It's Not A Bender, It's A Lifestyle.

  Oh yes, it's June. It's a Vegas month. Freebies and discounts, as we do. -5 nights at Cosmopolitan in a Terrace Studio King, 3 nights comped, $108 all in, would be $1233 on rack rate, savings of $1125. -$120 Freeplay from booking package, $228 Slot Dollars from CC, value $348.  -$50 RC from the booking package, $33 in Rewards Points, $83 in value. So $1556 of pre-trip value this time. Not remotely an all-timer, and that was never going to be the case since this is a quick turn around trip. Won't have much in the way of RC. Still tidy though, especially on the room at Cosmo which is a nice one. Have stayed in it several times, plenty of space for a single boy and it's always nice to have a terrace in the summer. Coming back to your room at 3a, altered, sitting on your terrace in 90 degree weather while eating an ice cream bar is next level Vegas. So a little over 3 weeks now from yet another Vegas, looking good, feeling good. Hell, I may even visit the Best Bathroom In...

Put JuneVegas to bed today. Got a little bump on Freeplay in my June offers from my April spend, so I rebooked the same room at Cosmo to get the added value. +$40 in FP from the old offer, same RC, about $20 more to book so I come out $20 ahead from rebooking, with no penalty on room qual or resort. I'm still getting paid to come to Vegas, at least room-wise. Still the Terrace Studio King, probably with an Aria view but whatev. I already have the pictures from the other side. So that's it. Great resort, it's a plus room, and perfect placement on center strip to be able to branch out and have a live trip. Good flight and transportation package set, some good food reservations in the queue, and it should be a nice, mellow week on strip, perhaps until the day I leave, when the July 4th-ers start slinking in. I'll be happy to turn it over to them. World Cup round of 32 will be on all week while I'm there, I don't expect it to impact me much but it might add a little...

  Threw a "why not" reservation on for Xmas. 6 nights at W Las Vegas, Dec. 22nd - 28th. 4 nights comped, $120/$100 booking package, all in cost $120. Strip View King Suite. I figured what the hell, might as well get something on the books, if my offers go up after June I can rebook with no penalty, and if my offers go down, I'm locked into a great resort and a good booking package. As previously chronicled, I love the Mandalay Bay complex and it's always a good time to stay there over Xmas week. Have done it a couple times now, I like the remoteness of the resort on the strip that week for some reason, it's like a retreat. TheHotel/Delano/W (make up your fucking mind) rooms are nice enough, a step up from a standard room anywhere else in the MGM pantheon. It would be about a $1300 hit if I wasn't an MGM'er, so again the loyalty pays off. Strong chance that something will come up in the next 7 fucking months that will change this, but no harm no foul to ge...

  June is coming up fast.  Just over a month now. It'll be a skinnier trip, no crazy upgrade like last time, no flouncing around with an Emerald suite, and no big spending in general. I'll be having JUST the number on per-day cash spend budget. And right now, I have a good terrace room at Cosmo locked in for a little over $100 all in, no reason to dick with that unless my offers go up in May or June, pretty significantly ( UPDATE : they didn't, at least in May). 3/$120/$50 and under a hundy all in out of pocket for my favorite resort and a non-standard room with a terrace (even if it's just looking at the ass end of Aria) is nails. I like being paid to stay in a top-tier resort in Vegas. This will be, while skinnier, a pretty relaxed trip money-wise. If I do come back with some pay it forward funds and I haven't wrecked the CC, then a late summer/early fall trip may be doable. If not, and my ass is handed to me, I can just shrivel up into a ball and financially rec...

Going big air for JuneVegas. Decided against doing a questionable road trip over 4th of July week, and booked a fairly posh flight/parking package instead. Will be going in with a pretty much ideal arrival time of about 11:30a, 2nd row aisle seat on Southwest. The out leaves at 12:20p, so no early fly out day wake up, 3rd row aisle seat. I'll have early group boarding so can get on/off in a jiffy. Will be in the very posh Harvey Milk terminal too so may be able to use Priority Pass on the Sunday. $350, so ouch, but I was just really worried about driving on a holiday weekend, especially on the trip back.  Instead, the car will be parked in International Garage 1 at SFO, about a 10 minute walk from the gates. $220, also ouch, but it's again me paying to minimize inconvenience. I could park in an uncovered offsite lot for a lot less, but that's either a wait for a shuttle or an Uber to and from the airport to parking. I just want to get in and out of the airport as quickly as...

  Points came in from AprilVegas. It's a LOT. Gained over 16K tier points, now up over 50K...after only one Vegas trip this year. I only need 75K to retain Gold. I may get there on JuneVegas. Crazy. Also piled up some very good Slot Dollars as well, over $150, now close to $200. Look, the MGM Rewards CC is not for everyone, it's got a very specific band of value to it, but damn if I'm not in the band. Platinum level still a pipe dream, would have to get to 200K points which, nah. But I won't have much to play for the rest of the year at MGM spots, even if I didn't take a trip the rest of the year I'll get to Gold just from the monthly CC spend. Which means I'll be able to range a bit on the last 2 (3?) trips of the year. I can plug more into FB or RW to see if any comped nights come out of that. Might have to work too hard to get into FB's good graces but RW's system is so retarded they may pay me. We'll be able to find out. There's no other ...