Hyatt Visa Cardholders Now Get a Free Category 1-4 Night Upon Card Renewal

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.

The Chase Hyatt Visa card has a pretty incredible sign-up bonus: Two free nights at any Hyatt property in the world after $1,000 spend within the first 3 months- including showstoppers like the Park Hyatt Maldives ($1000+ a night) and the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome (which, as I write this post in the wee hours of August 5, has rooms available using points or credit card nights and the rate for a basic room is 600 euros/ $847).

The Honeymoon Phase

I've helped many people book out-of-this-world honeymoons using a combination of these free nights (just think - 2 for the groom/bride, 2 for the bride/groom and even more if you have generous parents/siblings/friends who would get the card and give you their free nights), and either purchased or earned Hyatt points.

Better yet, if you are a Hyatt Diamond and you get the card, your two free nights are in a suite. The lowest-priced suite I could find online (Prestige Suite) at the Park Hyatt Paris is going for 1,840 Euros/ $2,597 a night.

Then What?

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So when it comes to aspirational uses of credit card sign-up bonuses, the Hyatt card can deliver if you know how to use those free nights. However, the question was always "So what do I get after the first year and I still have to pay the $75 annual fee for the card?"

Turns out Hyatt didn't want to lose those loyal customers, and just answered: a free night at a category 1-4 hotel (their top tier is 6). So while it's a little disappointing you can't redeem for another bonanza room for a night, it will be very easy to get at least your annual fee back in value just from the yearly renewal free night.

Hyatt Categories 1-4 Ain't Bad!

While I think some hotel chains really load their lower/mid categories with undesirable hotels, Hyatt has a number of category 4 propertiesthat I go to frequently or would like to stay at. For example:

-Park Hyatt Melbourne
-Park Hyatt Seoul
-Park Hyatt Saigon
-Park Hyatt Hamburg
-Grand Hyatt Beijing
-Grand Hyatt Shanghai
-Grand Hyatt Doha
-Grand Hyatt Berlin
-Andaz West Hollywood (one of my go-to LA hotels)
-Hyatt Regency San Francisco
-Hyatt Regency Washington
-Hyatt Regency Boston
-Hyatt at the Bellevue (Philadelphia)
-Hyatt at Olive 8 (Seattle)

So overall, I think this is a really good enhancement to one of the top hotel credit cards and one of only a handful of credit cards out there that doesn't assess foreign transaction fees. (If you want a full rundown of my picks for the top hotel cards, check out this past Sunday's reader question post on the topic.)

Hat tip View from the Wing.