2019 Diamond Status Recap

I did this last year as well and it seemed to generate some good discussion and include some good information. I know @DaiLun does one for 7 stars, but we seem to be getting a lot of questions about whether or not attaining Diamond is worth it. This has been my/my wife's experience and value retained for 2019. I can post this now as we are done with CZR in 2019 having re-upped Diamond25k already. Any future trips will be at non-CZR properties until the Super Bowl party in 2020.

This year our play and comping was done exclusively in Atlantic City as we were unable to travel to LV, so while some of the value perks for Diamond are different, there is certainly a corresponding or proportionally better benefit in LV. I will try my best to note those and some major differences. Also this information and value of Diamond for us is posted with an understanding that 25k is the Diamond threshold being discussed and that comps are derived from play not status, but that playing for the status typically generates these comps.

Play is about 75% VP (6/5 Bonus triple play) 20% slots 5% table play. 8+ hours of play every full day

Points = Tier Credits
This year's Diamond was accomplished in 3 trips totaling 11 nights over 3 weekends (Super Bowl, June, August).

February was a 3 night stay with 3 1k point days and 1 500 point day at check out. Total points received 6,625 (give or take a few for overage on the bonuses.) These were doubled as February was a double point month putting me at 13,200 + about 1000 from end of year bonuses. For the trip we were comped 3 nights (Fri Sat Sun) in a centurion room over the super bowl (Valuing at 200 per night including resort fees = $600) I figure Value as close as friends of our who were coming and backed out last minute had room at Ballys for same night for 725 all in with no status.

Meals covered were 125 to Gordon Ramsay Pub and 135 to Nero's brunch and 45 to the noodle bar for a total of 305. We also ate/drank in the DL multiple times each day (snacks and booze) figured to the tune of 150 bucks if we were paying for the snacks and drinks.

We were comped tickets to the super bowl party which, with top shelf booze and high quality food we figured was about 75/ ticket for another 150 in comps. Total comps of about 1200 dollars and around an 800 dollar loss.

June was a 4 nighter and was a big loser. Arrived late Thursday and so play was 500, 1k, 1k, 1k, and around 2 for total points earned of 3700. Bonuses of 3125 are applied to this for a total earn of 6825.

Comps were 4 summer nights with a value of about 250 per night all in. At time of booking Friday and Saturday booking at 399 and then 499 with 299 for Thursday and Sunday. I personally would never pay more that 250 per night so that's always the top of my comp value.
Meals covered were coffee shop, noodle bar and nero's brunch for a total of 200. Multiple DL trips including 2 full dinners figuring and 2 full lunches about 300 out of the DL.

We also had 2 beach days with free chair rental (35 each day) and free pool access to Caesars roof( 25/ea) and access to Bally spa (20 ea) 160 total.

We figured roughly 1660 in comps and a loss close to 1500.

Last trip, last weekend 4 nighter. Arrived Thursday early so points were 1k 1k 550 900 200 for 3650 earned with 2250 in bonuses for 5900 give or take. Closing the year with 26228 in TC. Again summer room rate in full forces including them not comping in laws 1 night so figure 250/nt comp

We took BIL/SIL with us and ate pretty high end relative to our normal routine with a dinner at Gordon Ramsay steak (total comp of only $50 after a gift card, celebration, and dining credit) Nero's brunch for 4 of 265, noodle house for 75. total food comps of 390.

1 beach day rental $35, caesars pool 25/ea, and more DL entries than I could keep track of. 1 day I know the lady commented I had been in 8 times. We were just going in and getting drinks to go most of the time. Figure DL saved roughly $500 in drinks between us.

Roughly 1950 in total comps and a break even trip thanks to a royal.

Total used comps for 2019 were 3810 with a loss of 2300 give or take.

Unfortunately we missed a lot of good opportunities as we booked out trips to coincide with concerts at Hard Rock instead of better giveaways. I also don't factor any free play into this but average about 60 dollars in free play per day between Caesars and Ballys.

As to the major differences of earning Diamond in AC and using it there vs LV.

Lounges in AC are first rate all the way. Food is always available when open and dinner includes carving station and multiple entrees. In LV even when hot food is available it's usually meh. By contrast the value in LV is made up in show tickets as AC has almost no shows. (Ballys comedy club with comp tickets available.)
Spa access in LV outweighs Spa access at Ballys AC. Beach access in AC with full lounger setup outweighs pool access in LV.

From most of the replies the consensus is that comps are a little easier to come by in AC as opposed to LV so that may make my Diamond Value worth it.

If you have any specific questions I am happy to see if I can answer them. But 2019 was worth retaining Diamond, now we start all over again in 2020 lol.

 

Just a quick question... I'm currently Platinum, but if I were to reach Diamond before the end of this year, would I remain Diamond through 2020, even though tier points reset to zero on 1/1?

 

yes, and you would get the celebration dinner each year

 

Yes if you get to Diamond by earning the 15,000 points it stays in effect for the following year. If you get to 25,000 points that also gets you the free Laurel Lounge access the entire next year.

