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In last weekend’s week in review around the web, I highlighted a post from Angelina Travels about how to get up to 7 free nights in Atlantic City this summer, and there may be more reason than you think to pursue casino free nights. After that post published, a reader reached out to share something awesome that happened for him: his free M life stay counted as elite qualifying nights for Hyatt. This has also happened for me in the past. Between promotions available in both Las Vegas and Atlantic City right now, it might be possible to rack up some free Hyatt qualifying nights (though note that these nights are excluded via the terms, so you’re rolling the dice a bit with this one).
Hyatt-MGM partnership
For those who aren’t familiar, M life is the loyalty program for MGM casinos (in Las Vegas, this includes properties like the MGM, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Delano, Luxor, Excalibur, NY NY, Vdara, Aria). It is possible for World of Hyatt members staying on paid rates to earn elite credit and points on both room and incidental spend at most M life properties. My favorite play in Vegas is to book Delano through Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts. FHR bookings generally earn points and elite credit — and you can sometimes book Delano for under $100 (before resort fee & tax) and get free breakfast, guaranteed 4pm checkout, a $100 property credit, and Hyatt elite credit / points.
However, as I noted in that week in review post, my favorite price is free. That deal would be a little better yet if we could knock the room rate down to zero…
M Life match & free nights
Stephen Pepper recently wrote about an MGM Amex Offer (Spend $300, get $60 back / 6K Membership Rewards points depending on your offer). Within that post, he noted the fact that many M life elite members were receiving offers for free nights in Las Vegas (See: MGM Resorts Amex Offer: Spend $300, Get $60 / 6,000 Membership Rewards). Many readers likely have M life elite status courtesy of a match from Hyatt (and if you don’t, you can match to Gold from Explorist or Globalist). In fact, a few months ago, some members found that matching back from M Life to Hyatt extended the life of their Hyatt status (See: (EXPIRED) Match M life to Hyatt Explorist NOW, skip extension and get club upgrades!).
Today, the highest M Life status you can receive via match from Hyatt is Gold. Prior to World of Hyatt, it was possible to match from Hyatt Diamond to M life Platinum. I did that back in the day. For some reason, my status has stuck at Platinum. That gave me an extra free night at some properties, like this complimentary 4-night stay at Luxor.
According to the terms of the Hyatt-M Life partnership, stays like that should not earn Hyatt elite credit. From Hyatt.com (with bold added for emphasis):
What is considered an M life Rewards-Eligible Night at the participating M life Rewards destinations?
An M life Rewards-Eligible Night is:
1. Any night where payment is made directly to a participating M life Rewards destination; OR
2. Bookings made through hyatt.com; OR
3. Bookings made through a Hyatt Global Contact Center.
Reservations made through third party on-line sites and services (such as Expedia, Priceline or hotels.com), M life Rewards complimentary room stays, World of Hyatt free night award stays, master account group bookings, traditional wholesale rates, media rates, Hyatt employee discount rates, airline interrupted-trip vouchers, or contracted rooms are not M life Rewards-Eligible Nights. In addition, for any stay at an M life Rewards destination of fifteen (15) or more nights, no night of the stay will qualify as an M life Rewards-Eligible Night, even if such night otherwise meets the requirements described above.
It’s pretty clear that M life comp room stays are not rewards-eligible nights. However, reader Mark tells us that this did not match his real-life experience, where a recent complimentary 3-night stay did in fact earn 3 Hyatt qualifying nights.
Lest we think he merely rolled lucky one time, Mark shared that the same happened with a stay in 2017 – this one included almost $30 in qualifying spend (presumably something Mark charged to his room):
Reaching back further, I had the same experience in 2016 with a complimentary room booked through M life. In my case, I charged a lot more to my room (we went with a few family members and charged everything possible to the room in order to earn Hyatt points — remember that you can charge food, beverages, and more from all of the other MGM casinos to your folio). In Mark’s case, he shows that both a complimentary stay with room charges and one without qualified for Hyatt stay credit.
Again, the terms of the partnership certainly sound like they would exclude nights comped by M life….but it doesn’t seem that reality matches the terms.
Will that work with other partner casinos?
