Hyatt Credit Card $15K First Year Sweet Spot

Hyatt Credit Card $15K First Year Sweet Spot

2
In the interest of full disclosure, OMAAT earns a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through some of the below links. These are the best publicly available offers (terms apply) that we have found for each product or service. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of the bank, credit card issuer, airline, hotel chain, or product manufacturer/service provider, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Please check out our advertiser policy for further details about our partners, and thanks for your support!

Link: Apply now for the World of Hyatt Credit Card

The World of Hyatt Credit Card (review) is one of my favorite hotel credit cards, as there are rewards just for having the card, and also a significant incentive to spend money on the card. This is the hotel credit card that I spend the most on every year, so in this post I wanted to share why.

World of Hyatt Credit Card benefits

One of the reasons I consider the World of Hyatt Credit Card to be so well thought out is because Chase and Hyatt created a card that’s not just worth keeping for the perks, but that’s also worth spending money on.

In my experience it’s often one or the other — some cards are worth keeping for the perks but not worth spending on, while other cards are worth spending on but don’t otherwise offer many perks.

Perks for having the Hyatt Card

The World of Hyatt Card offers several great perks just for having the card, including:

The Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf is a Category 4 property

Perks for spending money on the Hyatt Card

Beyond the perks for just having the card (which more than justify the annual fee, in my opinion), the World of Hyatt Credit Card offers the following incentives for spending:

  • Two elite qualifying nights for every $5,000 spent on the card, which can help you toward earning Globalist status
  • A second Category 1-4 free night award when you spend $15,000 on the card in a calendar year
  • 4x points for spending at Hyatt properties, and 2x points on dining at restaurants, airline tickets purchased directly from airlines, on fitness club and gym memberships, and on local transit and commuting, including ridesharing services
Globalist members receive suite upgrades, subject to availability

The World of Hyatt Credit Card $15,000 first year sweet spot

While different people will value spending money on this card differently, it is worth explicitly calling out the sweet spot that exists for spending at least $15,000 on the card per year, especially the first year. For one, maximizing the welcome bonus requires spending $15,000 within the first six months. So if you spend that amount you can not only earn the entire bonus, but can also receive additional incremental perks, which are quite the value-add…

Redeem World of Hyatt points at Alila Jabal Akhdar in Oman

Category 1-4 free night award

If you get the World of Hyatt Credit Card, you’re probably going to want to spend $15,000 to earn the full bonus, if you can. If you’re going to spend $15,000, then you’re going to get a ton of value beyond that, as you’ll also earn an anniversary Category 1-4 free night award (assuming the spending is within a calendar year).

Ordinarily, a Category 4 hotel would cost 12,000-18,000 points per night, so spending that $15,000 would get you a night at one of those hotels.

Now, whether or not you actually want to value that free night award at up to 18,000 points is up to you. Given the lack of flexibility (you have to redeem at exactly a Category 4 to maximize value, it’s only valid for a year, etc.), some might apply a discount to valuing it.

The Wellem Dusseldorf is a Category 4 property

Six additional elite nights

For spending $15,000 on the World of Hyatt Credit Card in a year you’d earn six elite qualifying nights toward status, in addition to the five you earn annually just for having the card. That’s a total of 11 elite nights per year.

I love having Hyatt Globalist status, which requires earning 60 elite nights per year. Elite nights earned with credit cards certainly make it easier to earn this status. Also keep in mind that even if you’d otherwise earn status, earning additional elite nights can help you reach the next Milestone Rewards threshold, which could get you valuable perks like suite upgrade awards, club access awards, Guest of Honor awards, and more.

The World of Hyatt Card is useful for earning status

Spending $15,000 in subsequent years

For what it’s worth, I picked up the World of Hyatt Credit Card in 2018, and have spent $15,000 on the card ever year since. I find this to be well worth it for the anniversary free night award and six additional elite nights.

Best of all, much of the spending I put on the card is at Hyatt properties, where I’m earning 4x points, so there’s not really any opportunity cost to that spending. As long as the card’s benefits remain unchanged, I’ll be putting $15,000 on this card for as long as I can.

What about the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card?

In addition to the World of Hyatt Credit Card, there’s also the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card (review). How does the incentive to spend on that card compare?

  • The business version of the card doesn’t give you the chance to earn any Category 1-4 free night awards, so that’s a major benefit of the personal card
  • While the business version of the card doesn’t give you any elite nights just for being a cardmember, it racks up elite nights with spending faster than the personal card — you earn five elite nights for every $10,000 spent, which comes out to one elite night for every $2,000 spent (compared to one elite night for every $2,500 spent on the personal card)

Long story short, I think it’s much more compelling to spend $15,000 per year on the personal card than the business card. That being said, if you’re a bigger spender in Hyatt’s card portfolio, the business card will earn you elite nights at a faster pace, and the card also has a bigger bonus.

Redeem Hyatt points at Alila Hinu Bay

Bottom line

Overall I think hotel credit cards are incredibly underrated since they can be worth holding onto just for the perks they offer, if nothing else. There aren’t that many hotel credit cards that are actually worth spending money on, though the World of Hyatt Credit Card is an exception.

In addition to the welcome bonus and ongoing perks offered by the card, it can also be worth spending money on the card, both to earn a free night award, and to spend your way toward Globalist status.

This is exactly what I do — by spending $15,000 on the card per year I earn an extra Category 1-4 free night award, plus a total of 11 elite nights.

If you have the World of Hyatt Credit Card, how much spending do you typically put on the card annually?

Conversations (2)
The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.
Type your response here.

If you'd like to participate in the discussion, please adhere to our commenting guidelines. Anyone can comment, and your email address will not be published. Register to save your unique username and earn special OMAAT reputation perks!

  1. Andrew Diamond

    I put exactly my Hyatt spend on my card. I don’t bother to engineer the so-called sweet spot because a c4 certificate is less and less valuable every year.

    Hyatt has worked hard at deflating the value of their points and categories… I think they’ve succeeded. Shareholders rejoice.

  2. Johhny Guest

    I'm with you if Hyatt stays represent a big part of the $15K spend. Otherwise, I would rather put the spend on a 2% back card like VentureX or Citi Double Cash and have the 15k extra points with greater flexibility.

    Then again I have zero chance of reaching Globalist, so room nights have no value.

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Andrew Diamond

I put exactly my Hyatt spend on my card. I don’t bother to engineer the so-called sweet spot because a c4 certificate is less and less valuable every year. Hyatt has worked hard at deflating the value of their points and categories… I think they’ve succeeded. Shareholders rejoice.

0
Johhny Guest

I'm with you if Hyatt stays represent a big part of the $15K spend. Otherwise, I would rather put the spend on a 2% back card like VentureX or Citi Double Cash and have the 15k extra points with greater flexibility. Then again I have zero chance of reaching Globalist, so room nights have no value.

0
Meet Ben Schlappig, OMAAT Founder
5,163,247 Miles Traveled

32,614,600 Words Written

35,045 Posts Published

Keep Exploring OMAAT