Tier bonuses are back for 2015 from total rewards

They are back and it's official. Got this email at 5:25pm Tuesday:

Congratulations on earning your daily Tier Credit Bonus in 2015.

You may have noticed that there was a slight delay in receiving your Tier Credit Bonus. Don't worry! Any bonus you earned between 1/1/2015 and 1/4/2015 has now been posted to your Total Rewards account, and you should see it reflected in your Tier Score by tomorrow.

And good news! All daily Tier Credit bonuses will continue throughout 2015:

Earn this many in one day*... ...and get this many more!
500 Tier Credits +125 Tier Credit bonus

1,000 Tier Credits
+1,000 Tier Credit bonus
2,500 Tier Credits
+5,000 Tier Credit bonus
Earns Platinum Status in one day!
5,000 Tier Credits
+10,000 Tier Credit bonus
Earns Diamond Status in one day!



Thank you for your continued loyalty. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

Good to see.

So it looks like just incompetent CET was to blame here, rather than any changes.

And it looks like the Seven Stars Insider guy was right.

So I wonder what promotion regarding bonus tiers they will be running in late January.... I kinda want to wait for it before playing.

Dan I am not sure it was an error. My guess is that they wanted to see if they could slip thru the change without an uproar. They saw they couldn't.

My bonus tier credits are there now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nash

My bonus tier credits are there now.

---

Mine are reflected in mycomputer's Total Rewards Statement too.

Got the same email and tier bonuses were in my account today. I live in Chicago and have been playing in Hammond at 9/5 JoB machines to hit tier bonuses trying to get to 7 star. Hit one royal already on a 10 play $1 machine.

I'm going to be taking a west coast swing for some poker tournaments and was wondering which Caesars properties still give 1 tier credit for $10 in VP play with 99%+ payouts (so 9/6 JoB or other games with similar or even higher payouts). I know that all the Vegas properties are terrible for VP but what about Reno or Tahoe properties? Anywhere else in the country, AC or Ohio properties??

Also if I were to hit 7 star this year I know the status would last me until march of 2017, but are all the bonus trips and cruises an annual thing (so I would get the same benefits again in 2016 regardless of if I hit 7S again next year) or just do you just get them once for hitting 7S? What about the first 3 months of 2017?

Is there also a less variance way of getting tier points that maybe gives up a little bit in expectancy vs VP (something like video BJ) but would make you more likely to end up closer to your expected loss amount rather than VP where you can end up very far under expectation if you don't happen to hit a royal or two?

Sorry about all the questions but I've read through this forum and a couple other ones and didn't see these questions answered. Thanks for your help and great forum!!

HI and thanks for joining. But I wish you had a different screen name as I hate saying, "thanks for joining fool" or "thanks for posting fool."

Let me take a stab at a few of your questions though there are others who will have a better answer for you:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fool

which Caesars properties still give 1 tier credit for $10 in VP play with 99%+ payouts (so 9/6 JoB or other games with similar or even higher payouts). I know that all the Vegas properties are terrible for VP but what about Reno or Tahoe properties? Anywhere else in the country, AC or Ohio properties??

---

At Caesars Palace you will get 1 tier credit for each $10 in video poker play at the 99%+ return but it won't be at any machine with less than a $25 denomination. You will find $25 9/6 Jacks and $25 8/5 Bonus that will give you 1 tier credit for each $10 played but you won't find it on a $5 or less machine. And I don't think you will find it anywhere at any Total Rewards property in Vegas though I've been told a few machines exist at Planet HOllywood and Flamingo -- but someone else will have to address that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fool

Also if I were to hit 7 star this year I know the status would last me until march of 2017, but are all the bonus trips and cruises an annual thing (so I would get the same benefits again in 2016 regardless of if I hit 7S again next year) or just do you just get them once for hitting 7S? What about the first 3 months of 2017?

