card welcome bonus then you may want to consider waiting and applying for new card’s welcome bonus. You would need to close your old Hyatt card before applying since these cards will most likely have the Sapphire type rule.
Word of caution: there is some danger taking this approach. There are rumors that the World of Hyatt card will fall under Chase’s 5/24 rule (along with all Chase cards) sometime down the road. That will make many of us ineligible for the card. Be sure you can be approved before closing your old card if you chose to go this route. Upgrading may be your only option if the changes go into effect.
Conclusion
Most people who upgrade to the World of Hyatt card will do so because they value the perks of the new card and not because of the puny points offer. Whether or not you should depends entirely on if you plan on using the card. If you can spend $15,000 a year on the card you should do the upgrade. If you can’t see yourself spending that much on it then stick with the lower annual fee and the one anniversary night each year.
I have a feeling most readers will lean towards performing the upgrade but let me know what you think.
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“Be sure you can be approved before closing your old card if you chose to go this route.” If I am not even close to violating 5/24 and my credit score is mid-700s, you think there’s a good chance that I’ll be approved if I wait a week or 2 after closing the old Hyatt card?
Yeah I think the chances are pretty good that you would be approved. Especially if you have had good luck with Chase in the past. If it doesn’t go through you may be able to reactivate the old card if it is within 30 days too – not 100% on that. But I would put your chances of success pretty high.
Hi Steve and Mark,
I specifically asked the customer service rep about when the anniversary cert would post under the upgraded card, and she told me quite confidently that it would post on the anniversary date of the upgrade. In fact, she told me that another existing Hyatt card member had called earlier and that he had 6 months to go until he would qualify for the anniversary cert under the old card, so he decided to wait to upgrade because doing so now would leave him waiting for a year to get an anniversary cert. We actually spent a few minutes talking about this, because I mentioned that my anniversary cert under the old card had just posted a couple of months ago, and she said that that cert was still valid but that I would get the anniversary cert under the new card a year from sign up. The customer service rep told me that the reps only learned about the new card about 5 days ago and that lots of existing card members had been calling with questions and that the reps were taking a lot of time to figure out the answers. It is possible that she was wrong, but, again, she sounded very confident about her response.
On the other hand, I asked when I would be charged the extra $20 for the annual fee, and she told me that I would not be charged right away but at some point–maybe 6-7 months from now–I would be charged the entire annual fee for the new card. I opened the old card in June, so that would not correspond with the opening date of the old card. I should have followed up on this with her, but she wasn’t trying to be exact on when I would be charged the new fee, and when the annual fee for the new card would post was not on my radar at the time of the call. The spend issues toward the 2nd cert and additional night credits toward status were my main focus.
Wow – surprising. Doesn’t make much sense to be but good to know.
Yeah billing the full fee in 6 months seems weird and like she was shooting from the hip.
I am thinking that if someone calls to upgrade and asks whether the annual cert is awarded from the date the original card was opened and the rep says yes, Chase probably records these calls. When I upgraded to Citi Prestige from Premier a few years back, I asked if I would get the new sign up bonus, and the rep said yes. When I called a few months later after I met the new spend requirement, the rep said I wasn’t eligible for the bonus, so I gave the new rep the date I asked for the switch. The rep went back and listened to the recorded call and called me back to tell me the signup bonus would be added to my account. I am thinking the same would likely apply to Chase.
There was a comment on a DOC post about upgrading that said the commenter was told that the anniversary date would remain the same. So, obviously, there are conflicting answers being given.
It makes more sense to keep them the same date since the account is the same. Pretty much how everyone else does it…yeah I am guessing the front line reps don’t really know either way lol
Upgraded by phone call. Had to ask about the 2000 points but I did get them. Note, whether you upgrade now or later may depend on when your anniversary night certificate posts. Mine just posted last month so I’ll only be waiting 1 additional month for next year’s certificate. If your anniversary is coming up in the next few months on the old card, you should probably wait until the cert posts before upgrading; otherwise you will be waiting for a year from the date of the upgrade for your next anniversary cert. I know it’s common sense but I thought it’s worth pointing out. Also, purchases made calendar year to date which would have gone toward Explorist status under the old card are basically zeroed out since the new card doesn’t come with Explorist status with spend. If you are close to reaching that $50k spend level, you may want to wait to earn Explorist before upgrading, since otherwise, you can only go from Discoverist to Globalist with credit card spend–no in between. Also, probably obvious but I confirmed, past year to date spend won’t count toward the $15k for the second free night. Account number can stay the same if you want and even though you won’t get new card for 6-10 biz days, the new account will become effective in 1-3 days. You need to check your Chase account to see if it shows the new card’s terms are in effect. Once that happens, any new spend will go toward the second free night cert, even before you get your new card. Hope this helps some people in their decision-making process.
