Recently, we learned of the loss of a major points and miles option in Sin City, with the of The Venetian Las Vegas from IHG. However, thankfully, this loss is a temporary one, as The Venetian Las Vegas joins World of Hyatt – a big win for the brand that recently had a major loss in the area, too.
We’re just over a week away from the end of a The Venetian’s decade-and-a-half partnership with InterContinental Hotel Group, which expires on December 31, 2024. At the time of the announcement, this loss was lamented as a further narrowing of options in Las Vegas, especially after Hyatt lost its MGM partnership in favor of a vastly watered-down arrangement MGM now has with Marriott. But, in a bit of good news, The Venetian Las Vegas joins World of Hyatt, restoring the availability of a huge “on the strip” property and preserving some variety of choice.
The Venetian Las Vegas Joins World of Hyatt
In an announcement made this past Wednesday, Hyatt announced that The Venetian Las Vegas joins World of Hyatt under a long-term licensing agreement. As was the case with the prior IHG arrangement, this new partnership includes both The Venetian and Palazzo. Unfortunately, that’s the extent of the currently available information. We don’t know how long this agreement is for, nor do we know what category level these properties will occupy.
However, what we do know is that Venetian Rewards members will receive some sort of benefits within World of Hyatt. The wording from the press release leads me to believe that this may be a one-way reciprocal benefits arrangement, similar to what MGM and Marriott are doing currently, and is likely a way to prevent elite status gaming, which was common in the old MGM-Hyatt program.
Venetian Rewards
With news that The Venetian Las Vegas joins World of Hyatt and that Venetian Rewards members will receive reciprocal benefits, it’s prudent to briefly go over that reward program.
Like MGM Rewards, Venetian Rewards has five separate tiers, with the fifth and top tier being by invite only. These tiers and their points thresholds are as follows:
- Jade: the basic membership level
- Sapphire: 3,000 points
- Ruby: 20,000 points
- Diamond: 50,000 points
- Chairman: invite-only
Benefits of these tiers are fairly similar to the corresponding status in MGM Rewards. For example, Sapphires receiving free self-parking, while Rubies receive free valet parking and event parking, which are quite similar to the parking benefits of the corresponding MGM statuses of Pearl and Gold, respectively.
However, how you earn those statuses is quite different. You see, in MGM Rewards, you earn 4 tier points per $1 spent on non-gaming spend on-property versus the 2 points per $1 Venetian Rewards provides. However, with MGM Rewards, tier requirements are much higher – Pearl requires 20,000 points, Gold requires 75,000 points, and Platinum requires 200,000 points! Those thresholds range from nearly four times to almost seven times higher than Venetian Rewards.
Translated into dollars, this means you’d need to spend the following amounts to achieve their corresponding elite levels:
- Base Elite Tiers
- Venetian Sapphire: $6,000
- MGM Pearl: $5,000
- Mid Elite Tiers
- Venetian Ruby: $10,000
- MGM Gold: $18,750
- Top (earnable) Elite Tiers
- Venetian Diamond: $25,000
- MGM Platinum: $50,000
As you can see, MGM Pearl is slightly cheaper to obtain, though all other statuses are vastly more costly. It’s worth noting that my figures are based on resort spending only. Factoring in gambling or other avenues makes things a bit more complicated. For example, you can earn tier credits (and receive Pearl status) if you have an MGM co-brand credit card.
At any rate, under the old MGM-Hyatt program, we saw MGM Golds and Platinum match Wold of Hyatt Explorist status, while the highest MGM Golds now receive Bonvoy Silver and Platinums match to Bonvoy Gold, which is a hilariously bad match policy. Will the new Venetian-Hyatt setup follow suit? Only time will tell.
The Venetian Las Vegas Joins World of Hyatt, Final Thoughts
Overall, it’s a good thing that The Venetian Las Vegas joins World of Hyatt. More points and miles options are always better than less. However, I do worry that Hyatt will carve out a “special deal” for them, as Marriott did for MGM and Hyatt itself did with many of its newer additions, especially Mr & Mrs Smith. But all we can do now is reserve judgment until Hyatt releases more details on its new arrangement. Until then, all we can do is hope and wait.
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