Because *I* have gone insane? Caesars Palace / Bellagio 7/2 - 7/7 2020

Great trip report. It was fun to follow along.

 

Well, sheesh, I was going to delete this message but can't figure out how to do that! I don't think MLife awards tier credits for hotel spending on room/dining, just for gaming -- and for us, that shows up the following day. (I could be wrong about that, since we haven't sprung for a Cypress Suite!)

 

Grinning Serenasea! Sounds like you're another pea in the "extravagant but frugal" pod!

My good buddy @jpw711 would be proud of your bargain excitement @MCann! That's how we love to Vegas too. Live frugal the rest of the year, live large in Vegas, but only on items that we truly enjoy.

Heck, we had a HUGE tab at MGM on drinks and food, no problem. But the mini fridge dinged us for a Heineken we never had... hubs HATES it.

Yep, we nicely called in after the trip and had it removed.

So, like you, we'll spend well and tip well, but only on things, we enjoy. No throwing money away on things, we don't enjoy.

$6.77 is $6.77 my friend, great job! (You can add that to @jpw711 's Starbucks fund!!!)

 

No, you get 25 tier credit per dollar spent on room, dining, spa, etc.

 

Right, just trying to figure out if they would claim to have credited that already or not. If they're still coming then I made gold from sapphire in 2 days. If they already gave them to me, they didnt give me nearly enough. I had about 42,000 when I went to bed on the 6th, didnt play on my card any more after that, and now showing just over 50,000 but should have had at least 16,000 for the room even if they don't give them on resort fees and taxes as the base rate was over $600.

 

Give it a couple of days.

 

And speaking of rooms and mini bar dings, as fabulous as that suite was, and as thankful as I was that they got us in around noon without even trying to assess a fee, they did a horrible job on turn around service on the room. When we got checked in, the safe didn't work (they pretty quickly sent not 1 but 3 maintenance people to fix it, and they did get it fixed), the mini bar had a "sanitized for your safety" seal on it that was broken, and pictured are the contents as we recieved it - I complained and they said they added a not to waive all mini bar charges (probably could have partaken in what was left in there, but didnt), and the fancy wine / champagne kit they had in there.... well we tried to use the wine glasses for our in-room mimosas, but when I went to pour them, I found that one of the two wine glasses had 2 giant cracks going all the way down and it was about to fall apart, all of which tells me they didnt thoroughly clean the room before checking us in. We had new linens and toiletries and didnt touch the rest.

 

For a $600 room, all of those problems are pretty shitty, especially given how far the cleanliness motif is being pushed (and obviously not happening). Did they take anything off for all the trouble? Hell, I’d be a bit annoyed if I had this happen to a comped room lol, much less one I was paying that much for per night.

 

They did not, but to be fair to them, they offered to have someone clean and restock the mini bar immediately when I complained, and I said I wasnt going to use it, just didnt want to be charged and she said ok I'm noting that and will make sure you arent charged for anything from the mini bar. The safe I noticed immediately as well because I had a few thousand dollars I wanted to drop in there. It was fixed less than half an hour after I informed the front desk, and I didnt discover the cracked wine glass until about 2am and didnt want to be interrupted so I didnt mention it. But I agree, with all the worry about cleanliness, I think a broken seal half empty mini bar and a cracked wine glass are huge red flags that they did a horrible job "sanitizing" the room. They definitely did clean the bathrooms and bed and furniture though, so I wasnt that concerned. But it sure doesnt make them look good.

 

During your stay, TCs from the previous day's charges should normally post overnight.

But the remaining slug of tier credits from your final bill (which would include any room charges on the last full day, plus probably the last night's room rate) will probably post a day after it posts to your credit card account.

I've seen final bill charges not hit my credit card until 3 - 5 business days after checkout at pretty much every Vegas hotel. No idea why. I usually get a folio emailed the same day I check out.

 

Thanks @Chuck2009x - that's what I was hoping to hear, because if so that should get me to gold tier. Charges, other than my initial deposit a few weeks ago, dont show up on my CC as of right now, just the hold. I know with CET they have a published policy of 10 days after checkout for hotel room invoice, but couldnt find a policy anywhere on MLife pages. I was also concerned they might have given half my points to Luck because my number went up about ~8,000 that last day and my hotel spend should result in about 16,500 or thereabouts if they dont give them on resort fees and taxes. I added her name on the reservation the second day just so she could load MyVegas freeplay that required a stay.

 

That's helpful to know that you get MLife tier credits for spending -- thanks for that info.

 

I always knew they gave some points, but had no idea they gave so many points until I treated everyone at Le Cirque at Thanksgiving, and my lucky star @luck.ofthe.draw mentioned I should take the receipt to the MLife desk to get points...and I got almost 8,000 of them! And I still didnt understand it until I posted on VMB about it and someone pointed out the blip on their web site that says 25TC per dollar on room and resort spend.

 

Well damn, I got another bundle of tier credits in today, and I'm still under the gold threshold. The ~8,000 I got yesterday were probably the prior day hotel spend like Chuck suggested. I got another ~6,000+ today and it put me a little over 57,000. Boooo! Oh well, I should still get it the first day of my next trip, but I only care because of the free room upgrades they list as a gold benefit. Would be a shame to check in and get a worse room then make gold the next morning. Still though, I was in the 16,000s when I got there, so 41,000+ TC in 2 days is pretty good news. If only I hadn't cancelled my dinner reservation at Mayfair, that would have done it for sure, assuming I dont still have any more coming, and I probably don't.

 

Can you purchase a gift card to get the points you need?

 

Don't sweat by the Gold tier. Honestly nothing.
I swing between Gold and Plat, never noticed any difference.
The benefits you can forget about it.
A slow date, or just a nice smile, has much better chance for you to get a free upgrade than Platinum, let alone Gold.

 

Good to know, it would just have been a happy accident to get it in 2 days of doing what I wanted to do anyway. And I have had pretty good luck with free upgrades everywhere, almost every time, for the most part, except when I book the top end suites in the first place. Not to mention the extra 20% points on slot play instead of 10% Pearl gets. Just thought the gold might come in handy at places like Beau rivage and Bellagio for booking a base room on an offer and getting a view, that kind of thing.

 

Nice report MCann! Thanks for taking us along!

 

Probably still have more pics to dump, but just noticed for the first time yesterday the sponsor of the chapel at DFW. Whaaaaaat????? Braniff. Believe.

 

We were at MGM 3 weeks ago and had to change rooms at 11pm with 3 kids and we got upgraded to a suite and our minibar was empty of almost everything but like 3 items. Never said anything as I forgot until now. Never was charged either.