Update 11/18/20: Chase has reached out to state that legacy cardholders will automatically be converted on January 11, 2021. They also point out that existing cardholders have the opportunity to earn another free night certificate by December 31, 2020 but this was previously announced. The increased annual fee will start to be charged in August 2021, so if your renewal is before then you’ll pay the lower annual fee for that cardmember year.
Original post: Waller’s Wallet (very reliable Chase news and info) legacy Chase Hyatt cardholders will have their cards automatically converted to the new World of Hyatt card in November. You can see all of the differences between these two cards in the table below:
| World Of Hyatt | Hyatt | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Fee | $95 | $75 |
| Elite status | Discoverist + 5 five elite night credits | Discoverist |
| Elite status with spend | Two qualifying night credits per $5,000 (no cap) | Explorist after $50,000 spend |
| Free night certificates | One on card anniversay, another if you spend $15,000 in the previous cardmember year | One on card anniversary |
| Hyatt earning rate | 4x | 3x |
| Local transit/commuting earning rate | 2x | 1x |
| Restaurants/cafes/coffee shops earning rate | 2x | 2x (restaurants only) |
| Airline tickets purchased directly & car rentals earning rate | 2x | 2x |
| Fitness clubs & gym memberships earning rate | 2x | 1x |
| Earning rate on all other purchases | 1x | 1x |
The biggest difference is that the legacy card has a $75 annual fee compared to $95 on the World of Hyatt. A lot of cardholders keep these cards long term due to annual free night certificate. We’ve seen some upgrade bonuses for moving from the legacy card to the World of Hyatt card before, so it’ll be interesting to see if something similar is offered at conversion or not.
