Little did I know that taking advantage of a Hyatt Diamond Elite Tier offer back in 2015 would still be paying off three years later.  Here is my experience:

Getting Hyatt Diamond Status

In June 2015, I signed up for Hyatt’s Diamond Elite Tier that I read on The Points Guy’s website.  After emailing Hyatt to sign me up for the offer, they quickly responded to get their top tier ‘Diamond’ status I had to complete 12 nights at a Hyatt hotel within 60 days.  I did this strictly for the free breakfast that comes with Diamond status as we had a bunch of stays coming up and thought it would be worthwhile.

Since Cash + Points stays were eligible for the challenge, I found a category 1 Hyatt Place fairly close to my house and booked a mattress run – 12 consecutive nights for 5,000 points + $50 cash for each night with no intent on sleeping in the room.  $650 in cash + 60,000 points was a large sum for me and I wasn’t sure it would be worth it but went along with it anyway.  (There were some taxes on the $50/night cash portion so it was a little more than 12 x $50 = $600).

I was actually a little nervous that the hotel would see that I wasn’t staying there and cancel the rest of my reservation and I would miss out on the Diamond status.  So I actually brought a small bag with a few clothes to leave in the room, messed up the sheets on the bed, and put the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door.  Luckily 12 days later I returned and checked out with no problems.  I had earned the highly coveted ‘Hyatt Diamond status’.

Park Hyatt Paris Vendome Breakfast

The original goal was just to get free breakfast on some upcoming trips and boy did we put it to good use.  We used it to get free breakfasts at the following places:

• December 2015 – Hyatt Escala Lodge Park City – 5 nights x 4 breakfasts @ $25 = $500
• February 2016 – Park City Beaver Creek – 4 nights x 4 breakfasts @ $30 = $480
• May 2016 – Hyatt Regency Coconut Point – 3 nights x 4 lounge access @ $15 = $180
• June 2016 – Park Hyatt Paris Vendome – 3 nights x 4 breakfasts @ $35 = $420
• August 2016 – Hyatt Centric South Beach – 2 nights x 2 breakfasts @ $25 = $100
• December 2016 – Park Hyatt New York – 2 nights x 2 breakfasts @ $35 = $140
• December 2016 – Hyatt Escala Lodge Park City – 4 nights x 4 breakfasts @ $25 = $400
• January 2017 – Park Hyatt Maldives – 7 nights x 2 breakfasts + 2 sundowners $128 = $1792

These all add up to over $4000 before my Diamond Status expired in February 2017.  So yes, completing the 12 night mattress run was well worth it and I didn’t even factor in the suite upgrades that we received at many of the resorts.

Matching MLife Status

In 2013, MGM and Hyatt had entered into a partnership where you could earn points in each program on stays.  You could also opt-in to receive reciprocal tier status in MGM’s MLife program.

At the time Hyatt Diamond matched to MLife Platinum status which is their highest tier that is not by invitation only (Noir status).  So before my Hyatt Diamond status expired in early 2017, I matched to MLife Platinum for the ‘skip the line’ benefit.  At the taxi stand, buffet line, or club entrance, simply show your MLife Platinum card and skip to the front of the line.

You can still match Hyatt status to MLife today.  Even if you just have the Chase Hyatt Visa which gives you automatic Discoverist status, this will match to Mlife Pearl status.

My MLife Platinum status was supposed to expire on October 31, 2017.  I was ready to match my downgraded Hyatt Explorist status to MLife gold but was surprised to see that my MLife Platinum status had stayed at Platinum.

Matching to Total Rewards Diamond Status

Fast forward to May 2018 when I read a post from Doctor of Credit about Caesar’s Total Rewards program allowing you to match status from other programs to their Diamond status.  I happened to have a Memorial Day weekend trip to Las Vegas already planned and dinner reservations at Giada’s (at The Cromwell, a Total Rewards hotel).

After taking my MLife Platinum card to the Total Rewards desk at the Cromwell, I am now a newly minted Total Rewards Diamond member (until January 2019).

In addition to getting free parking, no resort fees, Diamond lounge access, a $100 celebration dinner, and 2 free show tickets each month, you can also receive a free four night stay at Atlantis.  I’m looking into an Atlantis trip now – here is a great review from Dem’ Flyers.

Matching to Wyndam Diamond Status

Like Hyatt has a relationship with MGM, Wyndam has a similar relationship with Caesar’s Total Rewards program which you can match status from one program to the other.

This was easy to accomplish too.  Today, I headed over to the Total Rewards partner’s site.  After logging into my Wyndham account and clicking a button, I now have Wyndham Diamond status.

I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do with Wyndham Diamond status but it never hurts to have it.  Oh yeah and apparently Wyndham Diamond status resets on December 31st of each year while Total Rewards Diamond status resets on January 31st so in theory I should be able to again match Total Rewards Diamond status to Wyndham Diamond in January then in February match the Wyndham Diamond status back to Total Rewards Diamond.

The moral of this story is to always take advantage of status matching, you never know where it will lead.

What is your favorite status match?

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.