Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know that 2025 has truly been the year of premium credit card launches and refreshes. I’ve covered in great detail the recent refreshes of the Amex Platinum Card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, as well as the chaos that ensued with the Citi Strata Elite card. Just yesterday, I wrote about how Chase and Hyatt are extending their partnership, in addition to introducing two new Hyatt specific benefits on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card next year. Also, from the same press release, we learned that another premium Chase credit card is on the horizon.
New Premium Chase Credit Card
If you look at the current lineup of co-branded Chase credit cards with Hyatt, there’s only one gap left to fill in the portfolio. Which means, we could well see a premium World of Hyatt credit card soon.
Additionally, Hyatt plans to expand its card portfolio as Hyatt and Chase continue to grow their relationship, building on the success of its current co-branded credit cards – the World of Hyatt Credit Card and the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card. The World of Hyatt credit card portfolio has experienced incredible growth with over 30% increase in card spend and over 25% increase in total cardmembers over the last two years. World of Hyatt cardmember benefits include:
In my opinion, we could well see a card that similar to the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card or the Hilton Aspire Card by American Express. Again, this is just speculation, but looking at Chase’s recent moves, we could get something like this.
I’m not that Excited
As much as I love travel and credit card rewards, I’m also entering into a zone of fatigue, especially given all the recent launches and refreshes. Also, given how Chase has recently refreshed their lineup of co-branded United Airlines cards and the Chase Sapphire Reserve, I’m fearing yet another pricey coupon book.
Annual Fee Creep
If you’ve been in this space for long enough, you’d remember the time when $450 looked like a huge price to pay for a premium credit card. Almost 10+ years later, we’re seeing fees on premium credit cards that are 2x that price point. Even though I travel a lot, having more than one or a maximum of two is where I stop. I simply can’t carry so many cards with high annual fees. Beyond the price point, there is one more reason why I’m slowly stepping away.
Mental Fatigue
While premium credit cards offer great perks and give you great rewards, many of them follow the same model. They charge a high annual fee and then offer you credits or coupons with partner brands, split across multiple time frames.
When you have more than one premium credit card, it just gets too onerous and taxing to keep a track of so many different coupons, just to ‘maximize’ them. At that point, the tail is wagging the dog and you’re going out of the way only to justify the annual fee instead of having a card that already suits your style of travel.
Given everything going on in life with work, family, kids and everything else, the last thing I want to waste mental space on is figuring out another complicated coupon book.
The Pundit’s Mantra
Overall, more options are great. Will I go for this card? May be, but only if it has a good welcome bonus and I find myself in a sutation where I have multuple Hyatt stays coming up, like they did i 2023. Otherwise, I just plan to sit it out. At the moment, I have the Amex Platinum Card, the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
I book flights directly with airlines so the 5x on the Platinum card is useful. Also, given that I have a lot of Marriott stays coming up later this year and the next, I plan to keep my Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card open. The card more than pays for itself with its complimentary free night certificate and Platinum elite status. I put all my other spend on the Chase Sapphire Preferred or one of the Chase Freedom cards, depending on the quarterly category.
Which is your go-to premium credit card? Tell us in the comments section.
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New Credit Card Offers
American Express Business Credit Cards
- Earn 200,000 Membership Rewards points with the Business Platinum Card
- Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards and enjoy a 0% intro APR on the Business Gold Card
Chase Sapphire Cards
- Earn 125,000 bonus points with the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card
- Earn 200,000 bonus points with the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card for Business
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