As rumored by Will Run For Miles yesterday and confirmed by OMaaT today Chase will be changing the sign up bonus on the Chase Hyatt card on June 29th, 2017 to 40,000 points after $2,000 in spend. Currently the card gives you two free nights at any Hyatt Hotel or resort worldwide (there is a better offer that includes a $50 statement credit). All other benefits of the card will be staying the same (including the 5,000 points for adding an authorized user).
To compare we need to look at the Hyatt award chart:
If you’re staying a category 6 property or higher you’re better off with the free night offer. If you stay at a category four property or lower your better off with the points offer. Category five you break even with either offer. There are two things to remember with the point offer:
- Once a year they have been offering a rebate on points. This year it was a 10% rebate (2016 was 10% also, 2015 was 20%)
- This opens up the flexibility of cash + point stays: The award chart for that is as follows:
The other thing to consider is that the free nights expire after twelve months and the points do not. It has been possible to turn those expired certificates into points but recently they seems to no longer work. Personally I prefer a points based offer, but I think the sweet spot for me is 50,000 points rather than 40,000. That’s because I tend to focus on lower category properties. I also find with free night certificates I make irrational choices to try and maximize my “value” of those certificates.
If you prefer the free nights bonus then make sure you get the one with the $50 statement credit. As always, make sure you read these things everybody should know about Chase before applying. For example this card does not fall under the Chase 5/24 rule.
