After finding out that the offer I received from Caesars that "my two VIP
tickets to Celine Dion were waiting for me" just meant I could BUY two
tickets, I contacted a host, and now it looks like the host will be able to
comp my 2 tickets.
This shows the value of going to a host for a promotion if you don't get an
invitation. Anyone who plays at Caesars or any other Park Place casinos may
be able to get Celine tickets. If you don't currently play there but want
tickets, you could try playing at Caesars. They have many 9/6 JB machines,
including quarter single line, quarter Spin Poker, $1 single line, $1 Triple
play. If you put through 5000-10,000$ in a single day, you might be able to
qualify. If nothing else, you'll probably start getting on the Caesars
mailing list, which sometimes has nice offers for 2-3 room nights, sometimes
with food or cash.
Apparently Celine is not sold out, as previously rumored, but it might help
to have even just a little play to be able to buy a good ticket through a
host, if you don't qualify for a free one.
···
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I'm also having odd problems with Harrahs marketing. Although I have a lot
of play on their triple $1 VP, and qualify for almost every offer, for
unknown reasons I'm receiving mail offers from marketing (like slot
tournaments) but none from their promotion department (like shows and
shopping sprees). I was told the problem might be because I have a local
Vegas address, however
a friend of mine who just played there once is being inundated with all sorts
of offers, including the Promtional ones I'm not getting. My host is trying
to get my name back on the promotional database, but for unknown reasons he
is having problems.
But because I do qualify for offers, I've been able to get some of the events
through the host. The Harrahs host was able to book MAMA MIA (playing at
Mandalay Bay) for me, though a Rio offer. Apparently Rio players are getting
this, but Harrahs can arrange things through the Rio.
The host was also able to book me for the March 29 Elton John/Billy Joel
concert because Harrahs is running a promotion there.
The upshot of this is that hosts can be very useful, especially if you think
you should be qualifying for something you are not getting.
I don't know if anyone else who plays at Harrahs is having problems with the
mailings, but if you are, contact your host.
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But sometimes even having a host won't help. We were just at Orleans, and
despite my husband playing through about $20,000 or more in Jan., we couldn't
get a meal comp tonight. We were told you now have to "swipe your card."
Unfortunately the Japanese restaurant doesn't let you do this, so we had to
run back to the slot club to get a comp for points. This is the first time
we've been turned down for a comp at Orleans, so obviously the "tightening
up" has caught up with us. One wonders what the Orleans hosts will do now,
if they don't have any work writing comps??
It seems like someone playing through just $10,000 in one month would now be
better off to play at Palms than Orleans, due to all the free play and other
promotions at Palms. (Assuming they played through most on 1-2 days only so
as not to have a bad "daily average."). I don't know if you would be better
off playing $20,000 through both Palms and Orleans rather than all at Palms
or not but maybe so.
Since I play some "reel" slots, some good FP machines, and also some not so
good VP at times, the lack of descretionary comps at Orleans really causes me
to rethink going there. I can play faster FP machines at Palms or elsewhere
and "reels" or bad VP anywhere in town, including places which have cashback
and descretionary comps or at least good promtional offers (like the above
mentioned show tickets, which are for better shows than at Orleans).
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By the way, one sort of nice perk at Orleans, we were able to use
slot club points to see a movie. We paid 3500 points or about $8.75 if we
had asked for cashback for 2 matinee movies. If we'd bought the movie
tickets at the theater they would have cost about $11.
We saw "Daredevil" - good if you liked Batman type comic book movies, but
very violent and certainly should not been seen by anyone under 12 (like the
5-10 year olds in the audience who thoughtless parents had brought!).
Also recently saw "Chicago" - excellent adaptation of Broadway musical -
definitely worth seeing.
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