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One of the most common questions to ask about credit cards is whether to get a flexible rewards card or a co-branded airline or hotel card. And while there’s no catch-all answer, the right choice for you is typically pretty simple.
If you spend a ton of money at a specific hotel chain or airline, you should probably get a co-branded hotel or airline credit card that’s associated with the brand you frequent. However, if you estimate that your everyday purchases typically outweigh your hotel or airline spending, you should get a flexible rewards credit card.
In this guide, we’ll be comparing 2 of Chase’s most popular credit cards: the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, a flexible rewards card, and The World of Hyatt Credit Card, a hotel credit card. We’ll be doing a deep dive on every aspect of each card, including welcome bonuses, earning rates, hotel benefits, travel protections, shopping perks, and much more.
Let’s get into it!
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card vs. World of Hyatt Card — Overview
Here’s a high-level overview of what each card has to offer:
Earn 60,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.
Earn 30,000 points when you spend $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months. Plus, up to 30,000 additional points by earning 2x in the first 6 months on purchases that normally earn 1x, on up to $15,000 spent.
Earning Potential
5x points on travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards and Lyft (through March 31, 2025)
3x points on dining, online grocery purchases, and select streaming services
2x points on other travel
10% anniversary points bonus based on the dollar amount spent
4x points at all Hyatt hotels
2x points spent at restaurants, airfare booked directly from the airline, local transit and commuting, fitness club and gym memberships
Redemption Options
Transfer to airline and hotel partners
Travel purchases made through Chase Ultimate Rewards (25% redemption bonus)
Cash-back/statement credits; gift cards; online shopping; Amazon.com purchases
Redeem for free hotel nights, upgrades, and Points + Cash bookings, dining, spa treatments, meetings and events, FIND experiences, and Lindblad Expeditions within the World of Hyatt hospitality umbrella
Rental cars; Convert to frequent flyer miles
Hotel Program Benefits
Access to the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection
1 free night at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort every year after your cardmember anniversary; plus an extra free night at a Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel if you spend $15,000+ in a calendar year
Automatic World of Hyatt Discoverist status
Receive 5 qualifying night credits every year; plus, an additional 2 qualifying night credits when you spend $5,000+ on the card
Statement Credits
Up to $50 in annual Ultimate Rewards hotel credits
Up to $10 in monthly Gopuff credits
Up to $15 in quarterly Instacart+ credits after activating by July 31, 2024
None
Travel Benefits and Protections
Primary rental car insurance; lost or delayed baggage coverage; trip cancellation and interruption insurance; trip delay insurance; travel accident insurance
Secondary rental car insurance; lost or delayed baggage coverage; trip cancellation and interruption insurance; trip delay insurance; travel accident insurance
Shopping Benefits and Protections
Complimentary 6-month Instacart+ membership after activating by July 31, 2024
Complimentary DoorDash DashPass subscription for a minimum of 1 year if activated by December 31, 2024
No foreign transaction fees
Complimentary DoorDash DashPass subscription for a minimum of 1 year if activated by December 31, 2024
No foreign transaction fees
Annual Fees
$95
$95
Authorized Users
No additional annual fees for authorized users
No additional annual fees for authorized users
Bottom Line: The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers cardholders the ability to earn up to 5x Ultimate Rewards points across many different categories that you can redeem for flights, hotels, cash-back, and more, while the World of Hyatt card earns up to 4x World of Hyatt points that you can redeem primarily for free hotel nights.
The Value of a Welcome Offer
One of the biggest reasons why you’d want to open a new credit card is for a valuable welcome offer. This is one of the easiest ways you can immediately get rewarded (often in a big way) for new card membership.
Here are the current welcome offers for each card:
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
World of Hyatt Card
Chase Ultimate Rewards Points vs. World of Hyatt Points
To start our discussion of Chase Ultimate Rewards points versus World of Hyatt points, it’s important to know that we value Chase points at 2 cents each, while World of Hyatt points are worth 1.5 cents apiece according to our valuations.
We value Chase points higher because of their flexibility — they can be transferred to over a dozen travel partners, including Hyatt. Chase points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to World of Hyatt almost instantaneously, but World of Hyatt points cannot be transferred to Chase points (or to many other partners).
