Casino: Earned 30k tier points for my 1st Celebrity cruise. What perks to expect?

[fstuff1]

i was on the Edge last week.

it was my 1st Celebrity cruise.

 

i have 30k tier points, according to Blue Chip when i emailed them.

 

According to their benefit chart (https://www.celebritycruises.com/content/dam/celebrity/pdf/Blue-Chip-Club-Benefit-Chart.pdf), i am entitled to an annual free cruise as Amethyst.

Any info about that free cruise?

 

also For Amethyst level, i also get the greater of $100 or 5% of my previous sailings gaming activity as free play.

i did slots and tables.

 

on the slot machine screen, it showed 3300 freeplay points.

1 freeplay point = 5 tier points

3300 x 5 = 16500 tier points.

 

that means 30k-16.5k = 13.5k tier points from tables (craps/ultimate texas holdem)

13.5k x $8/point = $108k i gambled on the tables. 

for slots, it's $1 coin-in = 1 tier point thus $16.5k coin-in.

 

$108k + $16.5k = $124.5k wagered

$124.5k x 5% = $6225 in freeplay for my next cruise?!!??!

 

What else can i expect for my next cruise that's not listed on their benefit chart?

 

Edited March 5, 2019 by fstuff1

[TN Vol Fan]

I am also Amethyst and you are not understanding the difference between tier points and free play points.

 

At this level you do not qualify for a free cruise yearly, just a percentage off of the price of a cruise. It says “annual cruise benefit “, not free cruise.  You might be offered a free room on an individual cruise, but that is not necessarily yearly. Very random.

 

I suggest you call BCC directly to get a better understanding of your perks.

 

[fstuff1]

5 minutes ago, TN Vol Fan said:

I am also Amethyst and you are not understanding the difference between tier points and free play points.

 

At this level you do not qualify for a free cruise yearly, just a percentage off of the price of a cruise. It says “annual cruise benefit “, not free cruise.  You might be offered a free room on an individual cruise, but that is not necessarily yearly. Very random.

 

so what did i get wrong about tier and freeplay points?

 

How much % off a cruise does blue chip usually give?

[TN Vol Fan]

This is something you should discuss with BCC, both on discount and how their point systems work.

 

[tallnthensome]

You gambled $125,000? Holy smokes! 

[WonderMan3]

Your free play on your next cruise will be a minimum of $100 or 5% of your theoretical loss. Theoretical loss is calculated by taking your total amount wagered times the casino's edge. You know your total wager is $124, 500. Now you would need to multiply that amount by the casino's edge.

 

For your slot play your wager was $16500. The edge is around 15% on slots on Edge. So your theoretical loss on slots was $2475. Then you would get 5% of that or $123.75. You would just need to figure out the theoretical loss on the rest of your wager on the table games you played. Remember that the house edge on table games is far lower than on slots. On craps it looks like the average edge might be around 1.38%. On Texas Hold 'Em maybe 2%? (Just going by google searches on those games). Let's just call it around 1.69% as an average (I don't know how much you played on either game). So take your tables wager of $108,000 times that edge of 1.69% and it would equal $1825, times 5% and your payback would be $91.26. So your total payback would be around $215 which is $115 more than your minimum.

 

The easiest way to find out what your payback will be on your next cruise though is to just call Blue Chip and ask. They will tell you it's only an "estimate" but the last couple of my cruises what they told me at Blue Chip on the phone matches what they paid on the ship.

 

As far as other benefits. You'll probably get the occasional offer from Blue Chip by email or direct mail for special casino cruises with tournaments and such. What they offer you will be based on your play. I am a Sapphire level player earned from the previous tier period and had 30,000 points on my December Edge cruise and another 50,000 points from my January Summit cruise (all slot play) for the current tier and I've gotten one or two mailings since then all for undesirable cruises; free veranda stateroom on some 4 or 5 Inifinity cruises and some Equinox cruises in the Caribbean in the summer. My husband is also Sapphire but has been playing a bit less than me lately (around 20,000 points on Edge and 35,000 on Summit) and they haven't even been giving him free cabins, just money off. So don't expect much. Also, some recent cruisers have been posting that when they booked some of these free cabin offers with Blue Chip (which don't include Go Best btw) that they have gotten onboard and found that they could not get their tier benefits. It did not used to be that way so Blue Chip has been changing the rules again and tightening things up.

 

You also will have earned some sort of incentive based on your play from the previous cruise that you can apply towards your next cruise. I'm not sure how they calculate that but from my Edge cruise where I earned 30,000 points, my incentive for a future cruise was only around $600 or about 2% of my play through. I haven't checked on what I earned from my Summit cruise yet. You cannot apply any earned incentive to your next cruise though until you are within 6 months of that cruise's departure. They can tell you what the incentive amount is even though you may not be able to apply it yet. You cannot combine an earned incentive with a free cabin offer.

 

If you book a suite you can also get 20% off through Blue Chip. I'm not sure if that applies to all tier levels or not as I am Sapphire. You CAN combine this 20% off with your earned incentive and you will still get your tier benefits onboard. So this is what I usually do as you can choose any cruise to apply it to. The only restriction on the 20% is you can't use it on Apex and possibly Edge. (Edge was restricted for the 20% discount last year but they started to open up some dates to the 20% at the very end of the year so they may have opened up more now). You can apply your earned incentive on Apex and Edge though.

 

Hope that helps clarify things.

[Ma Bell]

2 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

i was on the Edge last week.

it was my 1st Celebrity cruise.

 

i have 30k tier points, according to Blue Chip when i emailed them.

