World of Hyatt $15K Free Night Changes
I received a letter in the mail yesterday about my World of Hyatt credit card and the $15K free night change. Usually letters from credit card issuers only come with bad news but this is a change that I was actually happy to see. And with the new World of Hyatt $15K free night change there is a potential double dip mixed in there for extra measure.
Reminder 1/3/22:
A reminder that this has gone into effect so start that spending for your free night certificate!
Reltated: (Date Announced) Legacy Hyatt Card Will Convert to World of Hyatt Visa
Changes to $15K Free Night
World of Hyatt cardholders have the opportunity to earn a category 1-4 free night after spending $15,000 in a cardmember year. This is on top of the anniversary night certificate they get for paying the $95 annual fee. I have done some creative things in the past to easily earn this extra free night. That is now changing with the new setup:
- From your account open anniversary in 2020 to your account anniversary in 2021 you can earn a free night per the normal terms.
- From your account anniversary in 2021 till December 31, 2021 you can earn an additional free night certificate after an additional $15,000 in spend.
- Starting on January 1, 2022 you will be able to earn a free night certificate after spending $15,000 each calendar year.
World of Hyatt and Chase are changing the earing calendar to a calendar year instead of cardmember year.
The Potential Double Dip
If you have been following along then you probably already see the potential double dip. In 2021 you could potentially earn 2 free night certificates. This will be more difficult for anyone that has their cardmember anniversary at the end of the year. But, for anyone that has it towards the middle of the year etc. you could earn one before your anniversary date in 2021 and then another one before 1/1/2022. After that, you will be able to earn one per calendar year going forward. That is a nice little perk of the system change.
Final Thoughts & Why I love This Change
Outside of the potential double dip next year I really like this change. I value simplicity a lot and this change offers it in spades. No longer will I have to remember when my anniversary date is and when my wife’s one is and then juggle back and forth between the two. Throw in the fact that many of us also have the Hilton Surpass card, and its free night is based on a calendar year, and it always got a little messy.
I will also say that Chase seems to have no idea what to do if you upgraded into the World of Hyatt card, which many people will be forced into soon. They can’t tell you if everything is based on the upgrade date or the original sign up date. And your anniversary night will post months after your annual fee bills because of it. This change gets everyone on the same page, including the Chase reps, which should avoid a big potential mess that was coming.
I will now have two World of Hyatt cards and one Surpass card all on the same calendar starting in 2022. That will make the process that much easier. I will earn one certificate and move onto the next throughout the year never second guessing if the clock has reset yet.
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Is there a specific time of the year that’s best to try and achieve the 15k free night? Best to match with your free night for being a card member to coincide the expiration dates? Or better to spread 6 months apart? Or better to match with a specific season/holiday?
I think it all depends on your current situation and what you want to do. I could see all 3 of those options working for someone depending on their goals.
My statement ended on 1/12/22. I just received my hyatt free night for the 15k spend this morning. I had not reached the 15k spend on my 12/12/21 statement. So it most def IS (or at this point was) the calendar year that counts for the 15k spend
Perfect – thanks Tom
Disappointed that Hyatt is not extending free night certificates that were issued this year. Even IHG is compensating their customers for expiring certificates that were not used due to the pandemic. Hyatt’s lack of customer service foreshadows continued decreasing market share and fewer properties.
Hyatt has always offered points for expired certs so if you congratulate IHG for doing something one time that Hyatt as always done I don’t think they are doing too poorly 🙂
I’m curious…i can get 3% cash back on a different credit card. That’s $450. So the rooms would have to be worth more than that, which I’m guessing they are. But I can usually get fairly nice rooms for $125/night at places like Hilton. So am I better to use my cash back card and spend my money at Hilton? Or are we taking about Hyatt rooms worth the splurge? Or am I mistaken?
Frank – dont forget to count the points you get for spending the $15k. You can get anywhere from 15-30k more points plus the free night. So it might give you 3 nights at a 15k hotel. I went to Sedona at a category 4 and nights were over $400 per night so it also depends on where and when you use them.
Yeah it should get you in the 30,000 points+ area when you include normal earning and the free night cert. I think many people will get $450+ of value from that. More if you use the points at Cat 1 or 2 hotels etc. But it totally depends on your valuations and your goals. Throw in the fact that you earn elite night credits and it pushes it over the top for Hyatt loyalists. But I don’t think you go wrong either way
I kept the Chase World of Hyatt letter explaining the opportunity to receive an additional free night award in 2021. It states “You can earn another Free Night Award by spending $15,000 in purchases between your 2021 account open anniversary date and December 31, 2021.” It goes on to say in the fine print “You will have from the day after your anniversary date in 2021 through December 31, 2021 to spend $15,000 in purchases to earn a Free Night Award. On January 1, 2022 your spend total will reset to $0, and the time period for you to spend $15,000 to earn a Free Night Award will run from January 1 through December 31 of each calendar year.” It sounds pretty clear to me that you have from the day after your anniversary date in 2021 until December 31, 2021 to spend $15,000 to earn one additional Free Night Award in 2021. I met the $15,000 spend after my anniversary date in early December 2021 and still have not received my additional free night award. I purposely saved this letter in case there was an issue.
