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Hyatt Free Night Certificate Posted 2 Months After Annual Fee Posted (YMMV?)

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Good afternoon everyone.  I’m not sure if this was a fluke, but my most recent Hyatt free night certificate posted 2 weeks before the annual fee posted, but my wife’s Hyatt free night certificate posted 2 months after the annual fee posted.  In this post, I will share the details about both of our situations and show the new terms of the Hyatt free night certificate.

I used to have the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card that had a $75 annual fee, but on January 11, 2021, Chase converted all cardholders from the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card to the new Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card which has a $95 annual fee.  I decided to close my old card before the conversion took place so that I could apply for the new card down the road.  Long story short, the old card annual fee posted on December 1, 2020, but the free night certificate posted to my Hyatt account 2 weeks prior.

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As you can see, the Hyatt free night certificate posted to my Hyatt account on November 17, 2020, which is 2 weeks before the annual fee posted on December 1, 2020.

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In contrast, my wife has the new Hyatt card and was charged the annual fee on February 1, 2021.

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But her free night certificate didn’t post to her Hyatt account until 2 months later on April 1, 2021.  A few weeks ago, Laura reached out to Chase to see why the free night certificate hadn’t posted yet (we both assumed it got lost in the transfer from Chase to Hyatt).  The rep said to wait 10 weeks from the date the annual fee posted (which would be April 12, 2021) and to call Chase back if the free night certificate did not post by then.

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I did some digging and checked out the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card benefits and looked at the terms of the “1 free night every year*”.

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Here are the terms of the free night certificate on the benefits page.  Based on the bolded sentence, the free night certificate should have posted at the end of the month (annual fee posted on February 1, 2021, and the free night certification should have posted by February 28, 2021).

Free Night Award Every Cardmember Anniversary: To qualify for this Free Night Award, you must be the primary cardmember and your card account must be open and not in default at the time the award is issued. Please allow up to the end of your Anniversary month each year for your Hyatt Credit Card Anniversary Free Night Award to be issued to you. (“Anniversary” is the date that is twelve months after your account open date, and the same date each twelve months thereafter.) This Free Night Award is good for one (1) night in any available standard room within 12 months from issuance at a Hyatt hotel or resort, Small Luxury Hotels of the World hotel, or M life Rewards destinations hotel designated as Category 1 through 4 under the World of Hyatt program. Not valid at properties in any other category or at Miraval, Hyatt Zilara or Hyatt Ziva resorts. To find Category 1 through 4 hotels or resorts, visit worldofhyatt.com. An authorized user will not receive this Free Night Award. Hyatt reserves the right to reclassify any hotel or resort at any time for any reason in its sole discretion (provided that reclassification of a hotel or resort will not affect a previously booked award reservation). This Free Night Award must be redeemed for a reservation with a checkout date before the expiration date of the award. This Free Night Award cannot be redeemed for packages. Resort, destination, or facility fees, where charged by the applicable hotel or resort, will be waived for cardmembers for the specific redeemed Free Night Award (excluding Hyatt Residence Club resorts). In some instances, a hotel or resort may charge other fees (such as a “service fee” for room service) that are independent of any resort, destination, or facility fee charged by that hotel or resort. These fees will not be waived when redeeming a Free Night Award. Reservations for Free Night Award redemption are subject to availability and must be made in advance by visiting the My Awards page within your account at worldofhyatt.com, or by calling 888.75.HYATT or your nearest Hyatt Global Contact Center. Chase is not responsible for offer fulfillment. Except as otherwise expressly set forth here, redemption of this Free Night Award is subject to all terms applicable to Free Night Awards as set forth in the World of Hyatt terms and conditions, available at worldofhyatt.com/terms.

By comparison, the terms are different on the credit card application page.  Based on the bolded sentence, the free night certificate should post within 10 weeks (which is what happened for Laura’s free night certificate).

Free Night Award Every Cardmember Anniversary: To qualify for this Free Night Award, you must be the primary cardmember and your card account must be open and not in default at the time the award is issued. Please allow up to 10 weeks after your cardmember anniversary each year for your Free Night Award to be issued to you. (“Anniversary” is the date that is twelve months after your account open date, and the same date each twelve months thereafter.) This Free Night Award is good for one (1) night in any available standard room within 12 months from issuance at a Hyatt hotel or resort, Small Luxury Hotels of the World hotel, or M life Rewards destinations hotel designated as Category 1 through 4 under the World of Hyatt program. Not valid at properties in any other category or at Miraval, Hyatt Zilara or Hyatt Ziva resorts. To find Category 1 through 4 hotels or resorts, visit worldofhyatt.com. An authorized user will not receive this Free Night Award. Hyatt reserves the right to reclassify any hotel or resort at any time for any reason in its sole discretion (provided that reclassification of a hotel or resort will not affect a previously booked award reservation). This Free Night Award must be redeemed for a reservation with a checkout date before the expiration date of the award. This Free Night Award cannot be redeemed for packages. Resort, destination, or facility fees, where charged by the applicable hotel or resort, will be waived for cardmembers for the specific redeemed Free Night Award (excluding Hyatt Residence Club resorts). In some instances, a hotel or resort may charge other fees (such as a “service fee” for room service) that are independent of any resort, destination, or facility fee charged by that hotel or resort. These fees will not be waived when redeeming a Free Night Award. Reservations for Free Night Award redemption are subject to availability and must be made in advance by visiting the My Awards page within your account at worldofhyatt.com, or by calling 888.75.HYATT or your nearest Hyatt Global Contact Center. Chase is not responsible for offer fulfillment. Except as otherwise expressly set forth here, redemption of this Free Night Award is subject to all terms applicable to Free Night Awards as set forth in the World of Hyatt terms and conditions, available at worldofhyatt.com/terms.