 

According to their benefit chart (https://www.celebritycruises.com/content/dam/celebrity/pdf/Blue-Chip-Club-Benefit-Chart.pdf), i am entitled to an annual free cruise as Amethyst.

Any info about that free cruise?

 

also For Amethyst level, i also get the greater of $100 or 5% of my previous sailings gaming activity as free play.

i did slots and tables.

 

on the slot machine screen, it showed 3300 freeplay points.

1 freeplay point = 5 tier points

3300 x 5 = 16500 tier points.

 

that means 30k-16.5k = 13.5k tier points from tables (craps/ultimate texas holdem)

13.5k x $8/point = $108k i gambled on the tables. 

for slots, it's $1 coin-in = 1 tier point thus $16.5k coin-in.

 

$108k + $16.5k = $124.5k wagered

$124.5k x 5% = $6225 in freeplay for my next cruise?!!??!

 

What else can i expect for my next cruise that's not listed on their benefit chart?

 

I think you will be sadly disappointed. Just simply ask them what your freeplay will be on your next cruise.

Edited March 5, 2019 by Ma Bell

[dkjretired]

40 minutes ago, Ma Bell said:

I think you will be sadly disappointed. Just simply ask them what your freeplay will be on your next cruise.

 

Agree, wouldn't expect too much.....

[fstuff1]

4 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

Your free play on your next cruise will be a minimum of $100 or 5% of your theoretical loss.

 

thx for the explanation!

ahh.. 5% of "previous gaming activity" means 5% of theo.

(yeah, i knew it was very unlikely i was getting $6k free play.)

 

i got a printout of my play mid-cruise (day 4 afternoon).

for slots/vp, it said $6191 coin-in and 1179 freeplay points.

1 freeplay point =  $5 coin-in slots or $10 coin-in vp 

 

so if $6191 were all from slots, that would be 1238 freeplay points.

doing math, it's like 90% slots/10% vp for 1179 freeplay points.

 

but 10% vp = $619 coin-in.

i know i played at least double that amount on VP on day 1 alone.

so something doesnt add up?!? 

 

Edited March 6, 2019 by fstuff1

[Projunior]

To me, the Blue Chip Club needs a total overhaul.

 

About three years ago, about five Celebrity cruises ago, at the end of a cruise, both my wife and I were handed invitations by the casino manager to join BCC based on our play. Since that time we have received exactly zero emails and exactly zero snail mails regarding anything to do with the Blue Chip Club: no promotions, no offers, no statements, no news.

 

In July, 2018 we sailed on the Summit to Bermuda. When I got home I called and asked about whether our play on that cruise was worth anything toward a January, 2019 Equinox cruise we had booked through a travel agency. Oh, no, explained the BCC rep. He claimed he could only offer a fare reduction on a cruise booked through BCC. But he offered to check with his supervisor. He put me on hold, came back, and said he could take $700 off the fare total. But only because he bothered to check with his supervisor!

 

After returning from the Equinox cruise, I called in February with the same question: could my play on the cruise help with the fare for my upcoming, already-booked April, 2019 Hawaii-Vancouver cruise? Since I had earned approximately the same number of points as on the Summit, I was anticipating a credit in the $700 range. I got the exact same line from a different BCC rep: “No. I can't help you. You booked through a travel agent”. I explained that this was the same argument from BCC that I got before, but that BCC, ultimately, offered me a $700 credit. I asked her to check with her supervisor. She came back to the phone and said they could take $130 off the fare.  I said, “The last time it was $700 for about the same number of points”. She said she is basing the $130 figure on “the chart”, and “the chart”, whatever that is, said $130. Whom am I to argue with “the chart”? Then she started a spiel about how, strictly speaking, I was fortunate to get the $130 since, strictly speaking, I am not allowed to have booked a cruise through a travel agent at any time in the preceding 24 months.

 

The BCC rules are obscure, unpublished and seem to vary depending on who you talk to. They have no website. You can’t check your status other than by calling. The people they have working the phones there seem disinterested, clueless, impatient and often all of the above.

 

The tier perks are meager. Free drinks in the casino? Who cares when you have a beverage package for the ship? Priority check-in? Who cares when you have a concierge cabin? Priority debarkation? Who cares when you do walk-off?

[WonderMan3]

24 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

 

thx for the explanation!

ahh.. 5% of "previous gaming activity" means 5% of theo.

(yeah, i knew it was very unlikely i was getting $6k free play.)

 

i got a printout of my play mid-cruise (day 4 afternoon).

for slots/vp, it said $6191 coin-in and 1179 freeplay points.

1 freeplay point =  $5 coin-in slots or $10 coin-in vp 

 

so if $6191 were all from slots, that would be 1238 freeplay points.

doing math, it's like 90% slots/10% vp for 1179 freeplay points.

 

but 10% vp = $619 coin-in.

i know i played at least double that amount on VP on day 1 alone.

so something doesnt add up?!? 

 

 

Maybe the card reader booted you out and there were times you weren’t earning points when you thought you were. On Edge that happened to me several times. Most of the time it was when I was in a long bonus. I would look down and notice that I was logged out of my account. One night when I was doing some very high betting on a slot and had been playing for a good 20 minutes I looked down and noticed I had been logged out at some point along the way; very frustrating!!! There were also some machines that just weren’t reading cards; there were at least 2 of them in the row facing the casino bar. I reported them to one of the casino staff who said they already knew about it. He went in and opened one of the machines while I sat at the one next to it. He fiddled around a bit but couldn’t fix the problem as those machines stayed liked that not reading cards for the entire week of my cruise. I was getting some good pays on those so I played them anyway despite not earning points.

[MizDemeanor]

Vegas is so much better IMHO for slots play.