Is Caesars Total Rewards Changing pre- Bankruptcy??

I received a few phone calls since New Year's day from members of the Caesars Total Rewards program who say they played on New Year's Day and on January 2nd but as of today, January 3rd, there were NO Bonus Tier Points added to their accounts.

I talked to a few other players who told me that they played at Caesars Palace and at a Total Rewards casino in Laughlin and they did not get any Bonus Tier Points.

My first thought is that there is a glitch in the system or a delay in the adding the Bonus tier points because of the New Year's Holiday.

In the past, I saw the Bonus Tier points added to my Total Rewards account on the Caesars / Total Rewards website within 48 hours. So, based on my previous observation, play on New Year's Day should have shown up this morning on the Total Rewards site.

I am asking other Total Rewards players to check their accounts to see if the Bonus tier points show up if they played on New Years Day. I also asked some of the players I know if the Bonus tier points showed up at the casinos on slot machine displays and they said the Bonus Points did not show up.

If it's not a glitch is this a change in the Total Rewards program?

If it is a change in the Total Rewards program it is significant because it means that instead of making "Diamond in a Day" with 5,000 tier points in one day ($50,000 coin in for video poker, $25,000 coin-in for slots) with a 10,000 free tier point Bonus -- players will not have to put in on their own the full amount of coin-in which would be $150,000 for video poker players and $75,000 coin-in for slot players. (I can't figure what table players must bet since that is one of the great unknowns of Total Rewards.)

It is also very significant for Seven Stars players as it significantly increases the "cost" of making this top tier players club rank.

While Caesars is telling players that there will be no changes to Total Rewards because of the bankruptcy that is expected to be filed soon, perhaps in two weeks, hosts have been telling their clients that "normal changes" or "routine changes" could be made to the Total Rewards program.

Caesars might consider the end of the Bonus tier points just a routine change.

But whether it's a routine change or a change forced by the soon-to-be-filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy for Caesars, the bottom line is that it will be more expensive for players to earn the best comps and rewards from the Total Rewards program and this will save Caesars a lot of money.

What Caesars might be doing is maintaining its level of comps and offers and rewards for its Seven Stars and Diamond players while at the same time it cuts the number of Seven Stars and Diamond players that can claim those offers and benefits.

I look forward to the information other Total Rewards players have.

I don't have my bonus yet for my play on Jan 1. Also, have not been getting the 'congrats' emails for bonus tier credits for the last couple of months at least.

I suppose it's possible that they are simply changing the bonus tier credit awards, and therefore deleted the old ones until they establish the new ones.

If they are really doing away with bonus tiers and not lowering the tiers required for Diamond/Platinum, I think people will be abandoning TR in droves.

In any case, the lack of information here is classic CET, and yet another example of why people are continually annoyed with them.

I will say that this will be the end of my Seven Stars membership if it really requires $150k tiers without bonus tiers.

Add me to the list of those who qualified for a bonus on 1/1/15 but have not received one. Hope they are just recovering from a rough New Year's Eve party.

Some possible good news. My friend told me that the same happened to him in 2013 (the year they introduced bonus tiers), and that he wasn't getting his bonus points for the first few weeks of January.

Of course, that made more sense, as they didn't have bonus tiers in 2012, so maybe they just hadn't added them into the system yet.

For them to disappear is odd.

The guy at Seven Stars Insider claims that the bonus tier credits are not going away.

Quote:

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Despite rumors to the contrary, the bonus tier credit program is still in effect – and a special promotion related to bonus tier credits will be announced later this month.

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So if he's right, it's probably better to wait for this announcement if you want to figure out how to optimize your tier credits.

He did say that the basic bonus tier credit program will be the same as 2014.

The owner of this site does not work for CET, but he seems to know something.

I hope 7 Stars Insider is correct but I will believe it when I see it. I still think the prudent thing is to wait until after the bankruptcy filing and after the new Total Rewards rules are published before making a commitment.

I played in 2015 on January 1, playing some 6,150 in reward credits that day. On late January 2 when I put my players card into a video poker or slot machine, the read out told me that my tier credit was 29,000. So it looks like the machines reflect the bonus. However, oddly enough when I log on the total rewards website, the tier credits now state 11,500 or so. I hope that the machine read out is correct and the website only needs to catch up.

FAB

I played 503 tier points on Saturday and a friend played more than 4,000 tier points on New Years Day. As of today -- Monday -- no bonus tier points show on the website BUT the reward credits (comp dollars) are up to date.

