topic Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card in Credit Cards

$75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

wasCB14 — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:14:42 GMT

I got a notice in the mail. On January 11, 2021 my $75 Hyatt Visa is forcibly converting to the $95 World of Hyatt card.

Since I mostly earn with Amex and BofA, and really just use the Hyatt card for the annual night, this is unwelcome news...effectively just an AF hike. But I doubt I will cancel.

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

CreditCuriosity — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:35:15 GMT

Suspect that will happen to the IHG in time as well

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

Adkins — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 13:03:31 GMT

Yuck.

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 16:24:24 GMT

It's one thing if there will be no lower AF Hyatt cards after your current one gets discontinued. I believe banks will first try to switch you to the nearest like product, and if none, convert you to a generic rewards vs. a different hotel chain. Also, I think banks may try to keep you on the same tier of card, too. For example, if Chase killed off their United Club card, they'd probably PC you to a CSR and not a CSP.

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

SouthJamaica — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 16:27:43 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
I got a notice in the mail. On January 11, 2021 my $75 Hyatt Visa is forcibly converting to the $95 World of Hyatt card.

Since I mostly earn with Amex and BofA, and really just use the Hyatt card for the annual night, this is unwelcome news...effectively just an AF hike. But I doubt I will cancel.

Before you judge Chase too harshly, compare the benefits of the 2 cards. I don't recall what the differences were but I do recall that they more than made up for the $20 hike in annual fee, and caused me to voluntarily make the product change immediately after the new card was offered.

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

wasCB14 — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 18:52:45 GMT

@CreditCuriosity wrote:
Suspect that will happen to the IHG in time as well

It might even be soon. The timeline is similar, with both World of Hyatt and IHG Premier launching in 2018 with the lower-AF cards closing around then to new apps.

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

wasCB14 — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 18:58:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It's one thing if there will be no lower AF Hyatt cards after your current one gets discontinued. I believe banks will first try to switch you to the nearest like product, and if none, convert you to a generic rewards vs. a different hotel chain. Also, I think banks may try to keep you on the same tier of card, too. For example, if Chase killed off their United Club card, they'd probably PC you to a CSR and not a CSP.

Nothing is ambiguous here. I'm going from the older $75 Hyatt Visa (which closed to new application about two years ago) to the newer $95 "World of Hyatt" Visa that came out at that time.

My parents used Chase TravelPlus years ago, a no-AF card. When Chase discontinued that they tried to steer them not to Freedom but to the $95 CSP.

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

staticvoidmain — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 19:20:05 GMT

$20 increase to $95 sounds reasonable for a card with an included annual free night. Amex had the same thing with SPG ($95) (which is now exclusive to Chase's Boundless Visa), and their $95 Hilton did not even have a free night (which is why I canceled it). Seems like they are enforcing streamlining/simplifying their portfolio by removing legacy products.

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

wasCB14 — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 19:38:57 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
I got a notice in the mail. On January 11, 2021 my $75 Hyatt Visa is forcibly converting to the $95 World of Hyatt card.

Since I mostly earn with Amex and BofA, and really just use the Hyatt card for the annual night, this is unwelcome news...effectively just an AF hike. But I doubt I will cancel.
Before you judge Chase too harshly, compare the benefits of the 2 cards. I don't recall what the differences were but I do recall that they more than made up for the $20 hike in annual fee, and caused me to voluntarily make the product change immediately after the new card was offered.

I did compare the benefits before posting. I didn't say the card couldn't work for anyone, just that it didn't appeal to me with my Amex+BofA focus. I like MRs and have BofA's +75% PH multiplier, so a bunch of narrowly-defined travel and dining 2x categories don't do much for me.

I'm losing price protection (one of the few cards that has kept it) and return protection.

With a lot of accumulated hotel points, I'm more focused on using points than earning them, so 4x vs. 3x at Hyatt doesn't do much. And I'm not likely to spend $15k for an additional low-category annual night.

