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I prefer the 40k Chase Hyatt Visa than 2 free nights version

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I prefer the 40k Chase Hyatt Visa than 2 free nights version

In case you’ve missed the news…Chase looks to be changing their Chase Hyatt Visa card from 2 free nights at ANY Hyatt in the world to 40k points starting June 29th. If you are looking to hit up Category 6 or 7 hotels in the next 12 months…go for the current deal. If you’re like Miles and I…the 40k offer ( which is 45k after you add an authorized user ) is much better. Why? You don’t have to use those points in the next 12 months, and you can use them for Cash + Points bookings.

The Chase Hyatt Visa is a great card. I first got it in 2012. I may sign up for it again.

Yes, Hyatt has made an unforced, uncompetitive error with the introduction of World of Hyatt. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t significant value in the program. Now that the card will offer 40k points…it’s far more enticing to me than was the 2 free nights.a stuffed animal holding a card

Cash + Points increases the value of your points.

Let’s take a look at the Park Hyatt Saigon, which is incredible. and we visited earlier this year for New Year’s Eve. It’s a category 4 hotel. Rates are nearly $400 a night. So the current offer could get you 2 free nights there. Not a bad deal…worth $800, right? However…cash + points is just 7500 points + $100.  Those 40k points could be used for 5 nights. Those 37,500 points would save you $1500. Yes, you’d shell out $500, but you’d get a much better value for your points – even spread that out over other hotels.

If you’re thinking of hitting up a Category 6 or 7 hotel…then this may be the time to do it. Otherwise, if you’re like us, this is a good deal for you.

You can use the charts below to calculate things, but having the ability to now employ Cash + Points is, in my opinion, a great option.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 3x on dining
    •  including eligible delivery services for takeout
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel Portal
  • 2x on all other travel
  • $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Chase Travel
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Primary rental car coverage is my favorite

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

11 Comments

  • […] DW, at AYP, was still able to cancel his card, reapply, and get approved just 12 days later. HAHA! Love it! Every rule isn’t steadfast, and I’m happy he got it to work.  I’ll have to hit him up about whether he’s happy about getting the 2 free nights, or if he’ll try and get the 40k bonus offer instead. […]

  • Santastico June 22, 2017

    Nothing wrong about liking point more than the 2 free nights but the point is that there was a devaluation of the card benefits since with 40,000 points you do not get to stay 2 nights at a category 7 hotel. If they had changed the offer to 60,000 points then I would have no issues with that.

    • rick b June 22, 2017

      It’s only a devaluation if you do Vendoming and actually want to stay in those top tier hotels or plan trip specifically to stay there as those properties are very rare. For many of us even a tier 1 Hyatt is fancy enough and we just want more nights because we travel for the destination not for the hotel…..like normal people travel.

      And SE Asia is absolutely the worst market for doing upscale hotel comparisons because you could stay in a really nice property for well under $100 cash at any time by avoiding overpriced western chains.

      • eponymous coward June 22, 2017

        Yeah, this is a better argument. SE Asia is a VERY difficult market to get outsize value for redemptions unless you’re going way into the weeds (like the Doubletree Johor Bahru for 10k Hilton), or you find the odd deal (I was able to snag the Hilton Millennium Bangkok for 17k a night, which is cheaper than the Doubltree in Sukhumvit… but that rate was only good for two particular days, the exact two days I was needing to be in Bangkok).

        Hyatt’s tiny footprint doesn’t help that in SE Asia- most of their properties in SE Asia aren’t extraordinary value for cash or points unless you really REALLY want the Lost in Translation bar (which is Vendoming Tokyo style, and this move actually HURTS that value) or are just a die-hard Hyatt Loyalist who can use their Globalist bennies to add to the value received.

        Here’s a scenario where you get GREAT value out of points vs. nights, though: You want to go to baseball spring training in Phoenix for a long March weekend (3-4 days, catch some games in different stadiums). Hyatt has some Hyatt Place properties in Phoenix and Tempe that are Cat 2s. They’ll go for $200+ a night during spring training. 40k points will easily cover a 3-4 days in those hotels.

        Yes, this isn’t “aspirational” the same way Vendoming is, in the sense that you’re not in a 5 star Paris hotel, but it’s pretty easy to realize a thousand in savings this way…

      • Miles June 22, 2017

        Rick – agree and it wasn’t my intention to promote the Park Hyatt Saigon as the best 5 star option in Vietnam, but rather illustrate the credit card bonus scenario: if you were to use your credit card bonus in HCM…there was an argument that a bonus with points could create more value than 2 free nights. ( I was there over NYE when those other 5 star hotels weren’t $100 a night, not even close, but hyatt still had cash + points rates)

        I had a wonderful stay at the Hyatt House in Colorado Springs for just 5k points when cash rates were over $200…a good anti-vendoming redemption that falls in line with what you’re saying. My points was that there are a lot of situations where 40k poitns could be far more valuable to customers than 2 free nights.

        Thanks for reading!

    • Rob June 22, 2017

      Agreed. That is really the key point.

  • Marco June 21, 2017

    Does this mean if I sign up now, i have to spend the $2k min BEFORE June 29th?

    • Miles June 21, 2017

      Hey Marco – Thanks for reading! Nah…but I believe that the new card starts on June 29th so your application would need to be processed prior to that.

  • eponymous coward June 21, 2017

    That’s a weird hotel to pick to prove your point. The Park Hyatt is about two and a half times more expensive than a lot of the other five star hotels in Saigon. There are MGallery, Pullman and Sofitel hotels at around $100-130 a night. Cash. No points required.

    Why exactly am I going to pay $100 a night plus points for a hotel that I don’t have fancy-schmancy Globalist status in, if I can pay $100 and NO points for some pretty good five star Accor chain properties? I know all you bloggers are Globalist, but if you’re just getting the card for the points and you just want to burn the points for vacation…

    This is why Hyatt generally does nothing for me; a lot of their properties come with “American chain hotel” tax (see: Bangkok). I don’t wish to pay it because I’m not chasing status for the shiny card.

    • Miles June 21, 2017

      So then you don’t think Cash + Points increases the value of your points, or you’re just criticizing my example?

      • eponymous coward June 22, 2017

        I’m saying it seems to be a bad example of getting value for your points. Thus it is hard to say your point is proven, given the alternative (Cat 7s in very expensive markets) is very clear value.

        I would grant that non-expiring points have some advantages over expiring night certificates.

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