Unlock Las Vegas value with this Rio Las Vegas trip report!
Join Justin Vacula on the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast with co-host Darren as we break down how Hyatt Globalist benefits, smart booking strategy, and low-variance video poker can add up to an affordable and fun Las Vegas stay.
We cover what it’s like staying at Rio Las Vegas, why it can be a hidden gem for value-focused travelers, and how to think about Hyatt points, elite status perks, resort fees, comps, tier credits, and casino loyalty without getting lost in the weeds.
We also explain why multi-hand or multi-play video poker games can lower risk while still earning meaningful rewards. We also share updates on upcoming meetups, conferences, and travel plans, plus a quick discussion of tools like CardPointers for staying organized with credit card points and benefits.
📍 Recorded: February 5, 2026
🎙️ Show: Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast
👤 Host: Justin Vacula | Co-host: Darren
Topics covered: Las Vegas on a budget, Rio Las Vegas review, Hyatt Globalist, Hyatt rewards, Hyatt points strategy, video poker, casino comps, tier credits, loyalty programs, travel hacking, credit card points and miles, and practical ways to reduce trip costs.
👍 If you enjoy trip reports, casino loyalty strategy, and points-and-miles travel, please like, subscribe, and drop a comment with your best Vegas value tip.
Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome + Episode Overview
00:44 Rio Las Vegas Trip Report Begins
02:34 Hyatt Globalist Benefits
03:14 Booking Strategy: Rates, Value, and Timing
04:53 Food and Breakfast Options at Rio
07:43 Video Poker Strategy
11:30 Earning and Using Rio Rewards
17:25 Host/Property Interactions + Offers
19:38 Shows and Entertainment Recap
24:14 Tier Credits and Drink Rewards
24:45 Planning the Next Vegas Trip
25:41 Podcast Updates + Social Media
27:24 CardPointers and Tracking Benefits
28:48 Gambling Strategy + Hotel Comparisons
35:11 Listener Questions and Comments
46:33 Upcoming Trips + Final Wrap-Up
🎙️ 📢 Listen to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast:
👉 SoundCloud → https://soundcloud.com/hurdygurdytravelpodcast
👉 Apple Podcasts / iTunes → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hurdy-gurdy-travel-podcast/id1489093490
👉 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/0PRUx83Z4XKHengsgOoLWg
👉 TuneIn → https://tunein.com/podcasts/Podcasts/Hurdy-Gurdy-Travel-Podcast-p1275539/
👉 iHeartRadio → https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-hurdy-gurdy-travel-podcast-51807405/
👉 Podbean → https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/vvdph-a3425/Hurdy-Gurdy-Travel-Podcast
👉 Pocket Casts → https://pocketcasts.com/podcasts/1a722d50-2d0a-0138-96d6-0acc26574db2?_prerender=true
👉 Podchaser → https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hurdy-gurdy-travel-podcast-1153719
👉 Podcast Addict → https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/hurdy-gurdy-travel-podcast/3497422
👉 Castbox → https://castbox.fm/channel/Hurdy-Gurdy-Travel-Podcast-id4351553?country=us
👉 …and many other podcast platforms worldwide! 🌍🎧
📡 Prefer using your favorite app? Simply copy & paste my podcast RSS feed:
http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:706382626/sounds.rss
—
💜 Support My Work & Unlock Special Perks:
👉 Support me through helpful referral links on my site: https://hurdygurdytravel.com/donate-referral-links/
👉 Use my CardPointers affiliate link to save on annual and lifetime memberships → https://www.cardpointers.com/hurdygurdytravel
CardPointers helps you activate card-linked offers and take advantage of other powerful credit card features.
👉 Become a Frequent Traveler University member and sign up for events.
https://ftuniversity.com/?aff=24
👉 Earn 500 miles when signing up for Rove Miles using my referral link:
http://www.rovemiles.com/?signup&referralCode=8AS1JSG9
—
👉 Visit the Support Tab on my website to contribute via SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/hurdygurdytravel
🎁 Subscriber & Supporter Perks Include:
✨ One-on-one calls with me
✨ Advance notice of upcoming podcast guests (submit your questions!)
✨ A custom podcast episode recorded just for you 🎙️💬
✨ Bonus content 🎁
—
🌐 Stay Connected With Me:
🔔 Subscribe on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@HurdyGurdyTravelPodcast
👍 Like on Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/HurdyGurdyTravelPodcast
🐦 Follow on Twitter / X → https://x.com/HurdyGurdyTravl
📸 Follow on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/justinvacula/
—
✨ Thank You for Listening & Supporting the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast!
Stay tuned for more tips, strategies, and stories to help you optimize your travel, rewards, and lifestyle. 🚀🌍💳
Rough Transcript:
[00:00:00] Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures tales to be told, make and save money, the world will unfold.
Fight the war on happiness. Pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold.
You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you make money, save money, and travel the world at next to no cost with credit card points, miles, benefits, and loyalty programs. Today’s episode is part Trip report, part analysis of the great value that comes from Hyatt booked stays at Rio Las Vegas, and surprisingly good video poker opportunities that led me to earn 10,000 tier points for Rio [00:01:00] Azul status.
A host approached me. I hit multiple royal flushes and it was quite a successful trip. Gambling or not, learn why Rio Las Vegas offers incredible value. On with today’s episode recorded February 5th, 2026. Welcome back to the show, Darren.