 

That's a good recap of your overall activity. But let me see if this math is correct as far as Diamond benefits:

If you add up the DL visits, plus the Diamond dinner, and let's just round resort fees to $25 a night (I just looked up what they are at CP in AC), then I get:
$150 DL
$300 DL
$160 pool/spa
$60 pool
$500 DL
$100 Diamond Dinner
11 nights resort fees @ $25 = $275

For a total of $1,545 in Diamond level benefits. $950 of which was from the lounge, which is making pretty damn good use of the lounge, I'd say.

Everything else was from play, though, I think. But obviously nothing to complain about when you got $3,810 in total value out of $2,300.

 

Looks like a decent year.

AC does offer some nice food perks in the lounge for Diamonds.

HEADS UP TO NEWBIES HERE :
The above post mixes Diamond perks with other comps that anyone can get with the right amount of play. They are not specific to being Diamond. Regulars now this, but lots are still trying to figure it out.

Again - to OP - thanks for all the detail and congrats on a good year.

 

Great breakdown. I haven't considered playing in AC as flights to LV often are cheap enough I can get there easier than to NJ, but I may switch it up for SuperBowl.

 

Let's hope that Eldorado doesn't trim down the program too much for 2020. If they don't, I'm considering doing a "systemic" chase of 25k Diamond to reap these benefits, including Laurel Lounge access.

 

You really really gotta plan to get your money's worth out of the lounges if you're gonna go for 25k Diamond. It's a 67% jump in TCs to get there vs 15k.

 

Pretty easy when 2 cards are used with the same name.

 

These posts have lots of great information. I've never been to a Laurel Lounge. Do you have to tip when you order the drinks?

I'm only about 1k TC short of 25k, so I'll definitely go for 25k even though I don't drink (so the lounges likely have negligible value for me).

For those who are at/near 15k TC for diamond or 25k for diamond elite, strategy wise, does that mean you'll stop giving play to Caesar's casinos and instead ONLY play at non-Caesar's casinos to move to higher levels with their player's card?

 

If you gave your card to 20 people like my wife, you would be lucky to get a couple hundred points. Just sayin! - LOL

 

Yes, I get it.

 

Do you have to tip? You don't have to tip. Pretend you're paying - tip on that amount. If you don't tip they will remember your next time you come in. If you tip well, they will remember that to, you'll get an extra good pour.

 

Does that mean that as a value enhancing strategy , don't tip and get 2 bad pours instead of an extra good pour?

 

I kind of found myself in that position this year. I normally stay at CET properties twice a year for 6 or 7 nights each time. This year, on my first trip, I stayed 11 nights at two CET joints and was paying full boat for a suite for 4 of them at Rio and then full boat for a regular room for 2 of them at PH, so I got a bunch of extra TCs from the room rates. Plus I went on tilt a little bit, I think I had four 2,500 TC days, which got me 20,000 TCs.

So at the end of the first trip I was only about 500 TCs short of 25k. In a normal year, I usually end up with around 17k - 18k and I get about half the TCs on each trip.

So when I went in July for a 6 night stay, I only needed a total of $2,500 coin in to reach 25k TCs, when I would normally average $4,000 a night. Once I hit 25k on the first day, I really had no incentive to play, especially when I found they had taken out my favorite machines. I ended up averaging only $1,500/night. I didn't divert the bankroll elsewhere, I just kept it in my pocket because I'm fine everywhere else. You could divert $ to another chain if it was advantageous.

But the box that puts you in is that it can hurt your CET ADT for offers. It didn't in the newest set of offers I got this week, but I expect it will as time goes on. Fortunately, I get offers that can be booked a year out, so I can lock in reservations before my offers start catching up to the low-play trip.

 

@Chuck2009x we definitely make very good use of the diamond lounge, honestly I probably undervalued it a little. I like to play on the non-smoking upper level at Caesars and it's often easier to walk into the diamond lounge every half hour for a to go drink than to wait for drink service. Also I get exactly what I want from diamond lounge. So this most recent trip I probably spent 3 or 4 hours on 2 different days just walking in getting a drink and walking out. I didn't really consider those in my valuation because the drink would have also been free while playing. However we spend some time just relaxing in the diamond lounge at least 2 or 3 times every day as it's a nice break from the gambling and floor drinking. Prior to the diamond lounger we would do that at a bar or restaurant, but still drink what we like. (Crown Royal, Maker's, Tito's, Grey Goose etc), the saloon bar at wild west charges $16 dollars for a jack and coke (LOL) so somewhere in the middle between free and 16$ per drink is where the value lies. We are also both snackers so having the ability to go in and get something to munch on with our drinks is nice.

 

Where is the non smoking upper level?

 

Absolutely spot on. I thought I made that clear, but your post did a much better job of clearing that up. I would say the comped room rate is available to anyone who plays at the rate of 1k in TC per day. We concluded that because my BIL who underplays me by maybe 10-15% (850-900 TC a day{Doesn't care about bonuses}) had relatively cheap room rates, but not free and was also relegated to Ballys.

I guess the thing to note is the comps are available to really truly potentially anyone, but playing to earn diamond in the manner we do, gets us the rooms. If you live in AC you could play 100TC per day for 250 days and also earn high diamond, and probably never get a room.

 

In Caesars AC it's the same level as Gordon Ramsay Pub and the total rewards booth. I may be wrong, but I was pretty certain it was non-smoking