Chase Ultimate Rewards also has several different popular airline and hotel partners that you can transfer points to and book other types of travel (and often for incredible value, too). For example, you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Air Canada Aeroplan to book business class flights to Europe on airlines such as Lufthansa, SWISS Air, and even Emirates.
And if you want to transfer points to World of Hyatt to book that awesome hotel room, you have the freedom to do so with Chase points.
Unfortunately, World of Hyatt points can’t be transferred in reverse to Chase Ultimate Rewards points, which limits the ways you can get good redemption value.
Nonetheless, Chase points are always just as valuable, if not more valuable than World of Hyatt points.
Earning Potential
Earning Category
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
World of Hyatt Card
Travel Purchased Through Chase Ultimate Rewards
5x points
N/A
Lyft (Through March 31, 2025)
5x points
1x points
Select Peloton Purchases Over $250 (Through March 31, 2025)
5x points
1x points
Restaurants
3x points
2x points
Online Grocery Purchases
3x points
1x points
Select Streaming Services
3x points
1x points
Purchases at Hyatt Hotels
2x points
4x points
Airline Tickets Purchased Directly From the Airline
2x points
2x points
Other Travel Purchases
2x points
1x points
Local Transit and Commuting
2x points
2x points
Fitness Club and Gym Memberships
1x points
2x points
Other Purchases
1x points
1x points
You’ll notice that from the table above, the World of Hyatt card really only outperforms the Chase Sapphire Preferred card in 2 categories:
Purchases at Hyatt hotels
Fitness club and gym memberships
However, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card outperforms the World of Hyatt card in most other categories, including popular spending areas like restaurants, general travel, and online grocery purchases.
So, unless you’re spending thousands of dollars per month at Hyatt hotels or gyms, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card will likely earn you more points than the World of Hyatt card.
10% Anniversary Points Boost
Another feature of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is the 10% anniversary points boost you’ll receive after each cardmember anniversary. The amount of points you earn is based on the total dollar amount spent on the card in 1 year (not the total amount of points earned with the card).
For example, if you spend $50,000 on your credit card in a year, you’ll get an anniversary bonus of 5,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
The World of Hyatt card does not award any annual bonus points.
Free Hotel Nights, Upgrades, and Points + Cash Bookings
Yes (via World of Hyatt)
Yes
Dining, Spa Treatments, Meetings, and Events
Yes (via World of Hyatt)
Yes
FIND Experiences and Lindblad Expeditions
Yes (via World of Hyatt)
Yes
Rental Cars
Yes
Yes
When you restrict yourself to earning just World of Hyatt points, you can really only use those points for redemptions within the World of Hyatt ecosystem. Sure, you can transfer your World of Hyatt points to airline partners, but the subpar transfer ratio makes it a bad idea in most situations. Additionally, World of Hyatt points cannot be cashed out in any way.
Fortunately, World of Hyatt points are some of the most valuable hotel points out there, so you can get great redemptions when redeeming for free nights. For example, the Park Hyatt Mendoza in Argentina starts at just 9,000 points per night while the Thompson Chicago starts at 12,000 points per night.
However, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card earns Ultimate Rewards points, which allows the flexibility to be transferred to World of Hyatt, United MileagePlus, and other travel partners, in addition to being able to redeem for cash-back or travel through the Ultimate Rewards portal.
At any point in time, you can choose to cash out your Chase points for a flat 1 cent per point of value. You can also redeem your points for travel booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal or for Pay Yourself Back for 1.25 cents each.
The major area where the World of Hyatt card sets itself apart from the rest of the pack is the benefits you get with the World of Hyatt loyalty program, especially if you spend a lot of money on the card.
Without spending on the World of Hyatt card, though, you’ll enjoy 1 free night at a Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort every year after your cardmember anniversary. This can be used at hotels that cost up to 18,000 Hyatt points per night.
You’ll also get automatic Discoverist elite status, as well as 5 tier-qualifying night credits each year to help you qualify for higher elite status levels.
There are 2 additional ways you can use credit card spending to get more out of your World of Hyatt card:
Get an extra free night at a Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort if you spend $15,000 in a calendar year
Earn 2 tier-qualifying night credits every time you spend $5,000 on your card
To earn top-tier World of Hyatt Globalist status, you need to earn 60 tier-qualifying night credits. And since you get 5 nights just by holding the World of Hyatt card, you’ll qualify for Globalist if you earn 55 more elite night credits that same year. Even if you don’t spend a single night in a Hyatt hotel, you could earn the other 56 elite-night credits by spending on the card alone — you’d need to put $140,000 on your card in a year to qualify.
