Comped Meals or Paying with Points?

[BobDancer]

[QUOTE=Quad Deuces] [QUOTE=BOOPSAHOY]I never pay for food either in AC. I always have enough comp dollars at Taj, Resorts, and Showboat to eat when and whatever I want. FYI Im Signature at Taj, Epic at Resorts and Platinum at Showboat.Are these "comp dollars" your slot club balance or something else?[/QUOTE]


No they are comp dollars-they can be used at shops,restaurants and room service.[/QUOTE]
  Sort of. The Harrah's system gives you comp dollars which can be turned into free play at a 2-for-1 rate (i.e. $100 of comp dollars = $50 free play) every day and sometimes better rates.  So if you are spending $30 for a comped meal, it's actually costing you $15 in free play (sometimes more) because that's what you could have gotten for those comp dollars. I consider "convertible to free play" to be essentially equivalent to "convertible to cash." It's convenient but it's not free. If you have comps at other nearby casinos that are not convertible to cash/free play then you're money ahead to use them instead of your Harrah's comps. Bob

[BobDancer]

This is unrelated to my earlier post. Related to what QD originally posted, sometimes we'll pay for convenience. In Vegas I might be at Sam's Town in Las Vegas and the best food offer I have there might be 50% off the buffet. I might well have a $30 food coupon at the Palms. The casinos are seven city-street miles apart. If I'm going to be continuing to play at Sam's Town, I'll pay the 50%. Another point related to this is I keep in mind expiration dates of food coupons. Since I get these coupons from several different places, I try to "plan meals ahead" so as to pay for as few meals as possible. Several years ago, Ellis Island in Las Vegas would give Shirley and me (and others) two free meals a day EACH --- takeout OK. Since we still got food at other places, it was impossible to eat up all our "free food." A couple of times a week Shirley would call up the barbeque place at Ellis and ask for 4 dinners (choice basically limited to chicken, ribs, combo, sauce or no sauce --- whatever soft drink you wanted) to be ready in 15 minutes. She'd always tip $5. She had a bunch of friends who she'd rotate these care packages among. (it would come with "all the fixin's and was a LOT of food.) Ellis Island may still allow this, but we've been PNG from there (as have many others) for five years or so.  Although it is tempting to conclude that "comp abuse" was the reason we were kicked out, it actually happened after I hit five $20K royals in three weeks of 4 hours a week play. Every Wednesday they had a "card of the day" promotion paying 125 coins. I'd play $5 NSU with a 0.3 slot club --- and the COD was worth about 0.3%. Sometimes that was the best play on Wednesday, especially if you could start at midnight when the smoke there wasn't so thick. Bob  

[BillyJoe]

Although it is tempting to conclude that "comp abuse" was the reason we were kicked out, it actually happened after I hit five $20K royals in three weeks of 4 hours a week play.  
I am just curious, Bob, why would hitting multiple RFs get you banned from a casino? It was over the span of several weeks, not in one visit (look out Buff ).  I can understand them reigning in any comps that you may have been receiving over and above what you earned in their slot club, since you may have been showing some profitable play. But beyond that, I don't understand?  
 
If you were consistently beating their games WITHOUT the benefit of catching an RF, I could see where they may not want your play,since they may think that you are too strong a player for them. But paying multiple RFs over several weeks, even though they were on a $5 machine, would not seem to be that uncommon at the casino level.    

[Quad Deuces]

Thanks, Bob.  Sometimes it sounds like people are greeted at the door by a host and showered with free stuff.  I figure the whales playing negative games get whatever they want, but not VP players who play anywhere near or over 100% and never play otherwise.So Harrah's is basically the same as Stations at the president level where the buffet is 50% off when you pay with points (except now the point food discount is only good at the buffet, not the other restaurants at Stations)So buffet coupons, planning trips, etc is the norm.  Good to know.

[DaBurglar]

Ok, I am "cornfused"...... First, I honestly have not received any "passes" from any Caesar/harrahs property for their Diamond Club Lounge buffet.  When I am and have been a Diamond Level player, my yearly Tier point balance has been around 30-35K for the year (currently, in this year 2012 I am at 17,000 so I am actually on pace to surpass 35K by the end of the year in March 2013).  However, up until my last visit last week, I was definitely a profitable player who ONLY PLAYS Video Poker, and at Caesars/harrahs i still may be profitable since most of last weeks' disaster was at the Trop and Resorts in AC (i'm still checking my stats for the year.)  Could it be that I have been denied these passes because I am perceived as too strong?   Also, if Casesars/harrahs takes 1000 tier points for each visit to the diamond club lounge, what happens if a person eats up their points faster than they earn them and sees their total tier point balance fall below 11K?  do they now revert back to Platinum and lose Diamond status or what???    Either way, I think this new system blows, if we've earned Diamond Status, we should reap the benefits and not have it cost us more....Under the current system, why not then allow people who have NOT yet reached diamond level but who DO have the 10 comp dollars access to the diamond lounge too?  Is the "privilege" of simply even having access to the lounge all we get for being loyal diamond customers?  If the answer to that is yes, then go and pound sand Caesars/Harrahs!

[BillyJoe]

Ok, I am "confused"......
 
