Originally Posted by
gengar
That's actually a misreading of the T&Cs - there is a clear may in front of the "not", and the next sentence makes it obvious that they are referring to venues inside larger properties that charge via a central system and therefore might use the central MCC. For example, for a long time in Las Vegas casinos, all venues in the casinos would charge through the hotel, so the MCC would be a hotel and not a restaurant and no CC would give the restaurant bonus because the MCC was not for a restaurant.
yea, i didnt explain myself enough. i agree with you. i just meant to say that getting 4x dining to track solely based on common sense is YMMV when youre talking about vendors within a vendor. and the TCs dont help your case if problems come up. hence, these DPs are very helpful. its not just about MCCs themselves since you also need to consider how MCCs are grouped together and classified at the discretion of the card issuer and/or payment network. in the case of amex, they control both.
this is why you and i have experienced hotels charging lodging MCC at their restaurants. if you ever set up a business and apply for merchant payment processing, the MCC cluster BS becomes very apparent. MCCs have direct correlation with interchange and processing fees. meaning, there is always some level of black magic used by the business to reduce expenses.
Originally Posted by
gengar
The issue is that every single one of these nightclubs MCCs as a restaurant, and even despite the disclaimer in the T&Cs, AMEX nevertheless gives the 4x restaurant bonus to some of them. The unpredictability is the problem. After Marquee failed, I tested at each venue with only one bottle and then swapped to my CSR, so no huge loss. But it's a huge pain - to the point that I'd rather just use the CSR and forget the extra potential MR point.
I don't have time to MS/churn, but as far as room charges, the big bonus is actually getting hotel loyalty points when available. That's the big win through mLife - WoH points and credit, although capped at $5k per stay.
yea. i also hate it when crap doesnt work in our favor. obviously we all want that. but at the same time, bars and clubs are not supposed to be 4x despite MCCs anyway. so thats why i charge everything to my room even though i may miss out on prestige 5x dining vs the 3x hotel. but i like the flexibility of payment when i checkout and i dont need to worry about MCCs. also to your point, mlife/hyatt bonus promos could be huge. amex seems to have the most MCC issues. MC and Visa are very broad which is why people love the CIP as it covers way more than its official listed cats.
in terms of the 5k cap, i just split and isolate my stays during those huge expense nights. i assume those are from your bottle/cabana service or events. for me, typically its all planned out before i arrive so I know which day to check in/out, change hotel and/or book via TA like FHR / LHR / Virtuoso. i know its a huge biotch for some, but if my spend is 10k at mlife, hell no im dumping it on one consecutive night stay and miss out on 5k spend hyatt bonus. im going to split it. LHR Aria and Bellagio + others still maintain $100 F/B which i can def use. LHR Cosmo is only $50 FB unfortunately. otherwise its spa credit.