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In my opinion, Hyatt’s new business card is disappointing. It costs more than twice as much as Hyatt’s consumer card but delivers less value. Those who want to earn free nights will do better with Hyatt’s personal card which offers a free night every anniversary plus a free night with $15K calendar year spend. Those who want to earn lots of points will do better with various Chase Ultimate Rewards cards, many of which offer 5x earnings in various categories of spend. One of the best of these, the fee-free Ink Business Cash card, offers 5X for office purchases, phone, internet and TV (on up to $25,000 in total purchases in 5x categories annually) and 2X at gas stations and restaurants. If you pair the Ink Cash with a $95 Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred, you can then transfer those points to Hyatt.
The main reason to consider the Hyatt Business Card is because you want to spend your way to top-tier Hyatt Globalist status each year. Where the personal card offers 2 tier qualifying nights with each $5K of spend, the business card offers 5 tier qualifying nights with each $10K of spend. For each $10K of spend, you’ll get one night closer to elite status than you would with the consumer card. The question is whether that’s enough of an edge to make the business card worth it for those who manufacture Hyatt’s top tier status through spend.
Tier qualifying nights are often referred to as "elite nights". With many hotel chains, you can earn elite status by acquiring a number of tier qualifying elite nights each year. For example, Hyatt requires earning 30 elite nights per year to achieve mid-tier Explorist status, or 60 elite nights for top-tier Globalist status. Additionally, Hyatt offers "Milestone Rewards" which are perks like free lounge access, free nights, bonus points, etc. Milestone Rewards are earned within a calendar year when you achieve 20 elite nights, and every 10 elite nights after that up to 150. Read more about Hyatt elite status and Milestone Rewards in our World of Hyatt Complete Guide.
If your goal is to earn top tier Hyatt Globalist status primarily through credit card spend, is the new Hyatt business card worth getting and keeping?
World of Hyatt Cards Side by Side
Before trying to answer the question of whether the business card is a good tool for manufacturing top tier elite status, let’s look at the two cards side by side:
| Consumer Card | Business Card | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Fee | $95 | $199 |
| Earn 2x at… | Dining, Travel1, Gyms | Earn 2x in your top spending categories2: Dining; Travel1; Gyms; Gas stations; Internet, cable and phone services; Internet Advertising; and Shipping |
| Earn 4x at… | Hyatt hotels & resorts | Hyatt hotels & resorts |
| Free anniversary night | Category 1-4 | N/A |
| Rebate at Hyatt hotels | N/A | Up to $100 ($50 twice per year) |
| Automatic Elite Status | Discoverist | Discoverist |
| Automatic Tier Qualifying Nights | 5 per year | N/A |
| Tier Qualifying Nights with Spend | 2 per $5K | 5 per $10K |
| Big Spend Bonus | Spend $15K in a calendar year, get a category 1-4 free night. | After $50K spend in a calendar year, get 10% back on redeemed points for the rest of that calendar year (max 20K back per year) |
| Other Perks | N/A | Gift Discoverist status to up to 5 employees; Join Hyatt Leverage to get hotel discounts, but without a 50 night stay requirement |
1) Airline tickets purchased directly with the airline; car rental agencies; local transit and commuting;
2) Top 3 of 8 spending categories each calendar quarter through 12/31/22 and then the top 2 of 8 spending categories in 2023 and beyond.
For those who don’t plan to spend a lot on their Hyatt card, the comparison isn’t even close. The consumer card comes with an annual free night that is worth more than the annual fee, whereas the business card comes with up to $100 in rebates that can make up for half of the annual fee.
Which is better for manufacturing Globalist status with spend?
On first blush, you might think that the business card is obviously better for manufacturing Globalist status since it offers more qualifying nights with each $10K of spend. But the consumer card comes with 5 qualifying nights automatically and so you would have to spend $50K on each card just for the business card to catch up:
- Consumer card $50K spend: 5 automatic qualifying nights + 20 from spend = 25 qualifying nights. Plus you’ll earn a category 1-4 free night along the way.
- Business card $50K spend: 25 qualifying nights. Plus you’ll get a 10% rebate (up to 20K points back) on awards spent the rest of the year.
Earning 25 elite nights, though, might not be enough to get you to Globalist status. During normal years, Globalist status requires earning 60 tier qualifying nights. Let’s assume that you plan to spend 20 nights at Hyatt hotels each year and so you want to manufacture 40 qualifying nights with your credit card. In that case, you would have to spend $85,000 on the consumer card or $80,000 on the business card:
- Consumer card: Spend $85,000 plus use at least one of your two free nights
- Automatic 5 qualifying nights
- $85K spend = 17 x 2 = 34 qualifying nights
- Use a category 1-4 free night = 1 qualifying night
- Total: 40 tier qualifying nights
- Business card: Spend $80,000 to get 40 tier qualifying nights
The business card has a tiny edge with regards to spend required to get to 40 tier qualifying nights, but I don’t think that’s enough of an edge to argue that it’s better than the consumer card. At this level of spend, I’d argue that the cards are roughly equal. Some may prefer the consumer card thanks to its free night certificates and lower annual fee. Others may prefer the business card for its 10% rebate and extra bonus categories.
