Another thing you can do to maintain status at the Cosmo is buy gift cards. Last year I figured out I was $400 short of maintaining gold and had no planned trips before my anniversary date. I called, bought a $400 gift card over the phone, then called identity to get the purchase registered to my identity account. Maintained my gold status, the gift card came in the mail and then I just used the card to pay for part of my room during my next stay.
Yes! That is a really great thing if you can’t manage to spend it all. We had that in our back pocket, but didn’t need to do it this time. Thanks for mentioning it!
Does that work with double dipping? For example, get the tier credits for buying the gift cards, and then using those gift cards to pay off room charges/stays?
Hi Chris and Cathryn, just came upon your video. Depending on how much you value the Gold status (or want to rank up to Platinum for cheaper), look into buying Marriot Bonvoy rewards points directly (I think the maximum is 100,000 points for like $1250). Marriot and Cosmo have a transfer agreement where you can transfer Marriot points to Cosmo at a 10:4 scale. So to maintain the 20,000 Identity points for Cosmo Gold, it would cost you around $625 total if you purchased the 50,000 Marriott points directly and transfered them directly over. Then as I'm sure you already know you can status match to MGM which can status match to Caesars.
Thanks for watching and for the info! Do you know what will happen with Marriott Bonvoy once Identity and MGM rewards are combined? Now that MGM has changed the status matching to Gold (from Identity Gold to Identity Platinum and from Caesars Diamond to Caesars Diamond Plus) we’ll have to spend even more to get there. Also, what is your experience matching with Caesars? Caesars website and their employees claim that only new members get tier matching, so we are not able to do that.
@@jbkmjl yes, sorry, I misspoke. No resort fees are still at the Gold level with MGM. It was the status matching that changed. We used to be able to get Gold at MGM with Gold at Cosmo or Diamond at Caesars, but then they changed it to the next tier up from both properties. So, we’d need Platinum at Cosmo or Diamond Plus at Caesars.
@@bigbossaj7029 I had a hard time finding info about converting to Identity. I only saw info to convert from Identity. But, I’m sure you’re right. From what I read, it didn’t seem like that partnership would be helpful to elevate status with Cosmo.
A lot of people are really upset about identity being absorbed into MGM rewards but I’m kinda excited. Being able to earn rewards across half of Vegas rather than being focused at only one resort. I am a Cosmo loyalist
There are some positive things about the merger, but overall, it seems it will be much more expensive for us to reach the status with MGM that gets us waived resort fees at Cosmo. That’s really the only perk we’re interested in and we’re not sure it will be worth the cost to get there. If it happens naturally, with the purchases we normally make using our MGM Rewards Mastercard, that would be good, but it’s unlikely for us. Also, we won’t be able to use our comps at Cosmo, then move over to another MGM property on comps, since they’ll be in the same group. We will be happy not feeling pressured to spend and play at just one property, though.
We charge everything back to our room even as small as a bottle of water from gift shop also we usually get a cabana once or twice a year. Last year mid year we signed up for the MGM card and use it primarily on gas and groceries. We went 4x's last year and made gold with MGM. I asked at Cosmo about matching in December but it sounds like identity isn't going to be around much longer from what I was told at the time so I figured wasn't much point in bothering with it.
We’ve asked every trip and no one seems to know anything. Or, at least, they aren’t telling us! We could have reached Gold at MGM, but we would rather have status at Cosmo. How do you confirm that MGM is giving you the right amount of credits for your Mastercard spend? We can’t seem to access that information on their website. It tells us on our statements, but we can’t find the activity on the MGM rewards page.
@@TheMidlifeRide I usually screen shot the MGM app prior to credit card statement closing and compare after. The person I spoke to at Cosmo said they heard end of 1st quarter maybe right who knows. 🤷
Thanks for the video. I'm a bit confused as to the overall value of the MGM Gold status. Other than savings of resort fee's, why spend thousands of dollars to achieve Gold status? What am I missing here?
You’re not missing anything! It would be silly to spend thousands of dollars for any perks, including resort fees. The goal, at least for us, is to get the status without spending more than we would anyway. That’s why we use the credit card. We have to buy groceries, gas and everything else no matter what. Wish Cosmo had a credit card because we’d reach Gold in no time!
Don't confuse "coin-in" with dollars spent. That $4000 you mentioned being spent at the resort could've equated to several tens of thousands of "coin-in" at the slots. Another way to earn tier credits is to get the MGM Mastercard. You acquire tier credits for each dollar spent. If you use a credit card for everyday purchases, it's a great way to earn.
We aren’t very lucky while gambling, so it’s likely that resort spend is the better way to go for us. We use the Mastercard everyday, so that does help. Thanks for watching and commenting:)
Even as a Saphire member, I was getting 3-4 comp nights at any MGM locations through the MGM app. Pretty much anyone who signs up for the card will get them Sunday-Thursday stays. I'm now Pearl, and not much of a difference that I can see. I'm on my way to gold. What I do is I take $5-10k cash down with me, go to the roulette tables, get that in chips, and then bet table minimums, not touching the large chips. Occasionally I will do a single bet of $500, $2500, or $5000 if I'm feeling really lucky. So far I haven't lost on those (cross fingers). I put the large value chips in my pocket and cash those out at the cashier later, and cash in my smaller chips at the table. Looks like I had a large loss to the casino, and according to the dealers, this gets me more points. We'll see...
We get plenty of comp offers with MGM, but without the Gold status, we’d have to pay resort fees. That’s the only benefit of Gold for us. We hope your strategy gets you there without losing too much money! Thanks for sharing:)
Most places do not keep up with your win/loss for you to advance in Tier. It is based on the amount of time you play and how much "per hand" you are betting. If you play slots, then your win/loss is calculated easily and that does factor in slightly. If you had a particularly bad day/trip, you can ask a host for a nice dinner or something.
@@TheMidlifeRide MGM doesn't. I thought about switching to them. Caesar's pretty much defines their program and it's clear how to get the tier score you want. that's one factor in me not going with MGM. It's too confusing and they do it on purpose.
@@djkid22 Agreed. I don’t like not knowing. At least we know how much we’ll earn on non-gaming activities. Honestly, our gambling doesn’t get us many points anyway, so we always focus more on resort spend.