---

I think Dan Druff is our resident expert on these questions, but right now with the bankruptcy filing pending and we're not sure what will be offered through Total Rewards starting April 1st, I wouldn't hazard a guess. I would wait till the "new rules" come out. Generally, you must use the offers earned in one calendar year by March or June of the following calendar year. And they do not carry over if unused.

Thanks for the response Alan. Don't worry about the name, if fool is the worst someone can call me I've done pretty well.

A few more questions that someone here may have answers to:

Hammond withheld state taxes on my royal and one other hand that I hit for $1400. Is it possible to get that withheld money back since I'm not an Indiana resident? I think CA does similarly.

A host also came out to introduce himself when I hit my royal. It was just a quick hello but what sorts of requests can you ask of them?

When I hit a diamond aspiration level how do you go about booking those stays? Just call the total rewards number?

Regarding reimbursed fees for 7 star, does this mean I can go to the cage with my debit card and ask them to charge me $5000 and they'll just give me cash/chips? How about a credit card?

Thanks again.

From one fool to another, I can address the tax question. As an Illinois resident, you can itemize the state tax withheld on your federal return (assuming that you itemize deductions (Schedule A)). On your Illinois return, you have to fill out a form (the form number escapes me) to reflect the foreign state tax that was withheld and claim a credit on the Illinois return. It goes through some formula as to percentage of income earned in each of the two states and comes up with a partial credit--usually fairly low. I have found that unless my Indiana signers are significant, it's not worth the time to prepare the additional forms. But if you do have large signers in Indiana, definitely complete the form.

I can get you the form number when I am back in the office and can access my files.

Actually--my memory says it's just a form IL-CR. There is also a line on the Illinois return that asks if you were taxed in another state.

Can't tell you about the out of state tax thing, but I can give you all of the other info, provided nothing changes for 2015. (This still hasn't been announced, typical of CET recently.)

When you earn any Total Rewards status, it's good for TWO calendar years. So it always expires March 31, two calendar years later. If you earn Seven Stars at ANY point in 2015, it will be good until 3/31/17 as you said.

So what does this mean for benefits?

You will get FULL benefits for both of those years. It doesn't matter if you continue to play, or if you re-earn Seven Stars in the second year.

So let's say you earn Seven Stars on February 8, 2015.

You will have FULL Seven Stars benefits for all of 2015, PLUS full Seven Stars benefits for 2016, even if you don't play a single penny on CET properties after earning it!

Now what about the additional 3 months? That's a "carryover" from the previous year. You do not get anything new. You get those 3 months to use/redeem any unused/unredeemed benefits from the previous year. As Alan said, after that, they don't carry over, so anything not used by April 1 is gone (from the previous year's benefits).

So for example, for 2014 Seven Stars benefits, you have until 3/31/15 to use the $500 Annual Dinner, the Annual Trip, the Annual Cruise, the Annual Welcome Gift, etc.

You CANNOT use benefits in advance. So even if you earn Seven Stars through 3/31/17, you cannot use the Seven Stars benefits for 2016 until calendar 2016 arrives. You can only use the 2015 benefits in 2015 (well, and the 2014 benefits until 3/31/15).

There are a few exceptions to this, such as certain "experiences" which give you until 6/30 of the following year, instead of 3/31.

So let's say you earn Seven Stars on February 8, 2015, and then stop playing. What benefits will you have for the first 3 months of 2017?

You will be able to use whichever benefits you didn't use from 2016, PLUS you will still get the free rooms, priority lines, and any other "base" Seven Stars benefit which hasn't been used up from the previous year. You will NOT get a third trip/dinner/gift until you re-earn Seven Stars in 2017.

As Alan also pointed out, while the bonus tier credits are now confirmed to still be in place in 2015 (and the same as 2014), no other Seven Stars information for this year has been published yet. You might want to wait, in case there are drastic changes which make the program less valuable.

