MLife - How have your offers declined?

After posting a thread this morning, I wanted to spike out how the MLife offers have slowly been declining over the last year.

My play, theo, etc, etc, have all stayed the same over the last 12 months, yet my offers continue to dwindle.

For my trip this weekend to Mandalay Bay, it's the first trip to Vegas where I've have $0 freeplay and $0 food and beverage comps up front.

The only thing that has changed is the MLife program!

Here's the freeplay I had this year so far in Vegas:
Place Trip Date(s) FreePlay and F&B Comps
Vegas - Mandalay Bay 4/5 - 4/9/2012 $900.00, $200 f&b
Vegas - Bellagio 5/11 - 5/15/2012 $1,400.00, $600 f&b
Vegas - Aria 6/14 - 6/17/2012 $700.00, $200 f&b
Vegas - Four Seasons 7/6 - 7/8/2012 $700.00, $300 f&b
Vegas - Mandalay Bay 8/10 - 8/13/2012 $300.00, $200 f&b
Vegas - Bellagio 8/31 - 9/3/2012 $700.00, $450 f&b
Vegas - NYNY 09/28 - 9/30/2012 $700.00, $500 f&b
Vegas - ARIA 10/31 - 11/3/2012 $450.00, $100 f&b
Vegas - Bellagio 11/21 - 11/24 $225.00, $100 f&b

Are all you MLifer's experiencing similar declines?

Thanks,
-Kimsa

 

My offers have gotten better.

 

I have seen a similar decline without a change in play. Change in play being an operative point and allows the comparison.

April 2012 - $750 FP, limited RFB.
July 2012 - $500 FP and food at "select" properties.
Nov 2012 - $300 FP and express comps.


I would generate $600 EC in a trip and now it is $200. So that also has been a major change.

No one would care and not relevent but I am look at going back to Caesars Ent.

 

This is the "new and improved M-Life;" remember, they listened to what we had to say and acted to make it better for us!

 

VegasGarden, thanks for the input. At least it's not only me!

I know what you mean about the hit to ECs. I used to generate about $400 and now, my last trip, only $70!!!

That fact alone is greatly changing my approach to eating and drinking in Vegas. I used to be able to enjoy the nicer restaurants, knowing it would mostly be picked up by my comps, and thought nothing of spending $15 on a cocktail.

For my upcoming trip, I'm going to venture into eating at a buffet for the first time and am going to take advantage of all the free drinks I can get at the lounges and bartops and not buy any additional alcohol with my meals.

I've never gotten great offers from CET - but I haven't given them the level of play I do at MGM.

Good luck!

 

I certainly didn't give this input.

Replace "make it better for us" with "make it better for them (MGM)!"

Don't get me wrong, I'm still grateful to get comped rooms, the limo ride from/to airport, etc, etc, but part of the Vegas experience is fine dining, and removing that from my trips, is a bit of a bummer!

 

Same here each trip our offers get better,more FP, more nights and more FB each trip this year, we have 8 comp nights we can use at the time. BUT none are MLife they are all direct offers from the casinos themselves. I honestly don't even check MLife for offers anymore.

 

I'm combining my MLife and direct MGM property offers together. Just look at the Bellagio ones - those 3 were all direct Bellagio offers. The most recent one I got direct from Bellagio is for $150 freeplay, 3 nights, and no food and beverage.

 

There are far bigger changes than MLife. The economy has gotten better. As more people come to Vegas on their own, there is less reason for the casinos to try and lure people there.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelhennessey/2012/09/17/vegas-visitor-volume-up-economy-still-in-a-slump/

For what it is worth, my offers seem to be about the same as they were before the MLife change.

 

From what I was told, the hosts are not allowed to give out freeplay during the MGM Holiday Gift Shoppe days/event. Something about corporate not wanting people to double dip, IE come in on an offer with $1000 freeplay and then cash in their 500,000 HGS points for another $1500 in freeplay. My host said it's pretty frustrating when he has a big player that wants to come in during the HGS and he tells them he can't give them FP and then they say ok were not gonna be coming in that week or we'll be staying at Caesars instead.

 

I can confirm this as well as I have a trip planned soon and I had to book around the HGS to get my free play.


And I'm with everyone else that says my offers have gotten much better with the new system. It seems they are giving me what I normally earn in a trip ($75.00 in point play and $150 in express comps) up front. My last offer was $200 in free play VS my normal $50-$75 and $100 in food VS my normal zero. I understand that my point play and express comps will be 1/2 as much now since its $3.00 to earn a point VS $2.00 before but i still seem to come out ahead with the new system.

 

Mine have gotten better....

 

Our offers have gotten better from properties we have put some play into but only stayed at a few times. The Luxor is our home property and those offers have stayed the same.

This weekend we are there during HGS and our host was able to match the Mirage offer I received if I forego using my HGS points. Seeing as how the FP was double what I would get from my HGS I said not a problem.

