Limiting Bumping Opportunities
Are you an airline passenger who likes to reap financial benefits by volunteering to be bumped? This will not be an option after today if you fly only on Southwest. This airline has given notice that they will stop overselling starting May 8. They say they have been contemplating this policy change for two years, but expedited its implementation after the recent United Airlines PR disaster, with videos blanketing TV and the Internet of a customer being dragged from his seat because the flight was oversold.
This new SW policy will not affect us much now since we don’t fly as often as we used to and we don’t have the energy to cope with delays as much as when we were younger. More important at our age now is being able to cancel and/or change flight plans without a penalty fee.
Reaching for Higher CZR Tiers
Recent recommendation from a savvy fellow gambler: An excellent thread about “Best Ways to Seven Stars or Diamond in a Day” on Dan Druff’s pokerfraudalert website. He lists many CET properties around the country, their best games, the theoretical costs, and other extremely helpful information. I have been Seven Stars for years and done extensive research on this subject but I found some new details that will help me going forward.
New Book Online
The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide is now available as an eBook, a frugal option for many of you. And for those who want to have a little taste of the book before you decide whether to tackle the whole meal, go to this Kindle sample. There you will find a list of the chapter titles and some extensive text from the first chapters.
You might also be interested in this well-written review of the book, geared both toward gambling readers and casino executives.
A favorite dinner activity for Brad and me, plus anyone else joining us, is reading aloud round-robin the words of wisdom from our fortune cookies. Here’s one I had recently that the whole table decided was very appropriate for my new book: It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck, even while waiting for it!
Our Chinese fortune cookie reading fun-time is to add the words: “in bed” after the fortune. Can make for much hilarity!
I just finished reading your new book which will be added to my collection of your as well as other gambling books. Bought one for my daughter (mother of two of our grandchildren) as a mother’s day gift. She loves to gamble. Your book allow her to recognize many frugal opportunities I am sure.
Dear Jean,
It was truly a pleasure to have met you and Brad at the Orleans this past Sunday. I know that you prefer not to be disturbed while playing but you and Brad were so gracious and accommodating that I had to take a moment to post a heart felt Thank You ! My wife Karen and I really enjoyed our chat and thanks for signing your latest book for me. Wishing you both the best of health and every happiness. Sincerely, Victor Zilinek
I haven’t gotten your new book yet (though I definitely intend to), but I’d like to make one observation after reading the review you linked to. While there is little consistency, rhyme or reason to what offers and comps you get or can get from a given casino, one constant is that the more a casino has to scramble for customers, the better the offers will be–and the converse is true, that if the lemmings keep pouring in no matter what, there is no reason or incentive for a casino to offer anything decent. That’s why the Strip has become such a horrid ripoff these last few years–people flock to the casinos there despite the fact that they are now getting had at every turn–the bad games, room prices, “extra” charges like parking and resort fees (remember when there was no such thing as resort fees and parking was free???), and exorbitant prices for meals.
So a key “frugal” tactic–one which has always applied, but now so more than ever–is to patronize those places that still have to exert themselves to attract customers. This means going off-Strip to find places to stay and gamble. It also might mean abandoning Vegas altogether. I recommend that spring and summertime visitors consider Reno instead. Vegas (kind of surprisingly to me) is high-priced during the summer. Reno has everything that Vegas has, albeit on a smaller scale, and the summer weather is delightful rather than hellish. The rooms and food are cheaper, the gambling is better, and returning to the perspective of the article, the casinos there actively court your business even if you aren’t betting tens of thousands of dollars a day.
Yesterday I watched AC on VSiN and he mentioned your big win on a $.10 100 line machine. Would love to hear more about it. Have you already written about it?