Are they better together?
It occurred to me that the sweet-spot for manufacturing Hyatt Globalist status might not be one card or the other, but both. Consider a scenario where you spend $15K on your consumer card and $60K on your business card each year:
- Consumer card $15K spend: 5 automatic qualifying nights + 6 from spend = 11 qualifying nights. Plus you’ll earn a category 1-4 free night from that $15K spend.
- Business card $60K spend: 30 qualifying nights plus the 10% rebate.
- Total: Spend $75K ($15K consumer + $60K business), get 41 qualifying nights
With this approach for earning 40+ qualifying nights, you would spend $10K less than you would with the consumer card alone and $5K less than with the business card alone. Plus, you would get the best of both worlds:
- Anniversary category 1-4 night
- Category 1-4 night with $15k spend
- 10% rebate (up to 20K points back) on awards spent the rest of the year after spending $50K on the business card.
- Up to $100 back at Hyatt hotels
So, yeah, for those spending their way to top tier Hyatt elite status, the cards are better together. Are they so good that they’re worth paying two annual fees though?
Are two annual fees worth it?
I’ve previously asserted that the consumer card’s annual free night is worth more than the annual fee. If you believe that, then the only real question is whether adding the $199 business card to the mix is worth it. With the business card thrown into the mix, you get:
- $10K less spend required to earn 40+ tier qualifying nights
- A 10% rebate (up to 20K points back) on awards spent the rest of the year after spending $50K on the business card.
- More Hyatt points if any of your spend was in a 2x category that is unique to the business card (gas stations, for example)
- Up to $100 back per year at Hyatt hotels.
- Potential cash savings via Hyatt Leverage.
When you look at all of these together, I think it’s a no brainer (assuming you can get approved for a new Chase business card). The 20K point rebate alone would be worth more than the business card’s annual fee (assuming you max it out each year). The two $50 rebates at Hyatt hotels would then be icing on the cake. And if you have heavy spend in a 2x category, such as at gas stations, the extra point per dollar on that spend would be worth a lot too.
Conclusion
In my opinion, the vast majority of readers would be better off with the consumer World of Hyatt card. It’s cheaper and has better perks. For those who intend to spend their way to top-tier Globalist status each year, though, the two cards are roughly equal. Which you prefer will depend on how much of your spend will earn 2x with the business card, how much you value to consumer card’s free night certificates, etc. The best option for those who plan to spend their way to top tier status each year, though, is to have both cards. Put $15k of spend on the consumer card each year and then put the rest of the spend (in $10K increments) on the business card. And, if you can put some of that spend on 2x categories (gas stations, anyone?), all the better.
To be clear, the above advice is for those who have already decided that they want to spend their way to Hyatt Globalist status each year. For everybody else, keep in mind that there is a big opportunity cost to doing this. If you instead put the same spend towards new welcome bonuses or more lucrative category bonuses, you would earn far greater rewards.
For those still deciding whether to spend their way to Globalist status each year, you might find this 2019 post interesting: Manufacturing Hyatt Globalist Status.
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After “wiggling” my way into Globalist status for two years I realize how valuable it can be. It looks like my wiggling will come to an end next march so i decided to hunker down and figure out the best path to manufacture Globalist for 2024. Using the insights from this article i pieced together my own calculations for manufacturing Globalist as i had to prove to my P2 that it makes sense for us to incur more than $2k in credit card processing fees. We already had the personal card and today my wife got approved for the biz card (she was at 6/24 at the time of application). Obviously everyone’s math will be a bit different but even with these conservative value assumptions of placing a zero value on free parking, breakfast & resort fees, I still come out $351 ahead. You can see a screenshot of my calculations here.
I was very unimpressed when I first heard about this card, but I think I’ve found a use for it. I recently got the personal WOH (despite its really sucky welcome bonus requiring one to spend $18,000 in 6 months to get the same 60k points you used to be able to get for $6k spend in 6 months). My usual spend–even increased with upcoming taxes–is in no way big enough for me to spend enough to get the full 60k points on offer. But then I thought: why not follow up the personal WOH with a business WOH? I can definitely hit $7,500 on the business card if I get it in March (after racking up about $5k on the personal WOH, which I got in November), due to upcoming taxes and other expenses. So in the end, with the two cards, I’ll have racked up 109,000 welcome bonus points for $10,500 spend…not fantastic, but way better than 60,000 points for $18,000 spend (which I never could have hit anyway). Yeah, the combined AF is almost $300, but I do think it’s worth it for that amount of Hyatt points. I’ll most likely cancel the business card after the first year and hang on to the personal.