The post from Angelina Travels promises up to 7 free nights in Atlantic City this summer. Those nights are based on status matching to new casinos like the Hard Rock and to Total Rewards, which would not get you any credit with Hyatt. However, Angelina also notes a match to the newly-opening Ocean Resort’s Ocean Premier loyalty program (Ocean Resort is set to open June 28th), which will be matching M life Gold and Platinum members to Ocean Platinum Tier and Black Tier, respectively.
That’s intriguing to me because with the Hard Rock and Total Rewards offering free nights via match and the Ocean Resort already offering Angelina’s husband 2 free nights based on past player’s club membership with the Revel (the old name of this property before the current remodel), I think it would be reasonable to expect that a complimentary night or two will be offered for Platinum or Black tier members.
Unfortunately, Ocean Resort is not an M Life property. However, it is a Hyatt property — the latest member of the Hyatt Unbound Collection.
Since award stays (and the annual free night certificate from the Hyatt Credit Card, which would theoretically be valid at this Category 3 property) count toward Hyatt status, I wouldn’t be surprised if complimentary stays here count toward Hyatt status as well. A note for those looking to use their Hyatt credit card anniversary certs at this property: in a handful of searches, I couldn’t find a night available for 12K points. Cash & points availability is plentiful (including on New Year’s Eve for those so inclined), but opportunities to use the free night cert look extremely limited at best right now).
It is certainly possible that the IT will be better integrated with the Ocean Resort than with M life properties so as to exclude comp stays from earning qualifying nights, but if you’re already passing through Atlantic City for a Total Rewards / Hard Rock match, it’s probably worth testing the waters at Ocean Resort.
Status match for the future?
All of the above points me to two keys: first, you may be able to pick up Hyatt qualifying nights on “free” nights(you’ll still have to pay the resort fee). That’s potentially a nice little mattress run for those looking to qualify/re-qualify.
But there is a secondary benefit in the Atlantic City status matching game for those who aren’t working on qualifying for Hyatt through nights: prepping for future status matches.
Thanks to a divergence in elite qualification calendars, Hyatt and M life status have run on a merry-go-round (match this year’s Explorist to M life Gold late in the year (after Sept 30th) and have M life status until the next fall. When Hyatt status drops in the spring, match back from M life Gold to Explorist). We’ve never expected that would last forever.
Right now in Atlantic City, there is the possibility to match M life Gold to Total Rewards Diamond and M life Platinum to top-tier Ocean Resorts Black. If your plans or geography have you near Atlantic City, it might be worth the jaunt even if you’re not interested in the potential for Hyatt qualifying nights. When the Hyatt-M life merry-go-round ends (like if the two programs eventually match up elite status calendars), it might be worthwhile to have another casino status to leverage for a match with M life — paving the path back to Hyatt Explorist.
While Hyatt Explorist isn’t an incredible status to have, and it might not be worth a speculative trip to Atlantic City just to maybe possibly position yourself for that status at some unknown future date, it’s not a bad excuse to pop around and do the matches if you’re already going to be in Atlantic City or close enough to make it an easy trip. And in fact, I’d say that for those within driving distance, it might be worth a mattress run after all. Using up 6,000 Hyatt points for a cash + points stay at the Ocean Resort for the potential to pick up six or seven free nights at various casinos (and then 4 free nights in the Bahamas once you’ve got Total Rewards Diamond) might not be a bad deal if it’s just free nights you’re after.
Bottom line
While the Hyatt-M life partnership terms seem to exclude earning Hyatt qualifying nights for complimentary stays, one reader’s recent experience (and my past experience) indicate that those nights do indeed count. It is therefore possible that free nights via status match at the newly opening Ocean Resort in Atlantic City will also count toward Hyatt status. While free nights are fun because of the joy of free and all that, you might be able to stack the joy of free with the joy of requalification for status, which is a better deal than paying full price. Further, with all of the matching going on, you might be able to position yourself for future matches to stay on the merry-go-round even if they change the music.
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I am Mlife Platinum living on the East Coast and cant seem to get any comps at any Mlife LAS property. I am logged in and all I get is member offers. What am i doing wrong.
You may have discussed this, but I heard that M life was doing a status match for any hotel chain. Is this still going on? And was there any restrictions in terms of hotel chance that they would accept to upgrade ones status?
I’m not aware of MGM matching from anything other than Hyatt Explorist and Globalist.
In Atlantic City this summer (at least, when I was there July 27-28), Mlife is matching Total Rewards status.
I live in Vegas and not getting any free nights offers. Just remember with all these offerls— take the quilt off the bed. My maid used to work at Bellagio and she said unless stained they don’t change comforters between guests
I am by no means a casino loyalty expert, but I’m not surprised to hear that you don’t get free night offers from MGM. They used to (maybe still do?) have a Facebook game called MyVegas where you could earn “loyalty points” to use for comp rooms, show tickets, buffet passes, etc. Notably, if you were in Las Vegas, your options to cash in your points for comps were incredibly slim. If you were connected to the Internet outside of Vegas (or using a VPN), you would see the full array of comps. I take that to mean that they figure if you’re there, they don’t need to incentivize you too hard (considering MGM’s footprint on the strip, that’s not so far-fetched for people who intend to visit the strip). So my bet here is that you don’t see free room offers because you’re local. I think most M life Gold members are seeing the free room offers when logged into their accounts (see Stephen’s post), but I wouldn’t be surprised if those living in Vegas are not. I wonder if that would change if you used a VPN to change your IP location? Maybe not since your registered address is still Vegas.
Good tip on the comforters. Now let’s hope my wife doesn’t read this, or I may never get to sleep with a blanket in a hotel again.
MyVegas is complete crap compared to what it used to be. Most everything on there now is a free appetizer or drink with purchase of an entree somewhere, it seems. Rarely do you find a free comp night, even midweek in summer.
nick. did you or stephen gamble at all? if not, then your comps make no sense. there must be a reason why you and stephen got the comps. casino programs dont work like banks or hotels with targeted offers of free hotel nights “just because” they want you to visit. its purely based on play and your host. really curious how you got these offers.
Not sure about Stephen. As for me, I last went to Vegas in 2016. That year, I did go 3 times. First trip was either 4 or 5 nights with family. No high rollers — but we did spend an hour or two a day playing $10 blackjack. I also charged everything to my room and there were 6 of us, so meals, shows, etc added up (charged it all to my room for Hyatt points).
Second trip was a trip I took with my dad. He had never been to Vegas, so we spent a lot of time walking around and seeing stuff. Bounced hotel to hotel — a night at Delano through FHR, night at Bellagio through FHR, and a night at Mirage for free using a MyVegas comp. We gambled some, but less than on the first trip (and certainly no tables higher than $10). Played a little Let It Ride (another table game) in addition to blackjack, but I think that was it.
Third trip was for FTU. We spent 2 nights in MGM properties I think (I know we spent a night at SLS that trip, too). Maybe we played an hour of blackjack, but I’m not even sure we did that as we were mostly at the conference and we saw a show on Sunday night after FTU finished. Left the next morning. Again, would have been the cheapest table if anything.
Personally, I’m a poker guy. I could sit at the poker tables all day long and not gamble a cent elsewhere in the casino, but none of my trips were with other poker players that year. I don’t think I’ve been in a casino since FTU was there (April 2016).
Moral of the story: I haven’t done the kind of gambling you’d expect for a comp 4-night stay. Never spoken to a casino host. Always at the cheap tables. I did occasionally bump up a bet when I knew the pit boss was about to look, so it’s *possible* that I got rated at a higher rate of play than I put in….but I know they are generally hip to that and watching through the eyes in the back of their heads, so I wouldn’t credit my strategy much.
nick. really appreciate your responses man. first few rounds on me next time we meet in vegas. haha.
thank you for the clear breakdown. it totally makes sense now why u got the comps. i wasnt sure if you had visited vegas often. but your value as a revenue generating patron (AKA Average Daily Theoretical ADT) via your limited plays was the key here. even when your last play was in 2016.
not sure if u had a comp harvest strategy back in 2016, but the key strategy for amassing or “MSing” comps is to go into each casino property as a players card virgin (never touched gaming) and bankroll as much as you can for MAX number of hours in one gaming session and limit your play days. why? because u want huge theoretical loss for each casino. it comes down to math. you have the numerator and denominator. doesnt take a genius to know what numbers go on the top and bottom. this generates ur theo.
im going to guess that ur limited play even at cheap tables made MGM want you back. the reason why they start you off with “comp 4-night stay” is because based on ur initial theo, the casinos will give you the BIGGEST comps they can and try to bring you in for more revenue. the rule of thumb is that your comps will never be good as your first sex romp comps. it will always decline from there are you build your gaming profile and theo flats out based on gaming days. its all math.