So much for the idea that everyone is going to park at PH or Hooters and walk to an MGM property to avoid the fees.

And afterwards I went back to my hotel room and slit my wrists.

That's quite a few logical jumps there, Cal. Who said anything about it ruining my night, or about dwelling on it at dinner? After dinner we walked back to the garage instead of walking into the casino and found something else to do. I'm not sure if I even thought about it again before my post. Certainly for no more than 10 seconds that night. But feel free to disregard that information if it doesn't jive with your world view.

LOL you did!

Okay, you didn't say those words but you admitted it affected your behavior, and you would have done something different had there not been a parking fee, and that you were doing it on principle.

There's really two options. One is that you never intended to spend any money, in which case the casino squeezing the parking fee out of you was a good move. The other is that you did intend to spend money, but didn't, so the casino lost money but you're definitely depriving yourself of something you wanted.

You can't have it both ways, to claim it's no big deal to you and then turn around and blast the casinos for doing it.

Everyone else in every other major tourist attraction has had to deal with jacked up parking and subtle ways of thinning crowds. Why do locals in Vegas have to be so self-righteous about it? If you want to park somewhere free and walk 15 min, that's fine, but don't pretend your time is worth more than (parking fee)/(15 min). If you've thought about it a lot and concluded parking fees are a net negative and want to boycott, that's fine, just admit that you've thought about it a lot and done your research and you have a big page full of math proving you're right. If you want to deprive yourself of something just to stick it to someone else, stand up and be proud of it.

I wonder if parking fees create an emotional anchor that discourages patrons from casino hopping. People are going to gamble because they have a gambling problem, but charge them a parking fee and it makes them feel invested in the casino where they stay at. So, it is possible that parking fees decrease the number of customers but increase the gambling session length of the customers it retains.

I think your life view is polarized. Mine must be more linear. There weren't two options. There's at least a third. Let's call it undetermined. I had no plans after dinner. Whatever I did after dinner was decided afterwards. The parking fee only changed my behavior, not my plans. I went to that restaurant knowing about the fee. It didn't change my plans (and considering the number of other restaurants in Vegas, many of them walking distance from my hotel, my plans were easy to change). Almost anything I could have done at MGM afterwards could have been done at dozens of other casinos in Vegas. I chose to go elsewhere. Without the fees, staying at MGM would make sense because I was already there. With the fees, screw'em.

But you inadvertently raised an issue I wanted to address--close decisions. In life, a lot of things we do, and decisions we make, are unimportant. For example, you need a container of milk and have to decide which store of two to make that purchase. You might decide to go to the store that's cheaper, or the store that's a little closer with the cute cashier. Being a poker nit, you normally chose cheaper. But it really doesn't matter much which you chose. Today, there's street construction near the cheaper store, so you go to the other to avoid the irritation of being stuck in traffic, and flirt with the cashier while there. The closer store benefitted from the irritation you would have suffered had you gone to your normal store, and the cheaper store suffered (especially since you also bought bread and some deli meats). And, as it turns out, several people in you neighborhood made that same decision that day. This construction continues for several weeks and the cheaper store notices a drop off in their business during that time period. All due to an inconvenience to some of their normal customers (and the cute cashier's boyfriend started hanging around more, for some reason).

Paying for parking is an irritant for many. If I'm looking to play 20/40 hold'em, then I'm going to the Bellagio regardless, as it's the only game in town. But if I'm undecided whether I want to play 20/40, or watch a movie on TV, that irritant may tip the scales in favor of the movie, regardless of Bellagio having the only game in town--less rake for the casino. If I'm looking to play 1/2 N/L, then I have a lot of options, some of which I don't have to pay for parking. At least some of the time, that may sway my decision--less rake for the casinos that charge for parking. If I'm looking to take my wife to a nice restaurant on her birthday, the irritant of paying for parking may sway my decision away from a restaurant in a Strip casino in favor of a restaurant on Decatur--lower revenue for the Strip restaurant. If I want to play slots, maybe I drive to Red Rock instead of the Strip. And so on. But none of these decisions deprived me of anything.

People make these boarderline decisions daily. Casino executives may have considered this or not. Certainly, someone at Caesar's realized that the Rio draws a lot of locals and excluded the Rio from the parking fees. Especially with the Gold Coast and Palms nearby. But I wonder if they considered the boarderline decisions made by those who make the drive from LA and other nearby locales. About 2/3rds of Vegas visitors arrive via ground transportation--and most of them drive. Not all of them are hell-bent on visiting Vegas, or a specific casino in Vegas. A lot of them are making close decisions--decisions that can be easily swayed in favor of another equally desirable activity. And none of these people are depriving themselves of anything. Some who fly into Vegas are making boarderline decisions. Do they vacation in Vegas or Aruba? Vegas has resort fees and parking fee? Let's do Aruba then. These people aren't depriving themselves of anything. But casinos with paid parking are depriving themselves of some income. Whether the revenue from parking compensates for lost revenue is anyone's guess.

Absolutely. Who wants to pay twice for parking? However, the fees that keep people from leaving Casino X in favor of another casino, will also keep people from leaving another casino in favor of Casino X. It's basically a wash.

But a casino without a parking fee proximate to one with a fee can make out. People won't mind leaving the casino with a fee in favor of one without. But they will mind the other way around. However, if the free garage is too close to the parking fee casino, freeloaders visiting the parking fee casino will park for free.

Hey guys... apologize if this was already discussed in the thread.