According to the pamphlet I have, you need 20,000 tier credits to reach Pearl and 75,000 tier credits to reach Gold with MGM. At 4 points per $1 for resort spend (assuming my math is right), you'd need to spend $5000 to reach Pearl and $18,750 to reach Gold. Of course, if you also use the MGM Rewards Mastercard for those purchases, you'd get an additional 3 points per $1 for resort spend (total of 7, I think), as well as 2 points per $1 on gas/groceries and 1 point per $1 on everything else. You also get an automatic upgrade to Pearl status with the card. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to factor in your coin-in because MGM states that points are awarded based on your time played, average bet and game type.
I'm platinum with MGM but only make it to Vegas on avg twice a year. My stays are usually 4 days, 3 nights. I always stay at Aria Sky Suites, mainly for the free sodas and random food they have in the lounge, and it's proximity to the high limit baccarat pit. I go to Vegas to gamble, so I don't really care about entertainment or food (why my host loves me). I gamble 8-10 hours a day with a daily budget of 20k. I bet $500+ a hand and play around 15-20 hands/hour. For the past 5 years, while I've had losing sessions, I've never had a losing trip. Personally, I hate going to Vegas with family/friends that don't gamble, because they're always coming by the tables trying to make them go do things with them. I now inform them that once we land in Vegas, the next time we'll hang out is in the car on the way back to the airport.
We’ve never played baccarat but we might have to start. We’re the exact opposite of you: we’ve had some winning sessions (slots and VP) but we rarely have a winning trip!
I have gold at cosmo and pearl at mgm but who knows what I’m going to be ? Your saying if mgm match’s cosmo then will I be gold or are they putting me down to Pearl ? I just got an invite for identity for April for four nights complementary I guess I’m gonna have to call them and see what I’m getting this year . But I liked your info .
It was in the other video that you watched, but supposedly MGM will be combining your tier credits from MGM and Cosmo to determine your status for 2024. That was supposed to happen February 1st, but we received an email from Cosmo saying the merger would happen “at a later date in 2024.” So, who knows? We’re taking screenshots of our points before the end of the year so we know exactly what we had and what we should be getting. As far as we know, you can no longer match Cosmo Gold to MGM Gold, only to MGM Pearl.
I just made it to gold, Strictly playing tables and I’m no high roller like other gold tier members.. has me confused how their point system really works
At Cosmo or at MGM? Either way, table games are rarely mentioned in any of the documentation. From what you’re saying, it sounds like maybe that’s the way to go. Too bad we don’t play table games. Of course, I think any table game player is a high roller because I’d never play a game for even $5 per hand! Lol!
I mostly gamble at Caesars Rewards properties and like to take advantage when they offer 5x or 10x Tier credit promotions. I stayed at the Cromwell beginning of June and earned 5x tier credits during promotion and also heading to The Paris end of August where they are having a 10x tier credit promotion. I’m usually able to maintain Diamond Plus taking advantage of these yearly
We are so unlucky with those multiplier promotions. They’re rarely going on when we’re out here. We received an email from MGM just before we left and I was so excited. Then, I realized it doesn’t start until July 1, after we leave. Same thing happens with Cosmo. Every free play offer they send is either the week before or the week after we’re in town. Ugh!
I have heard that Caesar’s properties lower their slot RTP% during the tier credit multiplier days as a way to recover the value of their tier credit multiplier. Before knowing this, I was there 12/2023 and coined in $30K+ across 150+ low volatility slots and my RTP% was 76% for a $7K+ loss in 7 consecutive days. I’ve also heard that most Vegas casinos lower their slot RTP% during November/December.
Good grief! Hope it was worth it! When we went, it was the same crazy wait time but we were able to bypass the line since the friends we were with had Gold status.
Any idea when that’s going to happen? We have the Mastercard. Problem is, we can never see our recent activity on the MGM rewards site, so there’s no way for us to confirm that they’re crediting our points properly. It’s very frustrating!
If you get paper billing it shows. I recently used my mgm credit card at cosmopolitan and chargers everything to the room and dining on it and got 3 times points so your mgm credit card now works at cosmopolitan for 3 times points which is a bonus right now.
@@Vegasbonus702 That’s great news! I’ll check my statement for all the Cosmo charges from December. If we get the 3x, that will help a lot for gaining status with MGM for next year. Thanks for the info!
Any idea on how much a slot point is worth in tier credit? I've seen for each point earned from slot play it is 8 tier points all the way down to 3 tier points. Was there in Feb and earned 20k in tier points I believe based off 2500 points (could be wrong). Then was just there at the end of Sept (when the tracking systems on there end were down, not the slot machine). Earned 5k in points in one day but only received 20k in tier points. Even with the multiplier offer they have going on. Also it was about $5k more in THEO. I feel I got screwed but have no idea to who to contact as I left the next day. Any insights are greatly appreciated?
Assuming you’re asking about MGM, but there’s really no way to know what their actual formula is for calculating rewards (tier, slot, gift) from gameplay since they base it on game type, length of play and bet level. Unless you played the same length of time on the same games at the same denom, how would you dispute it? In our opinion, they’re being shady and the fact that they aren’t transparent about earnings means they aren’t obligated to give consistent rewards or any at all, for that matter.
We used to get those 3 night, no resort fee offers all the time. They stopped maybe about 6-8 months ago. Now, we only get 2 night offers, even though we’re Gold. When did you get your last offer?
MGM has great comps. We started getting them way before we had any status, but never booked until we had Gold because we didn’t want to pay resort fees. Unfortunately, since they’ve changed their program, it’s harder to earn. But we still get the same great offers for comp rooms.
Are you earning on a multiplier day during this video? It’s my understanding that with purchases on food spa etc you earn 1 tc for every dollar spent. Loved that video thank you guys!
