It's been eleven days and two emails later and I've gotten zero response from Mlife support. My last request to them earlier in the year took a week and they even admitted they were slow to respond. *sigh* Guess I'll try dealing with a human to get this credited to my account.

Yeah, it's not a big deal then. I'm like 25k points shy of Gold based on my hotel spend and I'll be around next week for a days. Won't be staying at an MGM proeprty because of work restrictions but I'll rack up a decent food spend and some gaming. Not sure if 25k points is obtainable with that alone. Do I still get 25x on food even if I'm not staying at the resort? The gold status is worth probably about 400-500 bucks to me in terms of kickbacks.... I think. My math could be way off on that.

You get tier credits from spending on food even if you're not staying in a room. Just make sure to show them your card when you're paying.

I don't think there is much of a difference between Pearl and Gold. Gold gets you valet parking for free, a 10% discount at gift shops instead of a 5% discount, and I don't think there is much it offers besides that. I think they offer something for slot players also but it's nothing huge. Getting to Pearl is a much bigger deal than getting from Pearl to Gold unless you really like to use valet.

MGM doesn't like to give away comps, benefits, etc. and I have very little motivation to ever get Platinum because of that.

Has anyone been bump up a tier without having the creds?

I am at 135k and the mlife site is saying I'm platinum. Was Gold last year so not really sure where this came from.

Yes, they once bumped me from gold to platinum and sent an email saying basically it was just because I was close.

Note: there is no longer any meaningful difference between gold and platinum.

If you spend -$550 in EV in Video Poker, you will get diamond status across all total rewards property which comes with a $100 kick back, 2-3 night of free rooms, no resort fees for the 1.5 year - which pays for itself after a few trips, and other perks like passing the line (time is money, you don't have to wait 30-1.5 hours for those amazing meals) and free parking ($5-20 nowadays) and 2 tickets per month to a free show if you can rack those up.

If you run bad, you'll probably eat a -$4-5K downswing. But vice versa.

Acquiring this beats any other status you could reasonably get and is +EV if you frequent Vegas. Plus diamond access to all the lounges if you care for those things.

If you don't use valet there isn't any meaningful difference between Pearl and Platinum.

You get valet with Gold rather than Platinum.

Curious more than anything, what's the EV cost for earning 30k mlife tier credits via video poker? Or for round numbers, 50k.

Playing a full pay game like 8/5 bonus poker house edge is around 1%.

VP gives you one mlife base point per $10 coin in, and each base point gives you 10 tier points.

Bottom line is, you need $50,000 coin in to get 50,000 tier point, and if you run at EV that's going to cost you around $500.

Edit: Risk averse posters will tell you that you need to hit several royals to end your quest around EV, and that this may or may not happen. They are of course right.

He's still correct, the only meaningful difference between pearl and platinum is valet parking, which happens when you get gold. Otherwise, pearl and platinum don't offer much of a difference (just a bigger discount in the gift shop, higher multiplier on slot/VP points, and LOL front-of-line for taxis and valet).

If you stay at any MGM property you get a deeper discount on hotel as well. I think Platnium is 25% and Pearl is 15%, Gold 20%. Also the extra 30% multiplier on play for platinum help you maintain for the following year.

I'm sure you're right but those things give me zero extra motivation to get Platinum. They don't even have to throw in much to make it look like you get free stuff, and IMO it's like they're not even trying to make Platinum or Gold worth anything.

There is a Norweign cruise as well for Platinum. Never did the holiday gift stuff since we live on the other side of the country but seem to have nicer albeit limited items. There are also some quarterly regional events with free nights/small gifts or vouchers to use in retail stores on property for gold and platnium tiers.

Not saying any of the incentives are great (no lounges or comped rooms/fees like the other guys) but the hotel discounts help for those that would rather stay at nicer properties. Overall the marketing offers I get as gold/platinum have more variety then my diamond benefits but not necessarily a better value.

I got my gold card just before NYE and it says September 2019. I thought it was only good for only 2018? I guess we get a nine month "grace" period in 2019?

Mlife calendar year is Oct 1-Sept 30

From my experience, if you are friendly with the desk at Aria, they will do whatever they can to help you, and sometimes bend the rules When MGM put an expiration date on poker comps, Aria was super generous in reinstating my comps so I could use them on my trip. I remember at least one person on here who bitched at the staff for the comps expiring and they didn’t get squat. Honey over vinegar.

Are you talking about the mlife desk at aria to get pearl status with poker hours or were u talking about the comp desk in the poker room?
When i just tried it at the mlife desk he only gave me sapphire status and sent me to the host offices.

Borgata gives 75 TC/$1 in comp earned at poker. 1/2 NLH pays $1.5/hr, 2/5+ pays $2/hr.

I gotta figure at some point they will implement this sort of thing across the board. Tha would be 178 hrs of 2/5+ for pearl, and 536 hours of 2/5+ for gold, of course thats assuming no degen.

It does seem like pearl gets you nearly nothing. 15% off a room, but you get 10% off for AAA.... I get “exclusive offers” that are higher than my pearl offer for whatever reason. Not even easier to earn in the future since they only give bonus TC for slot play (which my understanding doesnt include VP). Borgata even removed pearl from the line skipping for their buffet, we can probably expect more of that coming to vegas.

Free parking, but i also never drive when im in vegas.

Benefits are pretty straight forward and laid out here:

https://www.mgmresorts.com/en/mlife-...ram/tiers.html

- Complimentary parking and valet parking are the biggest perks if you don't stay at the M Life resorts
- If you do stay, you'll get discounts booking directly through the hotel websites

IMHO TCs and status is not worth chasing beyond the free parking because if...

- You play in the pits and wager high enough to connect with a host. All the real perks come in there. Free or discounted rooms, taking off room charges, VIP check ins, upgrades, limo service, the works. Hosts don't care about status or TCs per say. They just care about the action you bring.

Pearl ffree parking applies to staying as well...

In Vegtas its 75 hrs gets u pearl 150 gets u gold. But you do not get any tier credits for poker.

TS2, do you know where I can get the pearl card? the mlife desk wasnt very helpful...

At the MLife desk, but they'll just give you the card that matches your tier credits (in your case Sapphire, which requires zero credits). Or go to the poker room and ask regarding your poker hours.

Seeking some input from table games players at MLife properties...
Played about 20 minutes of $50 min 3:2 6D, got 1 penny in express comps. Played half hour at the same table with an average bet likely over $100, got absolutely nothing in express comps. In total I’ve played a couple dozen hours this summer of multi-green chip BJ and have gotten $0.01 in express comps. If anyone has a host they’d be willing to put me in touch with, I’d appreciate it. Hard to get anyone to talk to me without an average bet of $200 even though I bet up to 2x $250.

I went to the MLife desk at Bellagio not long ago, looked both ways and whispered “primary comps.” I didn’t get anywhere.

AFAIK Bellagio does not give express comps for blackjack. The host office is right next to the main blackjack pit so you can always walk in and ask.