Welcome back to rsts11travel. With obvious constraints in place, we haven’t been traveling or keeping too close an eye on the travel world the last two years. Unlike some bigger named sites, we make a few bucks here from referral links, but generally it’s a labor of love, and labor has outweighed love for two and a half years for the most part.
That being said, we have a couple of posts in the queue and some probable Vegas travel coming up, so stick around and we’ll bring rsts11travel back to life.
For now, we’ll share a promotion or two during July (check back or watch our Twitter for updates
Hyatt and MGM – Double World of Hyatt points through October 15, 2022
World of Hyatt had been partnered with MLife Rewards for quite a while. Our Hyatt status some years came purely from Delano Las Vegas stays, in fact.
For the next three months, though, you get double Hyatt points with Las Vegas MGM stays.
You will receive five (5) World of Hyatt Base Points and five (5) World of Hyatt Bonus Points per eligible USD for each eligible stay at participating MGM Rewards Las Vegas destinations during the Offer Period.
For the purpose of this offer, an “eligible stay” is defined as any stay where a member is paying an Eligible Rate or redeems a free night award for at least one night of their stay.
You must provide your World of Hyatt membership number at the time of check-in and choose World of Hyatt Points for each stay.
In terms of the linking for normal benefits, you can match MGM status to World of Hyatt (Pearl to Discoverist, Gold and above to Explorist), earn World of Hyatt points at MGM properties, earn MGM Tier Credits at Hyatt properties, and other benefits of status on either side. (We’re pretty sure they used to let you get both programs, but that is not the case now with the revised MGM Rewards program.)
Having gone thirteen months away from Vegas, we’ll be looking into the reward program updates since then and sharing details with you (and drilling them into our own memory) in an upcoming post. This is the first year since 2014 that we haven’t had status, with mostly Gold and one year of Platinum in there. So it’s likely to be a learning opportunity.
Are there any new benefits at Las Vegas hotels you’d like to know about or dig into? Share in the comments and we’ll see what we can do.
You read that right. With some creatively wasted time and a Fine Hotels & Resorts reservation, Three nights at Delano on our December visit to Las Vegas came to a negative $167 net cost, including the dreaded resort fees. The next three nights at Wynn Las Vegas were about $45 total. Let me tell you how.
Setting up the trip
We went 16 months without a visit to Las Vegas in 2019-2020, but with some vacation time to burn off, we made a return visit to the Strip in December 2020. While there were some pricey meals involved, the core six days of the trip were free thanks to the Wynn Slots mobile game, MyVEGAS games, and American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts (which we’ve written about a few times here on rsts11travel).
If you’re not the type to use Facebook at all, or to play mobile games, these options won’t apply. But for many of you, they’re worth considering. Fine Hotels and Resorts is worth a look either way.
MyVEGAS (MGM Resorts partnership)
There are now six (6) MyVEGAS games you can play to earn rewards from MGM Resorts properties and partners: MyVEGAS Slots on Facebook, MyVEGAS Slots on mobile, MyVEGAS Blackjack on mobile, MyKONAMI Slots (mobile and Facebook, same game), PopSlots, and MyVEGAS Bingo. Reward are based on Loyalty Points, which are earned by playing the free games or buying in-game currency.
At certain levels of spend, more reward slots are available, and higher level rewards open up, including longer and higher grade hotel comps and Free Play rewards. We’ve played the games for over 9 years, and spent around $600 over that time, so we get six reward slots and pretty much all of the non-host rewards (including occasional 3 night free stays, 2 night Aria and Bellagio stays, and the $100 freeplay reward). We’re not going into full details here; there are Facebook groups and forums about MyVEGAS games that will cover way more than you ever wanted to know.
We’ve ended up with over $1000 in value so far, including about $675 of freeplay, four show tickets including Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil, and two free nights at Mirage over the years. And the slots and reward levels are still valid indefinitely, as long as we earn Loyalty Points.
Wynn Slots (Wynn Las Vegas partnership)
For Wynn Slots, it’s a bit more limited and complicated. They have gems as the reward currency, and VIP level statuses that are required to redeem gems for rewards (a free room with no resort fee; they used to offer buffet rewards before the pandemic). In game purchases of at least $200 are required to redeem rewards, over a 91-180 day period. With comp stays at Wynn, the resort fee is not required, but you have to pay for wifi or gym access a la carte (about $20/day) if you don’t add the resort fee.
The game has VIP level periods of 90 days. You buy up to a VIP level, and get that status for the remainder of the current 90 day period and the entire following 90 day period. So if you buy up to VIP level 3 (VIP3), you can redeem for 2-night stays for at least 90 days (and up to 180 days). Buy up on the first day of your personal VIP status period and you get over 179 days to redeem at that level, with a one day gap required between reservations. At $400 and $750, you can earn VIP4 and VIP5 respectively, which entitles you to 3-night and 4-night stays respectively. Once you have the level, you’re only limited by your gems, which are earned with in game play.
As I said, it’s a bit more complicated, but if you can make more than one trip in six months, and if you play mobile games anyway, it’s worth it.
Fine Hotels and Rewards (American Express)
As we’ve explained before on rsts11travel, American Express offers the Fine Hotels and Rewards program to Platinum and Centurion charge card holders (not Platinum *credit* card holders, like the Delta Platinum charge card, and not the Gold or Green charge cards of course). They are not always the best base rates available, but the FHR benefits can definitely turn the balance in your favor.