No multiplier, this is the earning rate for everyone. You can pick up a pamphlet that outlines this. It’s a bit confusing on their website, but here’s the info. On the About Identity page, it discusses Identity Points earning for Hotel, Spa, Dining and shopping at 5 points per $1 spent. Then, on the FAQ page, under How Do I earn tier points, it says “The same way you earn Identity Points-except slot multipliers for Sterling, Gold, and Platinum members don’t count toward your tier status maintenance or tier progression. For example: A player without slot multipliers will earn 1 Identity Point for every $2.50 spent on a reel slot machine-it’s also considered to be a tier point. If a player is earning 2X points, they will receive 2 Identity Points for every $2.50 spent, but only 1 point is considered to be a tier point. A guest who spends $100 in food and beverage or at the spa will earn 500 Identity Points-all of those points are considered to be tier points.” Here’s the link to that page. If you email me at themidliferide@gmail.com, I can probably find the pamphlet and send you a pic. www.cosmopolitanlasvegas.com/identity/faqs#accordion_panel-5XYiR5ZvwcomGgoIy84AIm-1
@@TheMidlifeRide thank you so much. That is very helpful. Me and me girlfriend may need to try this for status matching to mgm gold soon before that goes away to pearl it sounds like
Either my math is off, or I did not understand this video correctly. You spent an extra $4,000 that you hadn’t planned on spending in an effort to save $40/night on your resort fees on hotel stays at a resort that charges $200+ per night. That just sounds like a horrible deal to me. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper for you to just pay the resort fees? By my math, you would have to stay at least 100 nights in a year in order to see any savings from your saved resort fees.
If we had spent $4000 that we wouldn’t have spent otherwise, yes…that would not be worth it. But, we had already spent most of that during the year, plus the nights we paid for on this trip. So, we figured we’d try out some of the restaurants we hadn’t been to. We already do most of our gambling there. In addition to saving on resort fees (which, with taxes, are more than $40/night), we get 2 extra comp rooms and B1G1 Wicked Spoon. Still, not worth spending $4000 to get there, but since we were already so close, why not?
So you have the mgm credit card? I’m in Canada. If I got an mgm credit card and used that for all my purchases, how many points per dollar would I get?
When dining at an MGM property, could I just show them my MGM rewards card or do I need to charge it to my room? I may be the only one confused on that?
If you want MGM points, you can just use your rewards card. If you want Identity points, you’ll need to charge to your room at Cosmo. We have the MGM rewards Mastercard, so we charge to the room for identity points and get bonus MGM points for the charges. It’s confusing because some things between the two properties have been combined but others are still separate.
Hi! Can you clarify when you say resort spend points do not expire on a rolling 12 month basis? I have 12k tier points and am trying to understand when they will expire. Only 2 trips to Vegas last year in Jun & Nov so my guess is points will drop off in Jun sometime. Next trip won’t be until Jul this year so I am thinking about buying a gift card online to make gold before they expire. Thoughts? And thanks so much for the great tips!
Oh, man. This is the most confusing part for me. I had them explain it several times and I felt more confused after each conversation! Here’s what I think they’re saying. If you reach Gold through resort spend alone ($4k), you’ll be gold for an entire year from the time you reach that status. So, by that date, you’d need to spend another $4k to maintain status for the next year. Tier credits earned through gaming drop off your account a year after they’re earned. So, it’s difficult to know exactly how much you’ll need to earn to maintain because they’re constantly dropping off. The portal is useless in this regard! Might not be that hard to figure out if you only went twice, but it was a real challenge for us. We were up against the clock, waiting for points to hit our account after checkout with only 3 days before expiration. We were planning to buy gift cards if necessary but, thankfully, it didn’t come to that. Hope this helps. By the way, if you didn’t already know, it looks like MGM won’t match Cosmo Gold to MGM Gold anymore. I think they’ve dropped the match to Pearl. Super disappointed about that. Still, Cosmo is what we’re most concerned with and it’s much less expensive to reach Gold with them than MGM or Caesars Diamond.
Nice video as always! We are MGM people and had Gold status until the end of 2022. Unfortunately we have lost that😔. Curious if you have heard when the Cosmo identity program will be merging with MGM rewards?
@@TheMidlifeRide thank you for the reply. After watching many of your Cosmo videos we are going to stay there in July. A property I always wanted to stay at. Cant wait. 😁😁
The sad thing too is that MGM took a lot of benefits from their Gold tier when they redid the program. You used to get "front of the line" for restaurants with Gold now it is Platinum and up. Secret for me is to charge everything to the room.
At Mandalay Bay you still get those perks at gold at some of the food outlets we found out on a recent trip usually I make reservations for the most part also got into Michael Jackson cirque show early I think it depends on the property or food outlets they're not all the same.
Yes, we love charging to the room. But, it can take a few days after checkout for the points to hit the account and we were up against the clock. It was very stressful having to keep track of everything we spent in my spreadsheet to tally as we went!
At the time of this video, we reached Cosmo Gold with 20,000 tier credits: $4000 resort spend X 5 credits per $. Then, we were able to status match to Gold at MGM. Unfortunately, they changed the status match program, so now you only get matched to Pearl at MGM with Cosmo Gold. MGM does require 75,000 tier credits for Gold or a match from Cosmo Platinum (if I remember correctly) or Caesars Diamond Plus. MGM’s website doesn’t even list Cosmo for status match anymore, probably because they were supposed to be merged with MGM Rewards already.
@@ThePowersSix When they were scheduled to merge Identity with MGM last month, they announced they’d be combining tier credits from both programs to determine your tier status for 2024. We had enough between the two to get Gold at MGM, but they postponed. Hoping they right that wrong before the end of the year.
Great tips Chris & Cathryn! Didn't think about charging back meals at Mgm resorts to the Cosmo room 👍 That is crazy about the calculations though for playing slots, etc!
It will be nice when all MGM restaurants can be charged back to Cosmo, but for now it’s just Aria and Bellagio. And yeah, our pathetic 50-cent bets aren’t getting us any status. Lol!
Very informative! I think attaining or maintaining status at Cosmo via resort spend is the way to go before the merger with MGM. If you can get to Gold at Cosmo then match to Gold at MGM, you’ll be golden!! Thanks for this video guys!
@@darrylcox5250 Not sure if something has changed recently, but we matched our Cosmo Gold to MGM Gold. We currently have Gold with both and we did not reach the 75,000 points at MGM to actually earn the Gold status there. It will be very disappointing if Cosmo Gold only gets us Pearl at MGM in the future!
