How to Parlay Status Matches to Free Rooms, Comp Cruises and More! (Casino Status Match JACKPOT – With Key Updates in 2025)
Updated: Most recently updated March 1, 2025
Updated January 11, 2025, November 14, 2024 , August 25, 2024 Originally Published July 2, 2024
par·lay (verb): turn an initial stake or winnings from a previous bet into a greater amount – normally achieved through gambling but I am going to show you an alternative route. And if you’re wondering if this is worth it: how by doing some research into the merry go round, I parlayed ONE $300 trip to Atlantic City into my most impressive travel hack to date and hit the JACKPOT by scoring OVER THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS of dollars cruises for FREE!
In 2024, I was able to successfully use casino status obtained in 2023 to rematch to Hard Rock: obtaining ICON status that I subsequently use to re-match to Ocean and again obtaining Prime status.
IMPORTANT UPDATES/NOTES: There have been a large number of changes with casino status matching with the biggest impact occurring in September 2024. This showcases the good and the bad about not gate keeping information re these types of travel hacks: this allows more people to take advantage but as more people do this, the companies take notice. And the casinos and cruise lines have responded accordingly. Most notably is that as of February 1, 2025, the most common entry point for this is being eliminated as Wyndham Diamond earned from holding the credit card will no longer match to Caesars Diamond.
I stress all of the time that one of the most important things with travel hacking is to be prepared to act – hesitation means that you will miss the best awards flights or deals or things like this get dramatically pared down or come to a grinding halt. BUT it’s important to realize that this is NOT completely dead...it’s just not as cheap nor as easy as to do the casino status matching was when I did first did this!
CASINO STATUS MATCH JACKPOT
How am I getting these comped cruises and rooms? From casino status matching!
Background: it’s useful to understand how airlines, hotels and casinos offer matches to those holding status with competitors. Status = $$ being spent with 🏨✈️ 🎰 so the hope is that you + your spend is poachable AKA the hope is that they’ll be able to convince you to bring your business to them.
And while casinos are in the business of making sure the house always wins, they are wanting you, especially if you’re a high roller, to keep coming back for more so they ease the pain of losing with some sweet perks such as comped rooms, free drinks, free $ play, comped show tickets, travel perks and more!
The allure for customers is to find out if your loyalty to Company A is warranted by testing out how Company B would treat you without having to go through the rigmarole of earning status with Company B. And in our case, we are obtaining Company A status and matching that to Company B (and Company C and beyond) to get those very tempting travel perks!
So here’s the kicker, there’s an in if you’re not a gambler with status: the Wyndham Rewards Business Earners credit card! This card automatically gives you Wyndham Diamond status which you can match online ➡️ Caesar and receive Diamond status (for us, this is our Company A!)
IMPORTANT note: as of February 1, 2025, those who have Wyndham Rewards Platinum and Diamond through a credit card will no longer be able to match that status into the Caesars Rewards Program which means that the most common way to start this casino status match has been eliminated (with that specific credit card). BUT IMPORTANT TO NOTE that you would be able to match to Caesars Diamond if you have your Wyndham Diamond status through STAYS!
ATLANTIC CITY STATUS MATCHES
If you’re willing to go to Atlantic City and gamble a bit, you are guaranteed at least one comped cruise! And yes you must visit AC as these matches must be done in person and in this order based on what each casino program matches to! Helpful hints + Loyalty program highlights follow after
- Go to Caesar’s + get physical card
- Take Caesar’s Diamond card which matches ➡️ Hard Rock (Icon status)
- Take Hard Rock Icon status card which matches ➡️ Ocean casino (Prime status)
CAESAR’S
Able to use either valet or self parking as fees are charged when you leave + you will have your card then to waive the fee
Notable Caesar’s Rewards Diamond benefits: free or discounted hotel stays with waived resort fees, priority check-in, skip the line for most restaurants, free parking including valet at many places, free Atlantis stay (note that taxes, resort fees + housekeeping gratuities are not waived), free $100 celebration dinner (YMMV with this one), discount on NCL cruises – here’s the full list
HARD ROCK CAFE
USE valet as that fee is charged when you leave + you will have your card then to waive the fee. As opposed to self parking that is pay as you enter! Note that the valet parking fee waiver is specific for Hard Rock AC and Icon status
RECENT CHANGES/IMPORTANT UPDATES: Effective February 28, 2025, you must be a new or inactive member to status match – inactive members must have 24 months or more of no casino activity.
