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Thread: Total Rewards Diamond/Seven Stars changes for 2018 -- goodbye free room benefit , goodbye Diamond Aspirations, goodbye 1.25:1 RC freeplay conversion

  1. #21
    Bait and switch? Not really.

    A kick in the ass? Yes.

    But what really bothers me is that I was told comps would be looser and promos would be better after Caesars emerged from bankruptcy. That's not happening.

  2. #22
    My TR rate calendar always shows a rate. I have to call the 800 number to get them to book a comp room, as they use a Seven Stars offer code to book it.

    I can try to book future rooms before this change takes place (if it does), but sometimes they will refuse to book rooms after February 1 (under this code) because they want to see your status at that point.
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  3. #23
    Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson View Post
    Bait and switch? Not really.
    The players were baited into playing for status in 2017, in consideration of the posted benefits and understanding that the status would last through 2018.

    Then with 2 weeks left in 2017 they announced that the benefits would change on Jan 1.

    Isn't that bait and switch?

  4. #24
    Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    My TR rate calendar always shows a rate.
    I recall that you played heavily to reach 7* in a single trip.

    I would expect that kind of play to generate significant offers, including comped rooms on your TR rate calendar.

    Did that ever happen, even if just for a short period of time?

  5. #25
    I am so overcomped that it never happens for me.

    I did get some offers for Tahoe, but they weren't that exciting. Kinda like $250 in promo chips stuff. Not worth the long trip unless I want to go anyway.
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  6. #26
    My wife has about 35,000 in Reward Credits which can be used for $350 in hotel related charges or $200 in free play at her Diamond rate. I expect to have her "gift" me the max of 10,000 in Reward credits so I can convert to Free play this year at the Seven Stars $1 to 1.25 ratio for 2017.

    FAB

  7. #27
    Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    I am so overcomped that it never happens for me.
    Hi Dan:

    It is possible that you can still get "complimentary rooms" for 2018 but the outlook looks grim given the circumstantial evidence. I wonder if CET got wind of your pattern and adjusted benefits accordingly.

    FAB
    Last edited by FABismonte; 12-18-2017 at 06:34 PM.

  8. #28
    Unbelievable.....a friend of mine just got an email from Harrahs New Orleans saying something like....

    ...You still have time. Come stay with us and earn your remaining tier credits to reach diamond aspirations 2 and unlock all of the benefits....

  9. #29
    Originally Posted by Chimp View Post
    Unbelievable.....a friend of mine just got an email from Harrahs New Orleans saying something like....

    ...You still have time. Come stay with us and earn your remaining tier credits to reach diamond aspirations 2 and unlock all of the benefits....
    Hi Chimp

    While quite ironic, the email is accurate in that if your friend hits the 80,000 tier level this year, she can still use the aspirations 2 benefits by June 2018 For a trip with the $750 travel credit but booked by Jan 2018. That is a short fuse.

    Great to hear from you.

    FAB

  10. #30
    Ahhh FAB. I hadn’t thought of that.

  11. #31
    Yeah, I just booked my 2017 Aspirations 2 Celebration Dinner (4 nights, $100 folio credit) for late May 2018.

    But that's all I can book right now. They have not yet generated the code for the Seven Stars comp room for February 1 and beyond, and I'm worried that code may never come to exist.

    I guess it's time to play the waiting game, but as FAB mentioned, the circumstantial evidence doesn't look good.
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  12. #32
    I've also been in contact with Darryl from Seven Stars Insider, who seems to believe this is much ado about nothing. He claims that the benefit was never a "guaranteed 4 nights" in the past, according to the official rules:

    "At a minimum, one room per night will be provided, with a maximum of four consecutive nights", is how it read in the rules from 2015-17.

    That may not be a hard guarantee, but in my opinion, it's pretty damn close.

    And this year, they knowingly left the complimentary room benefit out of the e-mail and website chart, when it was there in prior years.

    For some reason, Darryl is not alarmed by the change in the benefits e-mail and the website chart.

    I think Darryl is being too dismissive. They changed the wording and the chart for a reason -- and the most likely scenario is that they've eliminated or curtailed the free room benefit. While I agree this isn't certain, and you can't ever draw 100% conclusions from anything CET does, I'm much more worried about this than he is.
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  13. #33
    Originally Posted by FABismonte View Post
    My wife has about 35,000 in Reward Credits which can be used for $350 in hotel related charges or $200 in free play at her Diamond rate. I expect to have her "gift" me the max of 10,000 in Reward credits so I can convert to Free play this year at the Seven Stars $1 to 1.25 ratio for 2017.

    FAB
    Fab isn't 10,000 in Reward Credits just $100, and after conversion to free play it's $80 ???

  14. #34
    Dan being overcomped you do have to be concerned. You probably have a big target on your back for over working the system. I think other players won't have trouble with free rooms. But they're out to get you.

  15. #35
    Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson View Post
    Dan being overcomped you do have to be concerned. You probably have a big target on your back for over working the system. I think other players won't have trouble with free rooms. But they're out to get you.
    Not out to get me. Maybe out to get players like me.