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

wasCB14 — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 19:54:26 GMT

@staticvoidmain wrote:
$20 increase to $95 sounds reasonable for a card with an included annual free night. Amex had the same thing with SPG ($95) (which is now exclusive to Chase's Boundless Visa), and their $95 Hilton did not even have a free night (which is why I canceled it). Seems like they are enforcing streamlining/simplifying their portfolio by removing legacy products.

As I said, I doubt I will cancel. I have a lot of Hyatt points and I don't want to risk letting them expire if I were to close the card and forget to buy points occasionally. And eventually I will travel again and use the card.

I know $20 isn't much...and I know they are simplifying...I'm more grumpy over the principle of a forced AF hike on a travel card when we're in the middle of a pandemic without any recompense to customers. There were incentives in the past to upgrade but I ignored those offers as I thought I could keep my card for at least a few more years. Between Continental cards, TravelPlus, and legacy Marriott products Chase seemed to keep legacy products active for many years.

I have the $95 "old SPG" Bonvoy Amex. I actually got to keep the 50k night by downgrading from Brilliant right after the AF hit. Otherwise it's a 35k night.

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

FinStar — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 23:57:51 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
@staticvoidmain wrote:
$20 increase to $95 sounds reasonable for a card with an included annual free night. Amex had the same thing with SPG ($95) (which is now exclusive to Chase's Boundless Visa), and their $95 Hilton did not even have a free night (which is why I canceled it). Seems like they are enforcing streamlining/simplifying their portfolio by removing legacy products.
As I said, I doubt I will cancel. I have a lot of Hyatt points and I don't want to risk letting them expire if I were to close the card and forget to buy points occasionally. And eventually I will travel again and use the card.

I know $20 isn't much...and I know they are simplifying...I'm more grumpy over the principle of a forced AF hike on a travel card when we're in the middle of a pandemic without any recompense to customers. There were incentives in the past to upgrade but I ignored those offers as I thought I could keep my card for at least a few more years. Between Continental cards, TravelPlus, and legacy Marriott products Chase seemed to keep legacy products active for many years.

I have the $95 "old SPG" Bonvoy Amex. I actually got to keep the 50k night by downgrading from Brilliant right after the AF hit. Otherwise it's a 35k night.

I know what you mean @wasCB14. It can definitely seem like an annoyance, as in one should be able to stay with such product (based on choice or tenure) versus having to be boxed or migrated into something may not align with such uniform product family. I get it and thankfully the AF hike isn't as significant for you to keep the card.

An example would be for a variety of us that were grandfathered with the Ritz CC (some folks can still upgrade their Bonvoy CCs if eligible). Yet, many of us were not so fortunate to keep the JPMorgan Select card and it converted to CSP. There were others who also lost out on the Fairmont card (when discontinued) who eventually found themselves converted to CSP as well 🤷‍♂️

Luckily, I was able to obtain all the upgrade [SUB] promotions when Marriott, IHG and Hyatt had those offers a while back.

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

NRB525 — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 01:30:59 GMT

I already PC'd my Hyatt to the new WoH card. Consolidation for current card holders seems reasonable.

I just got a letter that the $15,000 spend for an additional Free Night is changing. Starting in calendar 2022, the $15,000 spend will be on a calendar year basis. Leading in to that, the cardholders will still spend based on Cardmember year, except that wrapping up 2021 will end that cycle on Dec 31, 2021. On January 1 2022, all the cardholders start with a Calendar year spend cycle to meet the $15,000 / additional night.

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

Roger1071549 — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:20:06 GMT

Restarting a (somewhat) old thread but I just hit my first AF after being forced into the world of hyatt card. They charged the old ($75) AF. I expected it to go to the higer fee but will take the $20 "discount".

Re: $75 Hyatt Visa forcibly PCing to $95 card

MrDisco99 — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 02:35:35 GMT

Kinda scared for my my IHG card after hearing this. I'll be pretty miffed if they take away my $49 annual free night.