A curious thing happened earlier -- at about 2am. I was in the car with a Caesars "second tier Diamond" player and we were discussing a possible trip to Vegas. He was the passenger, so he was able to use his smart phone to check his offers on the Caesars website.

Because of some "glitch" (he couldn't tell what it was) he was unable to book his offer online as he usually does. So he decided to call reservations. He could not get through.

Then he tried to call the general switchboard numbers for The Rio and for the Flamingo... and he could not get through. His phone calls were not even answered... and the calls just rang and rang for up to three and a half minutes.

Then I gave him direct 702 numbers that I call when I want to talk to a host at Rio and Caesars and again... there was no answer.

During his call to the Rio... while his phone call was just "ringing"... I called the Rio and got a live operator. When she told me a host was not available at 2:15 in the morning, I said "thank you." My friend's call was still "ringing." So out of curiosity I called back the same number he had dialed and promptly my call was answered, and I asked the question "what time does the host office open?" "8-am" is what I was told. And meanwhile my friend the second tier Diamond was still waiting for his call to be answered.

And so we had a discussion: were calls prioritized so that 7 Stars always get their calls answered but others have to wait or don't get answered at all during off hours?

I do know that Caesars has a caller ID system. Often when I call the operator will greet me by name, or when I am being transferred the operator will say, "one moment please Mr. Mendelson."

While I can understand why a company would have caller ID and would give priority to certain customers (any company would give priority to certain customers) I can't understand allowing other customers to wait and wait to have their calls answered. In the time he waited for someone to answer his call, we are sure he could have called an MGM property and booked a room.