Tag Archives: caesars diamond status match

Is Caesars Diamond status match still valuable? Here are my older posts about my status-match adventures in Atlantic City.

My Atlantic City Status Match Adventure — Part 1: What’s Still Working and What Is Not

My Atlantic City Status Match Adventure — Part 2: Total Rewards Diamond Benefits IN DEPTH!

My Atlantic City Status Match Adventure — Part 3: MGM M life Gold Benefits IN DEPTH!

Those of us in the Northeast live a relatively long flight away from Vegas, too much so to go spontaneously, but we have another fun town within reach – Atlantic City. Sure, it’s not the only casino town around. Casinos are everywhere: New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, you name it. But Atlantic City still has something others around here don’t: a cluster of shiny bright properties with some excellent restaurants and entertainment venues, separated by a beautiful boardwalk from a decent beach.

Anyhow, I like AC. My wife likes it too. My mom loves it! My daughter does not, so we have to bribe her with enough pocket money to buy her compliance. Oh well.

Atlantic City starts reopening on July 2

AC will reopen at 25% casino capacity. Every 2^nd slot machine or more will be disabled, and there won’t be any poker games. Face masks must be worn by everybody, and sanitation stations will be installed throughout the floor.

The most recent restrictions from NJ Gov. Murphy: no indoor dining, and no beverage services including alcohol will be allowed on gaming floors. While it takes a lot of fun from the casino experience, I think it’s the right decision considering that one belligerent idiot can infect several people.

Caesars Diamond status match and how to get it now

My epic post on getting the Caesars Diamond status match is here. I do recommend you read it entirely if you’re interested in the program, especially the Diamond rules and benefits, but it’s gotten a bit bloated with all the updates over the years.

The easiest way of matching to the Caesars Diamond status isn’t working anymore. You used to be able to match most of your other hotel statuses (like Hilton or Marriott) to Wyndham Diamond, and then to Total Rewards (now Caesars Rewards). It was easy and painless.

You can still match and rematch between Wyndham Rewards and Caesars Rewards, but not between other hotel programs and Wyndham Rewards, so that’s gone, at least for now. Here’s what’s left.

Tier match from other casino programs

You can match Caesars Rewards Diamond tier with the tiers from the following casinos. I’ll only list Vegas and Atlantic City, but here is the full list. Note, though, this “is available to new Caesars Rewards members only” now.

Nevada

• B Connected: The Orleans, Gold Coast, Suncoast, Sam’s Town, California Hotel & Casino, Main Street Station, Fremont Hotel & Casino

• • Onyx

  • Emerald

  • Titanium

• M life Rewards: MGM Resorts International

• • Gold

  • Platinum

  • Noir

• Grazie Rewards: Venetian, Las Vegas

  • Platinum

• Identity: Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas

  • Gold

  • Platinum

• Marquee Rewards: Tropicana, Las Vegas

  • Executive Producer

  • ICON

• Station Casinos: Las Vegas Hotels & Resorts

  • President

  • Chairman

Atlantic City

• M life Rewards: Borgata, Atlantic City

  • Gold

  • Platinum

  • Noir

• Star Card: Resorts Casino Hotel, Atlantic City

  • Paramount

  • Red Carpet

• 24K Select: Golden Nugget, Atlantic City

  • Chairman

  • Elite

• TROP Advantage: Tropicana, Atlantic City

  • Platinum

  • Black

Founders Card with a reduced fee

Not a status match per se, but the Founders Card gives you a free upgrade to the Caesars Diamond tier. I’ve browsed through the card’s other benefits and haven’t found anything else I would consider tangible – but that doesn’t mean you won’t.

Shawn from Miles to Memory has an exclusive $295 sign up offer. Its regular price is $595 plus the “initiation” fee, but it’s always been offered for a $395 discount. However, the $295 fee (with a scratched $99 initiation fee) sounds pretty good to me. I don’t remember them offering it a lot, although back then we used to live in a world where more people traveled.*

You can also think about it this way. If you don’t have Caesars Diamond tier yet, for the one-time $295 fee, you can match, rematch, and have perpetual** access to the following statuses.