@@darrylcox5250 I do see where they’ve changed it to Pearl on their website. Maybe we got the Gold match just in time. Guess we’ll have to figure out a new plan for next year. Of course, Identity and MGM might be combined by then, so it may not matter either way.
@@TheMidlifeRide Maybe you lucked out?? I made Gold at the Cosmo in October for the first time. When I tier matched at Bellagio, I was only offered Pearl status as a match.
Cosmo really screwed their players by moving to MGM. In the Identity program, when you earned Identity points in slot play, you could use them for free slot play, resort stays, dining, gift shop, and anything on the property. But when they transferred to MGM, instead of transferring the Identity points to MGM Reward points, which would have been a lateral move, allowing the guests the same benefits as Identity, they transferred slot players' points to ONLY slot play! No longer were you able to use the points for dining, resort stays, gift shop, services, etc.
@@-Ready-Player-One- You can convert your slot dollars to MGM rewards points at the Rewards counter. Then, you can use them for non-gaming spend. I just confirmed this a couple days ago at the Bellagio Rewards desk. Let me know if you have any issues converting yours.
@@TheMidlifeRide I hope that is the case, but haven't heard that. It makes no sense to not just make it a lateral move and convert them to MGM Rewards points which would be the same as how Identity points were. Thanks for the update.
Yep, Pearl is useless. Just when we think we have it all figured out, they go and change everything. They’re making it more and more difficult for us little people to feel special. That’s why we’re starting to appreciate the local casinos more and more.
Pay for status? Hell nah! Credit Cards baby! Been MGM gold and Caesars Diamond thru credit cards for years now. Sadly with Hyatt ending the partnership with MGM, i guess i'll just be Caesars Diamond from now on lol.
So, are you talking about the MGM Rewards Mastercard and the Caesars Rewards Visa cards? We have both, but have never spent enough to earn Gold or Diamond status.
@@TheMidlifeRide Wyndham Business Card gets you Wyndham Diamond which will get you instant match to Caesars Diamond (tip social media counts as a business 👍 regardless of income) As for MGM i used to do it through Hyatt (not an option anymore)
@@xYxJonathanxYx oh, yes. We just did that in a different video! How We Got CAESARS DIAMOND Status without Resort Spend or Gambling! Las Vegas Vlog 2023 ua-cam.com/video/A5BXwUYqu_M/v-deo.html
I used this same trick to get gold at cosmo and mgm last year. Sign up with hyatt rewards and tier match your mgm status and you can use both to maintain status in perpetuity. Unfortunately, we were early to the party and they closed or at least tightened up the loophole. Per MGM website Cosmopolitan Gold tier matches to MGM Pearl. Would need Cosmo platinum to tier match to gold now
Get a Wyndham business credit card with Barclays then Caeser’s will match diamond. Then visit a mlife desk and they will match Caeser’s diamond to mlife gold.
Ever since I made gold at Cosmo it’s been so good I already used my two comp nights That comes with gold status and shortly after that they sent me 3 complementary nights, which I recently used again an now they sent me 4 complimentary nights So it’s been real good are usually gamble slots a lot, and also buy food an snacks at the Cosmo and that’s crazy. I did not know that I can charge my meal at Tai fung at aria back to Cosmo wow if I know I might of even been at platinum! 😮
We agree, Cosmo’s Identity rewards program is excellent. We are really worried that everything is going to change for the worse when it switches to MGM.
@@TheMidlifeRide yess I’m a little worried too last time I was there which was about a month ago I asked about it they said that they’re not gonna switch until 2024 so this is might be the last year but I also heard rumors that it might change in April so it’s like I don’t know what to believe. I also heard from the identity desk that When they switch that MGM is going to do tear match on the two highest tier which is gold and platinum which is good so if they do switch you’ll be gold or platinum still but with MGM rewards
@@NYCslots24 MGM just moved the waived resort fees perk to Platinum status, it’s already on their website. So, our Gold tier match won’t be enough. We’ll probably never reach Platinum. So disappointing!
@@TheMidlifeRide damn I wasn’t aware of the so I’m basically in a race to try to make it to platinum I’ll be at Cosmo February an march already so hopefully if identity doesn’t change all year, I can possibly make it to platinum by Summer I’m sure but will see if identity stays all year for 2023
Another thing you can do to maintain status at the Cosmo is buy gift cards. Last year I figured out I was $400 short of maintaining gold and had no planned trips before my anniversary date. I called, bought a $400 gift card over the phone, then called identity to get the purchase registered to my identity account. Maintained my gold status, the gift card came in the mail and then I just used the card to pay for part of my room during my next stay.
Yes! That is a really great thing if you can’t manage to spend it all. We had that in our back pocket, but didn’t need to do it this time. Thanks for mentioning it!
Does that work with double dipping? For example, get the tier credits for buying the gift cards, and then using those gift cards to pay off room charges/stays?
Hi Chris and Cathryn, just came upon your video. Depending on how much you value the Gold status (or want to rank up to Platinum for cheaper), look into buying Marriot Bonvoy rewards points directly (I think the maximum is 100,000 points for like $1250). Marriot and Cosmo have a transfer agreement where you can transfer Marriot points to Cosmo at a 10:4 scale. So to maintain the 20,000 Identity points for Cosmo Gold, it would cost you around $625 total if you purchased the 50,000 Marriott points directly and transfered them directly over. Then as I'm sure you already know you can status match to MGM which can status match to Caesars.
Thanks for watching and for the info! Do you know what will happen with Marriott Bonvoy once Identity and MGM rewards are combined? Now that MGM has changed the status matching to Gold (from Identity Gold to Identity Platinum and from Caesars Diamond to Caesars Diamond Plus) we’ll have to spend even more to get there. Also, what is your experience matching with Caesars? Caesars website and their employees claim that only new members get tier matching, so we are not able to do that.
@mistersandman23 The Bonvoy conversion to Identity points doesn't apply to tier credits. I looked into it.
@@TheMidlifeRide on their website in 2024 says Gold no resort fees not platinum, ?
