I received a question in an email from a reader and it was a great question that I want to share with other readers.
 
In this post, I would like to talk about how Hyatt elite night credits are earned from the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card's $5k spend that occurs at the end of the year (December month).

Which Year Does Hyatt Count Two Elite Nights After Spending $5k on World of Hyatt Credit Card in December?
 
Which Year Does Hyatt Count Two Elite Nights After Spending $5k on World of Hyatt Credit Card in December?

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    World of Hyatt Credit Card Elite Night Credits Benefit

    By having Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card:
    • You receive 5 qualifying night credits towards your next tier status every year. 
    • Plus, 2 additional qualifying night credits toward your next tier status every time you spend $5,000 on your card.

    Each time you spend $5,000 in eligible purchases on your Hyatt credit card, you will receive two (2)  elite night credits towards the next Hyatt's tier status or reaching a Hyatt Milestone Reward. The two elite nights will be credited in your Hyatt’s account after your credit card’s statement is closed.

    How Hyatt's Qualifying Nights Are Counted For Tier Status & Milestone Rewards

    The World of Hyatt program counts elite qualifying night credits each calendar year. Meaning they count the qualifying nights you earn from January to December each calendar year to determine whether you reach a Hyatt Milestone Reward or earn a higher tier status. The count resets at the beginning of each year.

    Because Hyatt does the count of your qualifying nights in a calendar year (January to December), what does that mean if you spend $5,000 on Hyatt's credit card in December month? As mentioned above, you will not receive the two elite night credits from that spend until your credit card’s statement is closed which typically takes place next month. In other words, if you spend in December, the statement is not generated or closed until January next year.

    For example, you spend $5,000 on eligible purchases in December 2021 which qualifies you for two Hyatt elite night credits, but your credit card’s statement is not closed until sometime in January 2022. Will the two-night credits that are earned from spending $5k be counted towards 2021 Hyatt's qualifying nights requirement or 2022 qualifying night requirement? 

    See Also:


    Which Year Does Hyatt Count Two Elite Nights After Spending $5k on World of Hyatt Credit Card in December?

    This actually happened to me in 2019. I needed 2 nights to reach a Hyatt Milestone Reward. I waited it out to see if I could do a 2-night stay somewhere but that never happened. So I decided to go ahead and spend $5k on my Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card. When January 2020 was approaching, I was getting nervous if I was not going to reach the milestone reward that I wanted - 2 Club Lounge Access Awards.

    I reached out to Twitter a few times and each agent all confirmed to me that since my card’s statement is not closed until January next year, the two nights will be counted for 2020 and not 2019. I did not like that answer because it made no sense to me as a cardholder in a way that $5k spend technically happened in 2019, not 2020. 

    After a few backs and forth, Hyatt told me to contact Chase. So I reached out to Chase via online secured message and asked for a senior level agent to review my concern and what Hyatt agents had told me. 

    After a day of waiting, Chase finally replied to me with the following message: 
    Thank you for contacting Chase in regards to the 2 World  of Hyatt Tier-Qualifying Night credits for every $5,000 in purchases for your World of Hyatt account. It would be a  pleasure to assist you today.  I definitely understand your reason for concern and I  confirmed the World of Hyatt Tier-Qualifying Night credits will be credited to the calendar year in which the spend occurred.  World of Hyatt Tier-Qualifying Night credits will apply to achieving World of Hyatt status and milestone benefits  applicable to Tier-Qualifying Night requirements (as outlined in the program terms). Please allow up to 8 weeks from the last day of the calendar month when you qualify,  for World of Hyatt Tier-Qualifying Night credits to be added to your World of Hyatt account.

    I reached back to Hyatt via Twitter and showed them what Chase said. This time, Hyatt changed their story and informed me with the following message:
    Since your spends took place within the year of 2019, your tier qualifying credits will be applied to the year of 2019. This may take some time to process. This is why we do not update World of Hyatt accounts or Tiers until February; until we receive all appropriate data to be applied to accounts recording from 2019. Rest assured, once these credits have been applied, it will post to your 2019 total qualifying nights. 

    What I should have done also was to read the terms and conditions of this benefit on Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card. The terms clearly state the following: 
    World of Hyatt Tier-Qualifying Night credits will be credited to the calendar year in which the spend occurred. World of Hyatt Tier-Qualifying Night credits will apply to achieving World of Hyatt status and milestone benefits applicable to Tier-Qualifying Night requirements (as outlined in the program terms). 

    Conclusion

    The gist of it is if you spend $5,000 on your Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card during the calendar year from January to December, you are entitled to two elite night credits from the spend that occurs in that year, even though your Hyatt credit card’s statement is not generated and closed until January of next year. 

    In the end, my Hyatt’s account showed those two elite nights for 2019, and I successfully received the 2 club lounges milestone reward. This experience confirms that those two nights were indeed counted for the 2019 qualifying night requirement and not the 2020 qualifying night requirement.