This is a phenomenon called surge pricing, something you need to consider all year long when you are booking a Las Vegas stay.  Room rates are definitely not static. Some visitors are more familiar with higher rates during holiday periods, but they can also occur during big convention dates.  It pays to check the schedule you can find at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Now for November news and promotions. But first, a note about all the promotions I mention here in my blog.  I usually give just a summary, with some of the basic details.  But I do not always mention every single limitation or exclusion.  So, to get complete information you must go to the casino websites, where hopefully all the fine-print warnings will be given.  However, sometimes you eventually need to actually show up at the players club desk to check on specifics and see if there are any last-minute changes.

South Point is running one of my favorite promotions this month – with your players club points worth twice their regular value for Amazon gift cards.  You can earn up to a total of ten $50 cards by redeeming $25 in players club points for each card, and this is equivalent to double points during your earning period.

Arizona Charlies Decatur – I am hearing reports – and complaints – about major downgrades in this casino –both in the VP paytables and in the players club and comp benefits.  The only positive thing I hear is that there are some good food specials, especially for breakfast in their coffee shop.

Gold Coast – “Get Your Grub On” buffet special every Tuesday in November.  Earn 10 tier credits and get a free buffet. After you play, print out your voucher at the kiosk; it is good that day or save it and use it the next day.  And by the way, the voucher you get on Wednesday’s Young at Heart for the free breakfast or lunch can also be saved to use the next day.

 El Cortez – Just saw an ad in the R-J about this check-cashing promotion, one that I think has been going on for quite a while.  But perhaps some have missed it.

Cash any Tax Return, Government Check, or Payroll check from any Clark County Gaming property and receive 5% off your check in free play, up to $50. Must be a Club Cortez member. For promotion details, see posted rules at Casino Cage/Slot Club.

And now for a non-casino freebie/discount:

Mob Museum: To celebrate Kefauver Day, Nov. 15, The Mob Museum announces FREE admission (9 am to 9 pm) for Nevada residents and buy one admission, get one free for non-residents, sponsored by Zappos. Throughout the year, it extends free admission to Nevada residents through designated annual Free Days.  Check it out here.

Lots of food and gambling promos coming up for Veterans Day, the 11th, and Thanksgiving, the 28^th.  I’ll cover them next week when I have gathered more details.

Although I mainly look for gambling-specific promotions, like multiple-point days, to write about, I know most players are also interested in other promotional categories, especially food offers.  Obviously if you can save money on meals when you are in a casino, then you will have more money to add or keep in your gambling bankroll. This month I know about three play-for-a-buffet promos.

SOUTH POINT

From a press release:  South Point Casino Club members have the chance to earn a lunch or dinner voucher for the Garden Buffet every Monday through Thursday throughout April. To earn one lunch buffet, slot machine players must earn 300 same day base slot points between 3 a.m. and 1 p.m. Club members can receive a dinner buffet voucher by earning 600 same day base slot points before 8 p.m. To receive the earned buffet vouchers, Club members must present an ID and swipe their Casino Club card at any kiosk to verify their points by 2 p.m. for a lunch buffet and by 9 p.m. for a dinner buffet. Players must then redeem their lunch and/or dinner tickets at any Casino Club kiosk between 7 a.m. and midnight to receive their Garden Buffet coupons. All players must be 21 years of age or older and can only be awarded one lunch or dinner buffet per day per player, based on same day play points. The Garden Buffet vouchers are valid Monday through Thursday only and expire Thursday, May 3.

SILVERTON

Tuesdays in April you can earn either (but not both) a free lunch buffet by earning 50 points or a free dinner buffet for 100 points.  This is one of our favorite value-priced buffets.  And the promotion has one extra feature.  You can earn and print out the coupon at the kiosk on Tuesday and it is good through Thursday of that same week.

RAMPART

Rampart has an every-day on-going earn-and-redeem (you don’t keep the points to use for other purposes as you do in a simple earn promo) buffet offer. They also offer a similar spa promo.

