2 Brand New Hyatt Visa Benefits
As if Chase was reading FFU last night, right on command this morning a Reader forwarded me an email from Chase announcing that starting October 1st, the Hyatt Visa will have even more benefits.
As I have talked about before (and coincidently yesterday) the Hyatt Visa is the best Hotel Card out there right now period.
Just by signing up for the Hyatt Visa and spending $1 on the Card, you get 2 Free Night Certificates that can be used at any Hyatt in the World, including the super expensive ones that start at $1,000 a night.
If you and your Travel Partner both sign up for the Card, you have 4 nights free at any Hyatt in the World, for free!
Link To Sign Up For Hyatt Card
Anyways, before today’s announcement the Hyatt Card was already pretty awesome and came with the following benefits.
Original Benefits
- 2 Free Night Certificates After Signing Up
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Smart Chip Card
- 3 Hyatt Points Per $1 Spent At Hyatt
- 1 Hyatt Point Per $1 Spent Everywhere Else
- Hyatt Platinum Status As Long As You Are A Cardmember
- Annual Free Night Certificate For Category 1-4 Property After You Pay The $75 Annual Fee
While all those benefits are pretty spectacular, starting October 1st in addition to everything above, you will also receive 2 new benefits.
New Benefits
- 2 Hyatt Points Per $1 Spent At Restaurants, Airline Tickets, and Car Rental Agencies.
- Elite Stay Credit Based On Annual Spend On Card
What This Means
Basically, Hyatt and Chase are really trying to turn the Hyatt Visa into an Everyday Spend Card.
An “Everyday Spend Card” is a Card that you put all your purchases on.
Honestly, I am surprised Chase also didn’t include Gas & Groceries in the new 2x Points category, because then it really would have been a game changer.
In the past, it was difficult to turn any Chase Hotel Cards into an Everyday Spend Card because the Chase Sapphire Preferred allows you earn 2x Ultimate Rewards Points on Travel and Restaurants.
Those Ultimate Rewards Points can be transferred to Hyatt, United, British Airways, Marriott, Southwest, etc at a 1:1 Ratio.
So in the past, when deciding which Card to put your Everyday Spend on, if the decision was between a Hyatt Visa and a Chase Sapphire Preferred, the Chase Sapphire Preferred always won because you got 2x Points and you could always transfer those points to Hyatt.
Now however the tables have turned and both Cards offer 2x Points on Dining & Travel.
On paper, the Chase Sapphire Preferred would still hold a small advantage because of the transfer flexibility of Ultimate Rewards Points.
This small lead however goes out the window if you consider one small thing.
No one keeps their Chase Sapphire Preferred after the first year because of the Annual Fee!
While I would be happy to pay the Annual Fee on the Hyatt Visa since you get an annual Free Night Certificate worth way more than $75, there is little incentive to keep the Chase Sapphire Preferred after the 1st year.
I haven’t gotten the Hyatt Visa yet, but come December when I do finally sign up for it, I know that it will become my go-to Credit Card when I travel abroad because of the Smart Chip Technology, No Foreign Transaction Fees, and now 2 Hyatt Points per $1 spent on Travel & Restaurants.
Overall, I give Chase & Hyatt 2 thumbs up for this decision to increase the benefits on the Hyatt Card.
Hopefully Chase’s competitors (cough SPG AMEX) jump on board and increase the benefits on their Cards!
I am gleefully counting down the days until I sign up for my Hyatt Visa!
-Parag
