Living The Mlife The Right Way

If you’ve been keeping up with our posts exploring the Mlife program, you’re up to date on what the program is and what exactly it takes to earn points and get to higher tiers by gaming at your favorite MGM Resorts destination. But as I alluded to in the previous installment, Mlife was revolutionary, in that it also incorporated several other ways to earn Tier Credits and that changed the way most operations today, handle their loyalty programs. So let’s dive in to the wonderful world of earning Tier Credits through spending money on things that don’t require playing a game of chance.

One of the first things that made Mlife so revolutionary was not only that you could get comped on your play, but in addition to that, money spent within the resorts and select retail partners themselves could also go towards advancing your tier. So, on top of the previously mentioned comp multipliers and other benefits, every single dollar spent on room, food, beverage, and select retail on property or charged to your room, earns at a rate of 25 Tier Credits per $1 of spend. (This ratio varies at properties outside of Las Vegas and some don’t award tier for spend at all.) Let’s throw that into some hypothetical, or never mind, real life context.

On a recent trip with friends, while staying at Aria our entire party decided to dine at Sensi at Bellagio, a sister MGM property. Several courses, cocktails and a lovely evening later, when the check arrived, I charged it to my room, settling up the bill at a later time. Total cost of the meal, $477.75 in subtotal, which is what counts towards spend, exclusive of tax and gratuity. Let’s do the numbers:

$477.75 x 25 = 11,944 Tier Credits

That alone will take you almost half way to Pearl, or take care of 15% of the credits needed to get to Gold per year. And it wasn’t even at my host hotel, it was with a connected partner. Anything you can charge to your room, and in Vegas that means at any MGM property, gets you Tier Credits.

Yet another example in the same trip. Myself and eight friends shared a cabana at Aria for a weekend afternoon. Subtotal, before included tax and gratuity was $814.00. Doing the numbers once again:

$814.00 x 25 = 20,350 Tier Credits

Combine the two, and you’re almost halfway to Gold in a weekend trip, although there is one caveat for those outside of Las Vegas. Other MGM properties in the US earn at the rate of 8 credits per dollar spent or none at all. Again the discrepancy isn’t clearly defined or rationalized, but still be aware that you earn the best bang for your buck in Vegas.

And believe it or not, that’s not where it stops. MGM has been aggressively cross promoting by forming partner relationships that give benefits to Mlife members with select partners as well as more opportunities to earn Tier Credits and comps. Fly with Southwest? Earn credits with Mlife and Rapid Rewards points. Stay with Hyatt? Your tier can get you upgrades and perks through the World of Hyatt program, while you earn even more Tier Credits for every stay with a Hyatt property around the world, not to mention Hyatt’s own tiers allow you to tier match with Mlife. The list doesn’t stop there. A continually growing list of partners as of this update (October 2017) includes:

• Hyatt Hotels (and Subsidiary Brands)
• Southwest Airlines
• Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
• Celebrity Cruises
• Avis Car Rental
• Pinnacle Entertainment (Casino Partner)
• Cirque du Soleil
• Thunder Valley Casino Resort
• Reflection Bay Golf Club
• Morgans Hotel Group
• Cashman Photo
• The Quintess Collection (Luxury Travel Rentals)

You may stay at Hyatt Hotels, five times a year, but go to Las Vegas only once, but you’ll still receive benefit from the Mlife program. This is what really allows Mlife to eclipse even the offerings that Total Rewards had been pioneering and is now having to play catch up to.

So we’ve covered earning Tier Credits, and how you can quickly and efficiently use gaming and spend to get to the next level in as little as one well planned trip to Sin City. But believe it or not there are still even more ways to benefit from Mlife, both in and away from Vegas. And that’s what the last and final part of our Mlife series will cover. Until then, I’ll be off in Vegas going for Gold!

Be sure to check out our other Mlife loyalty program articles :
Living the Mlife: An Introduction
Living the Mlife: The Basics – Earning Tier Credits the Traditional Way
Living the Mlife: Points, Partners, and Payouts – Earning Outside of Gaming
Living the Mlife: Pearl, Gold, Platinum, and Beyond – Perks and Oddities