Boyd's bConned Mistake

It's been a while since Boyd reworked their slot club, but I haven't weighed in on it yet.

How can I sum it up? It's a huge reduction in benefits for most players, and even more for video poker players and low rollers.

The new bConned system is a disaster in so many different ways. If you are a slot player, you will probably do okay. But for VP most of the goodies have been eliminated, except possibly offers. It remains to be seen how they will be affected. (So far so good, I am getting the best offers I've ever gotten right now. I don't expect it to continue.)

Before the debacle, if you an were Emerald player, you got 3x points with the card. You'd probably have a gold card so you could use all the points you generated for cashback or freeplay.

Now there's no more multiplier, and it takes twice the coin in to get a bConned point. So now, you would earn 1/6 the points on the same coin in. Sapphire players were 2x, so they get 1/4 the points now.

Ruby players don't even earn any points, which is bogus. They cut the buffet discount for card holders too.

The perks given to higher level players are worthless to many. How many Hawaiians want a Hawaiian vacation, or a cruise that leaves from Miami???

On VP, generation of tier credits to get you to the next card level are based on the theoretical hold of the game you play. So if you are playing 9/6 jacks you have to play about $200 to get a tier credit. It used to be 1 point per dollar, although the number of points at the tier levels is lower than it was. But it is way way way harder for VP players to move up. And with no reward credits earned as a Ruby player, there's no incentive, either.

As mentioned, it just so happens that my offers are better than they have ever been, so here's what I'm doing. Booking the offers myself, skipping the host. Playing only what I want to play and forgetting all about tiers and points. I'm never going to get much out of them that way any more. I will miss the days of $400 or $500 cashback between the QQ and I at the end of a stay. The $100 tip I used to give to my host, I'll use for food. I will be low playing them, or maybe playing as long as I'm winning money off them. 🙂 Then I will see how the offers go.

I will talk to my host to see if she can still offer us stuff, but I doubt she can offer as much as before.

Maybe the meat's on YOU Boyd. YEAH.

Oddly, the Golden Nugget continues to throw offers at us. The QQ gets way better offers than me even though there has been five minutes play on her card for the last five or six visits and that's it. I will stay there, and play and eat elsewhere.

Last night at the Cal, I played some machines and blackjack. I didn't even bother with my card. For me, there is no point in bothering. I don't expect to keep Sapphire status after next year (I'll be grandfathered in and stay at my current level for 2019). I'll play there because I like the casino and people, and strictly for the money. Comps and cashback won't figure much into my calculations.

I can see the day when I pay casino rate at the Cal, and do minimal play, just because I like it there.

My bold prediction - this move is too harsh and is going to hurt them in Las Vegas. They'll have to back off and give a bit more, possibly through additional promotions to video poker players. The anecdotal evidence from last night is that the place was dead.

If the Hawaiians stay away, the three downtown Boyd properties are in trouble.

This trip, I actually double booked the Nugget and the Cal. The Cal offer included a free room, $75 in food and some free play. I'm burning that offer down, you better believe it. Unless my host sees it in the system, she won't even know I'm there. (Unless she reads the blog.)

Things are changing rapidly with 18 Fremont coming down the pike, and the Fremont addition announced.

And just this week, the discussion is a Golden Nugget / Caesars merger. What the hell???

I think maybe we are on the tail end of having downtown as a value destination. Three years from now, we'll know if it's all 7/5 crap poker machines.

Check out what The Public Money has to say about this - Downtown, You're WARNED. Don't fuck this up.