Las Vegas Birthday Deals & myVEGAS Rewards | Free Food, Casino Offers, MGM Perks & Credit Card Stacking
Justin Vacula of the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast is joined by co-host Darren to discuss how to save money in Las Vegas by stacking birthday freebies, restaurant loyalty rewards, myVEGAS rewards, casino offers, and credit card benefits.
Recorded during Justin’s September 2026 birthday month, this episode breaks down real Las Vegas birthday deals and rewards that can help travelers get free food, discounted meals, casino comps, dining credits, and extra value on the Strip.
Justin shares recent in-person experiences using birthday deals and restaurant loyalty rewards in Las Vegas, including the $25 birthday credit at Rosa Mexicano, the $25 annual birthday reward from Landry’s Select Club, PF Chang’s birthday reward with a free starter and edamame, Tom’s Watch Bar free starter, Panera Sip Club birthday You Pick Two, and Denny’s free Everyday Value Slam.
Justin and Darren also discuss myVEGAS rewards, including $20 off $40, $25 off $50, BOGO gelato, and free starter rewards with entree purchase at several MGM Resorts restaurants. They explain how to think about reward limits, redemption timing, food value, room charges, and whether these deals are worth using during a Vegas trip.
The episode also covers MGM Iconic Card benefits and MGM status perks, including dining credits, comps, airfare rebate opportunities, waived resort fees, and how casino status can make Las Vegas trips more affordable. Justin and Darren also discuss stacking additional value from Hilton credits, Caesars and Wyndham comps, Resy and Amex offers, entertainment credits, and other travel rewards.
Timestamps
00:00 Podcast Intro
00:32 Birthday Deals Preview
02:26 Vegas Offers Great Value
03:52 Planning And Stacking
05:43 Timing The Trip
06:47 Rosa Mexicano Credit
08:21 Rainforest Cafe Perks
10:28 PF Chang’s Free Starters
12:41 More Strip Freebies
15:33 Panera And Denny’s
17:42 Support And Sponsors
19:49 myVEGAS Rewards Basics
21:09 myVEGAS Food Deals
22:35 Starter Rewards Strategy
25:02 MGM Iconic Card And Status
28:15 Room Charges And Tips
30:08 Backup Credits And Comps
34:12 Favorite Picks And Drinks
37:40 Shows and More
38:49 Cruise Perks And Farewell
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Rough Transcript:
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 low cost. On this episode, we’re talking about birthday deals and great value in Las Vegas: free food, casino offers, restaurant rewards, and other promotions you can take advantage of when you’re visiting Vegas, especially during your birthday month.
I just returned from Vegas and am here to report my in-person [00:01:00] experience using credit card benefits, MGM status benefits, birthday rewards, and much more. Contrary to popular opinion, Las Vegas is not expensive, especially during your birthday month and especially when you come prepared.
Returning co-host Darren joins me for today’s episode, recorded September 7th, 2026, while there are fireworks going off in the background for Labor Day, welcome back to the show, Darren. Fireworks for sure has anyone ever told you, Justin, that you’re a firework? Oh. Just Katy Perry, maybe. Maybe the song, yes, but hopefully no audio interference this time. Definitely we had lots of fireworks in Las Vegas with all of these deals. There was so much to do, I couldn’t even use them all.
It’s usually what happens when I go to Vegas. Yeah. It seems like this is an annual trip for you for sure, Justin. I keep coming on the show and talking to you about it, but really what I should be doing is flying to Vegas and experiencing it firsthand, Justin.
That would be even better. Absolutely. [00:02:00] It is your destiny to get the MGM Iconic credit card January 1st, as we’ve talked about. So hopefully it’ll be for 2027, the ball drops, and the credit card applications go in to help you save and make money. Looking forward to that.
You spent time in Vegas for your birthday, so why Las Vegas and not somewhere else? People go lots of places for their birthdays. Why Las Vegas? One big advantage is the concentration of chain restaurants, casinos, and much more on the Strip.
It’s also really easy to get around using trams, rideshare, buses, and more. We also have many loyalty programs working in our favor, thanks to credit card spending and benefits. We have the wonderful free-to-play MyVegas games offering buy one get one food deals, discounts like 25 off 50, 20 off of 40, comp hotel nights, and even blackjack match play.