Any FHR stay includes early check-in (Noon local time) when available, a room upgrade when available, guaranteed 4pm check-out, daily breakfast for two (usually a $30/person/day credit for our stays), an “experience credit” or “property amenity credit” of at least $100 (often a spa or dining credit), and complimentary wireless service (usually applied as a credit toward resort fees when those are applicable). You get Amex Membership Rewards points for paid stays, or can redeem MR points toward them. And you get all the usual property/chain loyalty rewards either way.
Lining out our stay
We booked our FHR stay at Delano through American Express Travel. By paying with the American Express Platinum card, we got 5 MR points per dollar (effectively a 5% value) on the room and tax charge. The resort fee wasn’t included as it was charged on-site.
The MyVEGAS FREEPLAY rewards were obtained in two batches, which is how we were able to get twice the usual amount. Prior to December 2020, rewards tended to have a batch period of about 90 days, after which they would expire if not used. We were lucky in that the expiration date for the first batch we used was after our check-out date, and we were able to book a second batch closer to check-in date. And with a three day paid stay, we were able to meet the more stringent requirements for the $100 FREEPLAY rewards as well as merging FREEPLAY rewards. This would not have been possible with a MyVEGAS room reward stay.
The Delano / Mandalay Bay stay had a room and fees/taxes cost of about $480. The FHR rewards (wifi credit, dining credit, and breakfast) came to about $297 in real value, bringing the stay to $183.
After the $350 of MyVEGAS FREEPLAY, we effectively got paid $167 for our visit. All of that and more went back to MGM Resorts in the form of other dining and a massage and pedicure visit to Spa Mandalay, but those would have happened anyway.
We also netted almost 40,000 Tier Credits toward MLife status, which would have kept us at Pearl or taken us more than halfway to renewing Gold status if MGM had not already extended status through 2021.
The view from Wynn’s 35th floor corner room.
The Wynn reward stay, like the game, was a bit more complicated. Due to the hotel closure in March-May 2020, certain rewards were extended and could be rebooked in August regardless of VIP level at the time. So since we had a three-night stay booked from before some VIP program changes, we were able to rebook that in late August for the December stay. We did pay the $20 for wifi for a day or two while there. So not including dining and gambling at Wynn, we had three nights in a corner room on the 35th floor facing the golf course, for under $50.
About the pandemic part
This was our first trip during the pandemic, and it was unlike any other visit before or since. The airports were almost bare, crowds were lighter than usual even for mid-week, and the casinos were not very crowded either.
McCarran ride share was empty.
Unlike our June 2021 visit, the staffing shortages were not as evident. Restaurants and shops seemed about 50% open, some with limited hours, but we were still able to find excellent food without too much advance planning (which was definitely not the case in June 2021). Casino cocktail service was actually better at almost every property we went to in December compared to just six months later.
We are definitely looking forward to the latest mask round to end, shows to open, and restaurant staffing to recover. We’ve come to expect reservations to be necessary for high end locations (Gordon Ramsay Steak, BLT Steak, and so forth), but we’re not sure which was less satisfying, half-open or half-staffed.
In any event, we’ll be back this December if not sooner, and we’ll see how things change between last month and then.
The American Express Business Platinum Card, formerly a $450 annual fee offering with a 35% points back benefit on pay-with-points travel bookings, announced a few changes coming between now and February 2019.
Dell benefit description updated February 1, 2019. You can register for this benefit now.
During 2018, the main noticeable change was that they started issuing cards in metal rather than plastic, matching the personal card option. In return for the satisfying clink or clunk on a table, you give up the ability to have your card run on one of the old kerchunk machines (we’re sure there’s an official name for the impression-based devices, but we don’t know it offhand).
But 2019 brings a few new benefits, at a cost. As with the personal card, if you can use the new benefits, you’ll end up better off than before, even with the annual fee hike.
[See disclosure/disclaimer at the end if you’re into those things.]
Many of our readers will be headed to Las Vegas over the next couple of months. Whether it’s InteropITX, Cisco Live, VMworld, or something else, you may be curious about the quickest way to optimize your rewards and your stay while you’re there.
While reading all the other posts on rsts11travel would be the most thorough way to learn your way around Vegas, we figured we’d put together a unified list of things to do and think about as you head to what will be Tech City for much of the summer.
It took a couple of weeks, but the rsts11travel review of Aria Las Vegas’s Aria Sky Suites property finally came out this week. One of the prods to stop editing and just post it was that we were booking another stay for this summer that was somewhat related. Not everyone will celebrate a birthday and aim for MLife Gold in one weekend, but about anyone with the right charge card can take advantage of these benefits.
Delano’s all-suite plan makes it a very comfortable place for longer-term stays on the Las Vegas strip
We’ve written briefly about Delano Las Vegas in our Hidden Gems piece earlier this year. It’s one of our favorite properties on the strip, especially when attending an event being held in Mandalay Bay Convention Center. With its small lounge and bar, coffee shop with pastries and snacks, and Della’s Kitchen breakfast/lunch venue, you can get a lot done without passing Michael Jackson, and with Delano itself being a non-smoking, non-casino hotel with a separate entrance, those with sensitivity to noise or smoke can escape those discomforts in their “home” hotel. But you’re a few hundred feet from Cirque du Soleil, the Mandalay Bay casino, their dining options from fast counter service to posh sit-down service, and of course the rest of the strip.
Welcome to rsts11 travel, my new effort to share discoveries and recommendations from my travels. Today we’re visiting the Signature at MGM Grand, Delano at Mandalay Bay, Vdara at Aria, and Mandarin Oriental in City Center, checking out coffee-friendly, non-smoking, non-casino options in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip.
Be sure to visit our welcome post, and watch for more Las Vegas-themed posts in the next week to start things with a pop. On the board to round out January 2017 are a mobile power post and a mobile caffeine post.
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