Questions about 2015 Seven Stars benefits
I am likely going to re-earn my Seven Stars in early 2015.
However, I will not do it if the benefits significantly change for the worse. Here are the key questions:
Most important: Will the hotel benefit remain the same? Will you still be able to be guaranteed a CET hotel in any market, for free, given 48 hours or more notice? And how many days need to pass between stays? At the moment, it's technically four, but they have only been enforcing two. Will they start enforcing four? If they do, I might give up on Seven Stars.
Will the NCL cruise benefit be the same? I'm guessing yes, as it costs CET nothing, but I'm a little worried that NCL will cut it down, as they have been making cuts to their casino perks in recent years.
Will it still be 150,000 tiers to reach Seven Stars, and will you still get the same number of bonus tier points for reaching 2500 or 5000 tiers in a day? Recall that, before 2013, it was 100,000 tiers to Seven Stars, but there were no bonus points. They changed it in order to force the local, low-limit daily grinders out of Seven Stars. However, this also made it easier for comp whores to make Seven Stars with less coin-in. Will they raise the requirement to hit Seven Stars, or perhaps degrade the bonus tiers?
Will the annual trip still be the same, or will something be degraded/changed? This has been constant for years, so I'm guessing it stays.
Will the signature events be different in 2015? I have a feeling that they will. The Tahoe and Vegas events were poorly conceived, as they gave LESS freeplay than regular offers during that same time period, and therefore few wanted to go to the events. They had to do an 11th-hour "fix" allowing double-dipping. I doubt that CET will make this same mistake again. The cruise signature events were considered a success (and in fact a better value than the annual cruise benefit), but also filled up too quickly and it was difficult to understand when and how to book. Also, there was no option for west coast people. Will this be changed? Will it be done again?
Will they modify the signature experiences? There was a major overhaul in 2014 with the introduction of flexible "experience points", but the whole effort was a fiasco. Many "experiences" were of poor value, the "gas for a year" experience was poorly conceived (and even more poorly communicated), and the only good value -- the TR gift card -- had operational issues and was eventually discontinued. Yuck. I have a feeling there will be some overhaul to this, but I don't know what.