Especially with the food deals, we can often stack these with other [00:03:00] birthday rewards to get even more value. It just keeps getting better and better every year in Vegas, since we now have the answer to everything, more credit cards, like the MGM Iconic and the Bilt Palladium cards that offer tons of value, and lots of that value can be used in Las Vegas, even if you only go once a year.
Maybe competition works in our favor, as many of these loyalty programs want your business during your birthday month, and there’s lots of restaurants and casinos in Las Vegas to pick from. Locally in the Greater Philadelphia area, I don’t have too many birthday deals compared to how many I can find in Vegas, and with many of these restaurants inside of casinos, you’re stacking birthday rewards with casino comps.
You can mention status and get some bonus freebies, which happened a few times during my visit, so I’m using one benefit and getting more out of it. And before this trip, I did lots of research into birthday deals, as I have a living document for several years, updating it when I find new [00:04:00] deals and I remove the dead deals.
I wrote an article at travelzork.com which can be a good companion to this episode Yeah, for sure. I’ve skimmed through that myself. That’s an excellent way to refer back, Justin, to what we’re talking about here today. One of your strengths is that you’re excellent at researching and planning things like this, and really maximizing your options and opportunities.
Certainly the ability to stack deals flies in the face of the Las Vegas is so expensive myth that we hear occasionally. In fact, it sounded like you weren’t even able to utilize all the rewards you had. How long do you think you’d have to stay in Vegas to maximize your birthday rewards? Oh, wow.
If I were to do everything, I think maybe a two-week visit or perhaps even longer. And with all the myVEGAS rewards, there’s even more opportunity. If you have another person who’s with you, as I’ve met several fans of the show, Tom [00:05:00] Kim, I was on the Milenomics podcast talking to Tom in the past. I met with Dave Lam, fan of the show, past podcast guest Heidi, Marty Paz, and some others, and we were able to chop some of the deals.
For instance, I had a buy one, get one buffet reward. I went the first time with Heidi. The second time, Heidi went with me and used her reward. If you’re there with a group of people or meeting with people, you’re getting even more value, and you could extend the stay with deals so you don’t have to fall into the traps like the mini bars, the $16 waters, the triple zero roulette, and the really expensive pizza.
Triple zero roulette, Justin. You always find a way to get that in there. It’s a bad deal, folks. Don’t play it. But in all seriousness, what was going on in the end of August that everyone was visiting Las Vegas at that time?
It’s very often the case I post on social media, “I’m going to Vegas.”
I get there, and then people say, “Hey, I’m here, too,” or, “Oh, I’m just going that same time.” [00:06:00] Many coincidental Vegas visitors. Some are going during cheap nights at Rio. They aren’t every week, so people will concentrate on those cheaper nights. That’s definitely one thing is people wanna get those nights in to get their Hyatt status and have a cheap Vegas weekend.
It just so happens that my birthday month is September, so I wanted to go at the end of August, redeem various monthly benefits at the end of August, and then redeem benefits at the start of September.
There were many double-dip opportunities to use monthly rideshare credits, monthly dining credits, and much more. And of course, September 1, the birthday rewards started
I like that overlapping from one month to next.
Let’s get into these birthday deals, Justin and tell everybody about your experiences. Rosa Mexicano is, as you would guess, a Mexican restaurant next to Planet Hollywood on the strip. Not Greek food, Justin. Not Greek food for anybody that’s confused. Is that correct? Okay. It wasn’t Rosa- All right, just checking
Mediterrano or [00:07:00] something. All right, just checking. Yep. You get $25 dining credit during your birthday month, and you get $10 just for joining. I’m not sure you can use both rewards on the first visit, but 25 was very generous. I got a protein bowl with berries and other fruits, and they had, I believe it was a $9 breakfast special which was a good deal there.
They had hash brown, a sandwich and coffee. Pretty nice. And you could sit outside. You get a good strip view. There are many other places in that section where, “Oh come in to our restaurant for a strip view,” and then you’re on the hook for 30, $40, but you can eat a lot cheaper than that. Rosa Mexicano is also on the Resy platform, so if you have various American Express cards that give those Resy credits, you could combine the birthday credit charged to the card with anything left over and get [00:08:00] reimbursed for that too.
