Is the Atlantic City Merry Go Round Grinding to a Halt????

Last week, I wrote about the imminent change over from Hard Rock’s Wild Card program in Atlantic City to the master Hard Rock Unity program. We didn’t know what it might mean for the Status Match Merry Go Round™.

The changeover happened as planned yesterday, Jan 9th, and of course there were MilesTalkers on the ground to test the waters immediately.

MilesTalker Jared M. has been in touch with me as he bounced back and forth between Hard Rock and Ocean and things look grim. Especially with some correlating info from MilesTalker Aaron S.

Keep in mind that this is all fresh and we don’t know what will happen over time, but he has reported negative developments at both casinos. 

Hard Rock Atlantic City

• Both Jared and Aaron have been told that the match is now once per lifetime. Remember you could match back to Rock Royalty under the Hard Rock Wild Card program every year (and I did!). What we are not quiet sure of yet is if you can match once to Unity ICON (from Caesars Diamond) if you previously matched to Hard Rock’s Wild Card Rock Royalty – or if even previous Wild Card matches exclude you from one more match. Since Aaron was denied based on a 3 year old Unity match, but Jared was told he could match once to Unity, I think the limitation is just once per lifetime in the new Unity program, so if you haven’t yet matched to Unity (like, for example, in Vegas at the Mirage in the past year), you should be able to match ONCE.
• I also want to note that I’m entirely unsure when Unity matches from the last year expire. The website says you keep the status 14 months from the end of the year you earn status. But does that apply to matches? Customer support could not tell me. Both of my Unity accounts – one from Mirage Unity (matched March 2023) and one from Atlantic City Wild Card (matched last September 2023) – simply say I’m ICON and I need to earn 15,000 points by Dec 31, 2024 to retain ICON status.But neither actually says when my status expires and I suspect we won’t know until March 1st what the score is there. I believe those that EARNED status have a more complete message including their expiration dates. 
• If Unity is really now a once per lifetime match, then you either have already had your last match to Ocean or you have one more because….

Ocean Atlantic City

Remember, Ocean stopped even matching to MGM Gold. You now need MGM Platinum or Caesars Seven Star. The exception was Hard Rock’s Rock Royalty and ICON status which is stated clearly on their brochure as both being acceptable. 

On top of that, you can only match to Ocean from Hard Rock once every 18 months now.

But don’t fret – it gets *worse*.

• First, Jared was told that the match was now subject to play requirements at the discretion of the person matching you. Now I don’t want you to read TOO much into this as I think she was shooting from the hip. After all, how can you punish a lack of play when your own rules state you can’t have played in 18 months?! Truly, they should change the policy to 18 months from your last match so as to encourage actual play but, you know, I don’t work there….
• But the truly bad news he got (which I’d like more MilesTalkers to confirm when we hit March) is that they say they are no longer granting those that match from March through June (the program year expires June 30th) an extra year. For the past two years, a March match would get you March-June + July – June (up to 15 months). If true, a March match would last just 3 months, meaning that those due for their 18 month match in March (hi, that’s me 👋) would do better to wait for July 1st. But the risk there is that the new program year in July changes matches further (to what, I don’t want to speculate – but you never know, they could end the tier matching altogether).Still if that March-June extension is gone, someone matching in June would have to use the MSC Cruise and Resorts World Las Vegas nights within 3 months (you have to use them by the end of the program year you have qualified for).

So what now?

Data points. We need more data points.

We need to hear if people that matched to Wild Card Rock Royalty are still able to match once to ICON. We need more data points from people matching at Ocean (but I think this info does say that if you have Hard Rock ICON or Rock Royalty NOW and haven’t matched to Ocean, you could get 6 months as a sure thing rather than roll the dice in March or July.

I’ll probably be able to make a trip in late March, depending on what data points flow in about Ocean and depending on if my ICON status extends through 2024 or not.

One tiny glimmer of hope is that one random MilesTalker was able to match their ICON to MGM Gold at the MGM Grand in Vegas. However, they matched in December and got a January expiration date (2 months).

Who knows, maybe in February that will be a potential lifeline for one more year?

So please – keep me posted and I’ll do the same for you.

Wishing all of us luck!

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