﻿Today we are going to talk about one of my most favorite hotel credit cards. The World of Hyatt
Credit Card. Hyatt is by far one of my favorite hotel chains. And the World of Hyatt Credit Card
has allowed me to enjoy some amazing benefits at Hyatt hotels all around the world. Hi, if you are
new to the channel, my name is Tae from Financial Tortoise. Where we learn to grow our wealth, slow
and steady. This video is broken down into 4 major categories, so feel free to jump around
to sections you’d find most useful. First we’ll talk about who the World of Hyatt Credit Card
is best made for. Second, we’ll discuss the main benefits of owning this card.
All the perks that come along with owning it. Third, I’ll show you how you can redeem
Hyatt points for some great redemption at some amazing properties around the world. And Fourth,
we’ll discuss the current signup bonuses and what this could mean for your future vacations.
Alright. To start out with, who is this card for? There are three primary attractive qualities that
I want to highlight. One is the low annual fee of $95. When I talk to people about all the major
benefits of travel hacking, one of the most common reasons why people are hesitant to get started is
due to the high fees associated with many high rewards travel cards. Some rewards travel cards
have an annual fee of $500 to $700. And this is just too much for people wanting to get started
in the travel hacking hobby. The World of Hyatt Credit Card at $95 annually has one of the lowest
annual fees compared to many other hotel cards out there. And as you will see later in the video,
this $95 dollar easily gets offset by the benefits this card comes with. Another attractive quality
of this card is that you don’t have to be a frequent traveler in order to get maximum
value from this card. Even if you and your family go to a hotel even one night a year,
you can easily get your money back if you maximize the benefit that comes from owning this card.
And the third attractive quality is Hyatt’s simple and predictable redemption process. I have tried
many hotels and airlines redemption processes, and I feel Hyatt has one of the most straightforward
processes there is. And cancellation policies are quite lenient as well. So if you like low fees,
only travel a few times a year and like simple straightforward redemption processes,
I feel like you’ll really enjoy the World of Hyatt Credit Card as your go to hotel credit card. Next
let’s delve in the card’s main benefits and perks. There are two really notable benefits to this card
that makes it worthwhile holding in your wallet. First is the annual free-night certificate. At
every account anniversary, you receive an annual free-night certificate good at any Category 1-4
Hyatt property. Each Hyatt property has a hotel category assigned, that ranges from category 1
to category 8. Most often category 1st are your typical stop and go hotels near airports. They
are a decent place to stay at but nothing to write home about. Category 8 properties once in a life
experience locations like Park Hyatt New York or Alila Ventana at Big Sur. My wife and I had
the chance to stay at Ventana for our 10 year anniversary and we are now spoiled for life. A
free-night certificate good at any Category 1-4 Hyatt property is worth as much or more than the
$95 annual fee in my opinion. Because if you and your family could enjoy even one light
a year at a Category 1-4 Hyatt property, you already made your annual fee back. For example,
there are some great Category 4 Hyatt properties out there that are worth much more than $95
a night. The Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego normally worth $300 a night is a category 4.
When you use this certificate you don’t need to pay any occupancy fee which could add up to $50
per night. Grand Hyatt in Seoul was another amazing category 4 hotel that my family and I had
an opportunity to stay at. Again, normally a night here would be close to $300 a night, but using my
wife and I’s World of Hyatt Credit Cards, we were able to stay here completely free. So for us,
by having this card, even with a $95 annual fee, we came out way ahead with just using the
certificates alone. But wait. There is more. When you have this card, it automatically comes with
Hyatt elite status that can give you additional perks when you are staying at a Hyatt property.
There are 5 levels of Hyatt Elite Status. Member, Discoverist, Explorist, Globalist and Lifetime
Globalist. When you have a World of Hyatt Credit Card, you automatically get Discoverist status
Discoverist status comes with benefits such as late checkout, preferred rooms and a 10%
points bonus on eligible purchases. Discoverist is not the same level as Globalist or Explorist,
but it also isn’t something to be ignored. I usually don’t expect much from a Discoverist
status, but almost everytime I check-in at a Hyatt property I get some value from it. Even
if it's a couple free water bottles, I gladly take it, saving me a few dollars in needing
to purchase water on my own. Let’s take a look at how to redeem Hyatt points for free nights.
