Mlife to Hyatt Status Match Should Work One More Time
Yesterday I wrote about my Hyatt status dilemma. In the comments Bill at Point me to the Plane shared a nugget of wisdom that changed my thought process. He spoke with a Hyatt rep and they confirmed that we should be able to status match Mlife to Hyatt one more time from January 1-February 28, 2019. That should still trigger the lounge certificates. I had wondered if this would be the case, but since Hyatt status is a little wonky and runs until March 1st each year I wasn’t sure how it would play out. With Hyatt’s confirmation that changes things for me.
My Final Decision
With this news I am going to stand pat for the rest of 2018 and fall 4 nights short of earning Explorist status. I will status match on January 1st to maintain my Explorist status and get 4 more lounge certificates.
I will then need to earn 30 nights to keep the status for 2020. Because I earned the lounge certs via status match I would not get more when I hit the 20 and 30 nights threshold. I would still earn the category 1-4 free night when I hit 30 nights. Since I did not chase status in 2018 I can save 20,000 points that equate to a possible 4 nights in 2019.
Conclusion
This is big news and I thank Bill for letting me know and for reaching out to Hyatt to confirm this. Be sure to check out his article if you want any more details on the merger.
Does this change your plans for the rest of the year at all like it did mine?
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Another year of Explorist I won’t use, score!
You don’t stay at Hyatt hotels often?
The footprint. That and one of my big regrets in this is churning Inks and getting caught out with no cards when 5/24 dropped.
Talk about terrible timing – that makes me sad. I was just out from under 24 months on the CSP when the 5/24 hammer dropped and was not able to get it one more time. Luckily I hung onto my Ink Plus all these years.
I am surprised you didn’t go for the new World of Hyatt card before it went on 5/24 ice.
Timing wasn’t ideal. Got the Iberia card when it launched.
Waited 90 days from that to get the new IHG.
Didn’t want to push it with the Hyatt so was going to wait till Sep and didn’t want to close that and then not get the new one. My current Hyatt card anniversary in mid-July, so I decided to let things cool and see what would happen in 2019 around my next anniversary. 60 points would have been nice. Paying an extra $20 a year for a card with no incremental benefit to me would not.
Yeah with Chase shutting down people after too many applications probably best not to push it.
btw, merry Xmas to you Mark, Shawn & all M-t-M team!
Thanks Dan Merry Christmas to you an yours as well!
i matched to explorist on mar 1 earlier this yr & my acct has been 4 club awards thru 3/1/2020; anyone’s acct shows awards good thru 2020 instead of 2019? in my case, i guess mine still need a request for match on 3/1/2019 to maintain explorist status, correct?
Club Awards have been getting 2 years before they expire lately I think that was to help out people that reach status at the very end of the calendar year.
If you status match March 1st or after you will get Explorist but you will no longer get lounge certs. That is why you should try to do it before March 1st but after Jan 1 to see if you can get the certificates again before the rules change.
thx Mark, so in my case after requesting for match after the 1st in early jan, i’ll have 4 club access good thru 2021, yes?
That is the hope and what Hyatt confirmed but we won’t know for sure until the 1st of the year.
Yes Dan. Exactly. That’s what I mentioned. The Club certificates from 2018 don’t expire until 3/1/20. Also, if you look at when the Explorist ends it’s not until 2/28/2019. So If you go to try to status match with MLife before March 1, I suspect you will get the error, “Your M life Rewards and World of Hyatt accounts have already been matched”.
Since theoretically you’re already an Explorist via the Match and it doesn’t expire until 2/28/19 then you can’t status match again until March 1, 2019 which will upgrade you to Explorist again but cuts you out of getting the 4 Upgrades.
Like I mentioned, I think they thought this through pretty clearly and did it this way so they would match status but not get any Club upgrades for 2019.
Mike it has been confirmed that it works – Happy New Year!
https://milestomemories.boardingarea.com/mlife-to-hyatt-status-match-worked-one-more-time/#comment-617906
I don’t think this will work though. Because I think Hyatt already thought about this MLife loophole. At least with me earlier in 2018 they changed my expiration date of my Explorist to February 28, 2019. So that means it wouldn’t be able to be matched until March 1, 2019 with MLife (because if you already have Explorist status then you can’t match again?). But then starting March 1 you don’t get the 4 Club Upgrades.
So unless I’m missing something (and someone explain if I am) then although you can get status matched to Explorist via MLife again in 2019 it wouldn’t be until March 1 and no Club Upgrades?
But Jan 1 is the new year of earning. So if you earn status after Jan 1 it grants you status until Feb 2020. So I think that this will work (of course I am not sure) because the earning year starts over on the first.
Here are the terms they sent out:
Club lounge access awards can now be earned sooner and will no longer be awarded with Explorist status. In 2019, members can earn a maximum of four Club access awards whether they 1) earn Explorist status January 1 – February 28 or 2) stay 30 qualifying nights or earn 50,000 Base Points over the course of a calendar year. Completing more than one of these actions will not earn additional Club access awards. In 2020, Club access awards will only be awarded as follows: 2 at 20 qualifying nights or 35,000 Base Points and 2 more at 30 qualifying nights or 50,000 Base Points.
I think point 1 is what could make this work…no way to know for sure but we have a Hyatt spokesperson on record saying it will. That plus these terms lead me to believe that it will work but no way to know for sure until the new year.
I guess we’ll see after January 1 but my point was that you’re not “earning” Explorist status in 2019. Technically they changed it so that the Explorist status from 2018 doesn’t expire until February 29, 2019. So I would have thought that you’re Explorist from 2018. I really hope I’m wrong so I can get another 4 Upgrades for 2019 but personally I don’t think it will work because they also changed the expiration dates in mid-2018 for the 4 Club Upgrades to February 29, 2020.
So it seems like they really thought this out ahead of time. Mark, it might be worth it for you being so close to earning Explorist again and the upgrades to find out before assuming that you’ll get the 4 Club Upgrades via the match.
Keep us posted if you find out something else.
Hi Mark,
But look at your expiration date for your current Explorist. When does it expire? Last year I got comp’ed to Explorist with the MLife trick. But they extended my Explorist to be good until February 28, 2019. So it sounds like it doesn’t expire until March 1. So even if I matched status via MLife for Explorist I wouldn’t be able to get the Club Upgrades again?
I think it would count because you start earning again on Jan 1. I think it would be the same as if you hit 30 nights before March 1, You would be renewed until 2020.
Hmm. It would be nice to get clarification on that point but I guess no real way to get that clarified.
Only an idiot would call Hyatt to confirm a loophole that has benefited thousands of fellow travelers. Nice work/sarc
To be fair the changes were already made and loophole had already been closed. You don’t think Hyatt was aware of this already? Pretty sure that is why they had already made the change.