I asked about that above and Mark mentioned it wouldn’t be that way.
So what’s correct? The Chase CSR didn’t know the answer to it and my call to the manager got disconnected as always with their useless crap service.
Pauline did they tell you that directly? Every other card issuer keeps you on the same anniversary date when you product change. That would be interesting if Chase did it differently. Thanks for the info!
Maybe a good data point would be what happened to the folks who upgraded their IHG card (I didn’t because doubling the AF for pretty much nothing extra didn’t make any sense to me).
There in lies the rub – I don’t know if there are any lol
Anyone who earns 2% cash back on an existing credit card (not that hard to do) faces an opportunity cost of $300 for spending $15K on the new Hyatt card. Not sure whether a “free night” at a Hyatt category 1-4 is worth $300.
You seem to be forgetting the at least 15,000 Hyatt points you would be earning with the free night.
What happens to the annual free night if you upgrade? My card anniversary is in January. Is it going to reset and I lose out half a free night because my new anniversary won’t be until June 2019?
Also, can you continue to use your old card? The new one looks ugly and I won’t have the chance of going to my mailbox in the US anytime soon (living in Asia right now).
You would keep the same anniversary date so you would still get the free night in January.
Usually after PC they allow you to use the old one until the new one is activated but I can’t say for sure. You could ask when you call them. But eventually you would have to activate the new card.
It would seem that the 5 elite night credits would play a major role in deciding whether to upgrade, such as for those of us planning on qualifying or re-qualifying for Globalist, especially when doing so involves some mattress running. I guess this comes down to adding the savings from forgoing 5 nights of mattress running this year – the opportunity cost of lost potential bonus spend on another card in meeting the minimum spend on the new Hyatt card – the risk of not getting approved for the new Hyatt card for one reason or another, and then deciding whether the result is above or below 58,000 Hyatt points.
The 5 nights will probably save many 25k in mattress runs.
I have had my Hyatt card for many years. If I cancel, how long do I have to wait to reapply? I have paid the annual fee for this year and have the free night cert in my account already…that night would not be taken out if I canceled, correct?
I think you could apply a week or two later if you went that route. You would keep your free night. Depending on how long ago you paid could get an AF refund too.
I have the card and I think I’ll wait. The old Hyatt isn’t available any more so my hope is that they offer more points than 2,000. They should actually offer 20,000 points for a PC.
It would have been nice if they did something like they did with the Marriott upgrade offer. I don’t see it going much higher since 2K is what they offered for the IHG card too.
Just upgraded. I think this is a no brainer especially to earn elite status or help with it and getting that second night certificate.
Too much risk in waiting and canceling and reapplying especially with these Shutdown datapoints.
Totaly agree
I took the upgrade. Called at 10:15ET yesterday. CSR said I was the first person to do so.
I’m 5/24 limited as well. Need another 31 nights this year. I could easily spend $15k today and then be only 20 nights away.
Excellent – did they give you the 2K bonus points for upgrading?
Yeah.. that was stated when I upgraded.
I guess it’s all too soon to show up yet.
Thanks Mark. I hate to say it, but the stay credit looms large to me, and I assume others. Many holding this card do it for some sort of status. Getting 5 nights plus another 2 for each $5k spend will send a lot of travelers to Explorist.
And if used properly the additional cat 4 night(via $15K spend) means two free nights at some decent properties(Andaz Papagayo, I’m looking at you).
Here’s to hoping some huge deval is not on the way………….
Yeah if you play it right it can offer a lot of value. Nice to see a bank bring out an actual improved card.
This plus Hyatt counting award nights towards status is going to help a lot of people out.