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PALMS

I don’t always give you all the details of every promotion I mention here since you can go to the casino website where these are usually well covered, including requirements, limits, and restrictions.  I constantly remind you to read all the fine print!  However, there is one casino I talk about – the Palms – that has not yet followed its new “mother” (Stations Casinos) by covering their promotions on their website.  So, I will try to be more detailed here so that those who do not get the regular monthly mailer will have enough info to at least have a general idea about their promotions, many which out-of-towners as well as locals might find attractive.

First, I need to mention that the popular earn-a-buffet promotion that they ran since their new A.Y.C.E buffet opened is no longer in effect.  I am assuming that they think their frugal introduction offer has produced a healthy number of fans who will continue to be customers at the regular price.  Most people I talk to think this is a high-value choice for a reasonable cost.  And there have been some changes that have improved the overall experience.  Even Brad – who wasn’t thrilled at first – likes to go there.  And the lunchtime sliders I panned earlier now have the soft buns I like better.  We both like the navy bean soup and light-style cornbread, and our favorite desert is the fudgy sugar-free brownie topped by vanilla sugar-free gelato.  Yummmmm!

Although the buffet offer is gone, they have several other promotions this month. A couple small ones are kiosk games on Mondays and Fridays that you can play after earning 5 base points.  I haven’t done these very often, but in my experience and talking with others who have done these at other Station properties, the prizes are fairly small and probably not worth a special trip for many players.  But if you are on property those days anyway, it is a small added bonus.

The popular promotions to earn movie tickets and car washes have been combined in April into one day – Tuesdays.  Earn 300 points for one or 600 points for both.  You keep the points. Also, the Palms continues to participate with the other Station properties in the Wheel of Fortune bonus, where each individual property jackpot starts at 10K and must hit by 20K.

The biggest promo that may be of interest to many players is earning Chevron gift cards on Thursdays in April.  You can find the complete rules and schedule at the Rewards Center, but there are many levels.  You can earn a $5 gift card by earning 300 slot or 1500 VP points.  If you earn enough points for all 5 levels (that’s 19,500 for slots; 57,000 for VP), you will have earned $190 of those gas gift cards – and you still keep the points for free play, cash, and comps.

Miscellaneous Promos

Not interested in long gambling sessions or no interest in gambling at all?  Casinos these days try to offer free or low-cost activities to bring in customers who will spend money at their property outside of the gaming action.

Silverton offers free admission to “Pub Trivia” on Wednesday nights; and with your players card, on Thursday evenings you can enjoy a classic rock band show.  You can stop by a craft show there on April 1, a garage sale on April 7, and a weekly farmers market on Sundays.  On Tuesdays you can enter two slot tournaments, free with your players card.

Rampart Casino is offering free table game lessons every Saturday at 10 a.m.  At South Point there are free show options, and many events in their Arena are open for free to the public.

If you are age 50+, almost all local casinos have freebies and discounts for you on their designated “senior day.”

Scouring local casino websites will help you discover promotions for all type of activities – gambling and otherwise – many which may surprise you, especially if you don’t get their  mailers.  And there is one resource that I forgot to put on my list I gave last week here in my blog, one that is a must-read for those always on the hunt for all kinds of good promotions.  Go to the weekly Vegas Values where every Sunday Scot Krause gives you a report on the best current casino deals and you can also check on-going promotions.

For complete information about this fun and informative event go to ZorkFest. There you can scroll down and find schedules, pictures and bios of the speakers, preliminary session subjects, host hotel rates, and registration details.  Of course, I want to tell you about all the ways you can reduce the cost of this educational and entertaining event – talking about how to get more bang for your buck is what I do!

First, remember this valuable code:  zorklva.  This will give you discounts for many parts of the registration fees.  And second, remember this still-wise cliché – the early bird gets the worm.  The Super Early Discount rate available if you register before March 20, coupled with the LVA code, will be the best bargain.  But there are other discounts for add-ons and combo offers.

Then there are special LVA promotions. Use the code zorklvaroller for $25 off the High-Roller ticket, offer good until April 30.    And here is one Brad and I are excited about because we love to chat with our fans:

ZorkFest will provide three (3) Friday VIP dinner tickets to raffle off for LVA members. Potential winners will be any LVA member who buys a Zorkfest conference ticket (with the LVA code). Those three winners will sit with Anthony Curtis or Jean and Brad Scott at dinner Friday night.  If the winner of the LVA contest for dinner already has purchased a dinner (or High-Roller ticket which includes dinner) they will get a $100 Treasure Island Casino chip, at registration.  Those who purchase the dinner (or High Roller Ticket which includes dinner) will also get a chance to sit with AC or Jean and Brad Scott, on a first- come- first basis.

