Nothing exciting that will make me take the Hyatt Visa out of the drawer. If they matched the Citi Hilton card $40k spend for Diamond status, then I may bite.

The Hyatt cc is kinda lame... but not having an alternative outside the US is even worst.

After an initial fast start because of the two free nights this has quickly become a troubled card because the competition, even within the Chase card family, is too great. The two new enhancements aren't enough to pull it out of its slump.

Also - can we get details of how these stay/night credits would show up?

Does Jan 2012-Dec 2012 spending above threshold result in a Jan 2013 stay/night credit ?

This change also somewhat mirrors the Marriott Premier card from Chase, which has an annual retention free night (but at a capped category) and gives 2x points on airline tickets, car rentals and dining.

That being said, the Marriott card is really only useful for the retention free night and for use at Marriott properties.

I would imagine the big challenge facing the managers of a lot of Chase co-branded card programs is simply that Chase has developed a product-- the CSP-- which is simply better, earning wise, than all of their co-branded cards.

I haven't read the comments in this thread first (I didn't want to be "swayed") but I think this card is doing GREAT THINGS with the benefits. I love the tie in to the status qualification and the extra points at restaurants/gas. That is huge. Great work on this guys! Now, I'll read this thread and get upset I'm sure that not everyone's happy. =)

Similarly, I glanced at it and thought it was granting me Diamond for my more than 60k in spend per year and was disappointed to find that I would still not be a diamond.

I am exclusively a leisure traveler who stays exclusively at category 5 and 6 properties and even with the extra 10 nights I will only be at 30 nights for the year...despite spending more than 12K on Hyatt this year.

+1

Nothing to see here.

Wont really change my hyatt card spend - still only really useful for paying at hyatt properties. Chase Sapphire Preferred still has more flexibility and higher point accrual for restaurants and travel (2% + 7% point dividend)

Nothing but another year of junk emails coming on a daily basis. :td::td::td::td:

A big YAWN. I can think of 100X better ways to spend 40k

Nope, not a game changer, but let's not forget this accomplishes a few things:

1. Makes the card more competitive with other chains' cards.
2. Good for the unwashed hordes who may not be into the Ultimate Rewards game.
3. Top of mind awareness - Ad Nauseum Mentions in every travel blog that makes a buck from CC referrals.

Still not sure why they haven't released a business card.

The bonus stay/night credit is worthless if you have no plans to go for Diamond. Some incremental spend may get shifted to this card due to the new spending categories but on the whole, the changes just put them head to head against other cards that offer stronger benefits and returns.

Instead of restaurants, airlines and car rentals, I would have liked to have seen restaurants, gas and grocery stores. That would have been enough for me to shift some of my AMEX spend.

I'll admit I don't understand who makes the decisions and how they come to decide which features get added, but if I'm a manager of a Chase co-branded credit card, I'm going to try and differentiate my card from the CSP as much as possible. I can't imagine someone at Hyatt doesn't recognize this. Are there some other factors in play here?

We all know that this card has never been great, other than the sign-up bonus, and that Hyatt and Chase have been thinking of ways to enhance it for some time now-- we've heard scattering reports of cardmembers taking surveys over the past few months, and I personally attended a focus group on this card and its benefits well over one year ago. I'm a little surprised it has taken this long for them to add benefits that I think a FT focus group could come up with in five minutes.

The good thing is that they have made some changes. Let's not forget that the anniversary free night was not originally part of the card's benefits and was just added about one year ago, and now one year later they have added some new benefits. Of course, during the past two years a lot has changed with competitor cards-- there are now far more cards with no forex fees (one of the big differentiators when the Hyatt card first came out), and of course now there is the CSP which was overhauled significantly last summer. So I suppose these changes have really been more reactionary than anything else.

Perhaps there will be something else in store for us cardholders one year from now...