Notable Hard Rock Unity Icon benefits: not 100% certain what all the benes are since I was just matching to get Ocean but I know that you’re eligible for a comped two night stay. In addition, I received $50 free slot play + I ended up winning $80 (which paid for my rental car and gas)! here’s the full list
OCEAN RESORT CASINO
You can walk between the HR and Ocean as the casinos are pretty close to each other (~5 min walk along the boardwalk). Or you are able to use either valet or self parking as fees are charged when you leave + you will have your card then to waive the fee
RECENT CHANGES/IMPORTANT UPDATES: Effective December 1, 2024, Tier matched Ocean Rewards Members must earn 250 Tier Points within the Ocean rewards tier year to be eligible to receive travel benefits AKA you must gamble with Ocean Casino a minimum amount in order to get the MSC cruise. In addition, there is also a minimum of 2 years of inactivity to qualify for a tier match with previous tier matches counting as activity.
Ocean Prime benes: this is why you are going to AC as I was able to visit their player’s lounge for lunch (prime rib, shrimp cocktail ~ fairly decent but really great since it was free!), *Complimentary cruise for two, with Ocean View accommodations for up to 10 days anywhere MSC sails; free two night stay at the Wynn Las Vegas including waived resort fees and a $50 dining credit, here’s the full list
RECENT CHANGES/IMPORTANT UPDATES: This showcases how quickly things change: as of September 1 (and the brochure wasn’t updated when I rematched at the end of October), the *complimentary cruise now involves a $1400 upgrade fee for ALL NON-US sailings and the $400 deposit is returned as casino credit once onboard.
MSC CASINO COMP CRUISE: VALUE $4,015.92
If you are wondering about what a comped cruise really costs? The Cruise AND port fees/taxes are comped but you are responsible for daily staff gratuities. I paid 108 euros for daily gratuities + $59 for the upgraded Fantastica experience for my 10 day Baltic Sea Cruise worth (at the time of booking, my comped cruise was selling at $3,658 for an oceanview for two + comped port fees/taxes were 357.92 for two!)
WYNN (OR ENCORE) COMP STAY: VALUE $
This has been rescheduled a few times which is no surprise (IYKYK) – two night comp stay with $50 dining credit
HOW TO GET MORE CASINO COMPED CRUISES
You can take it further and match directly to cruise lines for potentially more free cruises. And why would cruise lines match + give comped cruises? Because alas casinos are big money makers on the seas (ya know why they say the house always win right?!)
CARNIVAL – DIRECT MATCH
How I Got My Carnival Comped Cruise Offer
HOLLAND AMERICA – DIRECT MATCH COMP CRUISE VALUE: $2,358
How I Got My Holland America Line (HAL) Comped Cruise : 11 Day Passage to Greenland and Iceland (interior stateroom – comp upgrade to oceanview)
PRINCESS – DIRECT MATCH COMP CRUISE VALUE: $3,695
How I Got My Princess (PCL) Comped Cruise: 11 Day Southern Caribbean Medley (interior stateroom)
PRINCESS – DIRECT MATCH COMP CRUISE VALUE: $10,095
15 Day Search For The Northern Lights (mini-suite stateroom)
VIRGIN VOYAGES – DIRECT MATCH COMP CRUISE VALUE: $5,090
How I Got My Virgin Voyages (VV) Comped Cruise: 8 Day Greek Isles Glow (oceanview stateroom)
AND EVEN MORE CASINO COMPS THROUGH THIRD PARTY HOSTS- URCOMPED
DIRECT LINK: https://urcomped.com
One more step is to connect with a third party host ~ some people like myself have had great luck + some awesome offers with URComped, whilst others have said they’ve gotten zero offers! Like most things in this game, YMMV (sorry peep but really you need to get used to this idea: your mileage may WILL vary…and often times dramatically when it comes to travel hacking/status/the game).
