Renew Your Comped MGM Status!

by Gary Leff

Last summer Hyatt Gold Passport and MGM M Life launched a really innovative partnership.

I think of it as ‘hotel codesharing’. Each program’s members could earn points and credit towards elite status by staying in the other chain’s hotels. And there was reciprocal elite status matching, so that the best customers of each chain would be treated with status benefits when staying with the other, too.

This filled a big hole for Hyatt (experienced by chains generally) in Las Vegas, and a hole for MGM by giving them broader reach.

One interesting thing about how elite status was handled: it’s not your Hyatt status that MGM recognizes, MGM gives status in its own program based on your Hyatt status.

Status matching began last August. And folks who had their status matched are seeing that status end.

There’s no auto-renewal. Even though you ‘link’ accounts, they aren’t pushing data back and forth between the programs to seamlessly ensure your current Hyatt status gets you the equivalent MGM M Life status on an ongoing basis. A year ago they weren’t sure how status recognition would work when matched status began to expire. Now we know — instead of an automatic process, you have to prompt for the match again.

I received the following e-mail today:

You’ll need to return to Hyatt’s partnership page if you want to have them re-link your accounts and extend your status.

Interestingly as well, your Hyatt status year doesn’t line up with your MGM status year. So a current Hyatt Diamond that doesn’t re-qualify for 2015 who matches to M Life Platinum gets to keep M Life Platinum for more than half a year past when their Hyatt status expires.

At a minimum you want the best status possible when making your room reservations, as MGM seems to offer better room rates to members with higher status.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. You know – I’m glad you posted this. I tried all afternoon to “opt-in” again or whatever. That darn M life website is so very buggy. Finally tonight when I read your post I tried again, hopping through various links. Finally I got a drop-down message that said, “UPDATE SUCCESSFUL – Your profile has been updated. You have successfully aligned your M life tier status with HGP tier.” So to all the brave souls who try to renew the partnership – that is the message you are hoping for. It appears on the M life website after you link through successfully.

  2. “Contact Member Services

    Information provided does not match an M life account. Please contact M life Member Services at 866.761.7111 for further assistance.”

  3. I had more success using Google Chrome rather than internet explorer to status match. Boyfriend is just a Hyatt member and his Sapphire MGM status was immediately reflected. I am Hyatt platinum and although I get the “update successful” message, my MGM status is still shown as Pearl rather than Gold. I’ll try again tomorrow.

  4. Same issue as Julianne here. I have Hyatt Platinum but I’m now MGM Pearl instead of Gold.

  5. Does anyone know if you already have status matched to MGM, but then your Hyatt status goes up, will that automatically reflect with MGM? Or would i have to match again? I am Platinum right now, but plan to be Diamond within a few months.

  6. Same message for me. Guess I have to call again like last time

    Contact Member Services

    Information provided does not match an M life account. Please contact M life Member Services at 866.761.7111 for further assistance.”

  7. My husband was a Hyatt Diamond when we matched in April of this year. He is still showing as Platinum, does that mean he will stay that for another year or could he get downgraded this month? I ask because we have a LV stay on November 8th coming up and I don’t want to show up with status issues. I don’t want to rematch now, however, because then we would only be Gold. If we were downgraded would it have shown by now?

  8. MGM status gives nothing compared to Hyatt. As a diamond we lose benefits because I have many MLIFE friends who were platinum n now says how they utilize free breakfast and upgrades yet MLIFE gives none of that to us. They see it in the system how you have the status and I feel it’s a no win for Hyatt yet a win win for MLIFE

  10. @syed, let me get this straight, are you saying if you book through MGM as a Platinum you won’t get your Hyatt Diamond benefits? And if you book through Hyatt as a Diamond, you get breakfast and other benefits?

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