MGM Rewards Explained: Pearl at 20,000 Tier Credits Parks Free, Gold at 75,000 Kills the Resort Fee, and a $5,000 Hotel Bill Is a Tier
MGM publishes exactly what a dollar of hotel spending earns toward status, and refuses to publish what a dollar in a slot machine earns. The first number is more useful than most people realize.
Published 2026-11-09.
MGM Rewards' earn page says that for every dollar of eligible hotel folio charges "you will earn one MGM Rewards Point and four Tier Credits." Pearl, the first tier with a parking benefit, is 20,000 Tier Credits. Divide, and a $5,000 hotel bill at Bellagio is a Pearl card, with no gambling at all. Gold, the tier that waives the resort fee, is $18,750 of folio.
Ask the same page what a dollar through a slot machine earns and the answer, read today, is that it "varies based on your wager, game type, and game denomination," and that you should "visit any MGM Rewards desk." Caesars prints $5 a credit. MGM does not, and has not for years. That asymmetry is the first thing to understand about the second-largest casino program in the country.
Five tiers: Sapphire (up to 19,999 Tier Credits), Pearl (20,000), Gold (75,000), Platinum (200,000) and NOIR by invitation. Credits are earned January 1 to December 31 and reset January 1; the benefit year runs February 1 to January 31, and a tier reached mid-year is held through the end of the following benefit year. Hotel, dining and spa spend earns 4 Tier Credits per dollar; gaming rates are not published. Pearl parks free, Gold adds valet and a resort-fee waiver on direct bookings, Platinum adds a $600 air credit. Points expire only at Sapphire. The Las Vegas parking fee is $20 to $25 a day, $40 for valet.
Three currencies and a rule against mixing them
MGM runs three balances. Tier Credits decide status and expire "at the end of the Tier Status Earning Year." MGM Rewards Points are the comp currency, denominated in dollars on every MGM page, and spend on rooms, dining, shows and spa; they are not redeemable for gambling. Slot Dollars, called VLT Dollars in New York, are the gambling currency, redeemable for free play. Section 20 of the program rules closes the doors between them: "Tier Credits may not be converted to SLOT DOLLARS, FREEPLAY, or MGM Rewards Points. MGM Rewards Points may not be converted to SLOT DOLLARS."
What each earns on the gaming floor is the part MGM keeps to itself. What it does publish is the tier bonus on Slot Dollars: Pearl earns 10% more, Gold 20%, Platinum 30%, NOIR 40%. It also publishes limits. Points balances are capped at $5,000 for every tier below NOIR and $10,000 at NOIR. Table play "starting at $25,000 per trip or visit" earns no points at all, under Section 23, because players at that level are handled by hosts rather than by the program. And in Michigan, New York and Ohio, state regulations mean points cannot be earned or redeemed at the MGM properties there.
Expiry is the program's best rule. Section 17 forfeits a balance after six months without activity for Sapphire members only; Pearl, Gold, Platinum and NOIR are "not subject to forfeiture due to account inactivity." Caesars wipes a Seven Stars member's balance after six quiet months. MGM does not touch a Pearl's. Our expiry comparison has the four big programs side by side.
The year, and the rollover that is back
The rules define two years. The Tier Status Earning Year "annually begins January 1 and ends December 31," and "on each January 1, all Tier Credit balances from the prior year reset to zero." The Tier Status Benefit Year "annually begins February 1 and ends January 31." Reach a higher tier mid-year and you "retain such higher Tier Status for the remainder of the current Tier Status Benefit Year and the entirety of the following Tier Status Benefit Year." A Gold earned in March 2026 is therefore Gold until January 31, 2028.
Rollover, which MGM calls Milestones, is "back by popular demand for the 2026 Tier Status Earning Year." Earn 50,000 Tier Credits in 2026 and you start 2027 with 7,500; earn 125,000 and you start with 25,000. Those figures sit awkwardly against the tier lines: 50,000 is two-thirds of the way to Gold, and the rollover gets you less than halfway to Pearl.
Las Vegas has a second accelerator through December 31, 2026. Earn 5,000 Tier Credits in a day at a Las Vegas MGM property and MGM adds 1,250; earn 10,000 and it adds 5,000; 20,000 earns a 20,000 bonus; 40,000 earns 60,000. The top step turns a 40,000-credit day into 100,000, which is Gold with 25,000 to spare. Credits from BetMGM and the credit card are excluded.