I am really enthusiastic about this event because it covers such a large range of subjects of interest to people who work at being thrifty.  Of course, my niche is frugal gambling, but we spent a lot of time over the years making our travel budget smaller – think of those many airplane bumps we chased –  so we would have a bigger bankroll when we got to the casino.   And we are really looking forward to chatting with many of our frugal readers, some we have met in person in the past but many have wished for such an opportunity as this May event will bring.  Hope to see you there!

The Palms

Remember how I told you in my blog early in the month how you could double-dip at the Palms by using the same points for two promotions for certain days.  At the time I knew the casino was aware of this “problem” – for them but not for the customer!    Via the grapevine I heard they were trying to close this loophole so beloved by all of us players.  Well, they kinda did a few days ago by making a “rule” for the players club employees that they could not issue gift cards AND free buffet vouchers using the same earned points.  However, many customers just went the club desk to get these at different times and there was no guidance to the employees on how to check whether the proper points had been earned.

I have talked to one casino employee who wasn’t sure how this was going to play out the rest of February with two promotions still running on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  You can try to double-dip but I don’t guarantee your success.  However, I was told the casino was going to change/adjust promotion days in March so this would definitely no longer be a player option. ☹

South Point

This is probably not a new promotion but is one that just came to my attention.  South Point movie theaters are offering $4 movies for those 50+, not just on Monday senior day, but also on Wednesdays.  This price is good for all showings on those days, except there is an additional fee for 3D and XD.  You must show a South Point players card and ID.

Another discount day, for all ages, is Tuesday, with an all-day admission price of $5.25, with the same upcharges as just mentioned above.  (This promotion is available company-wide for Cinemark theaters.)  Also note that Tuesday Openings do not have this discount.

Inspirational Advice

“What helps luck is a habit of watching for opportunities, of having a patient, but restless mind, of sacrificing one’s ease or vanity, of uniting a love of details to foresight, and of passing through hard times bravely and cheerfully.” – Charles Victor Cherbuliez, a 19^th-century French novelist.

•  Check here for list of free Strip and near-Strip parking and shuttle options (with a list of the various charges for where it is not free).  One bad-news change is that the Rio shuttle to the Strip has been discontinued except during special events like tournaments.  The Gold Coast shuttle is still running but I have heard reports that it is not always available to everyone who lines up; people who have a room at a Boyd property have first dibs on the seats! 

• Be aware that anyone can park free at any Strip MGM or CZR property for one hour, handy for short errands inside like placing or collecting a sports bet, doing some business at the players club desk or kiosk, or picking up or dropping off people.

• Veterans have a great option, an older program at MGM properties and now a new one at the CZR ones.  Both veterans programs include a players club tier upgrade –  to Platinum for CZR, to Pearl for MGM – and one of the benefits of both of those include free parking.

• Of course, you can reach those levels – and score the free parking benefit – by playing but that involves risking your money.  There is one other way that doesn’t involve any risk – unless you can’t handle credit cards responsibly.  Both offer no-fee credit cards that will get you to those levels with a free-parking benefit.

Feel free to put in the “Comments” any details that you can add to help out your fellow parkers.

 Join us on Saturday, October 28 from 1 to 7 p.m. for free, self-guided access to the Neon Boneyard in recognition of our fifth birthday.   Reservations NOT required.  The lobby opens at 12:30 p.m.

TUSCANY

The all-month 20% senior discount moves to the Tuscany Gardens Italian restaurant for September.

Their Pub 365 restaurant advertises an “Executive 15-Minute Lunch Guarantee, your lunch in 15 minutes from order to table –guaranteed, Monday-Friday, 11a.m-2 p.m.”

PALMS

Major remodeling still in progress with many machines moved around and various areas walled off and/or in changed locations.

One of our favorite promotions has returned – earn 300 same-day base points on Thursdays and get a coupon for a free Terrible’s car wash. Continuing is a similar one on Tuesdays, earning 300 for a free Brenden Theater movie ticket.  Check out details of both of these at the players club.

