A Tale of Hubris: How My Travel Hacking with Status Matching Went Awry (Comps from CSMGR Part 2)
Part deux of my status match saga and when the story becomes a cautionary tale. Part one started the roller coaster ride with a few twists and turns, but here is where things get WILD. It’s like the flow chart that I had created thinking it would be easier to show visually but there were just so many moving parts. I wasn’t sure how to organize everything but decided this post would focus on what happened next and the offers received for comps that I am not taking advantage of.
TLDR: How I was able to parlay status matches and an investment of ~$300 and one day in Atlantic City and Philly into comped hotel nights, waived resort + parking fees and multiple free cruises! But it wasn’t all fun and games and because I gambled (plus luck in general wasn’t on my side), I lost out on the ONE I was really wanting but I have to remind myself in the end, lots of freebies = winning.
This is a story that involves quite a bit of irony and maybe just as much hubris. The irony is that I’m not even sure I’m a cruise person (important mantra in life is know thyself and they don’t jive w/how I like to travel). But two important things come to mind with this: cruises are a really good way for me to explore with my knee and I can figure out what my new normal is + free (or nearly free) isn’t something I should pass up considering three years of five-figures medical expenses. Make that three things: I’m keen on pushing things to the max and wanna see just how far I can push things 😉
So with that in mind, I am using the comp stays and cruises that I had received to push for MORE comps.
Here are the comps that I have earned from my casino merry go round that will come into play with this next round. Info is organized as such COMPANY comp is for (how I received it) and also what I received (plus general notes on offers if I’m using or not using)
ATLANTIS (Caesar’s Reward Diamond)
Offer Type/Description: Comped stay of 2-4 nights w/possible $ Free Slot Play depending of month of visit. (Whilst the room and taxes are comped, you are responsible for resort fees + gratuities ~$66 for both/night) Not using: lol man this makes me sound SO bougie two reasons, I’ve stayed at Atlantis multiple times (lol feels like a past life for top manager trips) and once you have been upgraded to the Reserve at Baha Mar, it’s hard to consider anything else in the Bahamas
ATLANTIS (River’s Platinum)
Offer Type/Description: Comped stay of 2-4 nights depending of month of visit. (Whilst the room and taxes are comped, you are responsible for resort fees + gratuities ~$66 for both/night) Not using: see above:
MSC (Ocean’s Prime)
Offer Type/Description: Comped ocean view state room cruise excluding China sailings (10 day max length and I didn’t run into issues re blackout dates, surcharges for dates nor availability. $400 refundable deposit (based on their normal cancellation policy) per stateroom to book: will credit as OBC at time of sailing/the major perk of MSC is that cruise AND taxes/port fees are comped and you are only responsible for daily gratuities + other add-ons.) Will book: 1st one will be based on if my Air France award flights will be cancelled as mistake fares and will also try for 2nd one at beginning of 2024
The first thing that I did was match directly to cruise lines. How? I uploaded my casino cards + free cruise offer from Ocean to the following
CARNIVAL
https://www.carnival.com/Registration/Promotions/casino-funmatch.aspx
Should I be offended? Weirdly Carnival has only sent me discounted cruises. (Not using)
Beautiful tip: Carnival, HA, PCL are under the same parent company so if you’re NOT a gambler because of the parent company set up, all three share info so book all comps together otherwise you won’t receive an offer from the other lines!
HOLLAND AMERICA (HA)
Holland America Players Club Match – Ocean Players Club
Offer Type HALMatch 1: Complimentary Interior Cabin + $100 FreePlay & Drinks for two (2) while playing in the casino Offer Description: Valid on eligible sailings to Alaska, Mexico, Caribbean, Coastal, and Canada/New England on 2023 sailings (blackout dates may apply and subject to availability)(Not using since it’s applicable only to 2023 sailings , will try again at the beginning of 2024)
PRINCESS
Princess Club Match – Ocean Players Club
Offer Type PCLMatch 1: Complimentary Interior Cabin Offer Description: Valid on eligible sailings to Alaska, Mexico, Caribbean, Coastal, and Canada/ New England on 2023/2024 sailings (blackout dates may apply and subject to availability)
10 day max length and I didn’t run into issues re blackout dates, surcharges for dates nor availability. $200 NON refundable deposit per person to book: will credit as OBC at time of sailing (or be charged as fee if cruise is cancelled)/whilst the cruise is free you will be responsible for taxes, port fees, daily gratuities and other add-ons. Booked and will share details in the next post
URCOMPED (note that everything following is from here)
URComped – Your Casino Travel Partner
Offer Type URcomped reaches out to the different cruise line directly + the offers varied pretty dramatically and are constantly changing
Beautiful Tip:
- You cannot have sailed with a cruise line in the last 24 months (not using URComped) NOR have confirmed upcoming trip. So if you want multiple MSC cruises, book one through URComped first!
