Last week, Hyatt announced a revamp of their several years old credit card. This new World of Hyatt credit card brought their co-branded card up to more modern standards, as far as what people look for in a hotel card. You can read all about the card here.
Who Should Upgrade to the New World of Hyatt Card?
Link: New World of Hyatt Card
I published a post shortly after that about “should you upgrade to the new World of Hyatt card?” The post looked at the different earning potentials based against an annual fee that was $20 higher than the old one (which is no longer available to apply for).
However, not everyone that has the Hyatt card should upgrade to the new World of Hyatt card. So, I thought I would do a short post to look at who should upgrade and what you should do if you have the old card at all.
Did You Just Apply for the Old Hyatt Card in the Last 24 Months?
Keep track of when you receive the bonus / Courtesy Shutterstock
Go ahead and upgrade (you should be able to do it from this website eventually). This is because you will not be eligible for a Hyatt card bonus if you already had one in the last 24 months.
It also means that you will not be resetting the 24 months calendar if you upgrade. So, if you got the old Hyatt card last year, you would be able to upgrade now and then close that new card in a little over a year before applying for it again to get the bonus.
Have You Had the Old Hyatt Credit Card for Longer Than 24 Months?
Here is where it gets a bit tricky. The answer depends on what your goal is with cards from Chase. I think the sign-up bonus of 60,000 Hyatt points is awesome and definitely worth over $1,000. But, maybe you are not that loyal to Hyatt or maybe you would rather get something like airline miles or Ultimate Reward points.
If you have a specific chase card in mind and are at 4/24 or 5/24 and up, upgrade.
While the new World of Hyatt card does not currently have the Chase 5/24 rule apply to it, it will count towards your 5/24 number. So, if you are waiting for something like the Chase Sapphire Reserve/Preferred and you are at 4/24 (and won’t drop any lower in the next few months), it is better to upgrade.
If you are under Chase’s 5/24 and already have the old Hyatt card (for at least 24 months), don’t upgrade.
If this above one is you, the best thing to do would be to close your Hyatt credit card and wait a couple of weeks to a month. Then apply for this new World of Hyatt credit card. This way, you will get all of the fantastic earning potential plus you will get the 60,000 points
If You Have the Old Hyatt Card and Are Not Eligible to Get the New One, Should You Upgrade?
Here is the thing – shortly after I wrote the last upgrade post, Chase stopped taking applications for the old Hyatt card. I would imagine they would be grandfathering people to the new World of Hyatt card at some point. The problem for them is it comes with a $95 annual fee – $20 higher than the old one has.
To lessen that blow right now, they are offering a 2,000 point bonus to upgrade.
If you really don’t care about the new features on the World of Hyatt card and you just keep the old one for now for that anniversary free night, I would hold off on upgrading right now. Chances are that Chase may actually offer you a bit more to upgrade in the future if they are trying to close down the old line. Either way, you can save $20 now by not upgrading if you do not plan to put any spending on it.
Takeaway
Chase and Hyatt clearly designed this new World of Hyatt card to be a card that customers actually spent on. The old Hyatt card was a perfect sock drawer card but Chase has done some nice things to encourage spending with the new one.
While it is nice to have the brand new thing, you may want to look over your options as to whether you are better off upgrading now, shutting your card down and applying for a new one, or just sitting on it to see what happens.
Hi, upgrading to the new WofH card appeals to me as a Hyatt loyalist (ie 25 stay Diamond, now Globalist, who would like to, but be unable to achieve 55 nights each year to re-qualify) and due to Chase’s 5/24 I want to limit new card apps. Do you have any perspective on the timing of the upgrade relative to the anniversary date to optimize both the anniversary and 15K spend certs?
I’ve thought about this for a few days. I won’t be under 5/24 until February so that’s a while a way. I just got a new credit card 2 weeks ago and need to put $4,000 on it in order to make the bonus. I think I’ll just cancel the current Hyatt card and get the new one because 60,000 Hyatt points = $1,000. If Chase were smart they’d offer us 20,000 miles to upgrade. 2,000 miles isn’t worth my time to upgrade.
As an old hyatt card holder and someone who doesn’t care about elite qualifying nights, I don’t see why it’s worth upgrading.
The only benefit that the new card seems attractive is the extra cat 1~4 free night after spending $15000.
However, let’s consider the opportunity cost of this 15000 spending.
Let’s say you spend 15000 at non-bonus category, you get 15000 hyatt points worth 270 (1.8 cents/point)
If you spend that 15000 using Freedom Unlimited, you get 22500 chase points worth 472.5 (2.1 cents/point)
Also, new card has 20 extra annual fee.
Therefore, the opportunity cost for getting the additional free night is 472.5 – 270 + 20 = 222.5
$222.5 for a cat 1~4 free night? Not so good for me.
What if you spend on bonus category? You get 3x points using CSR vs 2x points on hyatt, which increases the opportunity even further.
Your math is wrong. Why? Anyone in the Hyatt system, even w/o owning the credit card, who stays 30 nights gets a free cat 1-4 certificate. Therefore that $15k of spending would get the cardholder two, not one, cat 1-4 certificates. Making the spending on the Hyatt card far more valuable than the opportunity cost of not putting that spending on the Chase FU card.
Road warriors who already earned that 30 night certificate? Those people are spending a lot at Hyatts already and would be giving up the 4 pts/dollar they get by charging their Hyatt nights to the new Hyatt card. That is a heck of an opportunity cost.
You must have misunderstood.
I am doing the math from the perspective of an owner of old hyatt card who doesn’t travel that often. This type of people don’t have chance to spend $15k at hyatt. My math is trying to show that it doesn’t worth putting the $15k on non-bonus category to earn the extra free night.
If you are those type of traveller who can stay as much as 30 nights a year at Hyatt, by all means, go with the new Hyatt card.