Hyatt Credit Card Review

Hyatt provides a surprisingly useful card to consider adding to your portfolio or card rotation. The Hyatt collection of hotels is not as robust as some of the other big players, specifically SPG and Mariott, but I’ve found they have plenty of good options in the major vacation destinations. Further, from my experience, the quality of Hyatt properties is consistent.

Why is this card potentially worthy of your consideration? Well, the sign on bonus is pretty good. You’ll earn 40,000 points for $2000 worth of spend within the first three months from account opening. You can add 5000 points by adding an authorized user and having them make a purchase within the initial three months as well. This purchase does not have a minimum. For a standard household, $2000 is not as much of a stretch to the budget as some other card requirements, which can be double this in the same time period. Depending on the lavishness of your plans, 45,000 points is more than enough for a two or three night stay.

The bonus points earned from categorical spend is, happily, a bit broader than other hotel cards. With the Hyatt card, you’ll earn 3 points per $1 on purchases at all Hyatt hotels and 2 points per $1 on all purchases at restaurants, airline tickets booked directly with the airline, and at car rental agencies. The Starwood Preferred Guest card, for comparison, only earns bonus point multipliers on purchases made at Starwood or Marriott hotels.

As with most travel cards, the Hyatt card offers no foreign transaction fees and some basic travel coverage options including baggage delay insurance and auto rental collision damage waiver. Most of these protections are standard across all cards, but will vary based on the card issue. The Hyatt card offers the standard Visa protections and insurances.

There is a $75 annual fee, but this is offset by a free night room award being added to your Hyatt account every year on your cardmember anniversary. This free room award is valid for category 1 -4 hotels. The $75 fee will be charged on your first statement.

It can, at times, be difficult to redeem points during busy seasons in popular locales. However, I’ve been able to use my free room awards and points with relative ease when I’m flexible with the dates. The process for doing so can, it most cases, be done entirely online. While it’s not as seamless as the Southwest portal, I’ve had little trouble navigating the system.

For Vegas fans, the Hyatt card presents an interesting opportunity to score some free parking. Hyatt and MGM Resorts offer a tier matching program. By signing up for the Hyatt card, you are automatically placed into their Discoverist membership level. As a Discoverist member, your matched status with MGM Resorts is Pearl. One perk of being at Pearl status with MLife is free parking. Further, the Hyatt partnership with MLife extends partially to room reservations. As of this writing, you can use Hyatt points to secure free or discounted rooms at MLife properties in Las Vegas.

This card is much more flexible than it may initially seem, but as is the case with most company specific cards, the use of your points are limited. You can transfer points to partner airline programs, but the ratios for these transactions are typically pretty poor. If you’re a Hyatt fan, as I am, or simply looking for a new hotel card to score some discounted stays, the Hyatt card may be a good option.

Hyatt credit card: fee schedule and promotion details

The information herein should not be considered prescriptive financial advice. Travel Fanboy receives no commission or compensation from any credit card issuer or affiliated companies. The opinions expressed are the author’s alone. 

For information on how the churn and burn process can impact your credit score: Churn and Burn Credit Score Guide