So I emailed them about this last week. We have 2 WOH cards, one for me and one for my wife. My statement ended on say like Dec 12th and I received the night in my account like 3 days after. My wife finished her spend about 3 days after her Dec closing date (roughly Dec 14th statement close). I asked Hyatt whether the night would not be credited until after the statement date closed in Jan. I didn’t get a clear response, they said that it would be 2-3 weeks after the spend was completed (it was much quicker than that for me). But they stated in the message that you had until Dec 31 to reach the limit. I think it posts after the statement date in Jan if you didn’t reach the limit until after the Dec statement closing date
Is it Jan 1 – Dec 31 for sure? Or Dec to Dec statement?
That we are not entirely sure on. The terms say calendar year so I think you are fine going with that. The system may do Dec statement to Dec statement like it does for Southwest cards etc. I plan on getting it done before that just to be safe.
Need some help figuring out this switch from anniversary spending to annual.
My anniversary date is 11/1 (at least this is when they charge me annual fee).
I spent about $5K 1/1/21-11/1/21. Just some natural spending, I wasn’t planning to go for the cert.
Then I figured out I need a few more nights so I spent $11K so far from 11/1 to date.
Did I actually “lose” the spending I made before 11/1 meaning that I should go ahead and spend another $4K now to get the cert?
Thank you!
I would secure message them because the annual fee date and anniversary date don’t match up if you upgraded to the WoH card etc. They should be able to let you know for sure though.
Definitely found out the hard way that they’re using the OLD anniversary date for those of us who switched to the new WOH card. I was using June as my goal date, but my anniversary for the old card was in October, so I have only from then until Dec 31st to meet $15K
Yup I made that mistake last year and started spending too early 🙁
And it should go without saying if you are going for Globalist, this spend really helps as with $30,000 spend you’d also get 12 nights credit for spending that much (they award 2 nights for every $5k spend).
And this year you only need 50% of the usual so only 30 nights to get Globalist.
It does help people chasing status for sure
I’ve earned a couple of these $15K spend free nights over the years. The problem for me is that they are only valid for 6 months. That doesn’t always easily fit with my travel plans.
Oh no – I thought they were good for a full 1 year from issuance. Is the 6 month time frame def true because that certainly is an issue
They are good for 12 months. The ones earned from milestones are only good for 6 months.
Sorry – you’re right. I’m glad to see that the policy has changed. I did have trouble in the past with these and the 5-Brand Free Night Awards expiring in 6 months. It used to be that you could not use a Club Upgrade Award on one of these Free Nights. It would be great if that had changed, too.
$15k on this card seems like a lot to me. Would it be better to just put the spend on a CSR card and either redeem for 1.5 cents or transfer to Hyatt? It wouldn’t expire or be limited to cat 1-4 either.
$15k gets you a free night – and somewhere between 15-30k in points for the 15k spend. So it is def getting you at least 2 free nights at a Cat 4
Yeah people forget that the card earns points AND gets you a free night. It is essentially 2-3 points per dollar on $15k in spend if you use it at a cat 4. As long as you use the cert at a cat 2 or higher you come out ahead of a Freedom Unlimited – assuming all 1x earning spend
Got my WoH card in Feb 2021. I’ve spent over $15k.
Does this mean if I spend another $15k+, I’ll get two free nights?
Nope, this is more for legacy cardholders. You will be able to start spending towards the next free night on Jan 1st instead of having to wait till February though.
Not so great for me, my card anniversary date is December 30th… Oh well.
any idea how to check your anniversary? i applied for card on 12/29/19 but don’t remember if i was approved that day or if there was a delay.
You can send them a secure message and they should be able to tell you.
I got the WoH card on January 28, 2020. I hit the $15k free night certificate within a few months of having the card. Does this mean that between January 1 and January 28, I have a four week window to spend another $15k for a free night certificate, then another $15k after the anniversary date but before the end of the year?
You unfortunately don’t get anything really with the change since yours is so close to January 1st. You can earn a new one starting the 28th of 2021 and then it starts new again 1/1/22. So basically the new window opens a month earlier after next year for you but not much of a benefit really.
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Why say double dip? If you need to spend 30000 to get two FNs, it is not double dip. Double dip means get 2 FNs after spending 15000.
Because normally you can only earn 1 over a 12 month period. This would allow you to earn 2.
Does the spend counter reset on your card anniversary or when you spend $15000? IE. if the anniversary is in October and you spend $20000 from January – October; does the counter for the 2nd free night start at $0 or $5000?
i think it resets and you start at 0. So you would need to do the full 15k from oct-dec. That’s why Mark said it would be difficult to get the 2nd night if you have an anniversary date late in the year
Yes it resets – you would start from 0 again.
Well I’m pretty sure I could get more than the value of a single 1-4 category stay when spending $15,000.
You also get 15-30k points, depending on your spending category.
It works out to around 3% in return on non bonus spend. That is pretty tough to beat unless you are working on a welcome offer. If you pair it up with one of their spending offers (like 5X right now) then you are not gonna beat it. Throw in the fact that it earns elite night credits and most people will find it worthwhile. But it isn’t for everyone that is for sure.
I have the old card – so I guess they are sending me a new card at the beginning of Jan (my anniversary date is June 1). I assume that once I get the new card, I have from that date until June 1 to spend $15k, but not entirely sure. But if it does allow that, then i have a good anniversary date to take advantage of the 2 nights next year. It is clear for existing WOH cardholders, but not clear on old cardholders who are being upgraded.