Hyatt and MGM will end their relationship September 30, 2023. Hyatt members will no longer be able to redeem points for MGM stays after that date or match their status to MGM Rewards.

All reservations made prior to September 30, 2023 will be honored, so you can use your points for stays into the future as long as you do it before the end of September. However MGM properties won’t award points or elite qualifying nights for any checkouts after that date.

Meanwhile, MGM Rewards members will no longer be able to earn their program’s tier credits for Hyatt spend on checkouts past September 30, 2023.

Anyone that has matched status will keep that status through the end of the current member year. The standing status match offer is expected to end July 14, 2023.

Six months ago I wrote about a rumor that the Hyatt-MGM partnership would be ending. This made sense to me, since I’ve heard suggestions of it for some time. A year ago I wrote,

I’ve certainly heard rumblings out of MGM that they’ve been somewhat ambivalent about the partnership.

A decade ago Hyatt and MGM created an innovative partnership that was revolutionary when first introduced.

• It filled a hole in Hyatt’s portfolio, since they were weak in Las Vegas
  
• It brought their customers to MGM, and MGM’s to Hyatt
  
• And nearly amounted to hotel ‘codesharing’ because Hyatt’s elites were status matched in MGM’s program and treated comparably, in addition to being able to earn and redeem points using World of Hyatt for MGM hotels and vice versa.

Since then the program has become somewhat diluted. They’ve reduced the ability to double dip in both programs with the same stay (it’s also been possible to double, err, triple dip with Southwest). They’ve also reduced the value of status match – Hyatt Globalists only receive Gold status with MGM, the same as mid-tier Hyatt Explorists – they used to receive Platinum.

Nonetheless there’s good value here. It presaged the Hyatt-SLH partnership, and offers the opportunity to credit cheap Las Vegas midweek stays for elite status.

MGM has refocused its elite program away from rewarding guests who spend on rooms and meals. Their new elite program is a gambling program and bringing in Hyatt elite members isn’t the same thing as bringing in gamblers. The Hyatt partnership is a remnant from when the focus was broadening out beyond gaming. Given strategic shifts the breakup makes sense.

Meanwhile Hyatt’s acquisition of Dream Hotel Group gives them a property under development on Las Vegas Boulevard south of Russell Road with 531 rooms slated to open in a couple of years. Meanwhile the renovated 2,500 room Rio Las Vegas will be rebranded into the Hyatt family. These give Hyatt members something to look forward to, and more competition in the city.