Thanks Justin. Glad to be back. Excited to hear about your Rio trip. Of course, you and I have chatted a little pre-show about the trip and excited to share some of the things you’ve learned and things you did with our listeners. This one will have something for everyone. For the people willing to play video poker and gamble for the people wanting to get the Hyatt nights. For people to save money in Las Vegas, we always hear all this hype,
vegas is so expensive, but this is a great play for cheap hotel nights, a good property. Recently renovated rooms and very generous gambling opportunities. This all [00:02:00] started as I wanted to escape a major snowstorm. I was saying allegedly 10 inches or so, and we actually got that. I flew back and there’s a lot of ice around my car, so I’m glad I wasn’t there for the bigger part of it.
Yeah. Justin, I need to rewind here just for a moment. When you said something for everyone, did you really mean everyone like Dave Ramsey fans are gonna find something here, do you think? Oh, well, couldn’t resist? Yes, couldn’t resist Justin? He wants to charge you about $3,000 to go on a cruise, so you could spend a lot less money at Rio.
And still have a good experience, but it would be very difficult to get that Hyatt status if you’re not using credit cards. And we know that the Hyatt status gives a lot of great value with globalist status. We’re often getting room upgrades. We’re getting complimentary parking at a lot of places that charge for parking. Later checkout
and the guest of honor benefits that you can use to give someone else status for their stays. Suite [00:03:00] upgrade awards are nice and free night certificates, so a lot of reasons to like Hyatt and those chase points. Those BILT points coming soon are going to be nice to transfer to Hyatt, whether you’re staying at Rio or not.
And to rewind even more late last year, 2025, I was looking at the calendars for Rio Las Vegas to see what the cash rates are. Generally I’m using points or various statement credits like fine hotels and resorts to book hotel nights, but Rio will often have rates around $30 a night or less. And once you have the Hyatt globalist status, you don’t pay the 40, $50 or so resort fee.
It also gives you a complimentary breakfast, which we’ll get into, and perhaps two breakfast or breakfast in a lunch, which is a recent change. Rio recently partnered with Hyatt, and this has been a key part of me earning and maintaining that Hyatt globalist status. I think you’re right Justin. I think there’s [00:04:00] something for almost everyone at Rio. It has its own rewards program. I think most folks know it as a cheap place to, as you said, get some Hyatt stays in Hyatt nights in or to maybe, take advantage of the highest Hyatt globalist status. The hash hash. A Gogo, I know that’s one of your favorite places for breakfast and breakfast two, what do they call that in the Lord of the Rings? Ooh, the second breakfast. Second breakfast. Yes. Second breakfast. But it’s not hash House a Gogo anymore, and it’s also not hashtag hash the go Go or whatever you said it was.
The kitchen in the previous episode and the official name. Oh no, Justin, the kitchen table. I’m so far behind. Oh no, you were on that one. You forgot already. I, yeah. See, this is what happens when you don’t listen to your own episodes. Justin. Snow Blindness maybe. Maybe that. Yeah. Snow blindness for sure. Yes, for sure.
Yeah, they changed the breakfast. I was really surprised that previously, I believe the breakfast ended around 11:00 AM so [00:05:00] I would go to breakfast around 10:00 AM. Be done with it, but the new restaurant is open until 1:30. The kitchen table and the Hyatt globalist benefit works for the duration of the restaurant being open.
What I did with a globalist friend, listener of the show, Stan, he was there at the same time as me, and we essentially swapped our globalist benefit. You get to bring a plus one with you. For example, you can go at eight o’clock to the kitchen table, bring a guest, have your breakfast, two complimentary breakfast, right there.
You get an entree, a cold drink, and a hot drink, and you could come back later if they close at 1:30, which seemed to be the case, although once they said they were closing earlier, but they still let us in. If you can come back around noon, 1230 or so on and space breakfast and lunch, getting two meals for one.
Another example of stacking for the [00:06:00] wins. Besides the kitchen table, which formerly is known as Hash, hash, gogo, hash house, what other hash house , what other reasons led you to the Rio? Justin, I know you have often bounced around in Vegas and usually have a comp night here through the phone Army and a comp night there through MGM .
So why Rio? The $30 ish cash rates were very appealing while also earning the Hyatt status. Honestly, if I had to pay somewhere around 150 a night or use something like 8,000 or 12,000 Hyatt points, I wouldn’t be as interested during the week. We’ve covered this in many other episodes, as you’ve alluded to.
We can get my Vegas complimentary nights, two weekday nights at most MGM properties in Vegas. We can use Wyndham points to stay at Desert Rose or Desert Blue. We can use fine hotels and resorts staying at places like Fontainbleu. We can use Hilton certificates if we’d like, but probably save those for somewhere else.
A lot of options in Vegas, but here [00:07:00] with the $30 a night rate, I figured. If I would pay something like $10 for a meal, then I’m paying essentially 20 a night and now getting two meals out of it. Paying about $10 per night I think is a really, really good play for earning and maintaining that Hyatt globalist status.
I also like that the property recently renovated. We have the Ipanema Tower that’s really spacious. I have video of that on my Hurdy Gurdy Travel podcast YouTube channel. There’s also the possibility to get upgraded to a suite. This one, I did not get upgraded to a suite. I messaged my Hyatt concierge and she said that the suite was sold out, but I was able to apply it for a future stay.
There was also a lot of talk on social media on some Vegas X and Vegas pages that was pretty good about Rio being very generous about video poker. At MGM and Caesars, usually the video poker isn’t as good as it’s about a [00:08:00] 97%, 98% return to player or worse in some cases. But Rio was advertising full pay
jacks or better. You’re paying about a half percent house edge. And I also know that they had a promotion where if you sign up you get something like $10 in free play and there were several break points or milestones. Throughout your play, you got the 10 to sign up and then it was something like, earn 500 tier points, we’ll give you 10 more.
