I have not paid a great deal of attention to the Hyatt Visa. It’s not that I do not think it is a good card, I actually do. It’s just that I rarely stay at Hyatt Hotels, and thought it wasn’t worth my time. For sure, Hyatt Gold Passport offers compelling benefits to travelers, if Hyatt family hotels serve the markets you travel to. As I’ve posted before, I spend as much time on business in Peoria, IL as I do in Washington, DC or similar so Hyatt isn’t the best program for me right now. But there are other reasons to apply for the Hyatt Visa. Notably, Platinum status with Gold Passport (which is a benefit of carrying the card) now affords you M Life benefits.
First, let’s look at the basics of Hyatt Platinum status.
- Achieve rewards faster with a 15% point bonus when choosing points
- Enjoy a preferred room including rooms on higher floors or larger rooms, based on availability upon arrival
- Receive the confirmed bed type at check-in
- Stay connected with complimentary in-room Internet access
- Expedited check-in at a dedicated area for elite members
- Ensure a room is always available with our 72-hour guarantee
- Extend your stay until 2:00 p.m. with a late check out request
- Book reservations through an exclusive Platinum line
You can review more specifics about these benefits on Hyatt’s website.
The card comes with other benefits including two free nights at Hyatt after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months with the card, 2 stay credits and 5 night credits toward Diamond status upon spending $20,000 in each calendar year, and an additional 3 stay credits and 5 night credits toward Diamond status upon spending $40,000 in each calendar year. The annual fee is $75 per year.
Hyatt Visa Can Perk Up Your Cruise a Little
Now lets take a more detailed look at the purpose of my post. Gary and Scott spoke to this new benefit a few days ago. I wanted to add a little color commentary on the dollar value of the benefits based on my experiences. I recently posted about the reciprocal benefits between Royal Caribbean and MGM Resorts’ M Life. M Life also partners with Hyatt, offering reciprocal benefits between their programs. Simply carrying the Hyatt Visa, and it’s Platinum status will net you Gold status in M Life. So you can apply for the Hyatt credit card, get your Platinum status, sign up for M Life at the Gold level, book a cruise and get some of the benefits of a Royal Caribbean past passenger even if you haven’t cruised before.
As a result of carrying the Hyatt Visa, you have access to:
- Onboard booking bonus (Typically, an onboard credit on your next cruise when booking that cruise while onboard that varies based on stateroom category or cruise length. As an example, the last cruise I booked on board received a $300 on board credit. Not bad, but keep in mind it was a 14-night cruise.)
- Ultimate Value Booklet (This is the coupon booklet Royal Caribbean past passengers receive. It has a few useful coupons for onboard discounts, a cup of specialty coffee, etc. They have always saved me a few bucks.)
- Entertainment tour (Moderately interesting if you’re into seeing behind the scenes or like the shows. I’m a fan of the navigational bridge tours offered to Royal Caribbean Diamond Plus members.)
- Departure Lounge Access (Nothing special, some coffee and danish while you wait for your number to be called to exit.)
- Priority Check-in (Can be beneficial for avoiding lines, but use judgement. If the elite line looks longer than the normal line go with normal)
- Complimentary specialty dining (This can be worth $30 to $40 per person depending on the specialty restaurant offerings available on your ship)
- Five Drink Vouchers (Again, variable value, but not insignificant)
- Sea Pass (your onboard charge account connected to your room key) Cash Advance Fee Waived (They want you to gamble onboard!)
Folks, that’s better than a stick in the eye. You can get cruise benefits that exceed or nearly exceed the annual fee with just one nice dinner in a specialty restaurant. While you have to actually spend money with M Life to get that free cruise benefit at the bottom of the benefits list above, you can still take your first Royal Caribbean cruise and enjoy benefits that you would normally have to take several cruises to receive if you were starting off in Royal Caribbean’s loyalty program. If you are just looking to sample cruising or are interested in giving Royal Caribbean a try for the first time, you can do so with a few extra perks just by carrying the Hyatt Visa card. The hotel benefits combined with the cruising benefits could make this an attractive option for many, and I haven’t even talked about the Las Vegas benefits yet.
MJ, August 2, 2013
Reference Material
LINK: The Hyatt Credit Card (not an affiliate link)
Link to CruiseCritic.com thread with some discussion on the M Life – RCL relationship
Link to Milepoint discussion on the Hyatt forum regarding M Life benefits
Link to Flyertalk discussion on the Hyatt forum regarding M Life benefits
PS – i have the rccl card right now, but not sure if i should continue using it. it seems like the barclays arrival card, might be better. also, not sure if you are aware, but they changed their CC reward program and you can redeem the points across the board for rccl/celebrity/azamara.
thanks marshall! yes, if you ever find out an answer, that would be helpful. it doesn’t seem like there are many people like us with these same questions. i tried reading the thread on cruise critic, but people arent too sure either. granted, i understand the hyatt/m life reciprocal status just opened up a few days ago so they are probably stil working out their kinks.
btw – do you have a specific card you like to use to offset the price of your cruises (not factoring in the $300 balcony discount/rccl coupons)? i read on another blog and they recommended using the barclays arrival card. it looks like if we get that card, we can used the fixed value points to offset the price of a cruise. this sounds pretty good to me. do you have another card you recommend?
here is the post i am referring to http://www.noobtraveler.com/when-to-apply-for-a-fixed-value-rewards-credit-card/?utm_source=NoobTravelers&utm_campaign=61a2aa5e13-Miles+dine&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_48fdf1a743-61a2aa5e13-59242257
and as always, thank you for taking out your time to respond to my newbie questions.
another question here for your marshall, based on the post above, it looks like people with the hyatt visa get the cash advance fee waived, 5 drink vouchers and a speciality dinner as part of some of the rccl perks they can get just for having the hyatt visa/m-life.
so for people like us that have earned status with rccl the hard way and if we have the hyatt visa/m-life, we wouldn’t be able to partcipate in the above perks right? i would love the cash advance fee waived/drink vouchers (since i am not d+ yet) and speciality dinner. i am assuming rccl wouldn’t allow us to double dip right?