@@jbkmjl yes, sorry, I misspoke. No resort fees are still at the Gold level with MGM. It was the status matching that changed. We used to be able to get Gold at MGM with Gold at Cosmo or Diamond at Caesars, but then they changed it to the next tier up from both properties. So, we’d need Platinum at Cosmo or Diamond Plus at Caesars.
@@bigbossaj7029 I had a hard time finding info about converting to Identity. I only saw info to convert from Identity. But, I’m sure you’re right. From what I read, it didn’t seem like that partnership would be helpful to elevate status with Cosmo.
A lot of people are really upset about identity being absorbed into MGM rewards but I’m kinda excited. Being able to earn rewards across half of Vegas rather than being focused at only one resort. I am a Cosmo loyalist
There are some positive things about the merger, but overall, it seems it will be much more expensive for us to reach the status with MGM that gets us waived resort fees at Cosmo. That’s really the only perk we’re interested in and we’re not sure it will be worth the cost to get there. If it happens naturally, with the purchases we normally make using our MGM Rewards Mastercard, that would be good, but it’s unlikely for us. Also, we won’t be able to use our comps at Cosmo, then move over to another MGM property on comps, since they’ll be in the same group. We will be happy not feeling pressured to spend and play at just one property, though.
We charge everything back to our room even as small as a bottle of water from gift shop also we usually get a cabana once or twice a year. Last year mid year we signed up for the MGM card and use it primarily on gas and groceries. We went 4x's last year and made gold with MGM. I asked at Cosmo about matching in December but it sounds like identity isn't going to be around much longer from what I was told at the time so I figured wasn't much point in bothering with it.
We’ve asked every trip and no one seems to know anything. Or, at least, they aren’t telling us! We could have reached Gold at MGM, but we would rather have status at Cosmo. How do you confirm that MGM is giving you the right amount of credits for your Mastercard spend? We can’t seem to access that information on their website. It tells us on our statements, but we can’t find the activity on the MGM rewards page.
@@TheMidlifeRide I usually screen shot the MGM app prior to credit card statement closing and compare after. The person I spoke to at Cosmo said they heard end of 1st quarter maybe right who knows. 🤷
Thanks for the video. I'm a bit confused as to the overall value of the MGM Gold status. Other than savings of resort fee's, why spend thousands of dollars to achieve Gold status? What am I missing here?
You’re not missing anything! It would be silly to spend thousands of dollars for any perks, including resort fees. The goal, at least for us, is to get the status without spending more than we would anyway. That’s why we use the credit card. We have to buy groceries, gas and everything else no matter what. Wish Cosmo had a credit card because we’d reach Gold in no time!
Don't confuse "coin-in" with dollars spent. That $4000 you mentioned being spent at the resort could've equated to several tens of thousands of "coin-in" at the slots. Another way to earn tier credits is to get the MGM Mastercard. You acquire tier credits for each dollar spent. If you use a credit card for everyday purchases, it's a great way to earn.
We aren’t very lucky while gambling, so it’s likely that resort spend is the better way to go for us. We use the Mastercard everyday, so that does help. Thanks for watching and commenting:)
Even as a Saphire member, I was getting 3-4 comp nights at any MGM locations through the MGM app. Pretty much anyone who signs up for the card will get them Sunday-Thursday stays. I'm now Pearl, and not much of a difference that I can see. I'm on my way to gold. What I do is I take $5-10k cash down with me, go to the roulette tables, get that in chips, and then bet table minimums, not touching the large chips. Occasionally I will do a single bet of $500, $2500, or $5000 if I'm feeling really lucky. So far I haven't lost on those (cross fingers). I put the large value chips in my pocket and cash those out at the cashier later, and cash in my smaller chips at the table. Looks like I had a large loss to the casino, and according to the dealers, this gets me more points. We'll see...
We get plenty of comp offers with MGM, but without the Gold status, we’d have to pay resort fees. That’s the only benefit of Gold for us. We hope your strategy gets you there without losing too much money! Thanks for sharing:)
Most places do not keep up with your win/loss for you to advance in Tier. It is based on the amount of time you play and how much "per hand" you are betting. If you play slots, then your win/loss is calculated easily and that does factor in slightly. If you had a particularly bad day/trip, you can ask a host for a nice dinner or something.
@@djkid22 what I don’t understand is, if the calculation is so easy, why don’t they tell us up front what it is?
@@TheMidlifeRide MGM doesn't. I thought about switching to them. Caesar's pretty much defines their program and it's clear how to get the tier score you want. that's one factor in me not going with MGM. It's too confusing and they do it on purpose.
@@djkid22 Agreed. I don’t like not knowing. At least we know how much we’ll earn on non-gaming activities. Honestly, our gambling doesn’t get us many points anyway, so we always focus more on resort spend.
Hii! Great video guys. How much coin in and resort spend do you need to reach pearl and gold with MGM?
According to the pamphlet I have, you need 20,000 tier credits to reach Pearl and 75,000 tier credits to reach Gold with MGM. At 4 points per $1 for resort spend (assuming my math is right), you'd need to spend $5000 to reach Pearl and $18,750 to reach Gold. Of course, if you also use the MGM Rewards Mastercard for those purchases, you'd get an additional 3 points per $1 for resort spend (total of 7, I think), as well as 2 points per $1 on gas/groceries and 1 point per $1 on everything else. You also get an automatic upgrade to Pearl status with the card. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to factor in your coin-in because MGM states that points are awarded based on your time played, average bet and game type.
Great video and tips. Thanks
Thanks for watching:)
I'm platinum with MGM but only make it to Vegas on avg twice a year. My stays are usually 4 days, 3 nights. I always stay at Aria Sky Suites, mainly for the free sodas and random food they have in the lounge, and it's proximity to the high limit baccarat pit. I go to Vegas to gamble, so I don't really care about entertainment or food (why my host loves me). I gamble 8-10 hours a day with a daily budget of 20k. I bet $500+ a hand and play around 15-20 hands/hour. For the past 5 years, while I've had losing sessions, I've never had a losing trip. Personally, I hate going to Vegas with family/friends that don't gamble, because they're always coming by the tables trying to make them go do things with them. I now inform them that once we land in Vegas, the next time we'll hang out is in the car on the way back to the airport.