MARGARITAVILLE
Offer Description: Comped 2 night ocean view state room Caribbean cruise Not using: I haven’t heard great things about this line to warrant booking a trip but lol I also have two Caribbean cruises booked so I might add on to one of those
VARIOUS + NUMEROUS CASINOS: Casino offers for comped stays, free play + travel reimbursement! TBD: right now I am leaning no as I am not sure when I will be able to fit these comps in with as many cruises + a few other trips I have planned for next year
Beautiful tips:
- Upload ALL of your offers ~ this is huge. When I first set up my URComped account, it might have only been Margartaville and MSC Caribbean cruises. But when I sent in the Atlantis offers, things dramatically changed!
- Because cruise offers are constantly being added AND subtracted, you should book relatively soon after submitting your offers. This is a learn from me as you’ll see below why.
- From what others have told me the best order would be to book Carnival, HA and PCL comped cruises first then set up URComped. DP: I submitted my HA + PCL offers as I received them but it was after URComped offers had been pulled so not sure how timing places into things.
So I originally set up my URComped account in Mid September. Once I was advised of the above beautiful tips, I did as instructed and added all of my offers (specifically the Atlantis comps) and my how things changed! What was being offered was really impressive (as many will recall from the polls I had about which cruise would you take). Too bad my knee had other plans for the future and I held off on booking anything as I would need another surgery in November + wanted to see how it was feeling after that. See below for more details on what happened with each cruise line. One of the biggest mistakes I made was by gambling trying to get better offers/counteroffers that also played into pulled offers (contributing to a long timeline).
ROYAL CARIBBEAN
Offer Type/Description: Offers went from comped balcony to far out into Q1 2025 to dramatically reduced offers – mainly interior and ocean view only for close in date sailings to the Caribbean/honestly RC wasn’t on my radar so unsure if there were other locations ($ refundable deposit (based on their normal cancellation policy) will credit as OBC at time of sailing (or be charged as fee if cruise is cancelled)/whilst the cruise is free you will be responsible for taxes, port fees, daily gratuities and other add-ons). Will book ~ may added as a back to back with another sailing but wanted to see how things shake out
MSC
Offer Type/Description: Offers went from comped balcony to many destinations worldwide far out into Q1 2025 to dramatically reduced offers – mainly interior and with smattering of ocean view sailings to the Caribbean, Dubai and close in to Europe ($400 refundable deposit (based on their normal cancellation policy) per stateroom to book: will credit as OBC at time of sailed/the major perk of MSC is that cruise AND taxes/port fees are comped and you are only responsible for daily gratuities + other add-ons.) Booked: I hadn’t been looking at any cruises from when I scheduled surgery in October until mid November and that’s when I saw that many offers had been pulled. So I booked decided to book this one not wanting to lose all offers and was hoping to get PCL to match an ocean view room ~ didn’t happen. Another timing issue is that recovery was horrid and I couldn’t fathom traveling for weeks after surgery. When I finally realized that I need to act fast, I was booking around Thanksgiving so instead of the 1-3 biz days it normally takes for URComped to get a response from the cruise, it took 6 biz days.
And the one that kills me and hurts to write about now.
CELEBRITY
Offer Type/Description: My offers were incredible as you can see with some of them in the photo above. They ranged from Conceirge + Aqua state rooms being offered to some amazing destinations. Some of the memorable ones were balcony Alaska, balcony Australia Great Barrier Reef sailings, various Aqua and Concierge offerings. ($ refundable deposit (based on their normal cancellation policy) will credit as OBC at time of sailing (or be charged as fee if cruise is cancelled)/whilst the cruise is free you will be responsible for taxes, port fees, daily gratuities and other add-ons). Not booked since all of the offers disappeared!
The one that I wanted and was gambling on trying to get an improved offer was the Celebrity Patagonia sailing. This was supposed to happen but my knee recovery has been so complicated. Whilst not the way that I want to experience Patagonia, this was to be the cruise that I took that would remind me that even if things have changed forever for me + the knee, I would still be able to travel. End of November every from Celebrity got pulled.
Hubris on my part but nothing to do now but move on. Taking a moment to grieve for the old me that I may never be again and this loss. But the next post will show that life is still pretty damn beautiful