 

I just burned through about $1500.00 in express comps because I no longer trust the M-Life program. I don't like their so called audits where thye review your account and remove express comps without telling you and only give you information if you notice they are gone and complain. Then you get a vague excuse that 6 months or longer some employee forgot to subtract some.

The M-Life holiday gift points is now a joke since one only gets a free room and can’t use one of their marketing offers that provide free play and F&B credit during the time period when one cashes in the holiday gift points. It didn’t use to be like that, in years past you could use a offer and then cash in your points too. Wynn still lets you do both as does Venetian and Palazzo. I’m not sure about the Harrah’s groups of properties but I’m betting they let their players do both too.

The main complaint after the lower gain of express comps for me is that almost every slot anymore at a M-Life property except for non-progressives that are 4 years old or older are specialty slots and only gain points at a rate that VP does, but of course take your money like slots not like VP. I understand this isn't a issue for those of you who only play table games.

As far as marketing offers I have seen mine go down for no reason with M-Life as my play is always consistently the same, however with all the changes in the last year that's going to change if I stay with them in the future as I have seen some friends who give them far less play then me when I'm on trips with them, actually get a better offer 2 months later.

Finally to add insult to my injury there's MYVegas on Facebook which are free slot games that if you play them and earn loyalty points you can cash those points in for free food, rooms, shows, cabana's, clubs, etc...so for free you have some non-gamblers or minimal gamblers getting comps at M-Life properties for playing a free game on Facebook, while those of us who have been gambling with them for years on a consistent level are seeing our comps decrease!

Given the above it just doesn't make sense personally for me to continue to give that much play to M-Life even though I'm still NOIR until September 30th. While I don't trust any of them Venetian/Palazzo and Wynn/Encore this past year has been consistent with their offers and on the mark with what I feel my play deserves so of course it makes sense for me next year to give them the majority of my play.

 

My offers have not really changed. I am really disappointed in not getting any Freeplay during the Holiday Gift promo. We have to go to MB during this time, because I couldn't get my vacation later. But never mind, I can get $25 Freeplay when I redeem my HGS points.

 

I have seen a very slight resurgence in Mlife offers, but only after giving them no play for 6 months.

I believe they are focusing comps on gaining new clientelle while instituting a decreasing comp formula for established customers.

In general I enjoy the MGM properties more than CET and plan to continue to visit the properties occasionally, however I will never again give them serious play, and would only stay at their property if they offered a significant bounce back offer.

My choice isn't so much born of comp decreases as it is based on the impact of their other cost-cutting measures. The VP machines at even Bellagio, Mirage, and MGM are in poor condition with lots of sticky buttons, etc. There are more disgruntled and rude staff.

I'll still include Aria in my rotation, but it will be more like a quick $100-$200 visit rather than the $1,000 buy-ins of the past. If they aren't going to reward gaming, then I'd prefer to just pay and stay somewhere nicer.:Þ:Þ

 

My offers are always minimal.(week night comp 1 or 2 days and 79-129 dollars a night at Aria or Bellagio. I got a few free nights at Bellagio after calling a slot host. They have ridiculous play requirements to get free rooms in my opinion. I also was promised 100 FP on my visit over the weekend and I went to redeem it and they would not allow me. I don't have any HGS points for this year so it was frustrating for me not to get my 100 in FP. I used to get better offers but now they just suck. I think it is because I just don't have the bankroll to get any respect from Aria and Bellagio

 

Well said, Evoni! My plan is to continue to take advantage of my MGM offers, as I'm Noir, too, until 9/30/2013.

The next time I'm up a bit, I plan to go take a few thousand over to V/P high limits and give them some play and see what happens for future offers.

Seems like it's about 50-50 for folks getting better or worse offers based on feedback. Of course, this is a small sample.

 

I can understand why table players would stick with MGM's, but I don't get why slot players would even consider it. I'm not a slot player so its hard for me to understand, but it sounds like they are treating most slot play as video poker play.

As a video poker player I like MGM for nice properties (rooms) compared to CET and for relatively decent paytables (more 9/5 to be found in comparison to a lot of 8/5 at CET's). But video poker has a lot lower house advantage than slots so it makes no sense to me that a slot player would take those reduced comps.

Also I'm not sure if the slot players are experiencing the same degradation of playing conditions as I am seeing playing video poker. With the exception of the Aria sports bar which has newer machines and great service, I've seen a lot of badly aging machines and very, very poor service. For example, at Bellagio its very difficult to get a drink in their primary bank of video poker machines near the elevators. And at the Baccarat bar the service has fallen off and many of the machines are in disrepair and unplayable.

It seems like most properties outside MGM highly value their slot players. I would probably choose Wynn or Palazzo, not sure how Cosmo rewards slot play or how their selection is.

 

I get ok treatment from cosmo for slot play. They gave me 200 free play and 2 free nights recently. I also was told by a host they base your offers on losses more than by your average bet which I thought was very odd..