Earn a thousand, we’ll give you 20 more. And throughout this climb to 10,000 tier, I probably got about 200 or 300 in free play and I also used a coupon from the Las Vegas advisor coupon book that gave me additional free play. I think it was something like 20 or 30. Free play. Because America loves math, if we’re giving up about a half percent house edge and we’re earning status, I estimated the cost of the play to be [00:09:00] around 400 to $500.
If we were getting back something like 200 to 300 in free play, plus the potential for return offers and status benefits, then I think it was a really good opportunity.
Thanks for taking us through that America Loves Math moment. Justin, as you figured out, what makes the most sense for you? I know a lot of folks have used the Rio or viewed the Rio as a place to stay and accrue Hyatt nights, either like you said, for low cash rates or even I think it’s what, 8,000 points per night to stay at at Hyatt.
Is that correct? Yes. Or more depending, especially on weekends.
When you started looking at the tier status was your thing was to say, can I match automatically? If I don’t have to put this much money into a video poker game the easiest thing would be to take one of your statuses, you have either with Caesars or MGM, and see if you could status match over.
Assuming we already know what happened, that you played a lot of video poker, [00:10:00] that must not have been the case, is that right? It was not the case. They did offer a tier match promotion in the past. I wasn’t there for that, and I was unclear about the terms really, because it was saying new members and I was previously a member.
I was with Caesars. Rio was a Caesars property. I’d played there before poker anyway. For the purposes of this promotion, they considered me a new member. Hopefully I didn’t miss out on a big opportunity in the past where I think they were even giving out something like 500 in free play, but it was a very limited duration as it was quite generous.
This is another one of those situations where we lose an opportunity, like the Wyndham Business Earner credit card would give Caesars Diamond status essentially matching Wyndham status to Caesar status. Then when that stopped, we looked more at Caesars Rewards and thought, oh, well actually it’s worth playing when they run good promotions and earning status.
And then I’m often surprised by things like Comp Night offers, food credits, and a lot of other [00:11:00] opportunity. And this was the case with Rio where I saw I can play towards status and generally I just wouldn’t play on the square. I wouldn’t just play a negative expectation game. In this case with the low house edge on video poker, about a half percent.
All of this free play and the potential for more, if I were to come back, which I do plan on coming back, then I think it was a good gamble. Yeah. And so speaking of that gamble, Justin, how did you identify which tier benefit? There are four, correct. There’s Roge Rouge. Azul, I guess those are different than the other ones that we commonly hear about.
But then we, of course, good old gold and platinum, like everybody else. But let start off with red and blue. How about that? Before gold and platinum, how did you identify which one you thought you were gonna aim at and which you thought was reasonable for this trip? The video poker was similar to other properties.
You earn One tier point or what they’re calling a Rio rewards point for every [00:12:00] $10 wagered. $10 in coin in. You start at the rouge or red level, which doesn’t give you much except for on the brochure it says pool access, but this is Monday through Thursday and best room rate guarantee. So that’s not much.
But then I saw at azul. It says extra complimentary hotel nights based on availability, tier celebration, $50, which was good for $50 in free play. This waives the resort fees if you were to book on the Rio side and not the Hyatt side. That can be nice if you have complimentary night offers, which I’ve been getting a lot, even though I’ve never or haven’t recently gambled there.
They send me emails, but then it says, resort fee required. Now with the status, you’re waiving the resort fee, so there might be times where you’d like to go to Vegas. The other options aren’t so great. Other nights are expensive. Other things are sold out, so you could stay at Rio and have no resort fee.
Unfortunately, you won’t get a [00:13:00] Hyatt qualifying night if you book it through Rio, but it can still have its utility. You get complimentary early check-in. You get two complimentary show tickets per calendar year once total, and excludes the Empire strips back. We’ll get into that a little bit later. You get a complimentary daily drink voucher, so some better quality alcohol, probably at one of the bars there.
I haven’t used that just yet. You get a $15 monthly food voucher. Now, I didn’t use that because I had my food comped by the casino, which we’ll get into. You get some cabana discounts, banquet discount, and show ticket discounts. Having the free play from the new member promotion and getting status and the potential for return offers did it for me.
And about the video poker, they had quarter video poker. You would play five credits on one line in a standard game of Jacks or better video poker. This would be [00:14:00] $1.25 per line. It would take a very long time to get meaningful status, only playing $1.25 a line. I found that they had the 10 play game, so you could play a simultaneous 10 hands for $12 and 50 cents a round.
With this was my ascension toward status. And we’ve talked about the multi hand video poker in the past, Justin, but remind listeners, why do you prefer that over single hand? I could have alternatively played something like $2 five credit, which would’ve been $10 a pull, but personally I don’t like this because it’s higher variance.
We’re always gonna have variance with gambling. There’s always gonna be ups and downs, but when we get opportunities to lower it, but not giving up value, not giving up expected value, then we should probably take those opportunities. Usually the multi-play games have worse payouts in person, but at Rio it was still the full pay game.
Instead of putting all of my $10 into one hand, spreading [00:15:00] 1250 was the math here, between 10 hands, I think is a really good decision. Even if you get nothing on the initial hand, you still have opportunities to improve on the other hands, lesser variance. You get to see bigger hands. You get to see more royal flushes.
You get a royal flush approximately once every 40,000 hands in jacks or better video poker. In one case, I got a royal flush on one hand, which paid a thousand dollars. On another I was dealt four cards to the royal flush. With 10 hands, I had about a 20% chance to get a royal flush. I got one, I was happy and then all of a sudden the machine started making noises and locked up and it said, hand pay call attendant attendant called something like that. I got really lucky perhaps there, and it was about a 2% chance to get two royal flushes in that runout. Over $2,000 in one round, if I were to play single line, of course, that’s not going to happen, and I could have simply bricked out and not have [00:16:00] even gotten one royal flush. But in this case, I had 10 chances to get the royal.