What the tiers hand you
The two published benefits that save real money are parking and the resort fee, and MGM is unusually precise about both.
| Benefit | Sapphire | Pearl | Gold | Platinum | NOIR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-parking at MGM Las Vegas | Paid | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Valet | Paid | Paid | Free | Free | Free |
| Resort fee waived, direct bookings, up to two rooms | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Slot Dollar bonus | None | 10% | 20% | 30% | 40% |
| Tier Celebration Credit in points | None | None | $100 | $200 | $500 |
| Air travel credit (Las Vegas, Beau Rivage or Borgata) | None | None | None | Up to $600 | Up to $1,200 |
| Annual cruise stateroom | None | None | Oceanview | Balcony | By invitation |
| Retail discount | 5% | 10% | 10% | 15% | 15% |
The parking figures are from MGM's own Las Vegas parking page: non-guest self-parking is $20 for up to 24 hours Monday to Thursday and $25 Friday to Sunday, hotel guests pay $20 a day, valet is $40 every day, and Nevada residents get the first three hours of self-parking free. MGM Rewards Mastercard holders also self-park free. The published exception is Golden Knights home games, when the New York-New York garage and the ARIA event garage charge everyone.
The resort-fee rule reads: you "must be a member with Gold+ Tier Level status at time of stay," booking direct, "up to two room reservations per trip," and not on all-inclusive packages or convention blocks. MGM's FAQ gives no dollar figure for the fee itself, pointing to each hotel's reservation terms; AwardWallet's August 2026 write-up cites Bellagio at $55 a night plus tax. The Celebration Credits "must be redeemed within twelve months," and a member who was matched into a tier rather than earning it "is not eligible." Platinum and NOIR get one standard-suite upgrade a year of up to three nights; Gold and above get an "enhanced room" within the type booked, suites excluded. NOIR adds complimentary airport transportation with a hotel stay.
Military members, active or retired, and their spouses are upgraded to Pearl automatically. So are holders of either MGM Rewards credit card; AwardWallet's April 2025 report has the $249 Iconic card paying 10,000 Tier Credits a year after $25,000 of spending, which is half of Pearl bought at the grocery store.
Partners: Bonvoy in, Hyatt out, and a match that just closed
Marriott Bonvoy is the partnership that survives. MGM Pearl matches to Bonvoy Silver Elite, Gold and Platinum both to Gold Elite, and NOIR to Ambassador Elite, with the higher of your existing Bonvoy tier kept. Marriott's supplemental terms, updated January 2026, set point transfers "at a ratio of eight points received for every ten points transferred," minimum 1,000, capped at 30,000 a year each way, and make clear that resort fees and parking are non-qualifying charges on a Bonvoy stay. The match runs one way: AwardWallet's March 2025 report says Bonvoy status still does not convert to MGM status. World of Hyatt left on September 30, 2023.
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruises earn MGM Rewards Points, Tier Credits and Slot Dollars on onboard gaming "at the same rate as if they were playing at an MGM Rewards destination in Las Vegas," for sailings from June 10, 2025, and nothing on onboard spending that is not gambling. Southwest pays 600 Rapid Rewards points per qualifying Las Vegas stay.
The 2026 status match ran through September 30 and is closed as we write. It gave a 90-day trial of Gold or Platinum, kept by earning 40,000 Tier Credits for Gold through January 31, 2028 or 125,000 for Platinum; Caesars Diamond Plus mapped to Gold, Diamond Elite, Seven Stars and Wynn Black to Platinum. Nothing is visible on MGM's pages today. Our status match guide covers the mechanics for when it reopens, and the Caesars-versus-MGM piece is the comparison most readers are really asking for.
Where the card works
MGM's destinations page lists fourteen Las Vegas addresses, including the W Las Vegas, the Four Seasons and the Signature towers, and six regional casinos: Borgata, MGM National Harbor, MGM Springfield, MGM Grand Detroit, Beau Rivage and Empire City. MGM Macau and MGM Cotai are on the same page, with points earned and redeemed "nationwide" in China. Gold Strike Tunica left in February 2023, when it was sold, and the Mirage closed in July 2024. MGM Northfield Park in Ohio does not appear on the current destinations page, and Ohio is one of the states where points cannot be earned anyway. Osaka is still a construction site, with MGM's 2025 annual report describing funding "through 2028."
Borgata is the one place the parking rule changes: MGM's FAQ gives it "valet & self-parking with a $5 fee per visit." Empire City is where NOIR members get ground transportation within 20 miles.
The honest verdict is that MGM Rewards is a hotel program with a casino attached. Its published rates are all for folios and dinners, its best benefits are a parking space and a waived fee, its points cannot buy a spin, and its one slot number is a tier bonus on a currency whose base rate is secret. For a gambler that is frustrating. For anyone who sleeps on the Strip several times a year it is the more rational of the two big cards, because the hotel is where the money goes, and a $5,000 bill earns a tier. MGM says it crossed 50 million members in early 2025. Most of them, we suspect, parked.
Topics
- mgm-rewards
- mgm
- comps
- loyalty
- las-vegas
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