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Bobby Vegas — Gift Cards, Points, and Straddles Oh My

Bobby Vegas: Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Triple-Zero Roulette

Who knew giving away a dozen free cookies a day would be so hard. Help me. Please. My blood sugar begs you. Or planning an almost free trip to Vegas.

With the launch of the Frugal Video Poker Strategy Guide ebook, the $10 discount offered to LVA subscribers (SUBSCRIBE ) or previous purchasers of FVPSG’s hard copy (HARDCOPY), I threw in a dozen free Tiffs Treats cookies (COOKIE) for pickup through End of July, making the whole package if not free ($48 in value for $9.88), at least a fantastic value play.

You get the FVPSG, my “Best VP on the Strip” booklet, and a dozen warm cookies (good till all cookies are sold). Go to my previous blog for details.

As for gift cards, I love gift card deals. If a retailer wants to give me 25% off on something I buy regularly, I’m in. Here’s the problem. People lose their cards. Or forget about them. Me too. Big time. It’s like TITO tickets at Caesars.

Example: I bought a discounted Alamo Drafthouse e-gift card and lost it recently. Then the excellent live customer service person located my card and noticed I had several in my account. Checking the balances, I had over $200 worth dating back four years ! Holy buttered popcorn, Batman! Would AI have found that? No way. That’s one reason I solicit companies with live customer service — and why so many companies are eliminating them.

Next, our local custard place, Goodberry’s, sells discounted gift cards as gifts for friends and well, me. While decluttering, I found four $25 cards I’d lost. It pays to declutter, at least at my house.

As for points and credits, I’m a big fan of Chase Ultimate Rewards points. I charge everything I can, then pay off the balance and accrue enough points for my Vegas flights. My card gives a 25% bonus using their points on their 24/7 live travel portal. $400 plane flight? Only $300. nice.

Next, casino offers and coupons, oh my. I have two comp nights a month at Downtown Grand where they let me straddle. After stacking, I love straddles. I’ll have four nights over Labor Day weekend — two in August, two in September — for free.

Straddling months also works on casino free-play offers like Four Queens. You get two offers on one trip.

Finally, using my Rio no-resort-fee LVA MRB coupon Sunday thru Friday will cost me $127 total for five nights, saving the $285 in resort fees.

I’ll be in Vegas for nine nights and 10 days, free flight on points. Total hotel cost $135.

I still have to pay for my car. Working on that next. Even paying for that, my out-of-pocket trip cost will be under $500. For nine nights. And there were other very good deals at Plaza and the Grand with no resort fee, free parking and daily food comps I didn’t use.

It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.

7 thoughts on “Bobby Vegas — Gift Cards, Points, and Straddles Oh My”

  1. Edso

    We looooove the straddle. Stayed at the Westgate June 29-July 2 and straddled the free play…. Really nice when you get $500-$600 in FP over the four days. We also had food comps ($50) each and free rooms. We had over a $100 in room charges (beyond what was deducted with the food comps) that our host took off our bill. Thank you very much, Preston!

    Gonna hit it again for Labor Day Weekend….wife’s bday, our 25th anniversary and the third leg of their $250K slot tourney series. We love the food comps, free play and free rooms.

    We will couple this weekend with a downtown coupon run, use the Jen Kramer deal and hit up the Tuscany for their gift day on Saturday and their 50% off comp match. You get up to 50% off when paying with your comps. Basically, you can pay your $50 dinner tab for just $25 in comps. What!?!

    And when we leave on Tuesday to head home, we’ll stop by the Silver Sevens and use the member rewards online coupon for the Sept. 2nd gift. No having to earn 1,777 points…it’s free. Score!

    Appreciate your posts Bobby Vegas and maybe we’ll see you downtown over the Labor Day Weekend. I’ll be the guy cashing in the LVA coupon for the $500 FP after I hit a Royal at the Sand Dollar…..hopefully. Be Well!

    1. Edso

      Addition to previous post: The 50% off comp match is on Sundays at the Tuscany for dining or the gift shop.

  2. Jimmy Jazz

    Use autoslash.com for rental cars. Easy, free and usually gets me the best rate.

    I’m assuming you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. If you get the Sapphire Reserve card, points are worth $1.50 instead of $1.25 on their travel portal. Lots goes into making the decision so weigh the other benefits of CSR before plunking down $800 for the annual fee.

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