Like I mentioned earlier, the more upscale a brand, higher the categories like category 7 or 8.
Think brands like Park Hyatt or the Andaz. Lower categories are usually associated with chains like
the Hyatt Place or Hyatt House. Places to stop and go for business travelers or budget friendly
families. I personally like Hyatt House given it has a Kitchen and free breakfast - as many
parents would attest to, food is probably the most stressful component to traveling with young kids.
This chart shows the room redemption rates for the different hotel categories. As you can see here,
a category one hotel can be booked with 5,000 per night whereas a category 7 hotel would require
30,000 points. When you go to the Hyatt website, you can filter by award categories to see all the
hotels in that category in your selected region. When you have a hotel that you like to reserve,
all you need to do is go through the standard booking process on the Hyatt website,
but use points to book the room instead of paying cash. You also have the option to book Points and
Cash awards. You’ll pay half the normal points price and half the standard cash rate. Hyatt
properties tend to be slightly less expensive than other hotel programs when it comes to redeeming
points for free nights. Another option is to upgrade paid stays with points. With 3,000 points,
you can get an upgrade to a Club room, while 6,000 – 9,000 points will get you into a suite.
Redeeming points for free nights tends to be a better deal, but upgrading paid stays can be
worth it and won’t bankrupt your point reserves. Again, all of these options for redeeming points
make the World of Hyatt Credit Card a great card for families. Let me talk a bit about points Sweet
Spots. One of the thrills of booking with points is finding sweep spots. A good rule of thumb that
a lot of people in this travel hacking game like to use is the one cents per point conversion rule.
For example, if you are planning to use 10,000 points to book a room, you want to get at least
$100 dollar value from it. Sweet spots are when you are able to redeem a hotel room for more
than one cent per point. For example, one of the Hyatt hotels that my family and I recently
redeemed points at was the Park Hyatt Aviara. This is a category 6 hotel so it required a hefty
25,000 points to redeem, but the cash value of a room here is almost $1,000 a night.
Kind of ridiculous in my eyes. I don’t think I could ever pay that much in cash for a hotel room,
regardless of how nice it is. But with points, I was able to get 4 cents per point instead of
1 cent per point standard. And call me weird, but my hobby is to find these sweet spots to maximize
my points value. And if you are willing to go overseas, you can find even better sweet spots
in places like the Middle East and Asia. You can stay at Hotels such as Park Hyatt Chennai or Hyatt
Place Los Cabos in Mexico for just 5,000 points a night. Alright, let’s talk about the signup
bonus. Credit card signup bonuses are one of the best and quickest ways to acquire points.
Points that we can use to redeem for all the cool hotel rooms we just talked about. The
World of Hyatt card currently offers a two-tiered sign-up bonus worth up to 60,000 points. First,
you’ll get 30,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first three months
from account opening. Then, you can earn up to 30,000 more Bonus Points by spending up to $15,000
in the first 6 months of account opening. For most people, $15,000 might not be possible,
but if you can find $3,000 of expenses within 3 months, you can easily get 30,000 bonus points.
I personally like to time the opening of my cards with any major upcoming payments such as
annual insurance premium or tax payments. And the 30,000 bonus points can be translated to 6 nights
at any of the category 1 hotels that I mentioned earlier. And this is on top of the category 1-4
annual free night certificate you are already getting by owning the card. I have patched
together very affordable family vacations using this strategy. Trips that I normally wouldn’t
have taken if I had to pay out of pocket for everything. Thank you guys for watching and if you
found value from this video hit that like button and consider subscribing. And if you enjoy videos
like this please let me know in the comments below so I can add them to the queue for future videos.
And if you like to open the World of Hyatt Credit card, consider using the link in the description
below. It helps out the channel and I’d much appreciate it. Thank you again and all the best.