I think very generous for Rosa Mexicano. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. They also have a happy hour if you sit on the patio outside, and once again, you get the good people watching, the good view, and I think good tasting food. That sounds like a great start.
That sounds like a great spot for some breakfast, Justin. Where else did you visit when you were out there?
I visited the Rainforest Cafe. I really like Rainforest Cafe. They have the animatronic, the sights of all the animals, the wildlife theme to it, and they have a partnership with Landry’s Select Club.
You can sign up for Landry’s Select Club. I did it several years ago. I believe it’s a $25 fee to sign up, although when I looked I didn’t see it on their website. You get a $25 dining credit upon sign-up and an annual $25 birthday reward. No annual fee, no recurring charges. You pay the one time and you’re locked in, getting that birthday reward.
I’ve had this for more than six [00:09:00] years, I’m sure, so I’ve certainly gotten great value out of it. And I was also there for breakfast, too. They had a breakfast burrito, side of hash browns, and they even brought out a cupcake and sang a song for my dessert. Really good value there with that 25 when the breakfast burrito was around, I believe, $17.
So you can even add a side to it or if you have a second person and they spend, then a portion of theirs would come out of that 25. Can I bet on which song they sang you at the Rainforest Cafe for your birthday, Justin? Ooh. Was it Happy Birthday? It was not Feliz Navidad.
Okay. And they put their own spin on it, too, and it was nice that- Oh, okay … it came out with a cupcake- Customized … and a candle. You also get a complimentary photo every visit, in my experience. They bring a photo and a keychain. They try to upsell you, in a way, on a photo book, but they do the digital print and you can just take that for free. They have this rainforest theme every 15 [00:10:00] minutes where there’s thunder and lightning and all the animals are active in the rainforest area where you sit.
It’s definitely a family-friendly restaurant, and adult-friendly, too. Yeah, I feel like we could do the March, April birthday like you did August, September. I have two of my kids born in March my wife and other daughter in April, so could really maximize some annual birthday rewards here, Justin.
I got some ideas. Nice.
That’s two down. Where else did you visit?
PF Chang’s is a strong birthday reward. It’s now a totally free starter.
I even got an email about it as well. You have to sign up for the loyalty program ahead of time, and you also get free edamame. And wow, they gave a lot of edamame. For the starter, I also chose the Asian lettuce wraps, and they have a veggie option, a meat option there, I believe.
And that was, I think, around $18 on the menu. The edamame was between 10 and [00:11:00] 15 as far as I remember. So you get a lot of value, although the food might be pricey, but not on your birthday
Wow. Yeah, that sounds like it would be a meal for one person. Free edamame, free lettuce wraps or an appetizer. I know oftentimes my wife will just order an appetizer as her main meal, so sounds like something that we could check out here as well.
I am interested to hear of the rare example where someone said they’ve increased the value of a program And they did. They actually did it, Justin.
And this P.F. Chang’s right inside of Planet Hollywood, so you have a little section there. If you wanted to go to all three on the same day, you could even do that. You can go to Rainforest Cafe, walk downstairs to Rosa Mexicano, and then go over to P.F. Chang’s, although I think that would be a lot of food, especially for one person.
But they are all in that same section, so it is cool that you can walk and they’re all there, especially if you’re staying on the Strip, then it’s super convenient to visit those places.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner all [00:12:00] in the same area if you’re really interested in doing that.
I stayed at Park MGM, and it was a little walk outside the casino, a pedestrian bridge, and then a little bit of a walk. So it wasn’t too far at all. Or you could just use one of your monthly $10 rideshare credits if you really want to, but the walk was not far by any means. Yeah, and sometimes it’s nice to get out and walk around a little bit, especially if the weather’s not too hot.
And yeah, you just had a kind of a big meal. Nice to kinda walk that off, as they say. I know you get lots of steps in when you’re in Vegas, Justin. Oh, I’ve called it Walk Vegas because it’s very common to get somewhere 20,000 steps in per day Wow, that’s a bunch
We also had Tom’s Watch Bar. This is inside New York-New York Casino.
That’s double New York, and they give you a free starter during your birthday month, no purchase necessary. You have to sign up for Tom’s Fan Club. You can simply Google Tom’s Watch [00:13:00] Bar Las Vegas, or maybe even Tom’s Las Vegas, and sign up. A lot of these programs, there’s a little bit of a cool-down period.
