Hyatt Credit Card Review
Despite being one of the biggest and most popular luxury hotel brands in the world, you might be surprised to hear that up until 2 years ago, Hyatt never issued their own branded card.
Why not? Well the rumor was because they weren’t interested in having one, unless it could be the best hotel credit card on the market.
So did they accomplish that goal or not? Well review it for yourself… I think there’s a strong case that they did!
The best card offer ever?
We all know cardholder promotions have been pretty enticing lately, but the new Chase Hyatt credit card offer takes it to a whole new level…
Two free nights at any Hyatt, worldwide! Sure, some hotel cards will reel you in with a promotion for a free stay but then when you dig into the fine print, you discover they only give it to you at their lowest level properties. That’s NOT the case with the Hyatt 2 free nights promotion. Take a look for yourself – there are NO sneaky exclusions in the application’s fine print!
No sneaky exclusions… it’s refreshing to see a credit card offer that! So how much is this signup bonus actually worth? Well obviously the room rates vary by location but to give you an idea, I priced out a 2-night stay for fall 2012 at a couple of their high profile properties…
The Paris Vendome location is especially valuable, considering the dollar to euro conversion. Is this the most valuable credit card promotion ever? I can’t imagine the Hyatt card will run such a generous offer for long… so you definitely don’t want this one to pass you by.
Go here to earn 2 free nights after your first purchase
There are no resort, Internet or redemption fees for your award nights. There aren’t blackout dates either. So whether you use them to stay at a lower end location or a high profile property like those above, one thing is for sure… getting 2 free nights at a luxury hotel like Hyatt – regardless of the location – is a ridiculously generous promotion.
Earning rewards
As you would expect, with the Hyatt Visa card you earn Hyatt Gold Passport points:
- 3 points per dollar spent at Hyatt
- 1 point per dollar everywhere else
There are no limits to how many points you can earn. How much are Hyatt points worth? Well, here is the reward redemption chart for rooms as of 2012.
Based on my experience, it’s easy to get up to 1.5 to 2 cents per Gold Passport point when you convert them to free nights at their hotels. But even if you’re not familiar with the rewards program, all you have to do is look at the two room quotes above to get the gist of how valuable their points are! So this means that even though the Chase Hyatt only gives 1 pt/dollar on normal spending, keep in mind that each point can be worth a lot more than what you typically get with most cards out there.
Big benefits for a small fee
The annual fee is very reasonable at $75 and once you see the benefits, I don’t think anyone can dispute that the credit card from Hyatt is worth every penny and more.
Comes with chip and PIN – Almost no US issued credit cards come with chip and PIN technology (EMV). As a result, swiping your old-fashioned magnetic strip card at European train ticket kiosks, parking meters, and gas pumps is usually impossible. But not for the Hyatt card.
No foreign transaction fees – With the Hyatt Visa you won’t ever have to pay that pesky 3% currency conversion surcharge ever again.
Hyatt Platinum status – You get this status as long as you have their card. Is it worthwhile? As Sarah Palin would say, you betchya!
- Receive a 15% point bonus for each stay
- Option to make a late checkout request and stay until 2:00 pm
- Get the preferred rooms (those on higher floors or that are larger)
- No charge for in-room internet
- Elite member area for faster check-in
Visa Signature benefits – This is the highest tier of a Visa card you can get and therefore it comes with the most bells and whistles: concierge service, purchase security, extended warranty coverage on eligible purchases, lost luggage reimbursement, travel emergency assistance hotline, emergency card and cash replacement, auto rental collision damage waiver, roadside dispatch, Common Carrier travel accident insurance, entertainment benefits, and more. Contact Chase for the details, rules, and exclusions for each benefit.
1 free award night every year on anniversary – Every year on your account’s anniversary date, you receive 1 Award night (good for category 1-4 properties). Obviously, getting that every year easily justifies the Hyatt credit card’s annual fee of $75.
Verdict?
Many of the credit cards out there that come with good signup promotions are not ones you would want to keep for the long haul. However, the Chase Hyatt Visa is definitely an exception: with all the benefits and the free award night every year upon renewal, it definitely makes sense having a permanent place in your wallet for it.
Apply now and receive 2 free nights after first purchase
Don’t procrastinate on this one folks, because a signup promotion this generous won’t last!
We have this card As our only credit card and we love it. We got the 2 free night promo , used the 2 free nights in Toronto w/ no issues. Very easy to claim.
We’ve kept the card since. The annual 1 night stay is a very nice perk. We pay all our monthly bills w/ this card and pay off the balance each month. We do have an excellent credit score, I’m not sure if they permit lower scores. We’ve had no issues At all paying the bill. You create An account thru chase.
It was super easy. Great card!
Used my sign-up 2 free nights at the Park Hyatt Place-Vendome in Paris. Oooh-la-la! That $75 annual fee gave me a $900+ value.
They also give an anniversary night when you renew – so another $75 got me a night in NYC at the 48 Lex Hyatt for Labor Day weekend. They restrict this award to level 1-4 hotels. (I booked a 2nd night with 15,000 points.) Still, tremendous value when going to expensive destinations like Paris and New York.
We got the card last year and were able to use our free nights on two separate occasions. Finding an opportunity to use the free nights was difficult because the free nights are only for standard (meaning “smallest”) rooms. We are a family of six, and when we travel, we travel together. A standard room doesn’t cut it for us. We happened to travel out of the country this past year so the lack of foreign transaction fees was a major plus. But we will not be traveling out of the country again in the future as far as we can tell.
Another bonus of the Hyatt card is that you don’t have to acquire a lot of points to get a free night–only 5000 for some Hyatt Place hotels. That’s a great deal.
If you do a lot of foreign travel, this card is great (although a lot of credit cards are eliminating their foreign transaction fees as well). But for our family, the $75 annual fee is not worth the benefits except for the first year when you get the sign up bonus of two free nights.
I finally signed up for this credit card after a few business trips to Monterey, CA. We love the Hyatt hotel at the Del Monte Golf Course in Monterey, and my family and I have also since stayed here for personal travel. We used the two free nights from signing up for the card for a weekend trip to San Diego this past summer. We use the card to make various purchases each month, pay the bill in full each month, and plan on using the points this next summer for another free stay somewhere. Like all benefits credit cards, use the card monthly to pay for purchases you would make anyways and pay off the bill in full each month to truly get the most benefits for your money.
Could not use the two free nights at the Hyatt Park Lane in London. Only available at the Hyatt in the business area. Nice hotel but further out for tourist purposes. The web site is challenging to find to pay the bill, each time I have to hunt and hunt…