About a month ago Frequent Miler wrote a very long, detailed and helpful post about how to get free cruise offers by matching casino statuses. You should go and read through it. Even if you aren’t holding a casino status it explains how to gain status by matching from hotel loyalty programs. On top of free cruises there are other valuable benefits to be gained. I was particularly interested in free nights at the Wynn in Las Vegas.
Since I was mysteriously upgraded to Caesars Diamond status in January I already had a head start. I did what matching I could online, and then booked a room at the Tropicana (read the full review)to hit the boardwalk and do the rest. Full details on my results are below.
Where’s the Money? This site may contain affiliate links. Many travel sites include such links to earn a commission at no cost to readers.
Free Cruise Offers
I did the two matches to free cruise offers online. So far Carnival has not contacted me with a cruise offer. I am now getting regular emails with offers like $50 in free play on a ship or earn X points in the casino and receive Y dollars. Not very interesting at all.
I had better luck with Holland America. Shortly after matching they emailed me a voucher for a free 7 night cruise. Unfortunately their Caribbean sailings were sold out months in advance. The route I found that worked best for me was from Boston through New England and Canada, ending in Montreal. I called about booking and the port taxes were around $350. A drinks package was another $350. Then there was the problem of getting myself to Boston and probably spending at least one hotel night along the way. It was apparent that this free cruise was going to cost something north of $1000 to actually complete. That’s not a bad price for a week’s vacation but for something to do on a whim it is a bit high. I would rather take that $1000 and just go directly to Montreal.
I was successful in matching to Ocean Casino’s Prime status in Atlantic City. On paper that sounds like an even better cruise offer, eliminating the port taxes and just charging a reasonable gratuity, converting a deposit to onboard credit. I haven’t attempted to book this yet but if I can find a route leaving soon from a port in the South I will probably try to book it.
Status Matching Process: Partial Success
I started at Hard Rock where I gave them my license and Caesars card and the agent matched me to the Rock Royalty tier as expected. I waited 10 minutes to make sure the $50 free play was loaded into their computers. When I put my card into a machine I was able to download the free play and start playing. I still had $40 by the time I had put $50 worth of coin into the machine so I cashed that out.
Part of this promotion is that you can visit their VIP lounge with a bar and buffet inside, but that visit requires earning $10 worth of comp dollars. You would have to be playing table games or high limit slots all weekend to get to $10. I heard that the hostess in the high limit room might just give you $10 in comps if you ask nicely (and break off a little something for her, naturally) but I didn’t bother to try it. The Hard Rock status they gave me is good for 9 months.
I continued walking to Ocean Casino Resort and repeated the process. I matched to Prime level as expected but instead of free play they give you a t-shirt and parking pass. It is the same deal here with earning $10 in comps for the VIP lounge. This status is only good for a little more than a month, pretty disappointing.
I hit a big snag at the Borgata. Because I had matched to MGM Pearl within the last year I am not able to match again until January. Caesars Diamond used to match to MGM Gold. MGM Downgraded that shortly before I matched in January. So while they do match Ocean Prime to Gold, I wasn’t able to achieve that. It is disappointing. The main objective I had in making this trip was eliminating MGM’s fees.
A Note About Bally’s Status Match
Bally’s does not offer any cruises or free nights for matching at any level. But I saw this poster when I was walking by. A refund in future rewards is not a very tempting proposition but I figured if I could match my $50 in free play from Hard Rock that could be an easy win.
No dice though. You need to have received a free play offer in the mail to match it here. Now that I have shown some face in AC maybe the mail will start coming? Part of these promotions is free room nights in Atlantic City on a future trip so if something turns up in the mail before then maybe it will be useful. I didn’t go through with a match here.
Free Room Nights Offers
After this trip I am currently eligible for the following free nights in addition to the cruise on MSC.
- 2 Nights at Ocean in AC
- 2 Nights at Hard Rock in AC
- 2 Nights at Wynn in Las Vegas (plus $50 dining credit)
I’m not exactly dying to go back to AC. It is small and once you have walked the boardwalk a few times you have pretty much exhausted your options. Still, it is Memorial Day weekend at the time of writing so if I can book all four of those nights consecutively it is probably worth doing just to hang out on the beach. Getting there the first time was pretty easy with a combination of super cheap flights and a trip on the train.
I will definitely try to take advantage of nights at the Wynn, probably even before and above the cruise. Two nights there might be worth $700-800. It will be easy to find ultra cheap nights at a Caesars property to round out a trip. I still haven’t collected the celebration dinner benefit, which I intend to do at Bacchanal Buffet.
My room in AC was $206 for 3 nights and the flights were $100 round trip. For $300 I think I will come out ahead on this scheme, even if it hasn’t been all champagne wishes and caviar dreams along the way.
There’s Always Next Year
Even that Caesars status is going to expire eventually. It is not clear if that can be re-matched from Hard Rock either in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. There’s a slim chance it could be re-matched from Wyndham Diamond, but probably not.
It could mean starting at the beginning and getting a Wyndham Earner Business card. It’s also worth noting that you can get to Wyndham Diamond temporarily by matching other hotel statuses, including the one that comes with the IHG Premier credit card.
But I may just end up doing this the old fashioned way: by staying enough Hyatt nights to get to Explorist status, with most of those nights being at MGM properties in Las Vegas. After all the best way to get ahead in the loyalty game is usually by switching loyalty whenever the grass looks even a little greener on the other side of Las Vegas Boulevard.