We’ve never played baccarat but we might have to start. We’re the exact opposite of you: we’ve had some winning sessions (slots and VP) but we rarely have a winning trip!
I have gold at cosmo and pearl at mgm but who knows what I’m going to be ? Your saying if mgm match’s cosmo then will I be gold or are they putting me down to Pearl ? I just got an invite for identity for April for four nights complementary I guess I’m gonna have to call them and see what I’m getting this year . But I liked your info .
It was in the other video that you watched, but supposedly MGM will be combining your tier credits from MGM and Cosmo to determine your status for 2024. That was supposed to happen February 1st, but we received an email from Cosmo saying the merger would happen “at a later date in 2024.” So, who knows? We’re taking screenshots of our points before the end of the year so we know exactly what we had and what we should be getting. As far as we know, you can no longer match Cosmo Gold to MGM Gold, only to MGM Pearl.
I just made it to gold, Strictly playing tables and I’m no high roller like other gold tier members.. has me confused how their point system really works
At Cosmo or at MGM? Either way, table games are rarely mentioned in any of the documentation. From what you’re saying, it sounds like maybe that’s the way to go. Too bad we don’t play table games. Of course, I think any table game player is a high roller because I’d never play a game for even $5 per hand! Lol!
I mostly gamble at Caesars Rewards properties and like to take advantage when they offer 5x or 10x Tier credit promotions. I stayed at the Cromwell beginning of June and earned 5x tier credits during promotion and also heading to The Paris end of August where they are having a 10x tier credit promotion. I’m usually able to maintain Diamond Plus taking advantage of these yearly
We are so unlucky with those multiplier promotions. They’re rarely going on when we’re out here. We received an email from MGM just before we left and I was so excited. Then, I realized it doesn’t start until July 1, after we leave. Same thing happens with Cosmo. Every free play offer they send is either the week before or the week after we’re in town. Ugh!
I have heard that Caesar’s properties lower their slot RTP% during the tier credit multiplier days as a way to recover the value of their tier credit multiplier. Before knowing this, I was there 12/2023 and coined in $30K+ across 150+ low volatility slots and my RTP% was 76% for a $7K+ loss in 7 consecutive days.
I’ve also heard that most Vegas casinos lower their slot RTP% during November/December.
Just got back from Vegas and hit the cosmo buffet. Nothing like waiting in line for 2.5 hrs for lunch lol
Good grief! Hope it was worth it! When we went, it was the same crazy wait time but we were able to bypass the line since the friends we were with had Gold status.
Problem is ....when Identity rolls into MGM this year, Cosmo Gold converts to Pearl!! 🤮😆
Wow! That really sucks. You can get Pearl automatically with the MGM credit card.
I was thinking the same thing!
Any idea when that’s going to happen? We have the Mastercard. Problem is, we can never see our recent activity on the MGM rewards site, so there’s no way for us to confirm that they’re crediting our points properly. It’s very frustrating!
If you get paper billing it shows. I recently used my mgm credit card at cosmopolitan and chargers everything to the room and dining on it and got 3 times points so your mgm credit card now works at cosmopolitan for 3 times points which is a bonus right now.
@@Vegasbonus702 That’s great news! I’ll check my statement for all the Cosmo charges from December. If we get the 3x, that will help a lot for gaining status with MGM for next year. Thanks for the info!
Any idea on how much a slot point is worth in tier credit? I've seen for each point earned from slot play it is 8 tier points all the way down to 3 tier points. Was there in Feb and earned 20k in tier points I believe based off 2500 points (could be wrong). Then was just there at the end of Sept (when the tracking systems on there end were down, not the slot machine). Earned 5k in points in one day but only received 20k in tier points. Even with the multiplier offer they have going on. Also it was about $5k more in THEO. I feel I got screwed but have no idea to who to contact as I left the next day. Any insights are greatly appreciated?
Assuming you’re asking about MGM, but there’s really no way to know what their actual formula is for calculating rewards (tier, slot, gift) from gameplay since they base it on game type, length of play and bet level. Unless you played the same length of time on the same games at the same denom, how would you dispute it? In our opinion, they’re being shady and the fact that they aren’t transparent about earnings means they aren’t obligated to give consistent rewards or any at all, for that matter.
I am only Sterling ay Cosmo through Gambling Slot Machines and they send me 3 weekday night comp offers with no resort fees.
We used to get those 3 night, no resort fee offers all the time. They stopped maybe about 6-8 months ago. Now, we only get 2 night offers, even though we’re Gold. When did you get your last offer?
Nice vlog. We definitely maintain via resort spend 😅 And I do hit up the spa lol
Nice! I keep telling myself I deserve a treat like that, but I haven’t done it yet. Someday:)
I’m going to try MGM next time I go to Vegas. I was at the Palazzo in June, I haven’t received any offers from them.
MGM has great comps. We started getting them way before we had any status, but never booked until we had Gold because we didn’t want to pay resort fees. Unfortunately, since they’ve changed their program, it’s harder to earn. But we still get the same great offers for comp rooms.
Are you earning on a multiplier day during this video? It’s my understanding that with purchases on food spa etc you earn 1 tc for every dollar spent. Loved that video thank you guys!
No multiplier, this is the earning rate for everyone. You can pick up a pamphlet that outlines this. It’s a bit confusing on their website, but here’s the info. On the About Identity page, it discusses Identity Points earning for Hotel, Spa, Dining and shopping at 5 points per $1 spent. Then, on the FAQ page, under How Do I earn tier points, it says “The same way you earn Identity Points-except slot multipliers for Sterling, Gold, and Platinum members don’t count toward your tier status maintenance or tier progression. For example: A player without slot multipliers will earn 1 Identity Point for every $2.50 spent on a reel slot machine-it’s also considered to be a tier point. If a player is earning 2X points, they will receive 2 Identity Points for every $2.50 spent, but only 1 point is considered to be a tier point. A guest who spends $100 in food and beverage or at the spa will earn 500 Identity Points-all of those points are considered to be tier points.”