Yeah. Appreciate that, Justin. I think the lower variance, it’s the same reason why we usually play multi hand blackjack when we’re playing online. On that famous draft Kings rocket video of yours, right? We’re making very small bets or we’re the bets we’re making, we’re cashing in not gambling on the rocket.
We’re trying to reduce variance as much as possible. You identified Azul as your tier of choice. That’s 10,000 Rio rewards points. That’s a hundred thousand dollars coin in, does that sound right? Yes. Every time you were to push the deal button at $12.50. Not the money you put in the machine, the amount you gambled through and there was a tracker on the machine that would tell you you earned a tier credit.
It’s mostly one tier credit per hand here, although there’s some roundings you would occasionally round up and I played across I believe, four days. I would play about two hours, take a break, come back, play [00:17:00] another two. In one case I played a three hour session, but I was able to get there.
It was reasonable to get 10 K tier on one trip. I don’t think it’s reasonable to get 50 K on one trip or else you’re having to sit at the machine a much, much longer time. Honestly, it’s a little tiring. It’s a lot of thinking. It’s focus. Personally sitting there for more than three hours is difficult.
I’ll take breaks and I had a lot of other things to do as well. This was part of the surprise that on maybe day two or day three of playing a host approached me. It was someone dressed up and explaining, Hey, we’ve been seeing, you’ve been playing, and oh, it looks like you’ve been practicing a lot.
They were very friendly about it. It wasn’t a negative thing, suits approaching us and oh, it looks like you’re good at video poker, basically. She was very nice and she explained that we’re looking for players here at Rio and if you’d like to continue playing during your visit, that we give you some complimentary food, some show tickets.
If you’d like to come back, we’ll also give you some complimentary rooms that book the rooms through [00:18:00] us. We see that you’re booked with a Hyatt stay and we understand a lot of people like to book with Hyatt. We don’t want to interfere with that, but if you’d like to come back and book with us, then we can give you complimentary rooms and a lot of these benefits.
And this was only a few thousand in, I wasn’t even at a tier level. And looking at the brochure, it says that you get a dedicated host at Gold, which is the 50 K points, and I had the host approach me just a few thousand tier points in.
That’s a fantastic surprise, Justin. I don’t know if you said already on this show or not, but I know previously you and I were talking about that you started playing in the high roller room. That probably helped and probably more hosts circulating in that group and keeping an eye on folks than out on the regular floor, do you think?
Yes, I had thought about that. I looked throughout the casino. There were some bar areas. There were some standalone machines and banks of maybe two machines on one side, two on the others. But I thought if I played in the high limit room, then it would probably be quieter.
There wouldn’t be as many people there. It would probably not be smokey. If you sit at the bars, there’s usually a lot of [00:19:00] people smoking. Personally, I’m not a smoker. I don’t like the smoking when I’m playing or really at all. And sometimes you get better drink service or better drinks in general, this has certainly been the case at Park MGM.
I’ve played in the high limit room there using MGM Free play from the wonderful MGM credit cards, and perhaps this helped get attention, maybe they saw that I was playing in the high limit room and even at quarters, even at only $12 and 50 cents a hand they noticed me early on and it was a very generous offering.
I’m normally not a person to go to shows, but I figured, oh I’ll try. I can play during the day, the afternoon, and then go to shows later on. And they even offered the Empire Strips back, which was a comedy slash burlesque show, of course, with a Star Wars theme. It was really humorous and I thought it was really well done.
Fantastic. I know in previous episodes we’ve talked about going to Caesars and play video poker. [00:20:00] Oftentimes it’s crowded. You have to fight for your video poker machine. Anything like that here or was it pretty open and easy to pick and you could come and go as you pleased.
The machine that I selected was a newer machine. It was really clean. The buttons worked really well. I’ve played at older machines where the buttons can be a bit sticky. The screen doesn’t look so well. This was a newer tech machine, and I wanted to play on that throughout the trip, because of the good condition of the machine, the ease of seeing the screen and the buttons working.
There was only one time during the visit that someone else sat at that machine. I simply had to go to another one in the high limit room, so there were many to choose from, and if I really wanted to, I could have gone back on the gaming floor, but there wasn’t as much competition. I think there’s an advantage and a disadvantage in a way that it’s off the strip.
People lament , oh, I have to take a ride share to get to the strip. It’s maybe about 10 bucks, and we certainly have a lot of Uber credits, Lyft credits from our credit cards and ways to save on that with discounted Uber gift cards and even Lyft gift cards in some [00:21:00] cases.
There aren’t as many, I think, tourists there. Me being a tourist of course, so not as much competition for machines and there, there wasn’t a tier credit multiplier promotion. They might have those in the future. I don’t know. Probably not as busy during the week there. And that was definitely to my advantage.
I’d rather it just be quieter and not be competing for machines or have to wait. Yeah, it makes sense. Sounds like a fantastic play environment. Like you said no smoke, easy access to machines, and then the host appeared. Usually Justin, we’re worried when suddenly managers appear out of nowhere.
Right. Cashiers making up rules, new policies. Oh, you can only get 500 Home Depot at Giant, even though the rules were previously 2K or one K or whatever it was. Situation, but finally the situation. Yeah. But finally a win. Yes. Win for the good guys. Yes. A good appearance of management. And the show I think was really good.
I looked up the prices maybe around 40 or $50 for the show ticket. And [00:22:00] it’s normally excluded as they have other shows like, wow, the Vegas Spectacular, or Vegas Spectacular, A variety show, acrobatics water dancing, juggling spinning plates. Shooting crossbows and causing chain reactions.