I don’t think you can just sign up the day before, go in the next day, so maybe 30 days in advance, but why not months in advance? If your birthday happens to be early in the year, you can sign up right after this episode, and you could also look at the description and timestamps on YouTube that give you a list of this or just go to travelzork.com and you could see my Las Vegas birthday article.
And the starter at Tom’s was really generous, as they have menu items around 15, $20. I got the hummus duo, which was two big bowls of hummus, celery, carrots, and pita bread, and I think that was pretty good, a big starter there as well Yeah, hummus is very popular in our family as well.
We had Zatinya, a Mediterranean restaurant. This is inside Caesars Palace Forum Shops. The main reason to go here was [00:14:00] because they are on the Bilt platform. We had mentioned this in other episodes as well. You could use your Bilt mobile dining benefit, $25 a month using Bilt Cash, and if you don’t know what that is, then you could go to the Bilt episode.
I went at the end of August, the beginning of September, went twice. I mentioned it was my birthday month when September came around, and they gave me a free birthday dessert. That was nice of them to do that. I’m not sure if that’s an official thing, because this was the first time I was there during my birthday month.
Your mileage may vary, but a nice $25 off for sure. They’re also on the InKind network, so if you have InKind offers, gift cards, whatever the case might be, you can use that, too, to get some pretty good discounts. The gift cards are often heavily discounted from Costco, and they will often message you and say, “Oh, get 25 off of 75, 20 [00:15:00] off of 40,” deals like that.
Wow. Yeah, that, that sounds like an excellent opportunity there with In-Kind. I think people don’t have a lot of In-Kind restaurants maybe where they live, and so we don’t always think about using In-Kind when we’re going someplace, a larger city, for example, like Las Vegas or New York or something like that.
I probably wouldn’t take a trip just for a free dessert. I’m definitely preferring the starters or some other sizable benefit. I still think pretty good using the Bilt credit.
But we do have one guarantee or something close to it in Panera Bread. Ooh, did you expect that one? There’s a location maybe 15-minute walk from Horseshoe that’s maybe close to the Ellis Island Casino. They rebranded the Sip Club. It’s no longer the Unlimited Sip Club. It’s the My Panera+ Sip Club, not just the My Panera Sip Club, the My Panera+ Sip Club.
[00:16:00] The membership for the Sip Club, which is around $10 a month or less if you have a promotional offer. I looked before the show. It’s $5 a month for the first three months. Sometimes it gets even lower than that. You sign up for the Sip Club, you get 30 drinks per billing cycle as part of the membership, no additional charges.
And on your birthday month, you get a complimentary You Pick Two during your birthday month. This is probably close to a $10 value as it’s usually a cup of soup, a half sandwich, a half salad. You get to pick two of those items, as you could guess. The one I’ve gone to is near Horseshoe, and I’m sure there are other ones in Las Vegas as well I’m surprised we made it this far without without talking about my Panera or Panera Justin.
The Sip Club has been a, a fan favorite for both you and me. Tremendous value there, and unfortunately the plus for My Panera Plus is not so much of an upgrade. But we’ve talked [00:17:00] about that before, and it’s still probably a positive expected value here for $5 or $10 a month.
Yes, 30 drinks is really generous.
Finally, perhaps the bottom of the barrel here, Denny’s, a free everyday value slam during your birthday month. There’s one near MGM Grand, another across the street from Park MGM. Sign up for the Denny’s rewards program. Again, not the most exciting, but it’s still a freebie that happens to be in Vegas.
I don’t know that I’ve ever had a better breakfast than a 3:00 AM Moons Over My Hammy, Justin.
It just does not get better than that. You just wanted to say Moons Over My Hammy, didn’t you? It’s such a good breakfast. It makes me hungry just thinking about it right now.
We’ll get back to some more Vegas value, but first, take a short break.
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We’re talking about value in Las Vegas. Before the break, we talked a lot about [00:20:00] finding value during your birthday month, but there’s still a lot more for any month in Las Vegas
you could spend probably two weeks, eating your way through Las Vegas just on birthday rewards, and that doesn’t even get into what we’re gonna talk about here next, Justin, which is some of the myVegas rewards that you’ve been accumulating for geez, as long as I’ve known you.
