Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Hyatt recently announced a promotion for Hyatt cardholders: Through June 30th 2020, World of Hyatt cardholders can earn 3 elite nights for every $5,000 of spend. That’s 1 extra elite night per $5K spend over the usual 2 elite nights earned. Additionally, those with the old Hyatt card which doesn’t usually offer any elite nights for spend, will earn 2 elite nights per $5K spend. In this post, though, I’m looking only at the World of Hyatt card…
Does this promo make it worth increasing spend on the World of Hyatt card?
With some elite programs, the answer to a question like this would depend on how much you value the elite status you’re trying to obtain. Hyatt, though, makes the calculation more complicated because they offer Milestone Rewards which you can earn along the way towards elite status. Here’s their Milestone Rewards chart:
| Elite Nights Earned | Milestone Reward |
|---|---|
| 20 Nights (or 35K base points) | |
| Automatic: | N/A |
| Pick 1: | 2K Next Stay Award |
| 2 Club Access Awards | |
| $25 FIND Credit | |
| 30 Nights (or 50K base points) | |
| Automatic: | 1 Cat 1-4 Free Night |
| Pick 1: | 2K Next Stay Award |
| 2 Club Access Awards | |
| $25 FIND Credit | |
| 40 Nights (or 65K base points) | |
| Automatic: | 1 Guest of Honor Award |
| Pick 1: | 5K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| $150 FIND Credit | |
| 50 Nights (or 80K base points) | |
| Automatic: | N/A |
| Pick 1: | 5K Bonus Points |
| 2 Suite Upgrade Awards | |
| $150 FIND Credit | |
| 60 Nights (or 100K base points) | |
| Automatic: | 1 Cat 1-7 Free Night |
| 2 Suite Upgrade Awards | |
| My Hyatt Concierge | |
| 2 Guest of Honor Awards | |
| 70, 80, 90 Nights | |
| Automatic: | 1 Guest of Honor Award |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| $300 FIND Credit | |
| 100 Nights | |
| Automatic: | 1 Cat 1-7 Free Night |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| Miraval Extra Night | |
| 110, 120, 130, 140 Nights | |
| Automatic: | 1 Guest of Honor Award |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| Miraval Extra Night | |
| 150 Nights | |
| Automatic: | Ultimate Free Night Award |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| Miraval Extra Night |
Completely separate from elite status, Milestone Rewards are available to everyone and are based on the number of nights you stay in a calendar year. Most awards are valid for the rest of the calendar year in which they are selected and 14 months beyond. Free Night awards, the Miraval Extra Night Award, and the 2K Next Stay Awards are good for only 180 days.
Estimating the value of 3 elite nights is hard
As you can see above, Milestone Rewards are first granted at 20 elite nights and then at every 10 elite nights thereafter. If the rewards were uniform, we could estimate their value and then say that for every 10 elite nights earned you get “X” value. We could then say that 3 elite nights earned from credit card spend is worth 30% of X. That’s not exactly right because you are likely to end the year with a number of elite nights that is not divisible by 10. Still, it would be a start. But things like 2 Club Access Awards earned at 20 nights are almost certainly less valuable than a free night earned at 30 nights or Suite Upgrade Awards earned at 50 nights. Worse, the value depends upon your elite status. If you have top tier Globalist status when you travel, then those Club Access Awards are worthless since you’ll get free access to clubs anyway.
Another complication is that the World of Hyatt credit card offers a free Cat 1-4 night certificate after $15K spend in your cardmember year. So, if you’re starting from scratch, spending $15K during this promotion results in more value than would be earned by those who have already spent $15K on their card.
A no-brainer for some
In my post “Manufacturing Hyatt Globalist Status,” I explained why Globalist status is valuable and I compared options for achieving that status through credit card spend and mattress running (booking cheap paid or award stays just to earn status). I concluded that generating spend on the World of Hyatt credit card was the best option for filling the gap between actual stays and the required 60 nights to get to Globalist status. Keep in mind that this path only makes sense for those who highly value Hyatt Globalist status, and have easy ways to manufacture spend, and are not afraid of getting their Chase accounts shut down.
If you decided, like I did, that you would spend your way to Globalist status, then this promotion is great. It means less spend is required to get to where you need to be. The real question for you is not whether to participate, but rather how far to go with it? Once travel opens up again, Hyatt is likely to run a number of promotions that offer extra elite nights for stays. So, if you only want to get to 60 nights, you’ll have to estimate the number of elite nights you might earn later due to actual stays and promotions. Fortunately, if you go over 60 nights, you can still earn extra Milestone Rewards (10K points or a Suite Upgrade Award) at 70, 80, 90, and 100 nights.