• Wyndham Diamond

• M Life Gold (must match at Borgata, AC only)

• Hyatt Explorist

• Hard Rock Rock Royalty (AC only, new members only)

• Ocean Casino Platinum (AC only, new members only)

* If you think I’m advertising for Shawn, no I’m not. Just ask him. 🙂

** Being that we’re all grown-ups, I hope we all understand that anything can change at any time, in any way, and for any reason. Now you know what “perpetual” really means. 🙂

Also keep in mind that the merger between Caesars Entertainment and Eldorado Resorts is moving all steam ahead, and Eldorado has a history of watering down “excessive” members benefits.

If you’re still interested, act quickly. The MtM offer expires today, June 30, unless they extend it.

If you, like me, don’t see any tangible benefits to this card other than Caesars Diamond – is it still worth $295? Let’s recap the goodies you’re getting out of it.

Caesars Diamond tier benefits: COVID-19 edition

• Free or discounted hotel stays

• No resort fees on any hotel stay

• 20% discounts at casino gift shops

• Complimentary valet & self-parking, including Las Vegas and Atlantic City (self-parking is free for all guests now and valet parking is suspended DUE TO COVID-19)

• $100 Celebration Dinner

• 20% discounts on Norwegian cruises (no cruises for now DUE TO COVID-19)

• Access to Diamond Lounges (closed for now DUE TO COVID-19)

• Priority lines at hotel check-in, restaurants, casino cages, and the Total Rewards Center

• Priority lines for cabs and valet parking (valet parking is suspended DUE TO COVID-19)

• Free access to spas in Vegas, but $20 at Caesars (unclear, but unlikely to open DUE TO COVID-19)

But here is why your Caesars Diamond status can be really valuable even if you’re an infrequent gambler.

Complimentary stay at Atlantis, Paradise Island in The Bahamas

• Complimentary 4-night stay in the Beach Tower on peak dates or The Coral (down from Royal Towers) on off-peak dates, including hotel room taxes (but not the resorts fees).

• Up to 2 additional nights at a Special Casino Rate of $85/night (up from $65) plus taxes & fees on peak dates and $92 on off-peak dates.

• $75 Free Slot Play (down from $100) on peak dates, still $100 off-peak.

• Atlantis Casino Experience Pass.

• Access to Aquaventure, a one-of-a-kind 141-acre waterscape with 20 swimming areas and 11 pools.

• No more Atlantis Casino Experience Pass, which included: shallow water dolphin interaction, round of golf, sushi and sake sampler platter at Nobu, two cocktails at Olives, two cocktails at Seafire Steakhouse. 😥 

However, with all the bad changes, there is also a silver lining: now you can redeem your complimentary Atlantis stay by January 31, 2022 instead of January 2021. My next question would be whether or not you might be able to combine 2 vacations in 2021 or January 2022 with your new Diamond membership – it’ll be interested to see how that plays out.

The Bahamas opens on July 1, and Atlantis on July 10. I haven’t found many restrictions on the Atlantis site, which I find hard to believe. I’d call and ask questions.

The point is, however, if you’re interested in Atlantis – to the point that you’d want to go even if you have to pay – then the Caesars Diamond status is extremely valuable.

To recap

Plenty of things are not the same as they used to be, but the Caesars Diamond status match hasn’t completely lost its appeal. You can still have a free stay at Atlantis (plus exorbitant Resort and other fees, of course) and some benefits, like waived resort fees and $100 Celebration Dinner are still holding values if you visit any casino town with Caesars properties (check my older post again for the complete list of Caesars casinos).

On the other hand, Caesars and other casinos have tightened up the screws and made the traditional merry-go-round status match harder (Caesars and Hard Rock now allow status matches between the casinos to new members only). And it’s unclear if Caesars’ most important Diamond benefits (no resort fees and free Atlantis stay) will survive the merger with Eldorado.

What’s your stand on Caesars Diamond? Worth having or not?