With the recent announcement of a Hyatt status challenge aimed at American Airlines elites – click here for details – I am reminded of how easy it is to retain that Explorist status, thanks to the partnership between World of Hyatt and MGM Rewards. If you play your cards right – bad pun intended – you can keep that Explorist status indefinitely…

Hacking Hyatt Status from Scratch

Step 1 – Obtain Trial Explorist Status

If you are approaching things from the perspective of an American Airlines elite member, you can now apply for the Hyatt status challenge. During 90 days, you will enjoy Explorist status.

During those 90 days, you simply need to apply for a tier match with MGM Rewards. It might not appear to have been processed correctly, but your MGM Rewards account should be upgraded to Gold status within a day or two.

Step 2 – BEFORE January 31, 2023

MGM Rewards status expires on February 1st of each year. Therefore, at some point AFTER your Hyatt status has dropped below Explorist level (assuming you don’t do the challenge’s 10 nights required to retain Explorist status) and BEFORE your MGM Gold status expires, you can apply for a tier match in the opposite direction…

Your Hyatt account should be updated to Explorist status until February 29, 2024. (especially if you do the tier match in January 2023)

Step 3 – Repeat Tier Match

At some point on or after February 1st, 2023 your MGM Rewards status will drop below Gold status. A few mouse clicks later and you should be able to use your Hyatt status to upgrade your MGM Rewards account back up to Gold status, this time valid until February 1, 2024.

For as long as the tier match program is running – and as long as MGM and Hyatt have slightly different status expiration dates – you should be able to repeat this process indefinitely…

Hanging onto Hyatt Status

If you currently enjoy Globalist or Explorist status with World of Hyatt, that status will expire on February 28, 2023.

During the month of February 2023, you simply must remember to apply for a tier match with MGM Rewards BEFORE your Hyatt status expires at the end of the month.

After your Hyatt status has dropped to Discoverist status (or worse) on March 1, 2023, you can simply tier match your MGM Gold status back to Hyatt Explorist status – which would be valid until February 29, 2024.

Bottom Line

Even though Hyatt’s Explorist status is not nearly as valuable as Globalist status, you can still receive a 2pm late checkout and 20% bonus points – useful things to have…

You don’t need to start the process with American or Hyatt status either. MGM Rewards will tier match from competing casino loyalty programs as well…