Finally, do NOT confuse tier status for your ability to get offers or discretionary comps. They are not related at all. I am a Seven Stars, yet I get very few offers (and the ones I get are lousy). I have a friend who is Gold, and he gets all kinds of nice offers. Why? Because he has played recently, and I haven't. The tiers are only about guaranteed benefits, not freeplay, offers, or discretionary comps. So if you're shooting for Seven Stars with the belief that it will entitle you to all kinds of wonderful offers, you will find yourself disappointed.

Thanks for the thorough response Dan.

So the annual dinner, trip and cruises may not be the exactly the same for 2015 as they were in 2014. I'll wait and see if what they are going to over to 7 stars before I make a run at it. I already got diamond but I was going for that anyways simply to cut waiting lists in the poker room anyway. Sucks having to wait up to an hour sometimes.

In case I do decide to go for 7S any chance you know the answer to these questions:

Is there also a less variance way of getting tier points that maybe gives up a little bit in expectancy vs VP (something like video BJ) but would make you more likely to end up closer to your expected loss amount rather than VP where you can end up very far under expectation if you don't happen to hit a royal or two?

Regarding reimbursed fees for 7 star, does this mean I can go to the cage with my debit card and ask them to charge me $5000 and they'll just give me cash/chips? How about a credit card?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fool

Regarding reimbursed fees for 7 star, does this mean I can go to the cage with my debit card and ask them to charge me $5000 and they'll just give me cash/chips? How about a credit card?

---

I can answer this one. I used to pay my markers at Caesars by going to the cage and giving them my ATM card and have them take the cash directly from my checking account. They used to do this with no fee. Then they dropped the "no fee" for 7 Stars.

What they did was charge me a fee -- typical of any "convenience fee" -- but they gave me an "instant rebate" of the fee in "free play."

If I recall, my "fee" was something like $165 and they gave me reel rewards tickets for $165. Note that I used my ATM card and my bank did not charge me anything for the transaction. The "fee" was strictly a Caesars Palace fee for using my ATM card.

By the way, if I didn't need to take out big money at the cage, using an ATM even with the ATM fee and my bank's fee, might be less.

Now, my best option is to go to my bank and pay with a cashier's check and pay the bank $10. (Some of you might have free cashier checks.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fool

Is there also a less variance way of getting tier points that maybe gives up a little bit in expectancy vs VP (something like video BJ) but would make you more likely to end up closer to your expected loss amount rather than VP where you can end up very far under expectation if you don't happen to hit a royal or two?

---

I think the problem with video blackjack is that it's too hard to rack up coin-in quickly there.

To earn 2500 tier credits in a day (and get your 5000 bonus tiers), you need to cycle $25,000 worth of play into the machine.

At $5-per-credit VP, that takes about 2 hours for a fast player. It takes about 5 hours for a $2 player, and about 10 hours for a $1 player.

However, if you played video BJ, you would need to play 1000 hands if you're betting $25 each. That would probably take an insane amount of time. Even at one hand per 30 seconds, it would take over 8 hours, and I'm not sure if you could get in a hand in 30 seconds at any of the new video BJ machines. I think the old video BJ machines are faster, but pay EVEN MONEY for blackjack (which is terrible).

I agree that video BJ woudl be better if you could find a fast-playing machine with good rules (that is, at least standard rules, with no weird restrictions on doubles or splits, and that pay BJ 3:2).

Hi Fool:

I am in Lake Tahoe now. To answer one of your questions, Harrahs Tahoe had $1 triple and 5-play JOB 9/6 as well as 8/5 Bonus with 1 tier point for every $10 played. They are in a carousel like configuration near the underground passage leading to Harvey's

FAB

The Reno/Tahoe market is the ONLY place you can find $10-per-tier-credit 9-6 JoB in the west. The one exception is the Vegas machines at $25/credit, but that's way too much variance for most (including me).

And by "west", I mean anything in the Pacific or Mountain time zones.