Hey Folks,
Just finished up a trip to LAS and stayed at the MGM Grand. This is my first trip since the October 1, 2012, program changes. Here's a few answers to the questions I saw in prior posts that appeared unanswered as well as my random comments on a few MLife pertinent topics:

TIER POINTS:
- All tier points did indeed go "poof" on October 1, 2012.
- If you spend anything at all at the hotels, the 25 points/$1 spend makes it much much easier to advance levels.

EXPRESS COMPS:
- I still don't like the comps compared to the old days when you just duked it out with a host at the end of the stay. For reference point, I am MLife Gold and earned about $40 of comps on table game play that earned about 30,000 tier points.
- I still have no idea how exactly tier points are earned on table games. MLife quotes 1,000 points per $25 avg bet in blackjack for 1 hour. Doing the math on 30,000 points assuming blackjack play at 80 hands an hour gives a total wager of about $60,000, and assuming a house edge of 0.5%, theoretical loss should be about $300. I earned about $30 of express comps for my play, so it seems like you get about 10% of your theoretical loss back? I asked a few Players Club folks to give me the "real" number, but they either said they couldn't talk about that or they flat out didn't know. A prior post reports 12% of your comp balance shows as Express comps, which I wanted to verify, but forgot to ask when visiting.

DISCRETIONARY COMPS (Other than Express):
- As noted in a prior post, I still feel that the overall value of comps has dropped under the MLife system. Given my betting this trip was down from the $100ish average of prior trips to $75ish, I expected less by way of comps, but was surprised to not even get free room, whereas I used to get free room PLUS $50-75 food per day.

OTHER MLife BENEFITS:
- Others have had mixed reports about getting room upgrades (a listed MLife gold and above benefit). I wanted to try out the new Stay Well rooms so I asked for and received a room upgrade from a standard king room to a Strip View Stay Well room as part of the benefit. Pretty satisfied with this, as the room would've been an extra $30-50 a night (per website price listing).
- Night club access. So, when Studio 54 was around, there was a dedicated MLife gold and above entry line. Now that it's gone, it really does seem like this benefit is completely eroded as Tabu (the only open MGM Grand night club) doesn't participate nor did any of the Mirage nightclub properties (1OAK, Beatles Revolution Lounge).
- There was a priority check-in line and the hostess watching it did indeed ask to see my MLife card before letting me use it.

Overall, I'm still not sold on MLife and my opinion is that MGM is trying hard to substitute soft, low-cost/free benefits (space available upgrades, a "priority line", late check-out) for the hard comps (e.g. letting me gorge myself on a lobster pot pie at Nobhill) that were more common under the old Players Club. After all, it's their job to increase profits, and I think MLife is a relatively intelligent way to conceal the overall reduction in comps Anyway, happy to try and answer any other questions regarding my experience.

I've heard rumors about the cutbacks at MGM and hope to not experience them first hand on my upcoming trip. As for night club access, do you have a host? My host (when I was gold and now as platinum) has told me that he can walk me in to Tabu any time I wish. I assume if you have one he/she can set you up. As for other clubs, at Haze or 10AK before 11 I have gotten the priority access, as I have at Wet Republic and the pool at Aria (forget the name) - those are the ones I went to in summer/fall 2012. I did have problems at Bank and 1OAK after 11 - I am not sure if Bank will give the access before 11 since I went there late - but when asked my host assured me that if I had contacted him (i.e. after the 11pm cutoff) he could have worked it out. If there is no nightclub access benefit (or host workaround) at the new club at MGM (once it opens) that will be a big problem for me.

I've been a regular (and loyal!) MGM Resorts customer for 6 years or so now. I was concerned about the changes in the program from Players Club to Mlife -- and I agree that it gives them a way to manage the comps on a more objective (and more frugal) basis. However, I have a problem with transparency and consistency.

