CZR Reward Credit Program – Part 5

In my last post, I talked about the Tier credit part of the CZR players club program. Now for the second part, the Reward credit part. If you’re confused about all this, you’re not alone. In fact, if you go to the CZR website and check the “Overview” page , you’ll see the complexity of the system, with 15 footnotes and a whopping 33 internal links for more information.

After reviewing all that material, I feel a little foolish trying to write about this, but I guess I’ve had enough practice over 20 years of trying to explain complicated casino information that might help a player lose less money. So here goes.

When you play a game in a CZR casino, you routinely earn Tier credits and Reward credits at the same time and at the same rate, but in separate “banks,” so to speak. But there are some instances where you can earn at a different rate.

Example: If a casino is running a short-term Tier-credit bonus promotion, you earn only the normal number of Reward credits, but a larger number of Tier credits. That daily Tier-bonus promotion, which I’ve often recommended, will up the balance in your Tier bank, but you get only Reward credits for your base play, not the bonus. (Another wrinkle to watch here: Only game play credits are counted for the bonus, not non-gaming reward credits earned.)

More often, there are instances where the reverse is true. If you’re doing a Reward-credit promotion (like 3x points, which means 3x Reward credits), you’ll earn only the normal number of Tier credits, not 3 times as many.

Both categories earn credits at the same time and usually at the same rate when you spend money in a casino on non-gaming expenses, like dining, shopping, and amenity experiences (although what is offered in these categories differs from casino to casino).

One recent benefit upgrade (one of the few these days, I’m sorry to say) is that you now earn 5 Tier credits for every $1 spent on hotel rooms and resort fees. It used to be only one Tier credit for every dollar spent, and it’s still that 1-for-1 for earning Reward credits for most non-gaming, including spending with CZR partners, like the Visa credit card.

Now for redeeming credits. You never “redeem” your Tier-credit balance. The credits you earn in one year put you in a specific tier, higher ones as your Tier-credit balance goes up. You qualify for more benefits as you proceed higher. I talked about these in my last blog. You can’t “save up” tier credits; you must re-qualify every year.

On the other hand, Reward credits can be redeemed – and in many different places and for many different benefits. See the list here at the bottom of the page. Again there are the usual exclusions, exceptions, and limitations, so be sure to click on the “Learn More” links for each benefit. You can “cash in” your Reward credits, but only for free play, at the rate of $1 for 200 credits. You must do this in person at a Caesars Rewards Center.

However, many players prefer to use them for dining, hotel, shopping, entertainment, or amenity comps. You need to compare the redemption choices carefully, because some of the comp-item prices are much higher than the usual outside retail price, and/or the credit-to-comp ratio is much higher than the free-play option. It’s often a personal choice, with more to do with psychological reasons rather than purely math ones. I hear a lot, “I always choose shopping, because I want something to show for my efforts; I always lose my free play by the time I leave the casino.”

And just in case you think the CZR benefit program isn’t complex enough already, you can earn Great Gift Wrap Up (GGWU) points that accumulate in a third separate “bank.” I don’t have the energy to explain the details of what CZR calls a holiday shopping event or “promotion.” I think of a promotion as something that goes on for a limited amount of time: a few days or even monthly. But this goes on all year long and seems just like another benefit program, with details almost as complicated as in the Tier and Reward credit programs. If you’re new to this benefit, you need to read all about it here. Basic details have you earning one GGWU point for every one gaming Reward credit you earn (not for tier credits and not for reward credits you earned for non-gaming spending, like dining).

For those of you who have participated in this program in past years, a few details may have changed. It used to be, when we used this benefit a few years back, that this program was only available in casinos in Las Vegas and some other NV locations. Limited participation casinos is still the case for tier levels of Diamond Plus and below. You can check the above link for a list of those specific casinos. Once you’re Diamond Elite or Seven Stars, you can earn these points at any CZR casino. Another change – thanks to the pandemic – is you can redeem the points online instead of having to be at Caesars Palace during specific dates to shop in person. That link above gives specific dates for both online and in-person redemption.

Note: The above website is a mess. Not only is it impossibly complex, they have 64 (!) “program rules.” But when they changed the program, they forgot to update some of those rules that were impacted. (Sigh!) I did phone them, but they refused my kind offer to edit and clarify those rules. However, they did verify those details I wrote about above, so ignore anything on the website that differs from my information.

This is the end of my current series about CZR properties, although I’m happy to answer your questions about playing in one of those casinos. However, I still need to talk about marketing benefits, such as free play, dining and hotel comps, and other goodies that come in your mailers. But I want to give information that you can use to help increase those benefits, not just at CZR properties, but at any casino. Stay tuned.