And when you consider the fact that Globalist status gets you guaranteed 4 p.m. late checkout, room upgrades (including standard suites), club lounge access or free breakfast, and free parking on award nights, you can start to see how you’ll be living it up at World of Hyatt properties around the world if you have Globalist status.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card, on the other hand, does not confer any hotel-specific benefits. But it does get youaccess to The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, which offers you daily breakfast for 2, a room upgrade if available, early check-in and late checkout (if available), a special property amenity, and free Wi-Fi. Currently, there are over 1,000 high-end properties around the world that are part of The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection.
Statement Credits
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card has several statement credits, these include:
$50 annual hotel credit when booking a hotel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal
$10 monthly Gopuff credit for 12 months through December 31, 2023, for delivery of food, home essentials, alcohol, and more
The World of Hyatt card does not enjoy any statement credit benefits, but don’t forget about the free night at a Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort every year after your cardmember anniversary, which can easily be worth $200 towards a stay at a Hyatt property.
Travel Benefits and Protections
Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance
Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and the World of Hyatt card boast complimentary insurance for damage and theft of your rental car.
However, both of these cards require you to pay for your rental car reservation using your eligible credit card and to decline the car rental company’s collision damage waiver or loss damage waiver (CDW or LDW) to get coverage.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card gets you primary rental car insurance, which means you don’t need to file a claim with your insurance first. Meanwhile, the World of Hyatt card delivers secondary rental car insurance, which means that you need to file a claim with your insurance before any of your card’s insurance kicks in.
Currently, you can be reimbursed for up to $10,000 per approved claim and up to $20,000 per trip for any prepaid, nonrefundable expenses lost due to covered interruptions or cancellations, including from eligible illness, weather, or other covered incidents. You can get up to $40,000 in reimbursements every rolling 12 months.
The trip cancellation and interruption insurance policy isn’t quite as good on the World of Hyatt card, as you will get up to $5,000 per person and $10,000 per trip with a maximum of $20,000 in reimbursements every rolling 12 months.
Trip Delay Reimbursement
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card and World of Hyatt card both offer you up to $500 in trip delay reimbursements, with up to 1 approved claim per trip, on covered delays of more than 12 hours (or delays that require an overnight stay).
Lost and Delayed Luggage Coverage
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card and World of Hyatt card are both great for lost and delayed luggage. You’ll enjoy these benefits:
Up to $3,000 per person per trip in lost luggage reimbursement
$100 per day for up to 5 days in delayed luggage reimbursement for baggage delays over 6 hours
Roadside Assistance Service
With both the World of Hyatt card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you can access roadside dispatch services for a flat fee per service call, coverage includes:
Towing (up to 5 miles)
Tire changing (must have a good, inflated spare)
Jump starting (battery boost)
Lockout service (key replacement not included)
Fuel delivery (up to 5 gallons, cost of fuel not included)
Winching (within 100 feet of paved or county-maintained road only)
Emergency Travel Assistance
With both the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and the World of Hyatt card, you can access travel and emergency assistance services if you run into a problem away from home. This includes referrals only and any costs incurred are your responsibility.
The services included are:
Emergency Message Service: relay and record emergency messages to travelers, immediate family members, or business associates
Medical Referral Assistance: provide medical referral, monitoring, and follow-up
Legal Referral Assistance: arrange contact with English-speaking attorneys and U.S. embassies/consulates
Emergency Transportation Assistance: can help make arrangements for emergency transportation home or to the nearest medical facility
Emergency Ticket Replacement: helps you with carrier’s procedures and delivery of a replacement ticket
Lost Luggage Locator Service: provides help with carrier’s claim procedures or arranges shipment of replacement items
Emergency Translation Service: telephone assistance and help finding local interpreters
Prescription Assistance: get prescriptions filled locally and arrange for pick-up or delivery
Valuable Document Delivery Arrangements: transport vital documents the cardholder may have left at home
Pre-trip Assistance: provides information about ATM locations, health precautions, local currency, exchange rates, and more
Travel Accident Insurance
The World of Hyatt card and Chase Sapphire Preferred card both offer up to $500,000 in travel accident insurance when you pay for your air, bus, train, or cruise transportation with your card.
