T-Minus 2 months. Again.

Two months out, already, from trip #2 of 2020.

Compressed year, this, as I'm just a week back from the 1st trip with all the "goings on" of the previous few months. Back to the same resort, it'll be 3 in a row, actually, at the Cosmopolitan. Was able to secure the same great no-resort fees deal as last time, and for the non-base Terrace Studio so it was a no-brainer. Got a decent email offer from Venetian, finally, but it still would have been a few hundy more to stay there so it was an easy choice. Of course I had many choices in the MGM pantheon but nothing cheaper with anything like the resort quality and price. Still, even after the travails of the last trip, my fave resort and location on the strip.

The rewards situation is looking great now too. I unexpectedly made Cosmo Sterling on the last trip, so there are a couple nice perks that go along with that, not the least being a free room night, which I'm putting to good use. I'll have Sterling at least until June of next year; keeping it should be a lock and stretching to Gold isn't out of the realm of possibility. 

I'll have a little more opportunity to go for that since getting to Gold Mlife will be a lock on the next trip. By the time I get to town I'll be just a couple thousand points away, really just a few hundy spent. Platinum would be a real stretch for me in the amount of trips I take and my spend, it's another 100K points north of Gold. So I'll be able to play enough over the next year to keep Gold at Mlife while attacking Gold on Identity. I can spread the wealth, which is usually a no-no in the points game but that's where I'm at, so yay. And if somehow I do well enough in August and December to threaten one or the other bump up, I can adjust.

This all makes things sound like I'm a slave to points, which I'm not, really. I got the Mlife credit card for a reason, to maximize the chances of getting to a meaningful Mlife tier. I'm about to get there, so now the focus can shift to maintaining that and maybe getting to another elsewhere. TBH the only two rewards programs I'm interested in pursuing anyway are the two I'm talking about. I'm never at Wynn enough to attack them, Venetian/Palazzo would be great to have some status at but they have heavy spend requirements that make it much harder to get anywhere. And I did the CET thing, the only place on that side I'm even interested in staying is Caesars and that's the hardest place to get comped. I have no desire to start over with them from scratch when it would just diminish the spend on Mlife and Identity.

But anyway.

It'll now be a 6-night'er. I finagled my flight a day earlier with Alaska, making it the same length as the last trip, half a day and 5 full. Taking advantage of a comped night at Cosmo for the Saturday. Would have been $220-ish to book w/o the comp.Won't add much more spend to the trip, and better than sitting around in the hobbit hole waiting to go on the Saturday before.

Speaking of the spend, I should be in a good place. I came back with $2K from the last trip, still have $3.5K in the bank after paying bills so that's 3/4 of what I'll need when I go. Assuming no financial trouble between now and then I don't really even need to do much of a save, I should have the roughly $5K built up easily in the upcoming 4 paychecks between now and then. Just need to pay down the Mlife CC to have a good $4K or so available when I hit the ground, as was the case last time. More than enough dosh. I'll also have at least $100 on Ex Comps for MGM and $71 in RC at Cosmo.

Not quite at the "plan" stage yet, I'm sure I'll reserve some food options as we get closer. Doubtful shows will be back online by then, nothing I'm really dying to see anyway. Hopefully Vegas will be more Vegas on this next trip, though. It was pretty scarce week before last. Not not fun, but not the full Vegas experience for sure. Knock wood no virus re-break. Otherwise I'm 90% of the way locked in. 

Roll on August.