For those who haven’t decided to go for Globalist through spend anyway, let’s see if we can figure out whether it’s worth participating in this World of Hyatt credit card promo…
Estimating the cost of spend
For the purpose of this post, let’s decide that the cost of spend is 2%. Here’s why:
- For those who haven’t yet paid federal taxes, you can use your Hyatt card to pay (or overpay) taxes for a fee of just under 2%. See this post for details: Complete guide to paying taxes via credit card, debit card, or gift card.
- Alternatively, you can look at the opportunity cost: if you put spend on the Hyatt card you’ll lose out on the rewards earned on a 2% cash back card. So, the opportunity cost then is 2% (assuming a 2% cash back card is your best alternative to the World of Hyatt card).
Working with that 2% cost estimate, we can then calculate that the cost to spend $5,000 is $100:
- $5,000 X 2% = $100
In exchange for that spend, you will earn 5,000 Hyatt points plus 3 elite nights. To make the math easy, let’s conservatively value the earned Hyatt points at only 1 cent each. We can now calculate the cost to “buy” 3 elite nights
- 5,000 Hyatt points at 1 cent each (conservative estimate) = $50 value
- Cost to buy 3 elite nights through spend: $100 – $50 = $50
Milestone Rewards Value Estimates
As shown above, I estimated the value of each Milestone Reward. These are extremely conservative estimates. In my opinion, people often overestimate the value of rewards which leads to poor decisions about how much to spend to achieve them. So, rather than estimate the redemption value of these rewards I tried to estimate how much one might be willing to pay for each reward if it was available for purchase. For example, I think that paying $100 for 10,000 Hyatt points is worthwhile.
The biggest estimate ($500), above, is at 60 nights where you not only get a free category 1-7 night and 2 suite upgrade awards, and Concierge access, but you also achieve Globalist status for the rest of the current calendar year and for 14 months beyond. This means all kinds of goodies such as free upgrades including standard suites, waived resort fees on paid nights (resort fees are waived on award nights for all members), free breakfast or club access, free parking on award nights, and 4pm late checkout. You can think of my $500 estimate as being $150 for the free night plus $150 for the suite upgrades plus $200 for Globalist status. If anything, it’s a gross underestimate.
It’s worth spending $5K for 3 elite nights if…
Using my estimates above, we know that $5K spend costs you $50 ($100 minus $50 worth of points earned). And we now have an estimate for each Milestone Reward.
The next estimate is up to you… How many elite nights will you end with this year if you don’t put extra spend on your credit card now? This is an impossible thing to estimate yet it’s important to at least guess in order to decide if spending on this promo is worthwhile today.
I put together the chart shown above to try to help readers decide how much spend to put on the World of Hyatt credit card while Hyatt is offering 3 elite nights per $5K of spend. You must first estimate how many nights you think you’ll end with this year if you don’t put extra spend on the card. Then, use the chart to see if it’s worthwhile spending your way to the next Milestone Reward level. Here are some examples of how to read the chart…
- If you estimate ending the year with 15 elite nights, then you’ll see that you shouldn’t add spend to your card. You need to end with 17 elite nights or more for it to be worthwhile to spend your way to 20-night Milestone Rewards (2 Club Access Awards).
- If you estimate ending the year with 25 elite nights, then you should spend $10,000 to get to the 30-night Milestone Reward (Cat 1-4 Free Night and 2 Club Access Awards).
- If you estimate ending the year with 42 elite nights, then it’s not worth spending $15,000 to get to the 50-night Milestone Rewards (2 Suite Upgrades).
- If you estimate ending the year with 44 elite nights, then it is worth spending $10,000 to get to 50 elite nights.
The weirdest part of the above chart is the calculation for when it is worth pursuing 60-night rewards. Based on the estimates presented above, it is worth going for 60 nights if you expect to end the year with 30 or more elite nights. For example, if you expect to end the year with exactly 30 elite nights and if you can safely put $50,000 spend on the World of Hyatt card while the promotion is in effect, then you will earn 30 more elite nights from the credit card. This will cost you $500 ($1000 at 2% of $50K minus $500 worth of points), but in return you’ll get $500 worth of 60 night Milestone Rewards in addition to the Milestone Rewards earned at 40 and 50 nights.
Conclusion
Hyatt has given World of Hyatt cardholders two and a half months to earn 3 elite nights for every $5K of spend instead of the usual 2 elite nights. If you were planning to spend your way to Globalist status anyway, and if you have a safe way to increase spend right now, then this deal is a no-brainer. For everyone else, I put together estimates and guidelines to help you determine if it’s worthwhile. Hopefully some will find this useful!