It was really impressive. They did a great job at the WOW Show. There was a comedy cellar that I’m not really sure whether it was a cellar or not. Maybe a little bit declined, so the jury’s out on that one. But the comedians were good and they were known. They had appearances on other shows. They were writers.
They had a good lineup at the comedy show, three shows, and my food was also taken care of. Now, I asked and said, how much can I charge to the room? I didn’t want to be greedy and charge like a hundred dollars for myself, but I just wanted to know what the line was. We always wanna know what the line is, and I said, is it okay if I charge something like 20 to 25?
And perhaps I would get an answer of, oh you can go up to 40 or [00:23:00] 50. I just wanted to know because I’d be responsible, I would think, for paying the rest if I happened to go over the limit. I just wanted my expectations. I kept it pretty low, not being greedy, and I got an entree and in most places the entree was around 20 to $25.
There was a Chinese restaurant, there was a Korean restaurant, Kang’s kitchen, and many other choices. I went to the Chinese and the Korean place throughout the visit, so we’re talking maybe $25 a meal for two meals 50 bucks and Hyatt covering the breakfast twice, or the breakfast and lunch, the extra lunch, the second breakfast, whatever you’d like to call it.
I think a very generous win on the first trip. I mentioned the Royal Flushes two in one run out, one in another one, and the grand total, considering some losing sessions, I was up about a thousand dollars on the trip [00:24:00] plus food plus the show tickets, and now I have the Azul status. There was also extra free play that came up.
I mentioned the other $50 free play and they had a booze giveaway. You would earn a certain amount of tier credits in a day, and they gave two bottles of alcohol for earning 1200 tier credits. The alleged street value of that was somewhere around 50 to $60 for the two bottles. Is that because you immediately turned around and resold those bottles?
Justin, it seems like right up your alley. I still have the bottles on top of my fridge, but I was just interested in what the bottles were worth. Normally I’m drinking green tea and water at the video poker machine and not the alcohol. Yeah. I gotta keep that focus, right? Yes, that’s right. And now I’m considering coming back at the end of February. I’ll look at Hyatt rates. I’ll look at booking through my host. My host was very much in touch and saying, just contact when you’d like to come.
Although I am waiting on some emails from [00:25:00] the casino side before booking something with the host. Because if they’re offering something like extra free play, extra food, extra something, then I can go with that as I’m planning on going to Australia at the end of February. I can stop in Vegas on the way, as this is a usual thing that’s become a meme using Vegas as a pit stop on the way to other trips.
How do you pass by Vegas and not stop there?
It just doesn’t make any sense. Justin. Yeah, you gotta stop, which is the only way. Only way to go. We’ll talk about the return trip and compare it to other options about whether it makes sense to go back after the first stay and gamble even more. We’ll do the math and get back after some announcements.
If you like the content, you can get more. Follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on Facebook and X, where I post trip updates, share room photos, food photos, and deals that I like. Follow Justin Vacula for much of the same on Instagram, and subscribe to Hurdy Gurdy [00:26:00] Travel Podcast on YouTube for daily content, including travel videos, podcast clips, and posts.
If you’re listening on somewhere like Spotify, consider the YouTube subscription as well as there is definitely bonus content on there and of course, the visual content. For more information, including select episode transcripts, go to HurdyGurdyTravel.com. You have an opportunity to meet in person with me and very likely Darren if you visit meetup.com/philly miles and points for monthly Greater Philadelphia travel credit miles and points meetups I host in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.
The URL is always the same: meetup.com/philly miles and points. The next meetups are on their own pages, February 22nd and March 22nd, 2026. Find a link in the show notes.
I’ll be speaking at and helping organize frequent Traveler University conference in Irving, Texas near the DFW airport. Join me from May 1st through the third 2026 at the [00:27:00] Nylo Las Colinas Hotel by Hilton for social events and educational sessions, ticket sales are live now $220 for FTU members and $269 for non-members. But grab an annual membership for online courses, seminars, member perks, event discounts, and more. Use my affiliate link in the show notes for membership and conference tickets to help support the show.
Finally, I’m a proud affiliate with CardPointers. If you have multiple credit cards like me, the CardPointers app and browser extension automatically activates bank offers and the app tells you which card to use For maximum rewards wherever you happen to be shopping or buying CardPointers saves me time and money.
Use my link CardPointers.com/HurdyGurdyTravel for a discount on annual and lifetime plans to help support the show, maybe CardPointers will give you additional earnings at Rio Las Vegas. It can pick up a Hyatt offer and give you some cash back or extra points [00:28:00] maybe. Back to the discussion about Rio Las Vegas
its partnership with Hyatt gambling at Rio with Darren. That’s what we need, Justin. We need Rove Miles plus Hyatt nights plus comps, plus CardPointers offers all stacked together. That’s what we’re looking for. Make it happen. And you might even get the plum card from American Express, but not the new offer.
The old offer. No, not the 15 k. Yeah, we make fun of the Plum card and they actually try to come out with a better offer, but it’s really not a better offer, I think. You could use your Hyatt business card at Rio or maybe the Chase Sapphire Reserve or maybe a BILT card.
Not the plum. So many choices maybe it’ll qualify for the BILT palladium hotel credit that we can use. Maybe we can use it there. Thinking about coming back now there are some competing factors. As you mentioned earlier, I already had booked at MGM Grand, I found $20 cash rates [00:29:00] there, no resort fee.