Here’s the link to that page. If you email me at themidliferide@gmail.com, I can probably find the pamphlet and send you a pic. www.cosmopolitanlasvegas.com/identity/faqs#accordion_panel-5XYiR5ZvwcomGgoIy84AIm-1
@@TheMidlifeRide thank you so much. That is very helpful. Me and me girlfriend may need to try this for status matching to mgm gold soon before that goes away to pearl it sounds like
@@jaketheawesomeful unfortunately, we think it already changed. We’re currently looking for new ways to get status without paying an arm and a leg!
Either my math is off, or I did not understand this video correctly. You spent an extra $4,000 that you hadn’t planned on spending in an effort to save $40/night on your resort fees on hotel stays at a resort that charges $200+ per night. That just sounds like a horrible deal to me. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper for you to just pay the resort fees? By my math, you would have to stay at least 100 nights in a year in order to see any savings from your saved resort fees.
If we had spent $4000 that we wouldn’t have spent otherwise, yes…that would not be worth it. But, we had already spent most of that during the year, plus the nights we paid for on this trip. So, we figured we’d try out some of the restaurants we hadn’t been to. We already do most of our gambling there. In addition to saving on resort fees (which, with taxes, are more than $40/night), we get 2 extra comp rooms and B1G1 Wicked Spoon. Still, not worth spending $4000 to get there, but since we were already so close, why not?
So you have the mgm credit card? I’m in Canada. If I got an mgm credit card and used that for all my purchases, how many points per dollar would I get?
When dining at an MGM property, could I just show them my MGM rewards card or do I need to charge it to my room? I may be the only one confused on that?
If you want MGM points, you can just use your rewards card. If you want Identity points, you’ll need to charge to your room at Cosmo. We have the MGM rewards Mastercard, so we charge to the room for identity points and get bonus MGM points for the charges. It’s confusing because some things between the two properties have been combined but others are still separate.
Hi! Can you clarify when you say resort spend points do not expire on a rolling 12 month basis? I have 12k tier points and am trying to understand when they will expire. Only 2 trips to Vegas last year in Jun & Nov so my guess is points will drop off in Jun sometime. Next trip won’t be until Jul this year so I am thinking about buying a gift card online to make gold before they expire. Thoughts? And thanks so much for the great tips!
Oh, man. This is the most confusing part for me. I had them explain it several times and I felt more confused after each conversation! Here’s what I think they’re saying. If you reach Gold through resort spend alone ($4k), you’ll be gold for an entire year from the time you reach that status. So, by that date, you’d need to spend another $4k to maintain status for the next year. Tier credits earned through gaming drop off your account a year after they’re earned. So, it’s difficult to know exactly how much you’ll need to earn to maintain because they’re constantly dropping off. The portal is useless in this regard! Might not be that hard to figure out if you only went twice, but it was a real challenge for us. We were up against the clock, waiting for points to hit our account after checkout with only 3 days before expiration. We were planning to buy gift cards if necessary but, thankfully, it didn’t come to that. Hope this helps. By the way, if you didn’t already know, it looks like MGM won’t match Cosmo Gold to MGM Gold anymore. I think they’ve dropped the match to Pearl. Super disappointed about that. Still, Cosmo is what we’re most concerned with and it’s much less expensive to reach Gold with them than MGM or Caesars Diamond.
Also, you can call or email Identity and they should be able to tell you how many points are from spend vs gaming and give you the expiration dates.
Nice video as always! We are MGM people and had Gold status until the end of 2022. Unfortunately we have lost that😔. Curious if you have heard when the Cosmo identity program will be merging with MGM rewards?
We ask every time we’re there and no one seems to know. I really wish they’d announce something so we have some time to plan. Thanks for watching!
@@TheMidlifeRide thank you for the reply. After watching many of your Cosmo videos we are going to stay there in July. A property I always wanted to stay at. Cant wait. 😁😁
@@chadperley7736 How exciting! We hope you love it as much as we do:)
I was told end of 2023 by somebody at the identity desk at Cosmo. They said probably won’t see anything till 2024 in the beginning.
@@NYCslots24 well I hope you are wrong. Haha
Love the Jersey and so interesting on how little Gaming contributes to maintaining your Tier status.
Well, so little of OUR gaming, but so much of TERESA’S! It was eye-opening for us.
The sad thing too is that MGM took a lot of benefits from their Gold tier when they redid the program. You used to get "front of the line" for restaurants with Gold now it is Platinum and up. Secret for me is to charge everything to the room.
At Mandalay Bay you still get those perks at gold at some of the food outlets we found out on a recent trip usually I make reservations for the most part also got into Michael Jackson cirque show early I think it depends on the property or food outlets they're not all the same.
Yes, we love charging to the room. But, it can take a few days after checkout for the points to hit the account and we were up against the clock. It was very stressful having to keep track of everything we spent in my spreadsheet to tally as we went!
Sorry of I missed the info, said that 4,000 spend needed for gold. I thought its 75,000 points for gold.
At the time of this video, we reached Cosmo Gold with 20,000 tier credits: $4000 resort spend X 5 credits per $. Then, we were able to status match to Gold at MGM. Unfortunately, they changed the status match program, so now you only get matched to Pearl at MGM with Cosmo Gold. MGM does require 75,000 tier credits for Gold or a match from Cosmo Platinum (if I remember correctly) or Caesars Diamond Plus. MGM’s website doesn’t even list Cosmo for status match anymore, probably because they were supposed to be merged with MGM Rewards already.
@@TheMidlifeRide Thank you. Have been looking for a way to reach gold at MGM.
@@ThePowersSix When they were scheduled to merge Identity with MGM last month, they announced they’d be combining tier credits from both programs to determine your tier status for 2024. We had enough between the two to get Gold at MGM, but they postponed. Hoping they right that wrong before the end of the year.
Great tips Chris & Cathryn! Didn't think about charging back meals at Mgm resorts to the Cosmo room 👍 That is crazy about the calculations though for playing slots, etc!
It will be nice when all MGM restaurants can be charged back to Cosmo, but for now it’s just Aria and Bellagio. And yeah, our pathetic 50-cent bets aren’t getting us any status. Lol!
does cosmopolitan match for MGM gold ppl? not just MGM platinum
As far as we know, Cosmo doesn't match tier status from any other casino.
