Many fans of Hyatt Gold Passport also stay at MGM’s hotels and casinos when in Las Vegas because of a partnership between Gold Passport and M life. Members can get reciprocal status matches, stay credit, and rewards points. Given that most large chain hotels don’t have the best options on the strip, you’ll probably be staying at a mega resort casino. The Hyatt/MGM partnership gives MGM hotels the edge. Otherwise I’d probably pick what’s cheapest.
MGM M life has even won in recent years at the Freddie Awards, which recognizes loyalty programs around the globe. All these facts point to a trend in which MGM is getting more serious about marketing its loyalty program to a broader audience. A good chunk of casino revenues are no longer delivered by gamblers but rather the people staying in hotels and paying for spa packages, etc.
I had heard very vague rumors about a new credit card for MGM, but I did not follow up on them because I’m only in Vegas one or two times a year. Fortunately Michael at Vegas Bright has more details.
Cardholder benefits include:
- Upgrade to Pearl status with M life
- No foreign transaction fees
- No annual fee
- 3 points per dollar at MGM Resorts
- 2 points per dollar at gas stations and supermarkets
- 1 point per dollar everywhere else
- 10,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 in first three months
Points will count for FREEPLAY and POINTplay — credits that can be used to offset your gambling — and tier credits, which are the sort that help you earn elite status. For more information on the difference and their value, I wrote a post a couple years back that explains M life Rewards to non-gamblers like myself.
Is this a card actually worth getting? If the M life status is all you care about, I’d say no. The Hyatt Visa credit card has a $75 annual fee that includes a free night at a Category 1-4 hotel each year, usually one that costs more than $75. So even with the annual fee, I treat it like a card that has none. The Hyatt Visa also comes with Platinum status, which includes a match to M life Gold. In other words, you can get better status without using the M life Rewards credit card.
Yes, you could use the M life Rewards credit card to accelerate your path to an even higher elite tier — M life Platinum — but that is already included if you have Hyatt Diamond status. So top-tier Hyatt members won’t see a benefit here.
That leaves just one real perk: earning FREEPLAY and POINTplay. I guess this could be worthwhile if you spend a lot of money and like to gamble. But there are so many more valuable ways to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles that I wouldn’t do it. I would much rather save money on flights and hotels and use those savings to buy into my next poker tourney. If online gambling is your interest, you might want to explore activities like บาคาร่าเว็บตรง for a more engaging and potentially rewarding experience.
A separate article from Front Desk Tip suggests that the new card will be launched next week, along with a new name for the M life program. That would be a bit surprising since everything shared by Vegas Bright includes the M life branding. But names don’t matter much, and it wouldn’t be a lot of work to create new artwork for a credit card after all the other more important details have been ironed out. What would be interesting is if the name change is accompanied by other changes to the M life program benefits, in which case the card benefits described here may become more or less valuable.