Oh, more than six years easily with this. I wish I knew about it sooner. Super easy. These are free to play mobile and browser-based games. You don’t have to engage too much other than opening games, clicking an auto spin button typically. You could check in throughout the day to get some bonuses of chips, of status that you need to redeem some of the rewards, but it’s pretty easy.
And I have a YouTube video, several YouTube videos actually. If you go on YouTube and search myVegas, one word, and Hurdy Gurdy Travel, you’ll see the games in action. I set up multiple phones, multiple devices, and I can run these [00:21:00] games. Every time in Vegas, I buy up all the food rewards. I usually don’t use them all because there are so many.
But what are some of the better rewards at the moment? We have $20 off of $40 at Moneyline at Aria. This is mostly pizza, sandwiches, some bar food. You could easily get a full pizza with a side for $40, or you could stack toppings on specialty pizzas. But $40 goes a very long way. 20 off of 40, I think very fair to get a huge pizza for 20 bucks if that’s what you wanna do, or get various starters or sides.
And sometimes the pizza can be so much you’ll even take some back to your room, if that’s your thing. $10 off of 20 at Posh Burger at Aria. You can get a burger for between $10 and $15 dollars. Add mushrooms, add a side to get it to the $20 . Pretty fair there. Not my favorite, but I mention it as one of the rewards.
A lot of other people might like it. Buy one, get one [00:22:00] gelato. This is at Bellagio and Aria. They give you big portion sizes. One of the biggest discounts, 25 off of 50 at Tap. This is a sports bar area at Excalibur. They often have deals like three for 33, so you can get a lot of food and a drink with that.
20 off of 40 at Public House at Luxor. This is more American style, also bar food, nachos, burgers, fries. They also have salmon, some other options there, but pretty generous 20 off of 40. They also have a free starter with entree reward, also at Public House At Luxor, we’re back to Tom’s Watch Bar at New York.
This is where I got the free starter with the birthday reward, but they also have a free starter with entree reward. So especially if you have two people there, one person can use the myVegas reward, the other person can use the birthday reward. The birthday reward says it cannot be combined with other offers, but maybe they would [00:23:00] still let you do it as they’re two separate things, but you wouldn’t just get Three starters that couldn’t work.
I know America loves math, but I don’t believe they’ll allow that. They have the free starter with entree at Best Friend. This is inside of Park MGM. It’s a Korean restaurant. Most of the food is spicy, very flavorful, lots of healthy options. I usually get the barbecue veggies. They have kimchi they have a lot of other interesting food items.
And finally, a free starter with entree at Park MGM. I got the tempura green beans, and wow, it was a huge plate. And for the entree, I got the veggie fried rice, which was one of the cheaper items on the menu, around eighteen dollars. A huge plate of green beans and the fried rice.
They also have some entrees around the twenty to twenty-five dollar price point and even higher. And you can also stack this with MGM. So if you have comps with MGM through Play, credit card [00:24:00] spending, or whatever the case, you can pay the difference with the MGM rewards. But certainly lots of value with my Vegas, easily around ten rewards there
Wow. And these are all free, Justin, right? The game that you’re playing, MyVegas here, is free.
Check those out and, take advantage of that. It’s a, another way to make Las Vegas cheaper for you, for your family, for whomever you wanna go with. Yes, and if you’re there with another MyVegas player, you can double-dip these essentially. One day you go to Moneyline on your account, the other day you go to Moneyline with their account, so you can multiply the rewards
Yeah, I like that. So if you’re a couple or a family, you probably have to be, what, 18 or 21 to- 21 … to sign up for MyVegas. Because it’s simulated gambling, Darren, simulated gambling. Okay. Okay. We d- only have two in our household so far, but others might have more. So yeah, I think that’s awesome.
But there’s also some more traditional benefits that you’re able to take [00:25:00] advantage of when you’re out there. Tell us about those. I’ve had MGM Platinum status for several years, thanks to spending on, originally it was the no annual fee MGM MasterCard, but about a year ago, they released the MGM Iconic credit card, much better than the original, for sure.