Moved to Vegas just about a year ago, and prior to moving grabbed the MLife Credit Card for the automatic bump to Pearl, and then late in the year grabbed the Total Rewards Credit Card for the same bump to Platinum (once Caesars killed free parking for NV residents). This was purely for the parking benefits, as I don't use the cards at all for daily use.

Just this past week I received a mailer from the Total Rewards Credit Card stating that I'll have Platinum benefits through 2018, but to keep Platinum beyond that time I'll have to spend $5,000 annually on the credit card.

I know several others in this thread snagged up these credit cards purely for the free parking. Have you guys seen this as well, or is this more on a case by case basis based on how active you are with accumulating Tier Credits? (needless to say I don't accumulate very much).

ALSO -- Has there been any mention of the same type of thing with the MLife Card, where they'll be implementing spend thresholds on the Credit Card to keep you at Pearl?

Thanks in advance for any info guys!

Yes, I got the CC from Caesars and MGM when I moved to Las Vegas for the Free parking.
I got the letter about $5000 spend, etc. I already qualified for Platinum for next year anyway and I use a 2% cash rewards card anyway.

They did send me a nice offer from Caesars CC, No fee and No interest for 18 months for balance transfers up to my limit, which I used.

On the MGM you stay pearl forever as long as you use the credit card once in awhile I believe. That is until they change it.

I also have a MLife CC, but I haven't received an ultimatum like this yet.

Many thanks for the quick reply parisron! I have a small online business and we spend over $5k per year in postage with Stamps.com -- so easy enough for me just to link up my Total Rewards CC to those shipping accounts to hit the spend threshold. Doing that didn't even dawn on me until right now.

I'll have to maybe put like my Netflix or something on the MLife card just to keep some level of monthly activity happening on that one

Knock on wood 702guy, let's hope MGM doesn't follow suit

Even though I have both cards giving me free parking at almost every Strip property, my go-to is usually Mirage. I live in Spring Valley area, so shooting down Twain (or Spring Mountain Rd.) and swooping right in via Mel Tormé with the parking entrance for both TI & Mirage is like the perfect route for me.

Could be more of an issue with the issuer than the property management...Comenity is a joke. FNBO can be quirky but does not have the store-card stigma that Comenity carries.

It would be nice to see if Caesars put a spend-threshold link in there as a way to dissolve the contractual arrangements with Comenity so they could be back in with a better bank...the manner in which I was treated by Comenity impacted what business I chose to do in the future with Caesars.

That being said...a $5K minimum spend is not that big of a deal provided someone was able to extract more out of the status than the rewards lost by virtue of not using a better card. It is basically no different than shifting spend long enough to hit a sign-up bonus.

Yes

I signed up for the Total Rewards CC some time ago as it raised my TR level to platinum which at that time gave on option to waive resort fees. Well, that lasted one trip, then they raised the threshold to diamond. Since then the CC didn't have much value, other then the ability to block the six month expiration of Reward Credits by occasionally purchasing a tank of gas. Since day 1 they touted a $5000 annual spend requirement to hold the platinum level but never enforced it. In February my level dropped down to gold. Seems to coincide with the parking fees. Not really a bait and switch, just another annoyance.

If you signed up for card and got upgraded to Platinum in 2016 then you were auto platinum until Feb of 2018. If you didn't do the 5k spend or earn the tier credits gambling in 2017 then that is why it went back to gold in February.

I've never heard of a spend threshold to maintain benefits for a card. So I'm glad you posted this, learn something new every day. Certainly heard of spend thresholds in the first few months to unlock a signup bonus though.

As a reminder, you can get Pearl status through the Hyatt Visa card although that has a yearly fee. (if you travel there's value in their signup bonus / benefits)

I did take advantage of those bonuses with both MLife & Total Rewards cards. I think they both offered $100 in comp value when you spent a certain amount in the first 90 days of having the card.

I'm back to putting business expenses on the Total Rewards card to hit $5k and maintain Platinum. Crazy thing about this card is it takes a good 6 days (or more) for charges to actually show up in your balance. Charges show up in your Activity, but don't actually hit your payable Balance for a considerable time.

Normally not a big deal, but I swear they do this so you can't just easily go in and pay off the balance quickly after charges are made

Outside of purchases/charges in the week prior to statement closing, this should not be a big deal at all. Multiple payments in a cycle are not always advisable... this is where having multiple options is a good thing (along with knowing what day statements cut). All in all, this is just another example of Comenity not being a consumer-friendly issuer...hoping that Caesars goes back to a better issuer, even if it was a return to Bank of America.

Comenity is awful. Holds take forever to clear. Their 1 redeeming quality is that when you make a payment that available credit frees up immediately, you don't even need to wait until the next day... for those that get in a jam.

So I’m almost ashamed to have to do this, but this coming week I will likely have to pay for parking at Caesars (I can expense it, but my principles are there and I don’t want anyone to have to pay).

Anyway- I don’t have status obv but plenty of people I know there do, so getting someone’s diamond card to use is no problem. Problem is I won’t have it to get into the garage. Can you use it to get out the same way you swipe to get in? Does a human have to see the card? How is it working these days? Also some chance I get to platinum during the stay, so that option is there too.

Just grab a ticket on the way in (no swipe) then you self validate at a machine before you get into your car (using your friends card) then you put the ticket in on the way out and should be good.

Thank you

Related question: would I be able to valet with my friend’s card? Or are they more likely to ID there?

I never Valet for many reasons, so I don’t know.

if you take care of them they will honor your diamond card from 2009.

this is vegas, it's still that simple....

When I was in AC the harrahs charged for parking but if you played poker for even like an hour they would give you a slip for free parking (validating) , does Caesars palace do this?