In February, View from the Wing asked “Can Hyatt Platinums Give Themselves a Status Upgrade in March?” The idea was to match from Hyatt Platinum status to MLife Gold before the new World of Hyatt program kicked in, and then to match back from MLife Gold to the new mid-tier Hyatt Explorist status after March 1st. This was worth doing primarily because Explorist status includes 4 Club Access Awards (upgrade point-award or paid stays to club access).
View from the Wing then expanded on the idea by suggesting that it may be possible to gift Hyatt Explorist status to a spouse. We covered both of these topics in our This Week Around the Web post.
Personally, I was able to cut out several steps. I already had MLife Platinum status based on previously having had Hyatt Diamond status. And I didn’t need to gift status to my wife. She entered the new year with Hyatt Diamond status which soft landed into Hyatt Explorist status. But, I did want to get Explorist status for myself. When World of Hyatt kicked in, I was nothing. Just a member. I hoped to change that.
No joy for some
One reader reports that the hack didn’t work at all for him:
Not sure if anyone else has reported this or if you experienced it, but I status matched my old Hyatt Gold Passport with Mlife a few weeks ago and then got my spouse matched as well when we were in vegas, per your recommendation on that. We even have Mlife cards with our Gold status on them. But as of today that status is gone.
I called today to try and get reverse matched to Hyatt and found that my prior Gold Status with Mlife had reverted to Saphire. I suspect that all Hyatt matched accounts were reverted when it changed to the new system.
I don’t know why that happened with this couple. In the comments of View from the Wing’s posts, a number of people have reported success.
My Experience
Once the new World of Hyatt program launched, my goal was to match from MLife Platinum to Hyatt Exporist. Points, Miles, & More reported success in requesting a match by sending an email to memberservices@mgmresorts.com.
I tried that, but was told to call Hyatt instead:
Thank you for contacting M life Member Services. In your to change your Hyatt status, you would need to contact Hyatt as we do not have access to their system to make any changes. To receive your matched tier with M life Rewards, please call 800-323-7249. Provide both your World of Hyatt and M life Rewards Membership numbers. If you have any further questions or concerns, please let us know.
Weird. So, I called Hyatt. The call was quick and painless. The call agent said that she just had to fill out and submit a form on my behalf, and that I should hear back in about 10 days.
Exactly one week later I received a very nice email titled “Congratulations – You’re Now an Explorist”
Dear Greg,Congratulations on becoming a World of Hyatt Explorist. In World of Hyatt, exceptional service comes standard and unforgettable experiences are always at your fingertips.
You’ll enjoy even more thoughtful rewards and special privileges as you travel the world. The program revolves around you and is yours to continue exploring.
I logged into my Hyatt account, saw my Explorist status clearly labeled, and found my new upgrades waiting patiently to be used:
Did you try to gift yourself or your spouse status? How did it go? Comment below.
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Is this still working?
I still Mlife Gold from last year’s Hyatt matching , and was thinking of matching it to Explorist.
I would guess so. It’s certainly worth a try!
[…] Hyatt. The transition went relatively smoothly for most members — and some were even able to successfully match themselves to Explorist status, thereby keeping some level of lounge access for one more year. My first Hyatt stay came on the […]
Hey Greg, I just did this last week by calling Hyatt. I got an email also saying I now have Explorist status (10 days later). WOohoo! Thanks for the heads up.
Great!
Funny ending to this for me. I had actually previously emailed two separate MLife email addresses. The one I emailed initially finally got back to me with this (glad i went through Hyatt before getting this!):
Thank you for contacting M life Member Services. In order to receive a tier status match to your World of Hyatt account, you must have earned your current tier with M life by earning tier credits. Since your Platinum tier status is due a prior tier match with Hyatt, you current status request will not be eligible. We apologize for any inconveniences. Please let us know if you needed further assistance.
I missed the boat on this one because I had not made the request to status match Hyatt to Mlife in October 2016. I had been matched to Gold Mlife the year prior to that. Because the status reverts back down each year on 10/1, you apparently have to go through the status match each year. I was completely unaware of that and thought I still had Gold status. Mlife customer service has just verified by phone with Hyatt when I was on hold that I have the lovely Discoverist status and has moved me up a rung to Pearl from Sapphire. No higher match for me possible. I am bummed.
@Greg: Will the matched Explorist status come with a free night cert for a level 1-4 hotel?
Also do you think that it is good to postpone one’s partner’s match until their mLife gold expires in September 2017 like David commented above so as to stagger benefits between partners? Do you think a match done in September, if still possible, would expire on February 28, 2018 or September 2018?
No, it doesn’t come with a free night.
Staggering benefits with a partner: yes, I think it’s worth a shot! There’s a risk that Hyatt will close the loophole before then, but since one of you will have status, it’s not a big risk.
I’ve emailed mLife a few times with no response to match my mLife Gold to Hyatt. Going to try again!
