Ocean to Require 250 Tier Points for Wynn/Cruise Benefits from Dec 1.

Effective Nov 30th, the Ocean Casino inactivity requirement for re-matching is now 2 years.

Reader and MilesTalk Facebook group member Java M. just posted this to the group:

With the Status Match Merry Go Round® taking a huge hit last week with Caesars and Wyndham announcing that the Business Earner credit card would no longer qualify for matched status, this is another pretty huge blow as for most people, the entire point of the Atlantic City version of the Merry Go Round is the free MSC Cruise and, for many, the two free nights at Wynn.

I don’t know offhand how much gambling is needed for 250 Tier credits but if anyone familiar could post in the comments or in the group, it would be greatly appreciated to assess if this is an inconvenience to weed out those that won’t gamble AT ALL or if this will really crush most Merry Go Rounders.

In the meantime, it would seem that you’d want to hurry up and do the match right now if you can do so.

Once you match, you’d be able to book your Wynn nights and cruise within a couple of days. Note this post for how to speed up the MSC cruise for immediate booking.

I do want to note that given you get the 2nd Tier at 3,000 Tier Credits (Signature) and Prime at 20,000 Tier Credits, my hunch (though I’m not eligible for a rematch for quite a while myself), is that if you aren’t afraid to lose some money to get the travel perks, 250 tier credits is not crazy.

A Few Notes:

The MSC Cruise: People are having luck booking 2025 cruises now. Nobody is / has been ever quite sure the process for when you could book your 2nd cruise. But with the changes Dec 1, we don’t know if the 250 credits will apply retroactively in terms of new travel bookings or just to newly matched members. Why not call now and see if you have a cruise in mind?

The 250 Tier Credit Requirement: Since yesterday, we’ve had many people comment in the Facebook group on how much gambling this is.

Let’s put it this way: if you are afraid of putting $20 in a slot machine, this will lock you out. That is their clear intention – to get rid of people giving them zero play and costing them money on benefits 

If you are the type that doesn’t mind spending a few hours gambling at a relatively modest level (say 3-4 hours at $15-$25 blackjack or spinning away $1’s on a slot machine for a few hours or – if you are skilled (or can read online notes) playing some video poker for several hours, you can easily hit the 250 Tier Credits in one trip on the day you match. Yes, there is risk you could lose several hundred dollars (or more, I can’t gauge your gambling style). But if you plan to use both the Wynn and MSC benefits, easily worth a couple of thousand dollars ++, you may be OK with this. When it’s my time to match again, I will have no problem doing this but my 18 months isn’t for about a year still.

Thoughts?

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