Very informative! I think attaining or maintaining status at Cosmo via resort spend is the way to go before the merger with MGM. If you can get to Gold at Cosmo then match to Gold at MGM, you’ll be golden!! Thanks for this video guys!
Thanks for watching, Matt! We really hope the status match lasts at least for the year. We’ll have to re-evaluate once the rewards programs merge.
@@TheMidlifeRide I believe the tier match is from Cosmo Gold to MGM Pearl - still decent though.
@@darrylcox5250 Not sure if something has changed recently, but we matched our Cosmo Gold to MGM Gold. We currently have Gold with both and we did not reach the 75,000 points at MGM to actually earn the Gold status there. It will be very disappointing if Cosmo Gold only gets us Pearl at MGM in the future!
@@darrylcox5250 I do see where they’ve changed it to Pearl on their website. Maybe we got the Gold match just in time. Guess we’ll have to figure out a new plan for next year. Of course, Identity and MGM might be combined by then, so it may not matter either way.
@@TheMidlifeRide Maybe you lucked out?? I made Gold at the Cosmo in October for the first time. When I tier matched at Bellagio, I was only offered Pearl status as a match.
You guys live in Vegas?
We live in Lexington, Kentucky.
Cosmo really screwed their players by moving to MGM. In the Identity program, when you earned Identity points in slot play, you could use them for free slot play, resort stays, dining, gift shop, and anything on the property. But when they transferred to MGM, instead of transferring the Identity points to MGM Reward points, which would have been a lateral move, allowing the guests the same benefits as Identity, they transferred slot players' points to ONLY slot play! No longer were you able to use the points for dining, resort stays, gift shop, services, etc.
@@-Ready-Player-One- You can convert your slot dollars to MGM rewards points at the Rewards counter. Then, you can use them for non-gaming spend. I just confirmed this a couple days ago at the Bellagio Rewards desk. Let me know if you have any issues converting yours.
@@TheMidlifeRide I hope that is the case, but haven't heard that. It makes no sense to not just make it a lateral move and convert them to MGM Rewards points which would be the same as how Identity points were. Thanks for the update.
I figured once Cosmo is absorbed into MGM Rewards, gold and gold will be the same. So I get the FC which gets me diamond then I match it with MGM.
Yes! That’s exactly what we’ll do when they combine.
This is unfortunately out of date already, MGM changed their match status, now Cosmo gold only gets MGM Pearl, which is a pretty much useless tier.
Yep, Pearl is useless. Just when we think we have it all figured out, they go and change everything. They’re making it more and more difficult for us little people to feel special. That’s why we’re starting to appreciate the local casinos more and more.
I was able to status match my mgm pearl to club one @ circa. Do you know any other casinos that much pearl ?
Free parking 😅
Pay for status? Hell nah! Credit Cards baby! Been MGM gold and Caesars Diamond thru credit cards for years now. Sadly with Hyatt ending the partnership with MGM, i guess i'll just be Caesars Diamond from now on lol.
So, are you talking about the MGM Rewards Mastercard and the Caesars Rewards Visa cards? We have both, but have never spent enough to earn Gold or Diamond status.
@@TheMidlifeRide Wyndham Business Card gets you Wyndham Diamond which will get you instant match to Caesars Diamond (tip social media counts as a business 👍 regardless of income)
As for MGM i used to do it through Hyatt (not an option anymore)
@@xYxJonathanxYx oh, yes. We just did that in a different video! How We Got CAESARS DIAMOND Status without Resort Spend or Gambling! Las Vegas Vlog 2023
ua-cam.com/video/A5BXwUYqu_M/v-deo.html
One other method is to have Teresa play with your Player’s Card 😂😂😂
That was certainly the easiest way for us!
I used this same trick to get gold at cosmo and mgm last year. Sign up with hyatt rewards and tier match your mgm status and you can use both to maintain status in perpetuity. Unfortunately, we were early to the party and they closed or at least tightened up the loophole. Per MGM website Cosmopolitan Gold tier matches to MGM Pearl. Would need Cosmo platinum to tier match to gold now
It seems that as soon as we figure out the best way to do things, everything changes! We hope that MGM doesn’t take away our Gold status this year.
Get a Wyndham business credit card with Barclays then Caeser’s will match diamond. Then visit a mlife desk and they will match Caeser’s diamond to mlife gold.
@@MangoRiotness Thanks for the info! We’ll check it out.
I think since mgm bought cosmo pretty soon its gonna be just mgm rewards at cosmo
You’re probably right. We really hope they let us keep our Cosmo status through 2023 though.
Ever since I made gold at Cosmo it’s been so good I already used my two comp nights That comes with gold status and shortly after that they sent me 3 complementary nights, which I recently used again an now they sent me 4 complimentary nights So it’s been real good are usually gamble slots a lot, and also buy food an snacks at the Cosmo and that’s crazy. I did not know that I can charge my meal at Tai fung at aria back to Cosmo wow if I know I might of even been at platinum! 😮
We agree, Cosmo’s Identity rewards program is excellent. We are really worried that everything is going to change for the worse when it switches to MGM.
@@TheMidlifeRide yess
I’m a little worried too last time I was there which was about a month ago I asked about it they said that they’re not gonna switch until 2024 so this is might be the last year but I also heard rumors that it might change in April so it’s like I don’t know what to believe. I also heard from the identity desk that When they switch that MGM is going to do tear match on the two highest tier which is gold and platinum which is good so if they do switch you’ll be gold or platinum still but with MGM rewards
@@NYCslots24 MGM just moved the waived resort fees perk to Platinum status, it’s already on their website. So, our Gold tier match won’t be enough. We’ll probably never reach Platinum. So disappointing!
@@TheMidlifeRide damn I wasn’t aware of the so I’m basically in a race to try to make it to platinum I’ll be at Cosmo February an march already so hopefully if identity doesn’t change all year, I can possibly make it to platinum by Summer I’m sure but will see if identity stays all year for 2023
@@NYCslots24 We didn’t find out until after we posted this video. Just when we thought we had it all figured out… lol! Good luck!