As the Mlife rules state, and true to their word, my status on September 30 was Noir and so it was on October 1 as well. Their website lit indicates that whatever status you had earned by Sept 30 2012 would stay in effect til Oct 1 2013. Indeed, the site says that if you earn the status anytime during the year you will keep it for one year.

My status remained Noir thru December 2012, my account page on the Mlife website reflected this Noir status, and I had one trip to Bellagio during that time which boosted my tier credits. However on Jan 10 2013 I checked the site and my status had been reduced to Platinum. I even received a nice Platinum colored mailer from them congratulating me on my Platinum status. This sure feels like insult added to injury.

So they reduced my status between December 10 and January 10, despite the "rules" on their website. I contacted my casino host and she promised to let me know if she learned anything about it, but no response so far. Has anyone out there had a similar experience? Any suggestions on who to contact within the Mlife administration about this? Any advice from the Mlife insiders out there?

There's a discussion in the comps section of vegas message board about the downgrade issue...

I used to have a host, but she stopped sending me anything after I didn't visit for about 6-8 months. I went back around this time and my play at around $75ish didn't qualify for any host services. In the past though, I never had any issues getting into Studio 54 (didn't really do Tabu). As for nightclubs though, my complaint is mainly that MLife PUBLISHES a benefit of nightclub access, that I was completely unable to get at all the places I tried this trip (Tabu, 1OAK, Beatles Revolution Lounge). As for pool access, it was cold so I didn't go, but my last trip in June 2012 I got into Wet Republic no problem.

In my experience, there is a direct correlation with where your most frequent gaming (and host) is, and perhaps to a lesser extent who your host is.

I visit Vegas 4-6 times per year. I have concentrated my stays/play at Mirage, Bellagio and Mandalay Bay. At Mandalay Bay, my gaming dollar gets me more comps than anywhere else. This was absolutely the case prior to the PC to ML changeover last year, and still is true to a great extent now.

Not news to everyone, but my understanding is that the offers that come via email and snail mail are a corporate marketing function. They originate in the office of the Director of Slot Operations (or equivalent) and are designed to get the machine players back in the hotel. The mailing list for the slot tournaments, concerts, and three-nights-plus-freeplay offers are pretty much formula driven.

VIP passes for clubs, buffets, restaurants, limo service etc. I think are more at the discretion of your Casino Host. They get some latitude with limits and are probably on the hook to show results for the handouts they give.

So IMHO what you get in terms of passes, room upgrades and other perqs depends on your guy at the casino, your play, and your interaction with the host (gotta ask for it if you want it). My host at Mandalay Bay has been magnificent. Sometimes, too, I think that perhaps in the case of Mandalay Bay, the fact that they are at the South end of the Strip means they have to work just a tad harder to get the level of casino play they need. Nobody drops a $20 bill in a slot on a whim at MB because they are walking the strip from TI to Bellagio. There's just not that much tourist traffic.

I get treated very well at Mandalay Bay for the same level of play that wouldn't even get noticed at Bellagio (but I love to stay there because it is a grand, grand place). There's always a trade-off in choosing your LV destination....

Having said all that, having the NOIR status yanked is enough to make me wonder what the Total Rewards program could do for me. Well, over to the vegas message board we go....

Pretty much my exact story, except that after being Noir for several years I was downgraded to Gold somewhere early December and early January.

I thought that was impossible, so I called and told my unhelpful host that. She looked at my play and said that according to her computer, my last trip alone would make me Platinum. She said that Noir was now invitation only and she could do nothing about that. Fine, so please fix my Gold/Platinum issue. She still hasn't called me back and I have a trip there on Wednesday.

Now both Mlife and Seven Stars suck.

I was there this past weekend and was told that platinum and noir members get free cruises this year - however, that sounds to me like something that would be noir only. Maybe they are making platinum better and downgrading some who are noir. I know that's no consolation and would be outraged if I was downgraded (especially past platinum - don't understand that one) but thought I'd throw it out there.

