9X on hotel spends...I guess this is confirmation that a major points devaluation is coming in the very near future. Other than that, not much here for a 5-10 night/$5k spend per year loser like me. I will stick to my lower AF card, since everything else is the same. Maybe if they had an Explorist card with a cat 5-6 cert at a higher AF, I would bite, but this is an easy pass.

So If I upgrade - will the 5 qualifying nights be added to my WOH account immediately?

If by immediately, you mean in the next few hours, the answer is no. I do not see 5 nights added to my account, but I'm not too worried. There's another six months to work it out.

Upgrading now by phone - rep confirms no credit pull for the upgrade.

Rep also said I may not get the 2K bonus if I didn't get a notification of it first.

Might be worth waiting to see if some offer arrives by mail/email.

I can't say I'm happy. I've had the original card for years and frankly don't really want to cancel it but I'm not going to forego the sign up bonus and it just makes sense to have the new card over the old. I also don't like that they're making it easier to get the top tier benefits without actually staying, which I despise that other brands have done and now Hyatt is also. So basically back to 50 nights for glob with zero effort.

Why not cancel my old card (opened 4 years ago) and simply get a new one? Isn't a credit pull worth an extra 58,000 points? I called and the Chase agent said this is possible to do right away, but do people think I should wait a day, week or month? I did open two Southwest cards last October -- earned my companion pass on January 10th of this year -- but that's it in the last 24 months.

5 nights toward status is a nice step for me.

I can't remember how it was back in the day, but I'm feeling like I got 10 nights toward status, and Diamondist was 50, so I needed 40. That basically went to 55, and now it's sorta going down to 50.

So, as happy as I am that this $20 gets me 5 nights plus nights for spend, this is still significantly worse than where we were before.

Globalist status -- mindblowing
 

Wow, for those of us who were marginal Diamonds under the old program, then got whipsawed by the initially strict Globalist requirements, then saw those requirements relaxed ... and now this!

My head is spinning. Help me work through this ...

So a couple of years ago, we needed to do 25 stays or 50 nights for Diamond. P+C nights counted, but Award and all points nights did not. We could cut the requirement to 23/45 with $20,000 spend on the (now old) Chase Hyatt Visa, or even to 20/40 with $40,000 spend. I used to do the $20,000 spend and 23 stays. This meant I was usually doing something like 40 nights.

Then the new Globalist program came in. It did away with stays. It did away with nights from credit card spend. It upped the first-time requalification to 60 nights.

That was severe. I couldn't make it. My Diamond status through 28 February of last year got me enough stays so that I could kind of coast to 30 nights and Explorist status by the end of last year. But Explorist meant no breakfast, no suite upgrades, and 2 hours less on my guaranteed late check-outs. Plus I wasn't staying in Hyatts with clubs, so the four club upgrades were not great shakes. End of 2017, I could see myself dropping further still.

Which was too bad, because I liked -- and still like -- Hyatt. So I was pleased at the beginning of this year when they threw us (me) a lifeline: Award and points nights would count toward requalification. Already this year I have done (at least) eight such nights, have a couple of Award nights that I will have to use this calendar year (card plus hitting Explorist again), and a couple more Award nights booked. So that makes 60-12 (or more) = 48 (or less) paid nights this year, and I decided I could (and would) suck it up and gut it out, even as an Explorist, to recapture the glory of Globalist status. 48 (or fewer) paid nights was not too far from what I had been doing previously, and I really wanted to be a Globalist again. After all, with a harder qualifying regime, there might be more suites available. Certainly my impression through 28 February 2017 was that upgrades were coming more frequently as the (initial) severity of the new World of Hyatt drove away all but road warriors (which I'm not) and true believers (which it turned out I am, since I really do want to be back in Hyatt's good graces).

Now this. Am I reading this right? Am I drunk? Am I hallucinating? I just checked my Chase Hyatt Visa spend to date ... close to $8,000. Does this mean that if I get the new card now, either by upgrading or canceling and reapplying, that I will get 5 nights credit toward 2018 for having the card, another 2 for $5,000 spend, and another 2 if and when I spend $2,000 more? Like in a matter of days (or weeks, or however long it takes to post? Because if that's the case, I'm suddenly back in the world where I do 40 (or fewer) paid nights to be a Globalist, and I only have to spend ... well, less than the $20,000 on the old card.

I guess this is all good, but was it all necessary?

I'm also curious about whether previous spend this year will count, but I'm assuming it won't.

And I agree with you 100% that the shifting landscape here is really a roller coaster.

One thing I have learned with Hyatt over the last few years: don't front-load stays early in the year if the best hotel for the situation isn't a Hyatt. Do what you plan to do for reasons of travel, and not status. Later in the year, like starting in September, when the offers have come out and Hyatt has either decided or not to entice us all back in, then see if you need a mattress stay or to move some stays from another hotel to a Hyatt.

Would be totally shocked if previous spend counted. The only possibility might be this months spend since it will most likely end as the new card.

Nevertheless, this is an exciting change.

I love how the signup bonus is 60,000 points - a homage to the old Hyatt card's sign up bonus of 2 nights at any Hyatt in the world - one of my first "travel hacks" where I used it to get 2 nights at the PH Vendome!

With my future booked nights and previous stays, I'm at 50 nights for the year. I'm at 6/24, with it becoming 5/24 9/1 and 4/24 12/1, and I'm debating just waiting until I'm 4/24 to get the 60k bonus, or just upgrade my card now (I got my Hyatt card in 2014) and not worry about re-earning Globalist

I think I am going to cancel my current card and sign up for this one.
When is the free night on the old card normally credited? It might be best to wait until the free night shows up, then cancel the card.

If you check reddit, there are a couple of data points that this card is NOT subject to 5/24.