Spoiler alert: My analysis boils down to this. If you spend 5-figures a year at MGM properties, yes. Otherwise, the no-annual fee MGM card or, frankly, no MGM credit card at all is your best bet.
The new Iconic card boasts a hefty $249 annual fee, although it’s easy enough to offset most of it with an included $200 resort credit at account opening and annually at your anniversary date.
Here’s the new Iconic credit card from MGM that has been teased like it was going to be the best card ever launched, sparking hopes for something like included MGM Gold status.
That did not happen. In fact, there isn’t even an easy pathway to Gold status.
For this reason alone, I think this card disappoints. But let’s dig deeper.
In this article
MGM Iconic Spending Earn Rate
- 6X Points and Tier credits per $1 spent at MGM Rewards properties
- 2X Points and Tier Credits per $1 spent at hotels, dining, gas stations and grocery stores
- 1X Point and Tier Credit per $1 spent everywhere else including BetMGM Deposits
How does this compare to the no-annual fee version?
The no-annual fee version bonuses 2X on gas stations and grocery stores but not hotels and dining and only earns 3X at MGM properties.
Now, with points worth just a dollar, you’d really want to see some sort of head start towards status, right? Nope. In a huge WOMP WOMP, the closest we get is 10,000 tier credits as a bonus for $25,000 in spend your previous card anniversary (not calendar) year.
Great – out of 75,000 points needed for Gold, you can get a measly 10,000 after $25,000 in spend?! Wow!
Oh, and let’s recall that an MGM point is worth a penny. So $25,000 in non-bonused spend categories is earning just 1% effective cash back – but cash back only redeemable inside MGM properties.
Let’s go on…
MGM Iconic Benefits
You can get a limited time launch offer of 40,000 Bonus Points + 10,000 Tier Credits when you spend $5,000 within 3 billing cycles and there is a limited edition metal card. $249 annual fee. By contrast, the no annual fee version has an offer for 10,000 Bonus Points after spending $1,000 in the first 3 billing cycles of account opening
- $200 Resort Credit upon account opening and annually at card anniversary
- Complimentary Night up to $250 annually at card anniversary with $25,000 spend
- 10,000 Tier Credit Bonus annually at card anniversary with $25,000 spend
- Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® Statement Credit valid every 4 years, credited within 6-8 weeks of the transaction
That’s it over what you get for no annual fee besides the increased earn rates (unless you count some World Elite Mastercard Trip Protections).
It gets a bit worse, though, when you find out that the Priority Pass membership included does not include any visits. You’ll have to pay separately for those… (Here are 13 credit cards that offer Priority Pass lounge access with the visits included.)
To redeem the $200 resort credit, you’ll need to be staying at the hotel and visit the rewards desk to claim it. It’s available when you are approved for 12 months and you’ll get a new credit at renewal. Use it or lose it.
To redeem the free night (up to $250) if you spent $25,000 the prior year, you’ll also have to visit the Rewards Desk during your stay.
You do get the lowest level status – Pearl – and free parking, but the no fee card already offered and continues to offer that.
So…. Good or Not So Good?
I would not have spent time teasing this so heavily if this was all they were going to give.
It seems a no brainer to me to at least make the card so temping to status seekers that they didn’t mind a measly 1-2% cash back (in the form of MGM Rewards points) everywhere but at MGM. Meaning that perhaps dropping something like 25,000 points each year just for paying the annual fee (1/3 of the way to Gold) might have gotten people to drop $50,000 more for Gold status. That doesn’t mean one would get great value from doing so, but psychologically you’d be 1/3 there and might put the spend on the same way one does to earn MQDs on Delta credit cards.
What I’m saying is that one main reason that loyalty programs drive revenue is because people chase status and this card does not help very much.
The resort credit works to essentially rebate $200 of the $249 annual fee, but anything else good requires $25,000 in spend and there’s just no wow factor here at all for a casual player. I’d say you could just get the no-annual fee version (and I guess you could if your main goal is low-level Pearl status) but I can’t in good conscience advocate spend on either card. There are just too many other credit cards that earn way more than 1-2% cash back not tied to a particular casino chain.
And the cost to earn status from spend is just too high. Way too high. The card doesn’t even waive resort fees?!
Which boils down to my opener – if you spend a lot at MGM anyway, the 6X vs 3X (for both points and tier credits) on the no-annual fee card probably justifies the net $49 annual fee after using that $200 resort credit annually.
So in short, this card had a lot of potential but in trying to not “give away” status, they give you pretty close to nothing. And my bottom line is that alone makes this a swing and a miss.
If you really want to apply for the card, here’s the page to do so.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card - Best Offer This Year! Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. How to apply for this offer.
Thoughts?
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You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards.
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