First, I honestly have not received any "passes" from any Caesar/harrah's property for their Diamond Club Lounge buffet.  When I am and have been a Diamond Level player, my yearly Tier point balance has been around 30-35K for the year (currently, in this year 2012 I am at 17,000 so I am actually on pace to surpass 35K by the end of the year in March 2013).  However, up until my last visit last week, I was definitely a profitable player who ONLY PLAYS Video Poker, and at Caesars/harrah's i still may be profitable since most of last weeks' disaster was at the Trop and Resorts in AC (i'm still checking my stats for the year.)  Could it be that I have been denied these passes because I am perceived as too strong? 
 
Also, if Caesars/harrah's takes 1000 tier points for each visit to the diamond club lounge, what happens if a person eats up their points faster than they earn them and sees their total tier point balance fall below 11K?  do they now revert back to Platinum and lose Diamond status or what???    Either way, I think this new system blows, if we've earned Diamond Status, we should reap the benefits and not have it cost us more....Under the current system, why not then allow people who have NOT yet reached diamond level but who DO have the 10 comp dollars access to the diamond lounge too?  Is the "privilege" of simply even having access to the lounge all we get for being loyal diamond customers?  If the answer to that is yes, then go and pound sand Caesars/Harrah's!
A couple points, Burglar. First, I am impressed that you are "definitely a profitable player who ONLY PLAYS Video Poker, and at Caesars/harrah's i still may be profitable". I have been led to believe that this is impossible to achieve for VP players @ Harrah's/Caesars, given their pay tables, so my hat is off to you..
 
Secondly, don't confuse Total Rewards Credits with Tier Credits. If the AC Diamond lounges charge you 1000 points for a visit, that comes out of your Rewards credits, not your Tier credits. As you earn Tier credits in the Caesars/Harrah's Player Card system throughout the year, they are yours, and your tier status is reviewed at the end of each year, and your status is awarded accordingly. The only exception would be that if you achieved a higher tier status during a given year, say starting out as a Platinum, but reaching the 11k Tier credit threshold for Diamond mid-year. At that point, you can get a new card, and start enjoying those benefits immediately.  
 
As I have said, to my knowledge, AC is the only Harrah's/Caesars location that charge Diamonds for access to the Diamond lounge, but I could be wrong.    

[BillyJoe]

Thanks, Bob.  Sometimes it sounds like people are greeted at the door by a host and showered with free stuff.  I figure the whales playing negative games get whatever they want, but not VP players who play anywhere near or over 100% and never play otherwise.
Hmmm, I get greeted, get free stuff, play VP at less than 100%, and although I am a 7Star, I am NOT a whale by any means in any of Caesars/Harrahs properties. Maybe they just like me.

So Harrah's is basically the same as Stations at the president level where the buffet is 50% off when you pay with points (except now the point food discount is only good at the buffet, not the other restaurants at Stations)
There are discounts, based on your Tier Level, for food and retail at Harrahs properties. You can use points to pay for food or retail at any Harrahs-owned establishment.
So buffet coupons, planning trips, etc is the norm.  Good to know.

[JIMDUECE`SWILD]

[QUOTE=Burglar] Ok, I am "confused"......
 
As I have said, to my knowledge, AC is the only Harrah's/Caesars location that charge Diamonds for access to the Diamond lounge, but I could be wrong.    
  Harrah`s in Chester, PA. outside Philadelphia doesn't charge for admission.

[BobDancer]

[QUOTE=billyjoe
I am just curious, Bob, why would hitting multiple RFs get you banned from a casino? It was over the span of several weeks, not in one visit (look out Buff ).  I can understand them reigning in any comps that you may have been receiving over and above what you earned in their slot club, since you may have been showing some profitable play. But beyond that, I don't understand?  [/QUOTE]
 At EI, they went through a phase where "any player who is a long term winner here is too good for us." There were a LOT of players who were kicked out. There have been three or four purges of players there. Currently if you're smart enough to fart and chew gum at the same time you're probably on thin ice at that place. My royals may or may not have been the final straw that caused the GM to make that decision, but the timing was such that it could have been. Once they reach the conclusion that winning players had to go, I was an easy target as I was ahead something like $80K in the previous month. Never assume that a particular GM will view things the way you do. Casino executives are subject to many of the same silly ideas that other folks have about gambling. And sometimes, of course, the casino executives are making rational decisions and players who don't understand are the ones having the silly ideas.

[DaBurglar]

well, Jim's deuces wild specifically said "tier points" up in his post-reply back on page two in response to my "cornfusion", so that is what prompted my elaborative post about what-if your comp dollars are blown, etc.    I do know the difference between reward credits and tier credit points, even though that can be "cornfusing" as well.....I always thought our TRC (total reward credit) balance was essentially the same thing as Comp Dollars....am I wrong on that account too?     I picked the wrong decade to stop drinking.....I think the point system is rigged!  Life's rigged!!  Everythings rigged!  Note to Billyjoe:  The only reason I am profitable YTD at Caesars/harrahs is I had a spectacular run at dreamcard in Caesars that I posted about earlier, so that has left me up about around $1000 for the year.   I am sure it wont last, but.....I was just reaching for possible reasons I never got any stinkin Passes to the diamond lounge.