Ended up calling Hyatt today as mentioned in the article and they said to check again in 10 days. Keeping my fingers crossed for Explorist since I have several upcoming stays.
I’m his fight too, got knocked down to mLife Sapphire after getting matched to Gold last fall. Submitted an email yesterday to mLife. Don’t much care about mLife but really need to get Explorerist for Regency Club access in Maui this May!!
MLife customer service is horrible (at least for me).
I am MLife Pearl now and my status match request (from Hyatt platinum to MLife Gold) was “lost” 3 times.
It’s going on a 4th week now. I have provided my information by phone, by email, and by twitter multiple times now with not a single reply or an update.
UPDATE…
Hyatt has The Best customer service and customer loyalty in true meaning of it.
To resolve my issue with MLife status match, Hyatt upgraded my to Explorist status as a courtesy.
This is what I call going above and beyond.
This is amazing! How many calls to Hyatt did it take? How did you frame it up? I’d love to take advantage of this as Inwas also downgraded to Pear and no response all week from MLife after sending an email on Monday
This was totally unexpected, as I twitted MLife Rewards with plead for help and got PM from Hyatt Concierge instead.
Had a 5 min twitter exchange (no calls) with Hyatt Concierge where they asked for my info and contacted MLife customer cervices on my behave. A day later I got a twitte from MLife Rewards with another runaround. “Can’t find any records of your calls or emails or anything. Will submit your request again and wait for 2 weeks” crap.
And a day later I was surprised with an email “Congratulations – You’re Now an Explorist”. Checked Mlife status and have been upgraded to Gold as well.
I had soft landing to Explorist but Wife was downgraded to Member. She is Mlife gold until September 30th, 2017. I’m going to wait to get her upgraded in September. My Explorist is good thru Feb. 28, 2018. Hopefully she can get her Explorist thru September, 2018.
Great strategy! I plan to try the same. I matched my Diamond to Mlife Platinum sometime late last year and my Mlife Platinum has stuck. I’ll make a stop at an Mlife casino at some point this year to get my wife matched to Platinum and then match her to Explorist in Sept also.
The club upgrades help us save money in some places. I’d much rather have them than not have them, so I’m with you on this one. Hope it works out for both of us.
The Wife’s Gold & my Platinum Mlife also stuck. My Explorist strategy is for only one stay of 8 nights @ the Grand Hyatt, Playa del Carmen in Feb. 2018, just before my Explorist expires. Wife applied and received the Freedom Unlimited last night. She went under 5/24 on 3/7/16. I have the Sapphire Preferred so she can transfer to my account. Have 30K Hyatt pts. and will generate the additional 130K over the next 6 months or so. If we are able to get her Explorist in Sept., I’ll begin planning a holiday taking advantage of her status. Keeping elite status after our expiration is not feasible. Hyatt makes it unreachable, unlike other programs where you can spend your way to top tier status (Hilton / IHG). I also wish it works out for both of us.
That’s a great idea, but one risk with this strategy is that Hyatt may fix this loophole before your wife gets around to requesting the match.
Yes Greg, but I don’t consider her not getting Explorist a big deal. She is IHG Spire Ambassador which gives us loads of perks where we travel and Hilton Diamond that is also decent for perks. We did the Cancun, Ziva last month and got a nice Diamond upgrade, but frankly we have been treated much better @ Hilton & Intercontinental.
Hi Greg, thanks for sharing. Calling does seem to be the faster way to get it done but email definitely worked for my husband and I after a couple attempts. The tech capabilities between Mlife and Hyatt are bad indeed – but that’s what makes this work in the first place, so guess we can’t complain too much!
– Liz (Points, Miles, and More)
Who did you email to get Hyatt to match your mLife status? I tried emailing mLife and they said I had to contact Hyatt because they don’t have access to their system to upgrade me.
I emailed memberservices@mgmresorts.com with my Mlife and Hyatt numbers. It did take a couple emails for each of us to get a response though. And then a couple weeks for status to show. Because we didn’t have any upcoming Hyatt stays didn’t feel the need to rush it. From the responses it sounded like they were manually sending Hyatt the match request.
It’s definitely frustrating, especially since different processes work for different people with no rhyme or reason as to why.
Worked for me. Got MLife gold by virtue of Hyatt Platinum via Chase CC. Emailed MLife twice but never got response. Called Hyatt to request match to Explorist, was told my account would be noted, nothing happeneed for a week. Called Hyatt again, agent said she would call MLife while I waited, got me matched.
Worth it for the four club lounge access rewards.
All this work to get Explorist status is akin to straining your arm to reach under your sofa for ten minutes to retrieve a fallen penny.
I requested the match to explorist with Hyatt and mlife. A week and a half later I guess Hyatt caught it and reverted me to mlife pearl. I then called mlife and was told by a worn out agent that Hyatt had downgraded everyone. He was not able to help so I called mlife again and left a message to call me back and they did and reverted me back to mlife gold. A few days later the match went through to explorist but it was a brawl to get.