And through spend on the card, you get either comps or free play. It defaults as free play or slot dollars, and you could convert the rewards to comps, and then use that for food, hotels, and much more. You can get status with just credit card spending. You don’t need to gamble at all. You don’t need to play on BetMGM.
It can just be through credit card spending. If you’re more intermediate to advanced, you have a lot of spending, especially grocery spending, maybe prepaid cards, gift cards, and other things, you could easily get to MGM Gold status, which has its benefits Namely a complimentary [00:26:00] cruise, which is probably one of the biggest draws, waived resort fees at MGM, a $100 comp that you can use across many visits, and other benefits.
But you can also spend your way to MGM Platinum Status like I did. It gives you a $600 airfare rebate. I presented a cash-booked ticket of more than $600. They added $600 to my account in free play. You can also take it in comps as well. And since it was one year with the MGM Iconic credit card, some of the benefits on the card had also refreshed.
I got a $200, what they’re calling a resort credit. This just is a yearly benefit for having the card. It’s a $249 annual fee, but they’re giving you back 200 every year, including the first year you sign up, which is super, super generous. And if you spend, I believe it’s 25,000 or more on the card in a card member year, they [00:27:00] give you an additional 250. And the 200, it’s a net negative annual fee if you were to value the free play same as cash or pretty close to it, which I think is fair to do, or you could just use these for comps that you probably would value same as cash. And through the status benefits, there was also another $200 comp with Platinum Status, and then you get another 100 at Gold.
We’re talking about $1,500 in comps just from that if you were to go just once a year, or if you go to Vegas multiple times, then you would spread it out. But it gets added to your account. You have a while to use it. As long as you have the credit card, the comps remain active, no problem Yeah I think a lot of people may wonder, Justin, if you need to do a lot of gambling when you’re in Vegas to, support these comps continuing to come your way, with the card you don’t have to, right? Those are really spend goals essentially, and instead of in addition to maybe sign-up bonuses, you’re getting these comps along the way to help [00:28:00] motivate you, to choose the MGM card over some of our other cards at grocery stores or restaurants.
Definitely great value. It also gets six times points, tier, and free player comps for spending at MGM. That’s pretty nice. What I do is I charge all my dining to my room when I’m staying with MGM, and I’m getting 6X on the tips, so that’s really generous of them. And this stay, you asked earlier about why are so many people in Vegas at the same time.
I was there during that particular week largely because I saw $15 room rates at Park MGM. Usually, that’s going for around $75 to $100 a night, in my experience, on my MGM calendar. But for whatever reason, it was down to $15, so maybe one of the slower times in Vegas, really generous of them. And MGM also gave me $75 in dining credits.
I charged to my room, and they took the 75 off at the end
I made sure to spend more than 75 so that it would [00:29:00] completely cover, and they didn’t say, “Oh you had to spend 75 to get it.”
I haven’t had that experience, but I imagine that could be possible. At least it is that way with the MyVegas rewards when they say 20 off of 40, you have to spend at least $40 for the reward, even if it means adding mushrooms, adding a side, adding something small. Does a tip count, Justin? Or do you have to order the actual food?
The tip does not count. And then when you use comps- … to offset, they remove the tax as well. So it would be before the tax, before the tip. Good tip there. Yes. Nice to do the room charge. Some people say, “Oh, I like leaving cash tips.” In this case, I don’t. If I could just charge it to the room and get the 6X on the spend, and I don’t have to break bills, put down a five, put down several ones, whatever the case might be, it’s nice to do the room charge.
And sometimes they even take the tips off when you’re leaving. They’ll say, “Oh, we’ll cover everything.” That doesn’t happen too often, but it has happened a few [00:30:00] times Oh, very nice. That is a nice bonus. Yeah, even if they let you use the comps for the tips, I would be happy about that, but not this time.
We mentioned not being able to use all the birthday rewards, not being able to use all the MGM MyVegas rewards, but there were also some other options I had as a backup plan. You can use your Hilton credits. These are the $50 quarterly credits on Hilton Surpass credit cards, Business Platinum credit cards at Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas, no stay required.
They have a really nice area sky bar. I forget what the official name is, but it has really cool views of the Vegas Strip, whether you’re there during the day or during the night. They also have breakfast in a place called Zen Kitchen and another area called Peacock Alley. Many dining choices at Waldorf Astoria, and $50 will take you very far.