CASINO PROMOTIONS FOR VETERANS

Here are some benefits I have uncovered, but I know there are many more.  You should always ask if there is a military discount before you make a room reservation at a casino hotel or buy a ticket for a show or any attraction.    Many do give discounts on room rates, but eligibility may vary. Some may limit benefits to active duty; others may include veterans.

MGM

To show their gratitude for veterans, MGM Resorts has created a special “Military & Veterans Program” (MVP). The program is available to any active duty military, members of the National Guard & Reserve, retired military, prior service and spouse of eligible military personnel. MVP members. They’ve created a special MVP M life Rewards card that gives an automatic upgrade to Pearl status and the benefits that accompany that M life Rewards tier, which includes complimentary self-parking, discounts on entertainment, dining, attractions, spa treatments and rooms at all MGM properties throughout the country. This program was introduced in Vegas MGM properties a month ago, but now is active in their properties all over the country.

 Station Casinos

 Their loyalty program has Operation Thank You, which includes a “military edition” Boarding Pass players card. It’s offered to active duty, veterans, Reserve and National Guard employees, but not their spouses.   There is a long list of discounts and deals for their Military Mondays. The program has not yet been activated at the Palms casino.

Wynn Resorts

They give a 10-percent discount on all hotel rates to active members of the military and veterans. They also offer $30-off tickets to its “Le Reve” show, but this may be limited only to personnel at Nellis  Air Force base.   You need to check.

Pala Casino Spa & Resort

This California Native American casino and the Pala Band of Mission Indians have partnered with the American Indian Alaska Native Veterans Memorial Committee to educate the public about the military service of Native Americans to the United States of America and to help support the funding of a national memorial to those veterans.

FINAL NOTE

Because Brad and I don’t visit or play in as many different casinos as we used to, I am not able to cover as many promotions as I have in the past. And the whole subject of promotions is getting more and more complex, with casinos, especially the Vegas local ones, doing more target marketing. Just because I get a particular mailer from a casino listing a “good” promotion that does not mean it is available to everyone. My friend or neighbor may have different promotions in their mailers. Some offers may be for locals only or only for out-of-towners. I will continue to give promotion details when I am sure of their accuracy,  not necessarily grouped at the first of the month as in the past, but whenever I come across them.  I will continue to zero in on those that aren’t widely advertised or publicized, particular those that are described in our mailers from local casinos, but would perhaps be a good opportunity for out-of-town visitors if they knew about them.

In the meantime I must remind you that nothing takes the place of searching on individual casino websites. Not all casinos do a super job here, but many do and the player who scouts here will often score surprising rewards!

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Work fast if you want to take advantage of the offer House Seats is running – two years for the price of one.  It expires tomorrow November 11.  A very frugal way to see lots of Vegas shows!

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“Glittering Lights at Las Vegas Motor Speedway” opens tomorrow, November 11.   Special offers for free admission, with official valid ID:

Nov. 11 – Free for Veterans.

Nov. 13 – First 200 cars get a “kindness pass” for a future visit or to give away.

Nov. 14 – Free for military families and veterans – active and inactive

Note:  Weekday tickets are cheaper than weekend ones.

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Word from a knowledgeable Palms employee: A senior benefit program will not start until the first of the year. I do not know the details or whether it will be the same or similar to the ones at other Station properties.

Today I want to give you one more good resource.  Today’s LVA Question-of-the-Day has a long list of good Veterans Day offers. (http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/qod.cfm)   If you are a LVA subscriber you can check this list today and  whenever you want to in the future by checking in the archives.  However, if you are not a subscriber, this feature is only available until midnight on the day it is posted – only 24 hours of opportunity to get deeply-researched and interesting Las Vegas information and news.  Hop to it!

White Castle is coming to the Las Vegas Strip!   See details here:  http://vegas.eater.com/archives/2014/07/29/confirmed-white-castle-is-coming-to-the-las-vegas-strip.php

And while I am talking about personal likes – I like reading about quirky promotions – here is one that was interesting – to me – to read about.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/nyregion/saratoga-turnstile-spinners-seek-gifts-not-bets.html?ref=nyregion&_r=0