But the downside of this is not having the breakfast, not having the food credits, not having the show tickets, and then you have to use the $20 there. If I were to play something like 10 K tier credits over four sessions, my estimated cost might be something around $400, but Rio wants to give me comp rooms and the food and the free play.
If I were to go to MGM Grand pay $20 in comps for that night, and then go to lunch and dinner, skipping breakfast to be generous, then I’d probably be paying about 60 a day using comps. At Rio, they’re giving me a lot more, and maybe my daily cost is about a hundred dollars. There’s also an argument for playing towards the higher status levels and getting even more benefits.
So I think Rio is the play, but it might be close.
It’s [00:30:00] nice to have so many options, that’s what we get here. You have so many different options. What do you wanna do? Do you wanna stay on the strip? Do you wanna try to build Hyatt nights? What is your goal for this trip? We all know that you’re gonna come back to Vegas again and again on your way to your free cruise in China, on the way to the FTU meetup in Dallas.
That’s not exactly on the way, but be Oh, it’ll be, it’ll be before that. Yes. Yes. There are cheap AA flights from Vegas to Texas, points wise and even cash wise, surely. And that week before FTU Dallas, the Rio rates, it’s $15 and 20 cents a night, non-refundable. Half the price is just such good value.
Although if I book the rates with Hyatt and just pay outright with Hyatt, then I get the Hyatt qualifying nights and the breakfast. If I just go with Rio and don’t book Hyatt, then I don’t get the Hyatt qualifying nights. That’s one consideration. They said it would be okay to book the Hyatt night and stay as a [00:31:00] Rio member and have two rooms and have a friend.
Perhaps someone unfortunately not in miles and points, or maybe someone that’s not as concerned about Hyatt or doesn’t have access to Chase credit cards, maybe they would come and use room two. Yeah, that’s a good idea. There could be times where the Hyatt rates are high and then the MGM rates are high, and then I’d have to use points with Wyndham or use points with Caesars, or maybe those rooms are unavailable. Looking at all the options and picking and knowing that I have Rio as that option for that complimentary night.
And this is also assuming ongoing gambling because you don’t want to just go and not play at all, and then you get excluded from future offers and burn that property and it wouldn’t be so nice to the host either because they’re expecting you to play. It’s the unwritten agreement.
If you were to take casino offers or you would just go once and not return as that could be something I definitely could do. Well, look, I had this great first visit. I had all the free play. The free play is [00:32:00] not there, but I have confidence that there’ll be ongoing value and already I’ll be getting extra things from status on my next visit.
I think it’s a possibility to extend the trip. I was only going to stay two nights with MGM, and I think the play now is to cancel the MGM reservation and then stay four nights at Rio, even on a Rio booked rate if the Hyatt rates are high. Yeah, again, having those options is fantastic. Justin, we know you’re gonna be in Vegas and to be able to find the thing that works best for you really is the benefit here.
Additional benefits for gambling for sure, but if you’re not yet a video poker player, you don’t know the strategy well. I’ve had many YouTube videos showing a live example of play analyzing hands, talking through strategy, and there are a lot of training apps that can help you, like video poker.com, and free apps as well.
That will help you be a good video poker player. I think after a decent amount of practice, maybe five, 10 minutes a day most days. You can become pretty good. Maybe [00:33:00] you’ll make some minor mistakes and you’ll give up maybe 1% to the house, but it will still be a good value proposition and definitely better than playing slots or playing table games with high house edge side bets that people do.
This is a way to lower variance and get a lot of free play and other rewards, especially on your first visit.
Yeah, I agree. Video poker is the sweet spot here. The fairly low variance, especially at full pay jacks or better that you found. The multi hand option really reduces variance and you can go at your own pace. Blackjack is a game that we often play online, but doesn’t earn near the same rewards.
I’m looking at the Rio Rewards brochure and three to two blackjack is one rio Rewards point for $75 wager Justin, that is a lot of money to get to Azul status. Wow, interesting that they track it like that. I didn’t even look at that because video poker is usually the in-person play.
It’s the in-person way to [00:34:00] go. You’re giving up a little bit and the blackjack house edge is probably higher than the video poker house edge, I would say almost certainly higher. Although to be fair, I haven’t investigated that. Online we have really good blackjack rules and we have the full pay Jacks or better in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
To see the full pay jacks or better, especially on multi-play in person is really nice. Unfortunately, I believe it only goes up to 10 play. I haven’t seen the 50 or a hundred play at Rio, so that’s one weakness. ’cause I’d like to do the a hundred play for $10 a round. That’s not an option at Rio, at least not that I’ve seen.
Another advantage is if you stay there, gamble, you’re staying in the same building. If I were to stay at somewhere like MGM Grand, then I’d be going to other places. I’d be using ride share, I’d be walking outside a lot more, staying in the same building with Rio, getting the comped meals in my experience, and maybe the listeners will get the same attention from a host.
I think that’s a good benefit, a little bit of a quality of life enhancement and not using as many [00:35:00] rideshare credits.
Absolutely. And not that walking outside this time of year in Vegas is all that bad, especially after you fled the foot of snow that we got here, Justin in, Pennsylvania. We’ll get to the end here with a listener segment. If you subscribe to my page on subscribe star.com, Hurdy Gurdy travel on subscribe star.com. Thanks to some recent subscribers for sure. A few subscribers since the last recording, so thanks to some listeners there.
Shout out to Gina and shout out to John, who recently subscribed at the highest tier for the private one-on-one discussion calls about card strategy, creative spend, and much more. But there’s also lesser tiers, and if you subscribe, you also get to ask podcast guests your questions, and of course me. The first one is from supporter Michael Trager, who runs the Zork [00:36:00] Fest conference.