Concierge and Travel Assistance
Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and World of Hyatt card offer complimentary access to the Visa Signature Concierge Service 24/7, which can help you find tickets to top events and make exclusive dinner reservations.
Shopping Benefits and Protections
Instacart Benefits
With the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you get a complimentary 6-month membership to Instacart+ and $15 per quarter in statement credits when you activate Instacart+ by July 31, 2024. Instacart+ offers unlimited free grocery delivery on orders of $35 or more, lower service fees, and other benefits.
The World of Hyatt card doesn’t partner with Instacart for any special benefits.
DoorDash Benefits
Both cards offer you a complimentary DoorDash DashPass subscription for a minimum of 1 year when you activate by December 31, 2024. DoorDash’s DashPass offers benefits like no delivery fees and reduced service charges on orders over $12.
Purchase Protection
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card and World of Hyatt card both have a purchase protection policy of up to $500 in coverage per item and up to $50,000 in total claims per calendar year against incidents like theft or damage that occur up to 120 days after you purchase a new item.
You must make the purchase on your card to be eligible for this perk.
Extended Warranty
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card helps you extend an eligible U.S. manufacturer’s warranty of 3 years or less by 1 additional year, as does the World of Hyatt card.
You must make the purchase on your card to be eligible for this perk.
Foreign Transaction Fees
Both cards do not levy any foreign transaction fees.
Annual Fees and Adding Additional Users
Annual Fees
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card has a $95 annual fee and the World of Hyatt card also has a $95 annual fee.
Authorized Users
Both of these cards have no additional annual fees for authorized users.
Final Thoughts
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card and the World of Hyatt card have quite a few similarities. For example, they both have the same annual fee, don’t charge foreign transaction fees, and have the ability to redeem points for free hotel nights at World of Hyatt properties.
However, upon closer inspection, you’ll notice that the Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers superior benefits, including stronger everyday points-earning categories, Gopuff and Instacart+ perks, and better rental car coverage and trip interruption/cancellation coverage, as well as more flexibility in the way you redeem your rewards.
That being said, the World of Hyatt card offers a free night at Category 1-4 Hyatt hotels and resorts after each cardmember anniversary, automatic Discoverist status, and 5 elite night credits every year.
The World of Hyatt card can also help you spend your way to higher levels of elite status, including top-tier Globalist status. Being able to earn top-tier hotel status exclusively through credit card spend is a very rare benefit that big spenders can maximize!
All in all, there are plenty of good reasons to get either of these credit cards (or even both). However, if you’re not a Hyatt die-hard loyalist, you’ll most likely get more value out of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, especially considering how many redemption options you have.
At the same time, the World of Hyatt card could potentially get you some amazing value as a World of Hyatt loyalist.
The information regarding The World of Hyatt Credit Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
Featured Image Credit: Upgraded Points
Frequently Asked Questions
The points that you earn on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card can be transferred to World of Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio. So, yes, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card can be used to book free nights at Hyatt hotels and resorts.
Chase points are generally worth a lot when you transfer them to World of Hyatt. That’s because Hyatt points can be used to book some of the best luxury hotels in the world for a (relatively) reasonable amount of points.
Absolutely! You’ll earn up to 5x Ultimate Rewards points on hotels if you book stays through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal. You’ll also enjoy an annual $50 hotel credit when booking a hotel through the Ultimate Rewards portal.
Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio. Transfers are almost always instant, but they can take up to 2 business days in some instances.
Yes, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card can still be a good choice even if you don’t travel often. In addition to transferring your points to travel partners or booking travel through Chase, you can also use Ultimate Rewards points for statement credits, gift cards, cash-back, or even Pay Yourself Back.
Plus, the card comes with statement credits and complimentary memberships to food/grocery delivery services such as DoorDash, Instacart+, and Gopuff.
You can redeem as few as 5,000 Hyatt points for a free night in a Category 1 hotel’s standard room. However, standard rooms at high-end properties can cost upwards of 45,000 points per night.
Stephen is an established voice in the credit card space, with over 70 to his name. His work has been in publications like The Washington Post, and his Au Points and Awards Consulting Services is used by hundreds of clients.
Disclaimer: Any comments listed below are not from the bank advertiser, nor have they been reviewed or approved by them. No responsibility will be taken by the bank advertiser for these comments.
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