Although you don’t have to use the 50 in the same transaction, you can go twice, for example. Nice. [00:31:00] Nice to have all these options, Justin, when you’re visiting. I can see why it might take you two weeks to get through all your birthday rewards and comps on top of that.
And I know that many like to go to Las Vegas and use the fine hotels and resorts credits. These are $300 credits from Amex Personal Platinum and Amex Business Platinum credit cards Fountainbleau is a common choice. Some people stay at other properties like Venetian, Wynn. Maybe Waldorf Astoria would have lower rates.
Resorts World was a choice, maybe still is, but I think that comes and goes. The FHR partners change from time to time. Especially during the week, you can find rates around $300 to not have to pay at least too much out of pocket, and they’re usually throwing in a hundred dollar dining comp and breakfast for two people, which could be something like 50, $60, or maybe more depending on how the property counts it
Have you tried the split [00:32:00] tender with $50 credits from Amex cards, Justin, for the Waldorf?
Yes. If you were to split between different credit cards, you should be able to use maybe $100, 150 off depending on how much you’re charging. That shouldn’t be a problem. You don’t have to charge it to a room. You could just have it as an independent charge, and I would imagine that most people don’t stay there.
They’ll just go there for the Hilton credits Got it. Makes sense
We also have Caesars comps. Many might have Wyndham credit cards or Wyndham rewards maybe from Capital One, Wells Fargo, other issuers. Usually it’s 30,000 Wyndham points gets you 30,000 reward credits with Caesars, so it’d be $300 in comps, and then you could use those Caesars comps for various dining opportunities.
Sometimes the transfer is increased to something like $600 a year. I believe there was a small window where they allowed that this year too. So dining [00:33:00] inside of Caesars casinos could be appealing. Maybe you stay there too, and then you could use the comps to offset the room,
but if you lack status, they’re very likely going to charge a 40 to $50 resort fee. And with MGM, that’s certainly not the case if you have the MGM Gold status. And if people are staying at Rio because they’re Hyatt Globalist members, there’s no resort fee there either.
Finally, we have some smaller wins possible with Grubhub.
We can order pickup and get $10 off several Grubhub locations in Las Vegas. And finally, Resy credits. We mentioned that Rosa Mexicano is on the Resy network, so is Gymkhana. It’s a newer Indian restaurant inside of Aria. When they first opened, it was very difficult to find seating. Reservations were booked out.
But I think as we go further into 2026, you can find seating there. Perhaps you might have to book in advance, but it should be more open as time goes on
[00:34:00] Again, just a tremendous number of options, Justin, and certainly with your plethora of, rewards points in different categories and different programs really makes it I’m sure challenging for you to decide where you’re gonna eat. And with that in mind, Justin what has been your favorite of this trip?
What was your favorite place to dine? It’s hard to pick. I think a lot of value is had at P.F. Chang’s and Rosa Mexicano. On the MyVegas side, it’s hard to go wrong with the Tom’s Watch Bar as they’re open throughout most of the day. Some of these other places only open at 4:00 PM, 5:00 PM.
La Noodle, I think, and Best Friend, good quality food and a nice location at Park MGM, especially when I’m staying there, and you could just take the tram, go over to Bellagio other places. You can even just walk from Park MGM to Aria through the back section. Nice to have these locations close by, that’s for sure.
[00:35:00] Excalibur, a little bit more of a walk, but 25 off 50 is pretty generous, and maybe some listeners who are into sports would go to one of these places and watch the game and have the meal.
I don’t know about our listeners, but of course, I’m sure folks out there like me are wondering, do they cover beer, Justin? Are they gonna cover any of my alcoholic drinks that I’m having maybe while I’m watching a, a game along the way? Yes, that can go into the 20 off of 40, the 25 off of 50, and so on.
I don’t think there are many exclusions for alcohol with these Vegas deals. Maybe at PF Chang’s, maybe they won’t throw that in, but that’s only the free starter, probably not a drink. I don’t think you can substitute that anyway. But places like Zatinya, I’m sure you could charge alcohol there. And then I think the better play is just to go to a video poker machine.