Thanks, Michael. I also write for him at Travel Zork, travel zork.com where you can find additional articles, including very likely one about this Rio experience. Trager makes a comment: let’s be real, if you set expectations correctly, this is one of the best deals in Vegas. As a Hyatt globalist, just the no resort fee is huge.
Breakfast is above average. People have to stop being whiny and the rooms are renovated. This is not even touching on the gambling.
It’s hard to argue with Mr. Trager here. He’s certainly one of the well-known folks that bridge points and miles and gambling. I know he puts on a fantastic conference every year. I’d love to get out and have the opportunity to spend some time there with you and with others.
A hundred percent right there. It’s what’s not to like about Rio. Renovated tower. Fantastic odds on the games and they’re looking for players. The opportunity to get some benefits, return offers, as well [00:37:00] as food and drink while you’re there is fantastic.
He did mention the setting the expectations correctly as some people might only want the luxury hotel stays, so perhaps they would only stay at somewhere like Wynn, Fountain Blue, or they would outright pay for more expensive rooms. Hopefully listeners aren’t doing that. Some people do like the luxury experience.
It’s nice to have. Personally, I’m almost never willing to pay for it if I can have a more value oriented play. It is nice we get the best of both worlds as we can take those luxury stays with things like Hilton, free Night Certificates, maybe Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts, Hyatt certificates and more. But what’s the alternative, really?
At some point, you’re probably going to run out of those resources and then you’re going to end up spending that money out of pocket, or you’re using lots of points. I think spending something like $30 a night and getting those Hyatt qualifying nights and getting the breakfast, the second breakfast, the lunch is a really strong play.
There are some people that say I don’t wanna sleep [00:38:00] at Rio. I’ll book it. I’ll go back and forth For the meals. I want the hyatt qualifying nights. That’s an option too. I’m okay with the rooms I have, again, the room video. Very, very spacious. It’s good for me solo. Now, two people in the room, probably.
There’s also a couch, so maybe three. If you’re okay with someone on the couch, it might get more difficult for families if you’re going with maybe four people. But at that point, that could be an opportunity to have the Hyatt reservation and the Rio Reservation after you’ve gambled and getting two rooms and using them that way.
As someone who has spent time at the famous castle of the Las Vegas strip. Justin, I think the upgraded room here that you’re talking about, or maybe it’s not even upgraded, but rather updated sounds fantastic and probably in a no smoking part of the casino or casino hotel, even? Non-smoking rooms.
I think every room there is non-smoking and the gambling wasn’t smokey from my experience, although it could change on the weekends [00:39:00] or busier times. I think a lot of positives going for Rio. The breakfast, I think the portion sizes went down a little bit with the kitchen table, but the extended hours certainly make up for that.
And even if you’re only going for one meal, then perhaps you don’t have the urge to wake up earlier. If you don’t wanna wake up for that 8:00 AM or even 10:00 AM then you can go for the lunch and go around 12, 12 30 local time, as most Hyatts end their breakfast a lot earlier in my experience. Lots to like at the gambling or lots to like at Rio, and he mentioned the gambling:
really, really good odds for the players. Really generous benefits with their program hosts approaching me on the way to the first level of status, so it looks like they’re really, really wanting players to be giving out so much. I’m happy to take them up on that opportunity.
They’re looking for players. And Justin, you’re looking for status? What a match made in heaven. Yes. Another that’s made in Vegas. Yeah. Either way. [00:40:00] Another listener question, thanks to Mario. Mario asked. I’m interested in knowing whether the Rio is still a viable source for status runs and if I can get the high Vegas fees waived as a guest of honor.
Also, is it a decent hotel to stay at? The first part, yes. I think it’s very viable for status. What is the alternative? Some people are spending cash money maybe like 80 a night to 150 a night. They’re using something like 3,500 or 5,000 Hyatt points. If we were to value the Hyatt points at about 1.50 cents per point, then we’re using something around 70, maybe $75 in currency for some of those nights where you could just pay $30 cash at Rio and get the meals included and have the other gambling opportunities.
I am certainly gonna check Rio out if I have the opportunity. Especially like you say, if I’m on a trip that I can devote a couple hours every day to some video poker. Maybe my family’s along and the girls [00:41:00] are at the pool during the warmer weather or maybe it’s a solo trip on the way back from FTU in Dallas, Justin.
You can show me the video poker machine and we can see if I can earn my way to blue status as well. Yes, and the pool is really nice. It is an outdoor pool, so it was not open in my January visit for sure. But the outdoor pool is really nice. I’ve been there in the summer. Sounds like your next trip to Rio is gonna be even better than your first trip.
The second part of the question, or another part of the question was guest of honor. You can use a guest of honor certificate or perk from a Hyatt globalist. I believe it gets you five nights with that status. Usually it’s best to do the Sunday through Friday, so then that $40, $50 resort fee would be waived completely.
You’re saving about $200 there. The guest of honor and getting the meals, I think that’s a really good play. If you know a globalist friend who would give you that benefit that can help you save money and help you earn status with [00:42:00] Hyatt.
Sounds good to me. Yeah. What do you think? You have the option to say, go to Hyatt in Mount Laurel. You could take a short drive there check in, take four nights to get four Hyatt qualifying nights. Or you can go and pay $30 out of pocket, maybe around 15 out of pocket. Have a Vegas experience as well.
I think the Vegas argument is the winner here rather than the cheaper Hyatt places of the world. I think it depends on what your goals are. Are you looking to gain status? Are you looking to enjoy some of the shows and things in Vegas? Then certainly that’s the case and I guess, do you have the time to either work remotely from Las Vegas or take the time off?