    But this is bad for everyone, because now you will have to earn your free rooms, and if you take a few consecutive trips without playing, good luck getting a comped room after that.
    Check out my poker forum, and weekly internet radio show at http://pokerfraudalert.com

  16. #36
    Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson View Post
    Originally Posted by FABismonte View Post
    My wife has about 35,000 in Reward Credits which can be used for $350 in hotel related charges or $200 in free play at her Diamond rate. I expect to have her "gift" me the max of 10,000 in Reward credits so I can convert to Free play this year at the Seven Stars $1 to 1.25 ratio for 2017.

    FAB
    Fab isn't 10,000 in Reward Credits just $100, and after conversion to free play it's $80 ???
    Alan, you got it. Not a life changing event. Just an adjustment in the margins.

  17. #37
    I saw an update from Darryl at Seven Stars Insider, regarding this situation. He has no more information than we do at the moment, but he editorialized a bit. While acknowledging that there's a good chance the guaranteed room benefit is going away, he very much downplayed its significance:

    ... it seems to me that the wording for 2018 is a catch-all for all tier levels since even Gold members with a good history of play could qualify for a complimentary room. This also gives a casino discretion when it comes to, say, a Seven Stars cardholder taking advantage of this benefit – as I've heard many do. In other words, a complimentary room for any level cardholder is no longer guaranteed. Seven Stars cardholders who don't "stiff" Caesars and have a good history of play shouldn't have anything to worry about.

    Let me start off by saying that I like Darryl and his website. I think he puts out a lot of great (and usually very accurate) information, and his website is a far better resource for Seven Stars members than most Caesars employees! He's also not afraid to criticize Caesars where they deserve it, which I also respect.

    However, I think he's way off the mark here. He is downplaying this as simply a way for Caesars to get rid of "Seven Stars room abusers", when in reality it's much more than that.

    I must respectfully disagree with him. If the room is no longer guaranteed, then that’s a huge deal, and a very big departure from what made Seven Stars so much better than other casino rewards programs

    As most of you know, Seven Stars has a number of guaranteed benefits. Once you make Seven Stars, you get them no matter what. The largest and most valuable those benefits was the guaranteed complimentary 4-night stay.

    Darryl wrote “Seven Stars cardholders who don’t ‘stiff’ Caesars and have a good history of play shouldn’t have anything to worry about.”

    That’s true, but that can be said for any casino’s rewards system. If you are actively playing at a high level, you will get comp rooms. That practice goes back many decades. Now it appears that Caesars is making you actively “earn” your free stays, which is a huge degradation of the Seven Stars benefits. For example, if you play actively in early 2018, but then stay a few times without playing, they may refuse to comp your room the following trip. That isn’t what I’d call “stiffing” Caesars, and many gamblers were attracted to the Seven Stars program because they had certain benefits they could always count on.

    With the departure of the guaranteed comp room benefit (if that’s what’s happening), Seven Stars becomes a lot more like other casino rewards programs -- and that's not a good thing.
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  18. #38
    This guy wrote a column also claiming the free room benefit is gone: https://travelzork.com/changes-total...2018-benefits/
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  19. #39
    Dan I'm afraid that the situation simply comes down to this:

    Every time I've been to Caesars over the last six months, even when I just visited the casino and did not have a room, the place has been packed. I think business is now so good they no longer have to give free rooms to those who don't play. Look at the parking fees: despite predictions the fees wouldn't last they are still in effect AND now even locals are getting charged.

  20. #40
    Eric Rosenthal, who runs that Travelzork column I linked above, said he confirmed the degradation of the room benefit with a National Casino Marketing host at Caesars.

    So this looks like it's really happening.

    Right now here's a summary of all of the degradations:

    Diamond

    - No more Aspirations #1 at 40,000 tier credits, meaning you lose your 4-night stay at any Caesars property with $100 folio credit

    - No more Aspirations #2 at 80,000 tier credits, meaning you lose your $750 airfare credit and 4-night stay at any Caesars property

    - No more Aspirations #2 two-night suite stay at any Caesars property

    - Redemption of RCs to freeplay changes from 1.75:1 to 2:1 ratio.

    - Access to Diamond Lounges now requires 25,000 tier credits. If you have 15,000-24,999 tiers, you will need to pay 1000 RCs (worth $10) to get in.

    Basically, low Diamonds (15,000 tiers) get treated the exact same now as high Diamonds (80,000+ tiers), aside from the Diamond Lounge thing.



    Seven Stars

    - No more complimentary room benefit!! This a huge degradation, as this was by far the best benefit of the Seven Stars program. Up until 2018, you were able to get a 4-night stay complimentary at any Caesars property, with no blackout dates. You could also do this as many times as you wanted, as long as 48 hours were between reservations. This appears to be gone, but it's not totally confirmed.

    - Redemption of RCs to freeplay changes from 1.25:1 to 2:1 ratio.

    - Two of the four Signature Events are now only available to players with 500,000 or more tier credits. Seven Stars members with fewer than 500,000 tier credits can only go to Atlantic City or Las Vegas for their Signature Event. (These are kinda lame anyway, but it's yet another degradation.)
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