There are several hundred play video poker games. You could just play one line of video poker, that’s [00:36:00] easily less than a dollar. There’s various 5 cent, 10 cent, even lesser than that. You could just play one line, and as you’re playing, a drink server will come around. I especially like Park MGM. They have a high limit room where there is a hundred play video poker machine.
The drink server comes around, they’ll serve you drink in a glass, they’ll give you better quality alcohol, I think, and they even give you bottled Fiji water
Sounds pretty fancy, Justin, and all for essentially playing a game in which we’re reducing variance, right? The 100 play video poker. And with this case, you don’t have to play max bet, max hands, max anything. You would mainly be there just to get the drinks and just play slowly, even use free play that you have from MGM credit card spending I love it.
Really stacking those deals together and and making this trip to Vegas. It seems like you could almost make money on the trip, Justin. I don’t know. What do you think? Absolutely, especially with the blackjack match play. It was $25, [00:37:00] $15 match play, and then if you’re knowledgeable about other games, promotions, certainly some opportunity to have positive expected value at least.
But hard to go wrong when they’re throwing you all these food credits. The hotel rates are cheap. You could use all of your credit card benefits there. So much to do in Las Vegas, and lots of free entertainment as well with the Bellagio Conservatory, the Wildlife Habitat at Flamingo, the Bellagio Fountains.
You could even go to the Mandalay Bay Aquarium with my Vegas Rewards. You can go to the Tournament of Kings at Excalibur. There’s a lot to do and see in Las Vegas
this last time in Vegas I think you went to a Cirque show, Justin. Is that right? Yes. I used my Chase Sapphire Reserve StubHub credit, and I purchased a ticket for Mystère. So I walked to Treasure Island. I think it was a pretty good show.
Acrobatics, music, dancing, and much more i’ve seen a couple shows myself. But still need to [00:38:00] burn my StubHub credit, so not sure where we’re gonna do that yet. Maybe if the the Phillies make the playoffs, we’ll try to squeeze a game in there.
This was great, Justin. I really appreciate the opportunity to chat with you about your birthday rewards, how you maximize or minimize maybe I should say really, the amount of money that you pay for food and entertainment while in Las Vegas.
I know you spend a couple, three, four, five trips a year heading out there and I think anybody that listens starts to understand why it’s so attractive and what tremendous value it might hold for those of us that are willing to do a little planning, that are already maybe in the miles and points game and can either collect points or collect free nights or cheap nights as the case may be.
Really a great round up here, and appreciate you having me on to talk about it. Thanks, and hope it gets stronger in 2027, but before that, I should be back in Las Vegas December 6th through the 11th, staying at MGM Grand, and then [00:39:00] December 11th through the 13th staying at Wyndham Desert Rose because I have a cruise on the 14th of December from Los Angeles.
Very nice. Where does your cruise take you this time, Justin? Catalina Island and one other stop, so a new destination for me Excellent, and I’m sure you’ve paid thousands of dollars for that cruise Justin? Absolutely not. I’m not a Da- I’m not a Dave Ramsey fan paying thousands of dollars for a Dave Ramsey cruise, that’s for sure.
It’s from MGM, of course. Complimentary plus- Of course … onboard credit plus free play. It sounds like the question isn’t even whether I should get the MGM card, Iconic card. It’s whether I and my p2 should get the MGM Iconic card. Ooh, yes. Justin? One, one person. Or whether we should space that out.
Yeah. Good question. All right, my friend. Always enjoy talking points and miles and what you’ve been up to. Anything else going on after your trips to Vegas and cruises? Looking good at [00:40:00] the moment. A little bit of a break here in September after the Vegas trip, but I’ll be back on the conference circuit with October, November back in Chicago is the plan.
And with that MGM cruise, yes, in a player two mode it can be interesting because you could take two people. Your wife can reserve one room, you reserve the other room on the same ship, have a guest on both of them, and you could get four people in on one cruise complimentary. Just the taxes and fees
It’s probably good that my daughter doesn’t listen to this. She’s already been talking about a cruise, so if she heard that, she’d already be, she’d be ready. But it does sound like something we should look into and see what we can get done here moving into 2027. Maybe it will be the year of the cruise for the Remsburg family.
All right. Thanks for coming on. Good deal. Good. Thanks for having me, Justin. Have a great day.
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