Over the past two years, we’re developing a relationship with Hyatt Hotels. For most of Sharon’s and my travel writing career (which recently hit the six-year mark {thud}), we didn’t pay attention to Hyatt. Our travel style closely matched IHG’s footprint and through a series of events ended up earning, losing and re-earning Marriott Bonvoy Platinum status.
Not that having status drives us to stay at Marriott hotels but it’s something we consider when picking where to stay. I’m sure the same goes for the Hyatt Globalists who will go to the ends of the earth so they’ll always stay at a Hyatt hotel and get a guaranteed suite upgrade and free hotel breakfast.
While I had several Hyatt free night certificates good at category 1-4 hotels, I was struggling to use them. Before it was changed to a Category 5, we stayed for three nights at Gild Hall. I started to understand why everyone loved Hyatt properties so much, as I never would be able to redeem a free night from IHG or Marriott at a similar hotel in their respective programs.
I was starting to think I might be able to use my category 1-4 free night more easily than before. I didn’t cancel my World of Hyatt card at the next renewal. Instead, I spent $15,000 on the card for an extra free night. That paid off when I used those free nights to save $950 on a hotel in Washington DC.
I’m now a Hyatt fan and love my free night certificates but there was one quirk about them that I hated. Previously, the policy was that Chase had 10 weeks to deposit the free night certificate in your account after your cardmember anniversary.
Please allow up to 10 weeks after your cardmember anniversary each year for your Free Night Award to be issued to you.
That’s right, they had 2 1/2 months to give you the free night you earn on your cardmember anniversary. I had this one bite me when I needed a Category 3 hotel the month after I paid my annual fee. I ended up booking the hotel using points.
I can’t tell when it happened, but Chase has changed the terms and they’re more reasonable.
Please allow up to the end of your Anniversary month each year for your Hyatt Credit Card Anniversary Free Night Award to be issued to you. (“Anniversary” is the date that is twelve months after your account open date, and the same date each twelve months thereafter.)
Instead of taking up to 10 weeks, the new language says to allow up to the end of your Anniversary month. Good for Hyatt and Chase for making this small but significant change to the Free Night Award from the World of Hyatt Visa.
All we need now is for Hyatt to stop moving all of the decent hotels in the US from Category 4 to Category 5.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
4 comments
Hyatt is absolutely not the only chain to take months to post a free night earned via their credit card. Hilton Aspire annual fee was paid in September, certificate not issued until December.
They do this delay because people cancel cards after getting and ask for fee refund.
[…] Fixed the Thing I Hated Most about the World of Hyatt Visa: See this post on Your Mileage May Vary. I’m very excited about this, as I have several places where I’d like to use my free […]
It looks like the terms are back to 10 weeks. I’m on week 7 and still no certs.