Ang,
I will have to poke around but I believe there is potential for success here. Keeping in mind that the Hyatt to M Life benefit just opened up, there may not be much evidence out there yet.
I contacted MLife about status matching my Hyatt Platimun Status to MLife so I could then get the Royal Caribbean benefits. Below is the response I received from them.
“The Hyatt partnership with M life will launch August 20th, As soon as we are ready both M life and Hyatt will send an email to everyone inviting you to receive your matched tier.”
thanks so much marshall for your answer. i really appreciate you taking out your time to answer me. it is such a pleasure to read your blog. my favorite part of your blog are all the posts cruise related! t-minus 22 days until my first celebrity cruise. i am beyond excited. thanks again and have a great week! =)
PS – it would be wonderful if you wrote a review on your upcoming quantum cruise(whether it is on cruise critic or here). i haven’t booked mine yet, but will soon.
@Ang,
I have been researching your question in greater detail. The answer is that while I can’t guarantee you will get Hyatt Platinum status this way, I have not yet identified anything in writing that would prevent it. I am already Hyatt Platinum through my Milepoint Premium benefit, but this is a benefit that I look forward to exploring when that status expires.
My M Life status already reflects Platinum. I signed up a week ago, and sent an email asking about how to ensure my RCL D+ status was registered. I have not received a reply as of this moment, but I just signed into mlife.com and I am Platinum. Now, I HAVE to go to Vegas. 😀
thanks marshall for this post!
were you able to figure out the answer to my second question a few days back. from what i am understanding from this new post, it looks like it’s possible since my question is essentially the reverse of what you proposed above – get hyatt CC, then get mlife gold status, then get the rccl benefits.
here it is copied/pasted
“2) since i am diamond on rccl, i will be gold with m-life via the partnership. according to the terms of the m-life & hyatt partnership,if you are gold with m-life, you are platinum with hyatt. do you know if i would be able to get platinum hyatt status since i will technically get gold m-life status from my diamond rccl status?”
thanks in advance!
@Ang,
I had an email chat with someone about this just yesterday. In the end, the answer was “I dunno.” I think that had more to do with the Hyatt – M Life stuff just going live the first of August and still figuring things out than anything else.
Lemme do a little more poking around. I won’t forget. And if you see something definitive before I do, please comment.
I am at Elite level on Celebrity, their highest level. I sent an email to RCL asking if I could have status and RCL gave me a membership # with Diamond status. They are owned by the same company. So, I am hoping that I can go from Celebrity to RCL to MLife to Hyatt status.
status+casino+shareholder benefits = basically free trip
I don’t think 2 suite upgrades were mentioned. I will be using one for labor day even though it expired on my one year anniversary. This is for paid stays only,
You’re right Marty, that’s a good benefit for Hyatt folks.
Oh and seapass cash advance fee seems like its a new way to MFC spend no?
That should work for spend, Jeremy.
Different Jeremy here. This is amazing news as I am loyal to Royal as well. My girlfriend and I are both Gold C&A members (11 more points for me to the next tier). Some of the above benefits don’t even come in C&A! So can one book a cruise and get the benefits from M Life as well as their C&A level? If so that’s pretty sweet. How do you let Royal know of your M Life status?
@Jeremy S., I’m researching the combined benefit question now. That’s been on my mind too as I can get M Life via Hyatt Platinum, and not RCL….. Hmmmm. If you can do that, I wonder how long that will last until they’re on to us. 🙂
In addition to the above benefits, doesn’t Royal Caribbean often offer past passengers incentives to book new cruises (even not onboard), offering either discounts on fares and/or onboard credit? I would imagine just having the card, when one signs up with RCL at the Gold Level, they’d qualify for that even if never actually a past passenger. That could itself be worth several hundred dollars.
They do, but I don’t think that applies here. While you get some benefits that are equivalent to having status with RCL, you don’t get them all.
For example, as a Diamond Plus, I get a pretty good discount on balcony cabins, $300 on my Quantum of the Sea cruise next December. I don’t think that discount would apply with the M Life benefits, but I won’t mind being wrong on that at all. 🙂
Come on now …if you live the ATL and down south …it’s “better than a poke in the eye with dirty stick!”
Nice article though , I am using my Hyatt bonus nights for two nights in Lake Tahoe .
Waived fees at the casino?! Everyone should get 21k UR w/ sapphire preferred 🙂
@Matt,
🙂 Yes!
This is a very helpful post, thank you! I have the Hyatt card already and was not aware of these cruise benefits. I wished the benefits applied to Celebrity though!
any idea if this applies to Celebrity cruises as well since they’re owned by RCCL?
@Jeremy, this is specific to RCL.
I’m tired of seeing post after post describing about the credit card benefits. Come on guys stop it. Lets get into the secrets of earning and burning miles and points