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At a time when most of us aren’t traveling much, you might put off applying for a new airline credit card, or even a more general travel one like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Hotel credit cards are a different story, though. While you may not hop on a plane anytime soon, hotel chains have vast collections of properties across multiple brands, so there are usually lots of places to redeem your points closer to home. That’s certainly the case with World of Hyatt, which comprises nearly 1,000 hotels in almost 70 countries and includes labels like Park Hyatt, Thompson, Andaz, Alila, Miraval, Hyatt Place, and more. Hyatt even recently launched a new initiative to offer complimentary COVID-19 testing at all its properties in Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean, so a beach vacation might not be such a daunting prospect. That’s good news because right now, the The World of Hyatt Credit Card is posting one of its highest-ever welcome offers. Here’s why you might want to consider applying for it.
The offer
Unlike Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt only has a single cobranded credit card with its banking partner, Chase. These are the details.
The World of Hyatt Credit Card
Right now, this card is offering one of its best-ever bonuses, with enough points for some phenomenal award stays at fancy hotels around the world.
- Welcome offer: Earn up to 60,000 bonus points–30,000 points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. Plus up to another 30,000 bonus points by earning two points per dollar spent on up to $15,000 of purchases that normally only earn one point per dollar in the first six months.
- Earning: This card earns up to nine bonus points per dollar spent at Hyatt hotels—four bonus points plus the five base points World of Hyatt members earn per dollar. It accumulates two points per dollar spent on dining, airline tickets purchased directly from airlines, local transit and commuting, and fitness and gym memberships. It earns one point per dollar on everything else.
- Annual free night certificates: Every account anniversary, cardholders receive a free night certificate redeemable at Category 1–4 Hyatt hotels and resorts (so it’s worth up to 15,000 points per night). Those who spend $15,000 or more on purchases in a year can earn a second free night.
- Elite status: Cardholders receive automatic Discoverist elite status, which normally requires staying five nights or earning 12,500 base points (i.e., spending $2,500 at hotels) in a calendar year. That level comes with perks like upgrades to (slightly better-than-standard) preferred rooms, a 10 percent points bonus on Hyatt purchases, and late checkout. For every $5,000 spent on the card, you can earn an additional two qualifying nights toward a higher status.
- Travel benefits: The World of Hyatt Credit Card includes a comprehensive suite of travel and purchase protections, including trip interruption and cancellation, lost and delayed baggage coverage, and secondary rental-car insurance.
- Annual fee: $95
Why apply for this card?
Compared to other recent introductory offers, including those currently available with Hilton’s credit cards and the Platinum Card® from American Express, earning 60,000 World of Hyatt points might not seem like much. But this is actually a solid bonus and one of the highest ever posted by this card. Although you do have to jump through a few hoops to earn the full amount.
Unlike some other bonuses that require you to hit a single spending threshold—say $2,000 within the first three months—this card is offering what’s known as a tiered bonus. You can earn the first 30,000 points after making $3,000 of purchases in the first three months from account opening. Straightforward enough. However, you will also earn an extra bonus point on up to $15,000 of purchases that normally only earn one point per dollar (so things other than Hyatt stays, dining, airline tickets, etc.) over the first six months. That will take some strategy, but it is doable, and breaks down to $2,500 per month, which you could spend on things like groceries, home improvement, car repairs, and other day-to-day needs.
Here’s what makes 60,000 World of Hyatt points so valuable. Reward nights at Hyatt’s properties range from 5,000 to 40,000 points each, depending on the category of the individual hotel. So 60,000 points would be enough for 12 nights at a budget-friendly Category 1 location like the Hyatt Place North Charleston in South Carolina.
At the other end of the spectrum are ultra-exclusive hotels in Category 8, which require 40,000 points per night. In reality, there are only a couple dozen of these since they tend to be available through Hyatt’s affiliate partnership with the Small Luxury Hotels collection. The most luxurious Hyatt hotels around the world are in Category 7, which requires just 30,000 points per night. That means the welcome bonus for this card can score you two nights at some spectacular places where room rates regularly top $1,000 per night, such as Ventana Big Sur, an Alila Resort along California’s rugged coast and the opulent Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme. Two nights at a world-class hotel isn’t a bad takeaway from a single credit card sign-up.
Also remember that if you do hit the $15,000 dollar mark for the welcome offer, you’ll earn a free reward night certificate redeemable at hotels in World of Hyatt’s Category 1–4 range, so it’s worth up to another 15,000 points. That means you can use it at properties like the Thompson Chicago or the Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach in the United States, or resorts like the Park Hyatt Zanzibar farther afield.
You will also rack up six extra elite-qualifying nights, along with the five this card automatically confers every year. That means you would only need to stay four more nights to get to the second level of elite status, Explorist, in 2021. At that tier, you can enjoy perks like earning 20 percent more bonus points on stays, better priority for room upgrades, complimentary premium internet, and four club lounge access awards applicable to stays of up to seven nights, among other advantages.
Another factor in this card’s favor: its thorough travel and purchase protections, more important than ever these days. They include trip interruption and cancellation up to $5,000 per trip and trip delay coverage that starts at 12 hours and will cover up to $500 per ticket, say if your flight is delayed. The card also covers lost and delayed bags and provides purchase protection of up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account as far out as 120 days after you buy an item.
While it will take some work to earn The World of Hyatt Credit Card’s full 60,000-point bonus, doing so means you will have the points for some truly incredible hotel stays, depending on your plans. Hopefully as vaccine rollouts continue and international travel becomes less restricted, there will be even more opportunities to redeem those rewards both in the U.S. and abroad.
While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they are subject to change at any time, and may have changed or may no longer be available. This article was originally published on January 29, 2021; it was updated on October 1, 2021, with current information