Is a hotel night booked via Cap One travel portal going to work for Hyatt nights credit? They have better rates than Hyatt even with a corporate discount code
No
So refreshing to see you call-out this not so great deal instead of shamelessly promoting all cards (as many not to be mentioned might do) as great to get subscribers to apply and pad your nest. Cheers to you FM guys, Honesty is a wonderful and often forgotten thing. Thank you for your great work!!
Hopefully there will be very few takers for this card and early next year they will enhance it. So, we will see. There is no incentive to get it now anyway, may as well wait until late December.
I find this new card disappointing. It needs just a bit more:
I would get the card today with even 1 of these.
If it offered 2 or 3 of these extras I would even pay $400 annual fee.
What a pity.
I agree that if one is to MS this the only way is to do the alternate year as described above which allows an extra year to liquidate the MS items, assuming one has the cash flow to weather that.
Otherwise it could be just a one-time thing for the initial bonus which is fine and what I will likely do, but that doesn’t help Chase at all. A missed opportunity.
So you need both the Ink Cash and Sapphire Preferred in order to get points transferred to Hyatt? How does that work?
Just wondering because I don’t have a Ink Cash yet and didn’t know you can’t transfer with it by itself.
Yes, with the fee free Ultimate Rewards cards (Freedom, Ink Cash, Ink Unlimited), you can’t transfer points directly to loyalty partners. But, you can move those points to another card such as Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Business Preferred and then from those cards you can transfer to loyalty partners like Hyatt.
I have a reservation fo next May that cost me 400K points. If I got the biz card, would I get the 20K points back or is it only for bookings after I get the biz card
If you spend $50K on the card between January 1st 2022 and before you check-out in May, you’ll get 20K points back.
do you know if the $50k clock is based on a calendar year or membership year?
Calendar
There is no amount of lipstick you can put on that pig that will make it look good.
Man, my MS game is weak apparently. 50k in 2 months is NBD?
Love the comparison chart, and this card is a perfect fit for me, thanks for the info.
Great analysis. While the rest of boarding area blogs have still yet to even appreciate that 50k is the threshold between the cards, you guys are already four levels deep.
I think that the combination method is the way to go and what I will be employing, assuming I get approved. I think by itself the business card is sort of meh and one key missing piece is either a FNC or automatic elite nights. I don’t organically spend 60 nights a year at Hyatt (usually around 30) but always enjoy everything that being a Globalist offers.
One thing you left out (possibly on purpose) are the 20, 30, and 40 night milestones you would get in your comparison of spending $15k on the personal and $60k on the business card.
75k welcome points, worth $1500 is well worth it to me. Plus doesn’t show up on credit reports.
You can possible get half the annual fee back too in rebates. I also write business annual fees off against my business income.
Big win for those of us chasing SUB’s.
Agree 100%. Another advantage of the new Hyatt business card, for those spending their way to status, is that the credit utilization won’t affect your personal credit report. Nice when you’re spending $50k+.
Yes, great point. A contrary view that I didn’t add (because I felt like the post was long enough) is that some may want to ms status once per 2 years:
For that person, the $199 annual fee on the biz card is a drag on the off years. On the other hand, quick big spend on a biz card may be better accepted than on a personal card.
Hmm, interesting strategy. It would almost force that person to spend at 1x though, since the gas category would be tough to spend that much that quickly (advertising and other cat’s notwithstanding). Also, that person would miss out on the milestone rewards in the off years.
It’s really only $99 after the $100 Hyatt credit.
I’ll sell you two $50 bills. All you have to do is pay me now and stay at a Hyatt property between now and October 9, 2022 twice and spend at least $50 each time and I’ll give you a $50 bill each of those two times. If you don’t spend enough or don’t stay twice by October 9, 2022, I keep your money.
How much will you buy my two $50 bills for? Would you really pay me $100 for that?
My point: don’t value the $100 Hyatt credit as $100 since you wouldn’t pay me $100 for me to only probably give you $100 back but maybe not.
Well, I have never in the last 10 years NOT spent $100 a year in a Hyatt. OK, so because it’s not $100 but 2 x $50 I would expect a discount of, say, $10. Or if we ever meet up I’ll but you a drink (at a Hyatt, of course)!
Another thing on MS: It’s been all great while interest rates have been low, but as they rise the opportunity cost also rises. Right now it costs little to leave $25K in Morgan Stanley for years but even that is likely to change.