TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Traveling For Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Traveling For Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card welcome offers, earning rates and benefits and some credit card benefits will require enrollment. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
As well as giving cardholders a certificate for a free night at any Category 1 – 4 Hyatt property every year (just for holding the card), card_name also gives cardholders the opportunity to earn a further free night certificate through spending. Starting next year, Chase is changing the timeframe cardholders are given to earn that second free night. The change isn’t bad or majorly significant, but it’s a change that for one year only, opens up an opportunity.
Up until now, holders of card_name (review) have been able to earn a free night certificate (for a stay at any Category 1 – 4 property) by spending $15,000 in their cardmember year (i.e the twelve months starting from their card anniversary).
Going forward this will be changing – cardholders will be able to earn the free night by spending $15,000 in a calendar year.
The new terms & conditions
These are the updated terms and conditions that can be accessed from the card’s application page (formatting has been altered to make the terms more readable):
Free night award after $15,000 in purchases
For new accounts opened in 2020:
- You, as the primary cardmember, will have from your account open date until your anniversary date in 2021 to spend $15,000 in purchases and earn a Free Night Award.
- You will have from the day after your anniversary date in 2021 through December 31, 2021 to spend $15,000 in purchases to earn a Free Night Award.
- On January 1, 2022 your spend total will reset to $0, and the time period for you to spend $15,000 to earn a Free Night Award will run from January 1 through December 31 of each calendar year.
For new accounts opened in 2021:
- You, as the primary cardmember, will have from your account open date in 2021 through December 31, 2021 to spend $15,000 in purchases and earn a Free Night Award.
- On January 1, 2022 your spend total will reset to $0, and the time period for you to spend $15,000 to earn a Free Night Award will run from January 1 through December 31 of each calendar year.
Quick thoughts
There are two key implications for this.
Firstly, from 2021 the timing of an application for card_name (review) becomes more important for anyone planning to spend the $15,000 to earn the free night award – the earlier in the year an application is made, the more time a successful applicant will have to earn the award.
Secondly, current cardholders who haven’t yet earned their free night award will have an opportunity to earn two free night awards in 2021. The first award can be earned between the start of the year and a card holder’s card anniversary while the other can be earned between a card holder’s card anniversary and the end of the year.
Overall, this probably won’t make too much difference to most people (it may actually make it easier for cardholders to track their progress to the $15,000 target), but the ability to earn two free nights in 2021 will probably appeal to quite a few people despite the high ($30,000) spending requirement (don’t forget that cardholders earn 2 elite qualifying nights for every $5,000 spent so anyone spending enough to earn the second free night certificate in 2021 will also earn at least 12 elite night credits).
Bottom line
Starting in 2021 for new cardholders and 2022 for existing cardholders, the $15,000 of spending required to earn the additional free night certificate that card_name offers will be calculated according to the calendar year and not a cardholder’s anniversary year.
This isn’t a major change to what the card offers but, for 2021 only, it opens up an opportunity for high-spending existing cardholders to earn two free night certificates (on top of the free night certificate that all cardholders get on their card anniversary) instead of just one.
What about accounts opened BEFORE 2020?
The T&Cs on the Chase application page don’t mention accounts that were opened before 2020 because, I assume, Chase believes that anyone with an existing credit card will not be reading the T&Cs on a new application page (presumably Chase will be emailing existing cardholders with this news).
Having said that, it would appear as if it’s very safe to assume that accounts opened pre-2020 will be treated in the same way as accounts opened in 2020.
Good info. I got the Hyatt card in September. Does it make sense to avoid hitting the first $5000 in spend until Jan 2021 so that the corresponding 2 night credits apply to 2021 instead of 2020? I will not be able to get enough stays in 2020 to improve my status. Am I thinking about this correctly?
Yes, I think you’re right. My understanding is that elite night credits from credit card spend will not carry over into 2021 (or in any way affect the elite night target for 2021) so if you cannot improve status in 2020 (or reach a milestone reward), it would appear to make sense to defer your spending to January 2021.