Since I only have 2 data points to go by, it is hard to know if both of our situations are flukes or if Hyatt free night certificates are posting later than normal.  I would like to get more data points, so please share when your annual fee posted and when your Hyatt free night certificate posted, that way we can calculate the time between those days.  If you have any questions about the Hyatt free night certificates, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!


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22 thoughts on “Hyatt Free Night Certificate Posted 2 Months After Annual Fee Posted (YMMV?)

  1. P

    Chase and Hyatt have both said that it will take 10 weeks for the free night certificates to post when we contacted them this week as it’s been three weeks since the anniversary date for one of our cards so i’m not surprised by this.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi P, thanks for sharing that data point. Sounds like you will need to wait 6-7 more weeks for your free night certificate to post to your Hyatt account. Hopefully it posts sooner than that :)

      Reply
  2. Babblespeak

    Mine has taken 6 months to arrive since I upgraded to the new Hyatt card. My annual fee hits in September which is the month I upgraded, my old annual fee was due in January, and the certificate comes in March after I complain to Chase about it being more than 10 weeks past due. I just went through this for the third year in a row. The service reps have never seemed to understand the problem. “Yes, we see you paid your annual fee in September. Yes, your anniversary is in January. So?”

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      I think Chase is the only CC issuer that doesn’t tie the date of the annual fee posting to the anniversary date of the card. It really gets messed up if you product change from one card to another. Sorry your annual fee and free night certificates are not synced together.

      Reply
  3. HADLEY V. BAXENDALE

    LATER WOULD BE BETTER!

    I’m backed up with Hyatt (and all other hotel chain) Free Night Certificates, so I actually want a later posting, as I have to get thru my Marriott, Hilton and IHG certificates before truly adressing Hyatt free night certs! Here’s hoping for a long lived backlog!

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Haha, that’s looking at this issue as a glass half full situation. I’m hoping you can work through your backlog of free night certs over the next few months and enjoy your hotel stays :)

      Reply
  4. JBCH

    Our annual fee was charged on March 1 and as of today we have not received our free night. I guess I’ll wait until May 1 to contact them. I still have the two free nights from last year (15k spend) and my wife has one and they expire on 12/31/21.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Please let me know if you see the Hyatt free night certificate on May 1. Sounds like you and your wife have a few certs that you need to use. Do you have any plans on where to redeem them?

      Reply
  5. Rena

    I have the WOH card (signed up in early 2020). My annual fee posted March 1, although I think my actual anniversary date is Feb 15. My free night posted April 16.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Rena, thank you for sharing your data point. Looks like your free night certificate posted 2 months after your CC anniversary date.

      Reply
  6. Rick

    Same here, my anniversary date is 4/8 and it used to post on 4/8 in 2019 and 2020. However, this year, it’s not posting yet. I was told the same thing to wait 10 weeks – I guess it should probably post by 6/9, or else, I will need to contact them again

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Ya, such a shame that it now take almost 2 months to get the free night certificate. You should see your certificate in the next few days. Do you have a property in mind that you want to stay at?

      Reply
  7. Clyn6

    My Hyatt card – charged old $75 AF on 7/1/2021 and cert did not show up until Aug 21, that is 7 weeks plus 2 days after AF. I was surprised I was not charged the new $95 AF since I was forced into newer Hyatt card, maybe they are waiting until next year? Husband charged $75 AF Aug 1st, so I guess I will not see the cert until late Sept or early Oct. I must say I can understand why they want to make you wait 2 months – just to be sure you pay the AF which is what earns the cert. But since this is a change it would have been good customer service to have sent us an alert to this change. Thank you for your post, I appreciate this info. FYI; I don’t think I have read similar info on any other site. I guess they are too busy pumping the sales to post actually usable information. Thank you again for the useful info!

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Clyn, thanks for sharing your data points on when you received your free night certificate. It’s nice that Chase is still charging the $75 annual fee and not the new $95 annual fee. I’m sure that will change in 2022. Even if you plan on keeping both Hyatt credit cards, you should call Chase and see if there are any retention offers available. They may give you a $75 statement credit to keep you as a customer. Worth a phone call. Good luck!

      Reply
      1. Clyn6

        Thank you for the suggestion! I am really bad at remembering to ask for retention offers. I need to just add them to my calendar! :)

        Reply
        1. Grant Post author

          Basically anytime an annual fee posts to any of my credit cards, I call to see if there are any retention offers available. I usually have a 10-20% success rate, but that adds up to a few hundred dollars a year for making a few short phone calls. Good luck on your calls :)

          Reply
  8. Clyn6

    Data Point- AF Hyatt card posted Aug 1st, 2022. “free” annual night cert posted sometime between Sept 10 to 15th, 2022. (Exp Sept 11 2023)

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Clyn, thank you for sharing your data point. Based on the expiration date, I’m guessing the FNC posted on Sept 11-12. Do you have any plans on where you will stay with your FNC?

      Reply
  9. James

    I think my anniversary date is March 1 but I already got a free night January 10. My mother, on the other hand, got charged the $95 around January 1 but has not received a free night yet. I was wondering if it’s because she hadn’t used the card in like 11 months. Turns out she misplaced it, and we requested a new card ( of course finding the misplaced one soon after) we made sure we paid the $95 and used the new card multiple places to show she is still an active user!!

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi James, you should be able to see when the annual fee posts by looking at your recent CC statements. From memory, I think my free night certificate posted about 2 months after the annual fee posted.

      Reply

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