The Plan 7/14, or, Raider of the Las Vegas, the Hunt for Mlife Platinum.

So the plan on this trip is simple, and two-pronged. 1) See Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden. 2) Get to Mlife Platinum.

NIN have become one of my top 3 bands over the last few years as I've belatedly discovered a lot of their back catalog. They are now in the Cocteau Twins/Radiohead level pantheon of All Time Favorites. I have also never seen them live. They appear, from the hundreds of YouTube vids I've watched, to be an amazing live band. Soundgarden too is among my top 20 or so best bands, especially for the album they'll be pushing, a re-issue of Superunknown. Limo Wreck is an amazing tune and I can't wait to see it live. That dual-headlining show is Saturday night and should be amazing.

Then there's the matter of Mlife. Gotta hand it to MGM, they have sucked my ass in with this rewards program. I'm at just about the midway point between Gold, where I am now, and Platinum, where I want to be. I need 200,000 points to get to Platinum, I am at 92,000+. Platinum is where Mlife starts to get baller. Big bonuses on point and comps. Turndown service. Priority valet and taxi service. Dedicated concierge. Priority pool/cabana service. On top of line-skipping all over the place and room upgrades that I already have with Gold.

Here's the catch, and here's where MGM is both sneaky and smart with this program. If I DON'T get to Platinum on this trip, on October 1st all my points are wiped away. I would remain at Gold, but I would start from zero having to re-earn all 200,000 points from scratch. Diabolical. Being that I won't be leaving Vegas this coming trip until the last week of July, it's highly unlikely that I could put together another trip before the end of September. Maybe if I got ridiculously close (a few thousand points?) I could squeeze in a little weekender trip somewhere before the 1st of Oct, but money-wise it would be tough, unless by some miracle I don't spend my whole wad on the July trip.

Thus this trip will be an MGM trip. The NIN/Soundgarden show is at Planet Hollywood, so no choice on that night, but aside from that the rest of the 3 days/4 nights will be spent in MGM resorts, riding MGM slots, eating at MGM restaurants, drinking at MGM bars, and swiping the shit out of my Mlife card in every one of them. It's one of the reasons I've added an extra night to the trip (flying in Friday night w/o a room just for an extra party night) and may very well stay an extra day if I have enough cash left by Monday. Tuesday mid-week room rates are pretty cheap and with Southwest I should be able to change my flight to the next day with no penalty fees.

Obviously, the focus on the trip is fun and I'm not going to storm Omaha beach for an extra 10 Mlife points, but MGM has certainly ramped up the focus in this boy to get to the next tier. Getting to Platinum (the penultimate Mlife tier) would then put me in range, presumably in a year or so, of the mythical invite-only Noir level, where the ballerism is taken to ridiculous heights (VIP everything, guaranteed access to everything, comped limo service to and from the airport, 40% multiplier on comps, etc.).

So, in all honesty, I'll be doing more of what I've done over the last 6 trips or so. Since getting into Mlife and seeing the willingness of MGM to comp me for damn near everything aside from gambling (which obviously benefits them more than me, I'm no dummy) has kept me more or less parked in MGM resorts. I have dallied with Caesars and The Cosmo but I've spent by far the largest percentage of my cash in MGM resorts while there. I'd love to get Platinum under my belt on this trip so I can enjoy the benefits on the inevitable Xmas trip happening later this year (always thinking ahead), and it'd be even better if I can get it done by Monday so I can take the extra day if I book it to go exploring, maybe head up to Wynn/Encore since I haven't been there in a while, and I still haven't set foot in Venetian/Palazzo, so that would be lovely. Shit, if I get to Platinum early and stay the extra day maybe I'll even book a room at Cosmo or Bellagio and experience some baller style while throwing around my new baller status.

The whole Hunt for Vegas status thing is so unlike me, I couldn't usually give a shit about that kind of stuff in normal life.

But Vegas isn't normal.

UPDATE:

I've just realized that, despite my spending a grand total of about a half hour in Caesars casinos since getting my TR card, I have a free room coming to me from Total Rewards, so I'm going to go ahead and book the 4th day, paying only the resort fee and hoping that I still have some money left over to take advantage of it. Worst case if I have a shitty money trip I'll just leave on Tuesday and forfeit the $25, like who cares. Best case I can take advantage of the no-change fee on Southwest and stay the extra day. This would be 4 days, 5 nights, longest trip ever for me. I've gotten pretty good at managing my funds if the slots are raping me so having some of the projected $4K left shouldn't be a problem.

The free room is at Harrah's, definitely a mid-range Caesars property at best, but the room is one of the newly updated Premium rooms and is in the better of the 2 towers, apparently. And, hello, FREE. Can't beat the location on the Strip, either, it's right in the middle of everything.

I've also decided after doing a little more research that after I get to Platinum I'm going to give Mlife a break for a while. I've been more than loyal to MGM this past couple years and it's time to see a little bit more of the Strip. I'm going to go TR and also am going to get my hooks into Identity (Cosmo) starting with my Xmas trip. I'll certainly continue to lap up the apparently endless comped rooms from MGM, but I'm going to start exploring the rest of the Strip more.

As it turns out Noir level on Mlife is damn near impossible to attain unless you're a mega-whale. It's invite only and apparently only about 800 people in the world have it. I seriously doubt I'm going to get there playing nickel slots. So if Platinum is the ceiling let's get there, have the rewards that come with it then have the mental freedom to branch out and check out some other rewards structures.

Getting the fever for this trip though it's over a month and a half away,  love me some mid-summer Vegas.