If you haven’t heard, Chase and Hyatt have a limited-time sign-up offer for the World of Hyatt Card. Until October 31, new applicants can receive 5 free nights at a category 1-4 Hyatt. Offers like this are meant to create FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) among potential applicants, and it’s working. With just over two weeks to decide, it’s prompting people who were on the fence about getting the Hyatt card to take action. There are others jumping at the chance to get five free Hyatt nights as a sign-up bonus. Before you fill out the application, make sure to consider if this offer is the right fit for you.
Previous Offers
World of Hyatt points are more valuable than those with other loyalty programs. For instance, rooms at the highest Category 8 properties, like the Park Hyatt Sydney and The Chatwal in Manhattan, top out at 40,000 points a night. Comparable hotels with Marriott go for 150,000 to 250,000+ points per night.
Before this offer, the World of Hyatt card provided a 30,000-point bonus if you spent $3,000 on purchases in the first three months after opening your account. Additionally, you could earn an extra 30,000 points by earning 2 points per dollar in the first six months after opening your account.
Limited Time Offer
The limited-time offer for the World of Hyatt Card is for 5 free nights.
Earn 5 free nights at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months from account opening.* These nights could be worth up to 90,000 points.
90,000 points sounds better than 30,000 points or even 60,000 points if you maxed out the previous offer. But should you take the free nights or wait for a points offer to come back? As usual, Your Mileage May Vary.
Five Free Nights At Any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel
While the promotion says the free nights could be worth up to 90,000 points, it’s unlikely that you’re going to get that much value from them. Here’s the point chart for Hyatt. Notice that the peak pricing for a Category 4 hotel is 18,000 points a night, so you’d have to find a hotel with availability for 5 nights at peak pricing to save 90,000 points. Most people are going to save less.
It’s not impossible to find a nice Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel. With the sign-up bonus, you can stay for five nights at The Hyatt Residence Club Sedona, Piñon Pointe, which is a Category 4 hotel.
Or the nicest Category 4 hotel we’ve ever seen, at the Hyatt Regency Danang in Vietnam
However, there are also nice hotels that are lower than Category 4, such as the Hyatt Place in St. Paul, MN, which is only a Category 2 and is located in the old Customs House building.
Downsides of earning free night certificates
While this is the highest number of free nights that Hyatt has awarded as a signup bonus for the World of Hyatt Card, earning free nights instead of points has some downsides.
For starters, you’re limited to Category 1-4 properties. If you want to stay in Manhattan, that’s too bad. What about Hawaii? There’s only a single Category 4 hotel in the state. Hyatt has also increased the categories for many hotels that used to be in Category 4. In fact, three places we’ve stayed with free night certificates (Gild Hall, The Eliza Jane and Grand Hyatt Washington) have moved from Category 4 to Category 5, making them ineligible to use free nights.
Unlike Marriott Bonvoy and IHG One Rewards free night certificates, World of Hyatt does not allow adding points to top off an award. A Category 1-4 free night is good for up to Category 4 and that’s that.
Another downside is that the free nights expire in twelve months after they are placed in your account. That’s compared to World of Hyatt points that only expire within 24 months if you have no account activity. If you have a World of Hyatt card, any purchase extends the life of your points.
Other Uses For Points
Additional things to remember about free night certificates are that they can only be used if a hotel has base-level rooms available. This can be an issue since some Hyatt hotels like to play with room classifications. I’ve experienced times when the only base-level room was a handicapped-accessible room. At other properties, I’ve heard of them offering packages including parking or dinner for the base level rooms on the website but not having any room available for awards.
If you have points, World of Hyatt allows you to book club-level rooms or suites for additional points. That’s how we ended up with this amazing view from the Grand Hyatt Kauai.
View from our balcony at the Grand Hyatt Kauai
Should You Take the Five Free Night Offer?
As we like to say, Your Mileage May Vary. If you know that you’ll be able to use the free nights within a year at a Category 1-4 property, then it’s a good deal and the best I’ve seen for the World of Hyatt Card. However, if you’re looking to stay at the Hyatt Centric Key West, which costs 40,000 points a night, you’re better off waiting for a points offer to return.
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2 comments
There are some nice low grade hotels thousands of miles away but staying 5 nights in a 1-4 hotel in the U.S. fills me with dread.
As I pointed out in the post, there are a few nice Cat 1-4 Hyatt properties in the US, including some of the airport hotels, but otherwise you’re going to be staying at a Hyatt Place or Hyatt House.