Versus certainly you could go to Mount Laurel or you and I could go to Mount Laurel on a weekend check in for a mattress run for status. It’s fantastic to have options in this game that allow us to either earn status, take trips we wouldn’t normally get to take, or both. This is another excellent example of how you were [00:43:00] able to identify an opportunity, apply some things that you already learned from other statuses to this, and were able to get some of that through some of those rewards even faster through host invitations than you expected.
Yes, it definitely exceeded my expectations. I didn’t think I was gonna be approached by a host. I would think that after the stay, I’d received some communication, a return offer for some comp nights, maybe a little bit of free play or food, but for them to offer all that during the initial visit before I even earned the status.
They’re incentivizing me even more to continue playing, which I was gonna do anyway, so that was very generous of them. This is probably the biggest challenge for people working, as you mentioned, for people that have to be in the office, then the Vegas argument isn’t as accessible. For people that can remote work and podcast listener Deker should be joining me later in the year I was chatting with him.
He was on a previous episode talking about Amtrak and the Amtrak credit cards. What he can do is say normally I’d have to be in the office on a [00:44:00] Tuesday so I can take off the Tuesday, and then will work remotely all those other days. For one off day, he can make it into a Sunday through Friday trip in Vegas.
And honestly, if he has to leave on a Thursday because of the time off situation, or maybe the flights are much cheaper on the Thursday points wise, then you could still get your qualifying nights in, have the Vegas experience, get your Hyatt meals, and I think get a lot out of it, rather than just using points at Mount Laurel just to get the qualifying nights.
Absolutely and of course there’s other ways to look at accruing Hyatt Nights through credit card spend. Not everyone’s gonna spend 60 nights outside their house every year, especially not if they’re not retired or not digital nomads or not traveling extensively for work. Combining some of these things. Certainly looking for some of the Hyatt promotions that are double nights and things like that pop up. Not every year, but seems like very [00:45:00] often certainly will help as well.
I know your past podcast guest Kate’s on a plane had talked about some of the double elite nights that she was able to take advantage of and get her to a globalist. I do listen to other podcasts, just not yourself. Just not my own. Kate was a good guest and sometimes they can throw in other promotions too.
The bonus journeys, I believe, is active now, for maybe two nights or three nights, I’d have to look back at it. LOL podcasting. You would get maybe a bonus, 2000 or 3000 points for certain stays. I’m not sure the Rio’s gonna qualify, but we will see and in the past there has been a lot of stacking, a really good investment for these qualifying nights and a good way to Vegas and the haters can’t complain.
All these Vegas haters and social media, oh no, the $17 bottle of water and the strip sucks. I still think there’s a lot of value on the strip. We’ve certainly talked about that with MGM and Caesars. But now you get an off strip property that’s not too far from the strip where you can [00:46:00] get great value and you can even ride share from Rio to Caesar’s Palace or somewhere close to there, and it’s really not that much.
Or you can use the deuce, the bus that I believe is something like $3 one way.
I think that’s a very poorly named the deuce the number two in the streets. Yeah, exactly. That’s, it’s a crappy situation. It’s a crappy situation. Almost as bad as the new Plum Card offer from American Express. Almost, almost.
Well, good trip Justin. Thanks for sharing it with me and with all our listeners. what’s your next trip to Vegas or what’s your next trip?
There is a possibility of an Atlantic City trip before February 22nd. I received return offers from Ocean in Atlantic City, not oceans, for complimentary nights, free play some other bonuses after I played with a recent Status match promotion. This is going to be the theme I think of 2026 of decent video poker.
Not going to beat the Rio’s Video Poker by any means, but for some [00:47:00] complimentary nights in Atlantic City, some food credits, some free play. Ocean could be a viable trip. Before February 22nd, meetup in Willow Grove, and then the 23rd, I’m looking at flying out to Vegas February 23rd so I can see some listeners at Rio where I should be staying.
And it could be the meeting of the minds at the kitchen table. Breakfast, not the kitchen, and certainly not hash house, Gogo or hash hash or whatever tongue twister it might be. Justin. Justin, it, it was a common mistake.
And the Brisbane trip is at the end of February. I’m going from Los Angeles to Brisbane, staying there also with Hyatt, and then coming back to Philadelphia for March 4th, looking at Washington DC in mid-March when the weather is much better and potentially another cruise. In March as well, April for sure, going to China [00:48:00] and maybe more added in between.
Who knows? Another Vegas visit. I see a lot of future Vegas visits for you. Justin? I would be willing to bet on it. The wins continue, and of course we’re in it for the long game. There is some ups and downs involved with gambling, but if you’re sticking to proper strategy, you’re focused, you’re alert.
The math will math, so please, listeners, don’t get discouraged about that. Still lots of opportunity in person and for online gambling. Also, coupling miles and points, a cool opportunity here with Hyatt and Rio, and some gambling as well.
Thanks again to Darren for coming on today. For more content between shows, follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on Facebook and x. Follow Justin Vacula on Instagram. Subscribe to Hurdy Gurdy Travel podcast on YouTube for daily content, including travel videos, podcast clips and posts. Find more information including select episode transcripts at [00:49:00] Hurdy Gurdy Travel.com.
Search Hurdy Gurdy travel on subscribe star.com, or become a channel member on YouTube. Support my efforts starting at the $5 a month tip jar level. Receive special perks at higher levels, including private one-on-one conversations about card strategy, creative credit card spending, and asking podcast guests your questions.
The website, UDIO.com created the podcast intro and outro music. It’s not me singing. AI features of the website Descript Help me edit and improve audio quality. Thanks for listening. Have a great day.
Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures tales to be told, make and save money, the world will unfold.[00:50:00]
Fight the war on happiness. Pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold.