Two Tips To Maximize Las Vegas With M Life

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: January 7, 2022
Published: September 23, 2014

58 comments

I’ve spent much of the past three weeks in Las Vegas. As I’ve mentioned, I have a love/hate relationship with the city. It’s the most ridiculous place on earth, but it’s so amusing. I mean, I was walking around the Strip last night and saw two ladies in bikinis on a mobility scooter driving down the sidewalk with 64 ounce margaritas. Where else do you see that?!

Of course my time in Las Vegas has also come with my fair share of frustration. In particular:

As most of you probably know, Hyatt Gold Passport and MGM M Life have a partnership in Las Vegas, which was the first and best of its kind.

Even though there’s reciprocity between the two programs in theory, learning how to “maximize” Las Vegas is proving a challenge for me. Elite status with M Life works completely differently than it does with Hyatt Gold Passport. In Vegas you’re generally as valuable as the dollar amount you spend, while with the major hotel loyalty programs you’re generally as valuable as the number of nights you spend with the chain.

So while with Hyatt Gold Passport I get an upgrade based on availability, guaranteed late check-out, suite upgrades, lounge access, complimentary breakfast, etc., the benefits are completely different with M Life — I get to cut some lines, but don’t get breakfast, late check-out, room upgrades, etc.

Anyway, while I have a lot more to share about Las Vegas, I figured I’d share the two biggest lessons I learned from M Life. I’m not saying these are the single most useful aspects of the partnership, though they’re both things I’ve screwed up this past weekend.

Get best hotel rates at mlife.com

Since the M Life properties are Hyatt partner properties and Hyatt has a best rate guarantee, I naturally just go to hyatt.com to make my bookings in Las Vegas. It’s just what’s familiar to me, and I’m a creature of habit.

The prices do indeed match the ones available on mlife.com… unless you log into your M Life account. It doesn’t matter whether you have status or not — as long as you’re an M Life member you can get huge discounts on stays at their Vegas properties.

For example, I stayed at the Delano, and while the rate on hyatt.com and mlife.com was $129, once I logged into my M Life account on mlife.com the rate dropped to $91. A discount of almost 30% — that’s huge!

And for the avoidance of doubt, you do still earn Hyatt Gold Passport points for stays booked at those rates.

Charge EVERYTHING to your room

I’m so embarrassed that I screwed this up. Of course when I stay at a hotel I charge all my hotel spend to the room so that I can earn hotel points for it. However, it’s sometimes easy to forget just how many hotels belong to MGM.

For example, on Saturday night a group of us had dinner at Javier’s in Aria, and I picked up the tab. I charged it directly to my credit card rather than to my room at the Delano, though. It was a fairly big bill, and I gave up 6.5 Hyatt Gold Passport points per dollar by doing that. Grrrr! For whatever reason I didn’t mentally associate that dinner with my hotel stay, since I took a taxi to get there.

So no matter which MGM hotel you’re at, charge everything to your room.

And so no one else makes this mistake, the M Life properties in Las Vegas are:

Aria	Bellagio
Delano Las Vegas	Excalibur
Luxor	Mandalay Bay
MGM Grand	The Mirage
New York New York	Nomad Las Vegas
Park MGM	Signature at MGM Grand
Vdara

MGM Properties in Las Vegas

Here’s another cool thing you wouldn’t expect — you can actually charge food & beverage purchases from the Mandarin Oriental to a room at an M Life property as well. The Mandarin Oriental has one of my favorite bars in Las Vegas (simply because the hotel feels so un-Vegasy), so it’s great to be able to charge that to your room at an MGM property and earn additional points as well.

Bottom line

While I’ve done quite well in the miles & points world, figuring out Vegas is like tackling a completely different beast. I feel like I’m learning extreme couponing or how to get comps with gambling — it’s the same general type of hobby, but the execution differs quite a bit.

Anyone else have any “big” M Life tips for Las Vegas?

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Tony Guest

September 11, 2017, 4:08 pm

@Ryan This just happened to me during the Mayweather fight weekend. I booked an MGM Skyline Terrace Suite through M Life (Pearl status) 5 months before the fight was even announced. Received a call from MGM a month out from my vacation date that due to inventory changes they had to cancel my room, and that it states in the fine print it's not guaranteed (went back and checked but didn't see that wording). At first what they offered to comp was ridiculous in comparison to the Skyline Terrace suite (two connecting standard rooms at MGM), but after some back and forth and flexibility on location, was able to get a Hospitality Suite comped at Vdara (though it obviously did not have the irreplaceable terrace found with the Skyline suites-or any outdoor space for that matter). I assume I could have put up a much bigger fight, as the only line in the fine print I saw about not being guaranteed was related to room requests (I take this as high floor, connecting rooms, non-smoking, etc.). Be ware!

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Larry Guest

August 30, 2017, 1:22 am

Hi Lucky, Do you know if you get Hyatt stay credit if you stay using a comp room available for some mlife members? We still have to pay the resort fee per night. Thanks!

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Ryan Guest

August 9, 2017, 6:30 am

To all on this trail - i've signed up to Mlife for the first time and of course the rates to stay at some of the best suites at the MGM is cheaper than if you go thru the hotel directly. I want to book a suite for memorial weekend next year 2018. However,i am told over the phone when speaking to someone at MGM that there is no guarantee on your room booking, it's based on availability upon your arrival - so i could risk the room being allocated to someone else when i go to check in - is this true? If so why would anyone rely on Mlife for booking a room? To guarantee the room im told to book direct with MGM. Any negative experiences to share?

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Heather Patterson Guest

June 6, 2017, 2:19 am

I go to Vegas normally 2x year. I've never had a host, I guess I don't gamble enough money. I use to get 3-5 comped night mLife offers in my emails all the time. The last comped night I received was for 1 night at Monte Carlo. Am I doing something wrong or again is it that I am not spending enough money gambling? Also, do you know if they will be bringing back the food credits that don't require a certain amount in purchase to be used?

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Joanna Guest

March 21, 2017, 1:26 pm

Not sure if this is still open for comment but I'm an MLife Platinum and have been at Aria for the past few years but I don't feel like I get comped much for the amount I play. The first host I had was great, but when he left, the new host doesn't seem to give me as much credit for my play and uses my points to cover the balance of my bill, which is better than actually receiving a bill, but it's also dwindling my points. This is the only MLife property I've ever tried, so do other properties give you more freebies for your play points than others? I hate to switch programs at this point and we absolutely love the Aria, but comps are the difference between Vegas being affordable and not so much!

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