Players Card (Volume 3)

I'm sorry its taken so long to reach this point, but I have to get through all the technical stuff to get to the real point I've been trying to make all along about the Players Cards. From the moment you get the lowest level entry card you have some significant benefit. I remember convincing one friend to join TR and within a month of joining he was invited to Las Vegas with a free room offer and free tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld. And I promise you he hadn't gotten off the basic intro level tier. All he did was a few hundred dollars of turnover and got supremely lucky. I didn't get free Jerry Seinfeld tickets! I couldn't have gone anyway, because I was there the week before to see Celine Dion for free, or it may have been Elton John actually, I can't remember. But either way I've seen my fare share of free shows now, I just haven't seen (and would dearly love to see - if anyone with any power is reading this!) Jerry Seinfeld!!

So just joining up MIGHT be enough to get you some freebies. Continuing to play will guarantee it. Once you hit the first hurdle, whatever company you choose to play with, you will get the invitations and benefits coming your way. I have a colleague at work who I also convinced to sign up - actually I had some coupons for non-TR members to stay at The Rio for free, but required them joining up to the TR program. They enjoyed a free vacation, played a little on the slots, and now they are getting free invites on their own, and making family vacation plans based on it. How awesome is that?

But that is really only the start. The companies that invite you know you well enough to reward you even better than just free rooms. They put actual free money in to your account to play with. Some more than others and obviously more so as you move up the tier structure. I've had some absolutely AMAZING one-off invitations, which I can't pretend come around too often, but have convinced me to take vacations I didn't really need! When they opened the MGM owned Aria Casino, I was invited for free and given $500 in free play, $50 in food and $100 in other comps. I wasn't going to miss out on that! And far more recently Steve Wynn in his genius decided to offer me free rooms at The Wynn and The Encore, both with $400 in free play to get me excited. I follow Steve Wynn enough to know he was just trying to convince me that he owns the best casinos in Las Vegas and that I would then tell everyone else how good they are. Well, he was right. I loved both hotels, the classy casinos, the excellent pools and the wonderful rooms. And I will willingly pay to go back. Maybe not now, because I'm currently getting offers to stay at The Venetian for a pittance, the MGM for free and the entire Caesars chain generally for free with no resort fee (not including Friday's or Saturday's). But eventually I will go back to the Wynn, because his free offer plus free play won me over.

Also, the benefits don't end with free rooms or free food or even free free-play! I said in the last post that jumping the line at the buffet was one of the best benefits (to my wife and kids at least) of holding a Diamond card with Total Rewards. But also jumping the entire taxi-line outside Caesars Palace was pretty sweet too. As was getting on the courtesy shuttle ahead of all the people who had been lining up for far longer than I had was particularly nice also for my family (Free shuttle runs from The Rio to Paris every 30 minutes). And what about checking in at a dedicated lounge for Diamond members? No lining up with the riff-raff for my family. We get plush seats and cookies and coffee and cold drinks should we have to wait at all. And then there's nothing better than free food in the Diamond Lounge - one located in each of the Caesars Group Las Vegas casinos. I believe I've visited them all now. My wife loves them because if we are going to see a show and we want to eat afterwards, but we're a little peckish beforehand (or vice-versa) then we'll grab some free chicken wings and salad and chips and a free cocktail and ice-cream to see us through (Please tip appropriately!). Diamond also comes with 2 free show tickets each calendar month. The list of free shows changes, but we have seen Penn and Teller more times than I can count as they are almost always on the list and they are top notch, and change their act every so often so it's never the same set of tricks.

Now, I've focused on the Diamond Rewards because that is what I know best. But I know that the MGM tier structure offers somewhat similar benefits as you move up to Platinum. The ability to line jump the buffet and the Cafe (best place for breakfast) definitely holds power worth attaining.

In addition to all the above, the MGM has partnerships with The Hyatt, Southwest Airlines, and MGM resorts in Chicago and Mississippi. Total Rewards has partnerships with Starwood Hotels, Atlantis Paradise Resort, Norwegian Cruises, Hawaiian Airlines and more. All these may be useful to you or not, but as an example I've been offered free cruises and even free accommodation at the Atlantis Paradise Resort. Very tempting. Not for now, but maybe I will crack and go one day.

OK, so I've hopefully given you a glimpse of some of the benefits of holding a rewards card. Some benefits can be calculated very specifically (to get to the Tier structure you are aiming for) and some seem almost random - mail offers are always exciting to open and see what I'm being offered. But even with those chains I have frequented far less often, and have far lower standing with, I still get inundated with amazing offers - sometimes unbeatable - just for joining up and playing a small amount on the slots.
 

I'll probably end up adding enough additional things here to add another entry but here's one I just thought of that want to add already!

With TR, to keep your rewards credits active you just need to earn 1 point ($5 of turnover) every 6 months. Those rewards are your spending benefits, not your Tier Rewards that get you promoted to Diamond, etc (those vanish every January 1st).

With MLife Rewards your rewards also stay on your card for 6 months on the lowest tier (Sapphire), but for Pearl and above you have 12 months to earn 1 point to keep your Express Comps (Spending money) alive. Use it or lose it if you're not going to back in time. MLife Tier Rewards are earned from September 1st through October 30th.