Old Chase Hyatt Credit Card Review (Discontinued)

Chase Hyatt Credit Card Review

2018.6 Update: This card won’t be upgraded to the new card Chase World of Hyatt automatically. If you want to upgrade, there’s a dedicated webpage. You can’t upgrade online; instead, you need to call 1-800-436-7941. Some people get 2,000 points upgrade bonus. Should you upgrade? It depends. If you just want to get an annual free night by paying annual fee, then this old card is more suitable (the annual fee for the old card is $20 cheaper); if you have a lot of spending and you need the Hyatt qualifying night credits, then the new card is better.

Application Link

  • This card no longer accepts new applications. If you are lucky to have this legacy credit card, you can still enjoy its original benefits. Please check the new Chase Hyatt co-branded card: Chase World of Hyatt.

Benefits

  1. 40k+5k sign-up bonus: earn 40,000 Hyatt points after spending $2,000 in 3 months, and additional 5,000 Hyatt points if you add an authorized user to you card in the first 3 months. This is the best offer in recent years. Now it says on the offer page that “offer only available to you if you have stayed at a Hyatt property since May 1, 2015”. We are not sure when this term is added (see the end of this post), neither do we know if this term is effective yet. If you haven’t stayed at Hyatt since May 1 2015, you can consider the offer without $50 statement credit.
  2. Hyatt point is valued at about 1.6 cents (Hotel Points Value) and you can find Hyatt free night award chart here. So the 40k+5k offer is worth about $720!
  3. You will receive one free night certificate redeemable at category 1-4 Hyatt hotel each year after you pay your annual fee. Generally, it is not hard to use the free night at a >$200 value.
  4. Earn 3x points at Hyatt hotels, 2x points at dining, airlines and car rental. Earn 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases.
  5. Complimentary Hyatt Discoverist status as long as you keep the card; complimentary Hyatt Explorist status if you spend at least $50,000 in a calendar year.
  6. No foreign transaction fee.
  7. Refer a friend. Please click this link to start referring. You can earn 10,000 bonus Hyatt points for every approved account you refer, up to a maximum of 5 approved referrals (50,000 Hyatt points) per calendar year.

Disadvantages

  1. Annual fee $75, NOT waived first year.
  2. Free night certificate is only valid for one year.

Recommended Application Time

  1. [5/24 Rule] If you have 5 or more new accounts opened in the past 24 months, Chase will not approve your application on this card, no matter how high your credit score is. The number of new accounts includes all credit card accounts, not only Chase accounts. See this post for details about how to possibly bypass this rule.
  2. This product is available to you if you do not have this card and have not received a new cardmember bonus for this card in the past 24 months. Note that what matters here is the time you got the sign-up bonus, not the time you open the account or close the account.
  3. Don’t apply for more than 2 Chase credit cards within 30 days, or it’s highly likely that you will get rejected.
  4. We recommend you to apply for this card after you have a credit history for more than a year.

Summary

Now the sign-up bonus has been changed from 2 free nights to points offer. Although now you can’t directly redeem those points for 2 nights with highest category, the flexibility is increased. It’s still a very good sign-up bonus. We think this card is also worth keeping in the long term, due to the annual free night. You are basically paying the $75 annual fee for a night in a Cat 1-4 Hyatt, which is likely a very good deal because you can easily find a Hyatt with a value of $200+. Also, this card is also a good choice for restaurant purchase if you don’t have the legacy Citi Forward because you earn 2 points per dollar and are worth about 3.6% rewards.

Related Credit Cards

Recommended Downgrade Options

  • You can not downgrade this card to any card with no annual fee, so I suggest you close it when you don’t want to keep it any longer.

After Applying

  • Call 800-436-7927 to check Chase application status. This is an automated telephone line, and the information has the following meanings: Receive decision in 2 weeks means your application is probably approved; Receive decision in 7-10 days means your application is probably rejected; Receive decision in 30 days simply means your application requires further review and there’s nothing to tell you for now.
  • Chase reconsideration backdoor number: 888-270-2127 or 888-609-7805. Call it if you didn’t get approve immediately. Your personal information will be acquired and they will then review it. You seldom answer questions, instead, just enjoy the music and then you get approved or rejected, or further information is needed to be hand in to the branch or faxed.

Historical Offers Chart

This card is discontinued in 2018.06.28.

Application Link

  • This card no longer accepts new applications. If you are lucky to have this legacy credit card, you can still enjoy its original benefits. Please check the new Chase Hyatt co-branded card: Chase World of Hyatt.

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