I can't verify that this is factual as it is second hand, but a friend of mine who is a very big player told me that he was told by his host that no bonus points are being awarded until the formula for 2015 is determined, and that they may not go back retroactively and award the bonus points for play prior thereto. He is having a fit as he is worried that gambling in the next few months will be "wasted" in terms of rewards.

I posed the question to my host on Saturday and she told me they have not been told yet.

I just sent an email to Total Rewards. Let's see if they answer.

On Facebook ONE TR member posted that her bonus tier points for January 1st play showed up on the machine at Rincon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FABismonte

I played in 2015 on January 1, playing some 6,150 in reward credits that day. On late January 2 when I put my players card into a video poker or slot machine, the read out told me that my tier credit was 29,000. So it looks like the machines reflect the bonus. However, oddly enough when I log on the total rewards website, the tier credits now state 11,500 or so. I hope that the machine read out is correct and the website only needs to catch up.

FAB

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I'm not understanding how you were seeing 29,000.

If you played 6150, you would earn 10,000 bonus credits, and should have 16,150 total.

So 11,500 is too little, and 29,000 is too much.

Huh???

To be honest, not having the full TR info available to players on January 1st is a huge slap in the face to players (and customer service gaffe).

They've had a year to figure this out.

How can they run a rewards program where players are in the dark about what they can earn and how they can earn it?

Unbelievable. This is the 2nd year in a row where this is the case, though in 2014 at least they changed very little from the prior year.

The Caesars web site says there are still bonus tier points. Does this create a liability for Caesars if the bonus has been rescinded? Class action?

Probably not, because these are considered promotional and they have the legal right to take them away at any time -- even retroactively.

A suppose a case could be made that it's a bait-and-switch, but it would probably be tough.

They can change the program whenever they want and they can kick us out whenever they want

28. Caesars reserves the right to modify or cancel this Program at any time, for any
reason, subject to any applicable regulatory approval.

29. Caesars reserves the right to deny anyone application for membership or
terminate anyone’s membership in the Program at any time in its sole
discretion without recourse.

Let me put it a different way.

Let's say I owned a bar, and had a promotion where you get 1 point for each day where you buy at least one beer. When you get to 300 points, you get a new Corvette for free.

The one catch is that I charge $20 per beer, whereas the bar down the street sells the same beer for $5.

But you figure it's clearly worth it, as paying $15 extra per beer for 300 days will cost you just $4500 (if you buy one each day), and a Corvette is worth FAR more than that.

However, after 280 straight days of coming to my bar and buying one beer, I announce the promotion is over. Everyone loses their points, and there will be no Corvette for anyone.

Could I do this legally?

No.

You could sue me for the pro-rated value of the corvette (280/300ths of it), and probably win.

This is because the promotional item is worth substantially more than the actual item you're purchasing, to where it's clear that people were purchasing the items to get the much larger item being promoted.

On the other hand, if I simply had a promo where you get a free $50 Applebees gift card after 300 beers and I canceled the promotion when people got to 280, there wouldn't be much cause for action. A case couldn't me made that you were buying those 300 beers just to get a $50 gift card.

So what about the TR program? Could someone make the case that they only played because they were shooting for their TR status? Maybe, but to be honest, the money being wagered and the variance dwarfs the potential benefits, so people would have a hard time being able to prove that the TR program was the main reason they were playing (even if it was).

That, plus Nevada law always favors the casinos.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aaron

They can change the program whenever they want and they can kick us out whenever they want

28. Caesars reserves the right to modify or cancel this Program at any time, for any
reason, subject to any applicable regulatory approval.

29. Caesars reserves the right to deny anyone application for membership or
terminate anyone’s membership in the Program at any time in its sole
discretion without recourse.

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Yeah that's what I was talking about.

Of course, terms of service are not always actionable by law, but I think they are on solid ground here.

In fact, the only really "valuable" program (Seven Stars) doesn't have guaranteed membership. So nobody could make the case that they were playing to get to Seven Stars, because CET tells you up front that they may or may not let you in when you get there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

I'm not understanding how you were seeing 29,000.

If you played 6150, you would earn 10,000 bonus credits, and should have 16,150 total.

So 11,500 is too little, and 29,000 is too much.

Huh???

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Hi Dan:

I guess my timing was unclear. I played on January 1 (6150 points) then played about all day on January 2 and found 29,000 tier points a little after midnight. I probably did get 6150 points plus 10,000 bonus for January 1 (by the machine count). I guess I put in more than 2,500 points plus 5,000 bonus to eventually get to 29,000. But if you are asking I am absolutely sure how CET machines got to 29,000 tier points, I can only share my observations and make an educated guess from there.

FAB