Something Big is Coming

The new Boarding Pass rules seem to mimic the old rules as far as expiration is concerned and under the old rules we never had any points expire. Here's the quote from the old rules:

"Points are redeemable for thirteen (13) months from the date that they are earned and thereafter automatically expire and are unavailable for redemption. All points in an account that have not been redeemed will be deleted if no activity has occurred on that account for a period of thirteen (13) months"

That sounds pretty ominous and I once questioned the Rewards Center on the wording and although they didn't have a good answer it appears that the second sentence supercedes the first and as long as you had activity within thirteen months your expiration date kept moving forward.

The all NEW Boarding Pass rules have almost identical wording which is as follows:

"Points are redeemable for at least thirteen (13) months from the date that they were earned. All points in an account that have not been redeemed will be expired and removed if no activity has occurred on that account for a period of thirteen (13) months"

The wording changes are very subtle but by adding the words "at least" that seems to make it clear that the expiration date can move as long as activity keeps occurring.

I'm still trying to digest all the changes but my current take in my wife and I's situation is that things in total are only slightly better. I say that because we visit Vegas about 4 times a year and always took advantage of the 3x points mailer offers and the 5x points senior offer when it existed and rarely had any play that didn't include some type of points multiplier, so the new 3x points is not that big a deal. The raising of the 600 points for a $1 for station restaurants to 1000 points equal a $1 is a bummer. The downgrading of the points required for boarding pass status (gold, platinum, etc) is good except it sounds like the discounts at the various levels have also been downgraded. That kind of seems like a wash. It's also a bummer that although video poker has 3x points only 1 of the points counts towards boarding pass status. The cash back option is pretty nice and it seems that sports book activity is being recognized better.

All things considered the "something big" thing that was coming doesn't seem quite all that big at least to me.


Wes

Points will not expire unless there is no activity for 12 months. Earn one point and that's "activity."

Yes, points were added to make up for the new 1,000 = $1 rate. We were told that if you had 600 points before, you would have 1,000 now. The idea was that nobody would lose anything in the transition. "No takeaways" is how it was put.

I had just under 22,000 points on my account. I logged in today and still have the same number so I've had no points added.

My points are the same as well.

The same with me. I was told on Saturday that my points would be adjusted upward, but that has not happened. So I checked at the Player's Club today and was told that only points earned before February 2008 would be adjusted. Seriously?

What I really don't like is how they assured me that this would be such a win win and positive change for everyone. Obviously, for someone with a new card or few previous points or just looking at going forward, I guess that this is true.

For me that change from 600 to 1000pts is a big loss. In essence, I have lost more than $200.00 worth of comps since I mainly use my points for in house Stations restaurants.

Linda and I just got back from Vegas. While there, we went out to Red Rock to check out the changes first hand.

The first thing we did was check our promotional offers. We each still had two 3x points offers and we activated one. Then we went and played NSUD video poker for a while and noticed that indeed we were earning 3 points for every dollar. This didn't really tell us if anything was happening with the 3x promotional offer so I decided to brave the long line at the Players Club to ask.

The line went fast because they were fully manned for the change over. Apparently I was the first one to ask about the status of the 3x point promotional offer because she didn't know the answer right away and had to ask someone else about it. She came back and told me that the 3x point offers were left over from the "old system" and just duplicated the 3x points that everyone now got. I asked "so they are redundant?" and she said yes.

Disappointed I went back to my NSUD machine to tell Linda the bad news, but when I put my card back in the machine it showed that I had earned twice the number of points that it had said when I pulled the card out. I tested this a couple of times, playing a little and then pulling the card and putting it back in. Each time the points doubled.

This time I sent Linda to the Players Club to ask about the status of the 3x promotional offer. She said the question caused some confusion and conversation behind the desk but eventually they came back with the answer that she would earn the 3 points per dollar that everyone one was now earning plus an additional 3 points per dollar from the promotional offer.

So unless there is still more to it that I didn't see, or unless something changes, it appears that the 3x point promotional offer gets added to the 3 points per dollar everyone now gets for a total of 6 points per dollar (not multiplied for 9 points per dollar). That seems like a reasonable solution (9x seemed too good to be true), but I am once again baffled that players club personnel are not fully informed and trained to answer such an important and basic question about a widespread promotional offer (this isn't just a Stations Casino problem).

SEE LATER POST INDICATING THAT YOU DO ACTUALLY GET 9 POINTS PER DOLLAR

I just checked our Station Casinos point balances and it sure looks like both Linda and I earned 9x points with my 3x promotional offer. The total points added to our accounts after playing on Saturday are 9 times the amount of new tier points earned for the period.

Not 3x. Not 6x. But 9x.

So despite all my efforts to get the correct answer in person at the casino. Everybody got it wrong.

Can't complain about 9x points though.

Asked my host about 3x offers. She emailed yesterday that it will be honored at 9 points per dollar.

My points have not changed.

I earned my points in June with the expectation that they would be honored at 600 points for $1.00. For Stations to change this after they are earned is extremely unfair IMO.