Chase Makes the Hyatt Card A Sensible Alternative to Sapphire Reserve

BestCashCow has been a big fan of the Hyatt program for many, many years. We’ve always viewed Hyatt points as among the most valuable points that you can accumulate for your credit card spend. Historically, only your spend on the Starwood card or the Fairmont card can produce more valuable hotel points (and those cards are now both being removed or adjusted downward in value). See here how we value hotel points today.

The Hyatt card, however, has not really provided more value than several other Chase cards over the last few years, even to loyal Hyatt customers. Until recently, it gave you only 40,000 Hyatt points for signing up and no more for your spend in any category than you would receive by using the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card. As Chase points earned through the Sapphire Reserve card as well as the Sapphire Preferred card and many other Chase cards are freely transferrable to Hyatt, there has been little reason to keep a Hyatt card in it your wallet.

Yesterday, Hyatt and Chase announced a revamped card that provides 60,000 Hyatt points for signing up (40,000 after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months and an additional 20,000 after spending a total of $6,000 in the first 6 months). The categories have been changed so that the new card gives 4x the points at Hyatt (more than the 3x that the Reserve provides) as well as 2x for gym membership and ride sharing services (the Reserve only provides 1x here). The new card, therefore, is one that you might want to keep next the Reserve in your wallet even after meeting the promotional spend.

If you have the old Hyatt card, your point earnings have not changed, although you may get an offer to upgrade to this card. You could also cancel in and apply for the new card, although Chase only allows one sign-up bonus for all Hyatt cards every 24 months. The new Hyatt card is not subject to Chase’s 5-24 rule.

Apply for the new Hyatt card here.

Use the BestCashCow credit card tool to find the most valuable travel rewards credit card for your spend profile here.