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[…] recently achieved 40 nights (much of it thanks to credit card spend) and was sent an email telling me to pick one of the above rewards. Which should I […]
Greg, I am on my way to Globalist. Any idea when this extra elite night posts after spending the $5K?
I have spent quite a lot on my card so far in this promotion but it seems I am getting only 2 nights instead of 3. It does say somewhere that the extra night would not necessarily come at the same time … but I get nervous when I can’t see these.
No, I don’t know. Sorry.
It looks like the extra nights come the following month.
Yep. A few days ago, my account suddenly showed several more nights. I assume these are the bonus elite nights.
I’m going for this! Since a full $5000 needs to be spent to get the 3 nights, does anyone know how pre-April 15th spend counts? For example I spent $8000 before April 15th. The statement closed and I got 2 qualifying nights per pre-promo terms. Does the leftover $3000 count towards ($8000-$5000) the 3 night promo or is it lost?
That’s a really good question. I don’t know.
I signed up and got approved for the World of Hyatt card on April 20, 2020. However, I only see 5 elite nights given to me. Signed up through referral link. Any DPs of anyone actually receiving 10 nights???
You definitely should get 10 nights. Might be worth giving Chase or Hyatt a call.
[…] I previously analyzed this deal in depth here: Hyatt’s 3 elite nights per $5K spend. Deal or no deal? […]
Do you need to register for this promotion? I started spending but only 2 nights posted to my Account.
I don’t think you have to register. Maybe the bonus nights post separately.
Same thing has happened to me. As an additional data point, I spent $20k over the last month, but only have four postings of elite nights rewarded at 2 nights each. I hope you’re right, Greg, as I should be getting the extra 4 nights (i.e., to make 3 elite nights per $5k spent) sometime after June 30th. I need them to get to 20 elite nights and the 2 lounge passes. BTW – my award night at $15k spend also has posted.
I finally received all of my bonus nights. They do post separately.
[…] who have the Hyatt card should keep in mind that they will earn 3 elite nights for each $5K spend through June 30th. That means you’d only be able to do $3K toward that at 3x ($1500 in May […]
I thought the cost for CC spend was 3%, not 2%? Reference: https://frequentmiler.com/credit-card-signup-bonus-estimation-details/
It depends on the context. We use 3 percent only in the context of looking at a sign up offer’s required spend because an alternative is to sign up for the Discover It card and earn 3 percent for your spend. When talking about regular spend, the best alternative is whatever you have available. And while some of us have cards that earn better than 2 percent I make the assumption here that for most readers 2 percent is the best cash alternative.
This should be pretty easy to accomplish. it’s only two large Simon Mall orders more or less.
50K on the Hyatt card when I have spent little on the card would surely get Chase’s attention. I will pass.
This is an incredibly weak promotion considering that they already extended status until 2022, so only non Globalists would even consider this. I would have much preferred they simply lower the thresholds this year, which would also have the effect of increasing cc spend value.
As it stands now, I’m Explorist and was planning on going for Globalist this year pre-Covid, but no way in the current economic and uncertain travel environment am I paying ~$1k for 30n just for that privilege…but actually, the opportunity cost to me is not just 2% of $50k, it’s all the signup bonuses I could be getting with $50k of spend…which is a shit ton!
I am going to spend on Hyatt card no matter what because I see the future where premium stateside hotels soar in value and the better leverage you have the happier you are going to be!
I understand and agree with the need to be conservative, but valuing Globalist at only $200 for more than a year’s status is ludicrously low. You could easily get that back on a couple nights’ stay. And if that’s all you use it for, don’t even bother considering it.
Great post. I think the weirdest part of this promo is the limited time you have to take advantage which encourages MS to get any value; which probably is counter to Chase’s intentions. It would have made much more sense to extend it to the end of the year.
With the situation as it is right now, I just can’t see big organic spend that I can shift to this card. Even in the most optimistic situation of proactively booking a dream vacation.for the future, it’d unlikely cost more than $5k. If I’m 3 extra elite night away from a significant milestone, a matress run at double or triple night credit would do the trick.
I would actually value every 5K spend at 4 elite nights because you get 3 nights for the spend and 5K points. I can use the 5K points to mattress run a Cat 1 award night when it’s safe and that night would count in the total nights. So if I’m trying to manufacture status that would be a pretty efficient way. DH has no Hyatt stays because we’ve always used my WOH account. So he will sign up for the card for the 10 elite nights and we will start on his brand explorer nights at lower cat hotels to earn another free night for the total.
And with 15K spend, he would earn another free night. If you’re new to the card and if that 15K spend is during the first 6 months, you will get the 50K points SUB which could be used for 10 cat 1 nights. Not a glamorous use of the bonus, but if you want to manufacture status it’s pretty efficient.