Received a brochure in the mail this week that indeed states that both Platinum and Noir do get a free cruise.

I though it was just my perception but I also do get great love from MB, for what has merely been an after thought of play. The hotel is fine, but the rooms are getting tatty, and I never liked the location. Aria was great at opening (probably trying to get traffic) but they are tight there even though in the last 12 months I have given them far more action than MB or Bellagio.

That's crazy - Platinum is easy (which is why the benefits are generally worthless). I would make Platinum every year just on my dining spend at Bellagio.

Just returned from my first comped trip to an MGM property in LV. A casino host from another group moved there and invited me to come try out Mandalay Bay since he was my host for many years at a TR property. I learned that there is a big difference between TR and Mlife that may explain some of the comp questions people have. My host told me that unlike TR, where a host at any TR property can book you at any hotel, and can take into account your play at all TR properties, the hosting and comping at MGM are based solely on play at that property which is tracked separately. In fact, if you go to more than one MGM property, and your play rises to earn a host, you have different hosts at different properties. So if you play a lot at
Bellagio, your Bellagio host can't comp you into a room at Mandalay. In effect the MGM properties are in competition for you.

Therefore, if you want to maximize the ability of your host to comp and give you offers, you need to concentrate your play as much as possible into a single MGM property.

That's his take FWIW.

I think you mean to concentrate your play at the MGM property you are staying in for any particular visit. Based on my experience concentrating all trips at one MGM property does not help my host comp more - in fact my best MGM offers are at a property I haven't stayed at much.

Well, that is probably certainly true for one trip. But I think his point (and this is just what he told me so take it FWIW) is that the offers he can give me at his casino are based solely on my play at his casino, so if I go somewhere else, he doesn't take that into account when making offers or giving out comps. So if I accumulate tons of tier points at Bellagio one year, my offers (or perhaps online discounts for rooms) for Aria won't necessarily be as good as offers I get at Bellagio.

I have no way to judge if this is accurate, as it was my first MGM stay, and I probably won't see any offers for a while, but I will report back as the year goes on.

This is just not true - I only gamble at Bellagio as far as mlife properties but I frequently get restaurant comps throughout the mlife system. I even got some friends' rooms comped at Mirage last time they stayed there. Certainly I don't know how the actual process of the comps works (e.g., maybe my host coordinates with a host at that property? I don't know) but the comp value itself is certainly not independent by property.

I have even walked into the casino office at mlife properties I have never played at before and talked to a random host and gotten comps for that property after the host looked up my info on the computer, so it seems clear that hosts at any MGM property can look up my Bellagio play history or at least some sort of comp balance.

BTW, you do certainly get hosts at different properties, but that's more of a convenience issue than anything else. I'm amazed they don't do that at TR.


The reason for this is that after the rollout of mlife, the MGM family decided to push players to certain properties. I'm pretty sure I posted about this on FT before. For me, mlife tried to push me to Aria. Despite my only staying once ever at Aria before the mlife rollout (right after it opened, and I hated it - I wrote a bad review on the FT LV forum), after mlife all my offers were for Aria. Every mailing and e-mail I got was for Aria. Two hosts from Aria even called me despite my requesting not to be contacted via phone. I didn't get a single Bellagio offer. This happened to a couple other Bellagio regulars I know (although not all to Aria) - and even one friend who was a regular at Aria who they apparently tried to push over to Mirage.

My Bellagio host at the time even told me he would not be able to offer me the same level of comps as previously even though my ADT was at an all-time high. While it's true that MGM was cutting comps across the board at the time (in large part due to the money issues from the City Center fiasco) it's obvious that the primary factor was trying to shoehorn me into Aria, since my offers there were so much better.

Frankly, it's insulting to have a hospitality company tell me where I should go. It was a galling demonstration of lack of care for the customer. That's the primary reason Cosmo was able to steal me away and why I no longer stay at Bellagio, which is a real shame because I like so many of the bar/lounge/gambling staff there.