The best advice I was given was to submit all offers you are given as when I first submitted my casino status cards, I was only had a few offers but once I put in EVERYTHING (ie I had multiple Atlantis comps and the MSC offers), I got a lot more back. Once I started adding in my Princess and Holland America offers, then I started seeing better offers from Royal Caribbean and Celebrity and then finally got offers from Virgin and NCL!
Beautiful Tip: Offers continually change with URComped so if there is a sailing that you want, DO NOT HESITATE and BOOK IT ASAP. One of the most important rules of travel hacking is that you cannot mull over decisions for too long as you will likely miss out on deals! But don’t feel bad when it happens, I have been doing this for decades and it still happens to me see below with Celebrity.
MSC – THRU URCOMPED COMP CRUISE VALUE / : $2,485
Trip Report of My MSC Cruise: Cancelled due to scheduling conflict with another trip – cost to cancel $0
VIRGIN VOYAGES – THRU URCOMPED COMP CRUISE VALUE: $3,974
6 Day Mexican Riveria (XL balcony stateroom)
Celebrity – THRU URCOMPED
Comped Cruises offers up to Concierge + AQUA offers (these were always Caribbean sailing) and with up to balconies for other locations. The Patagonia cruise was the one I had really wanted – and why I started direct matching to other cruise lines. I figured I could parlay/ask for better offers and go back and forth to get a better offer (the original offer was for an interior room)..which was available for two months or so and then disappeared along with many of the other Celebrity offers. And then all of the sudden about 6 weeks before the sailing, this offer popped up again! But I had canceled my award flights a week or so earlier as I didn’t think that this sailing was in the cards for me (one of the great things about having sooo many points and miles is that I can make speculative bookings like that in hopes things fall into place)
Royal Caribbean – THRU URCOMPED
Comped Cruises offers up to junior suite offers and locations mainly concentrated in Caribbean, some Europe and South Pacific sailings from Australia.
Norwegian Cruise Lines – THRU URCOMPED
Technically I am not yet eligible to take advantage of these offers as I have sailed with NCL in that past two years but after July, 2025, I will be ready to book one!
Comped Stay at Resorts/Casinos – THRU URCOMPED
I never considered these offers as I don’t gamble but there have been some pretty good offers with stays, free play, airfare reimbursement, resort credits!
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s important to give credit where it is due and this has typically been known as the status match merry go round and the phrase was popularized and now is trademarked by the founder of Miles Talk. I learned so much about the process from his posts and his Facebook group. It’s an amazing group as the members provided so much valuable insight re their experiences/helpful notes and really helped with maximizing the gains when I came back later asking for some guidance. He termed it as the merry go round is from the idea that you are able to continually status match and continue to get free cruises (but as with many things in the travel hacking sphere), things can quickly change.
I have removed mention of that name accordingly to respect his trademark and why I refer to this as the casino status match jackpot as what I am showing you is how to parlay casino status matching to THE MAX.
LASTLY:
I am still matching and getting comped cruises but will continually update this post with new matches in addition to any changes that I become aware of! This post was getting a little bloated with excess information so check out this post if you’re looking for a summary and/or info on the comps that I have booked/taken!
Your way of describing all in this piece of writing is really nice, every one be able to simply be aware of it, Thanks a lot.
Thank you for this information. I am new to the casino match game. I love cruising and started researching how to earn a free cruise in the casino but I like your way better! I will be signing up for the Wyndham credit card and taking a trip to AC! I do have a question. How do you do the direct match with the cruise lines? There was no link to click in the post. Thank you again!!
Suzette
Hi Suzette! Before you sign up there are some important updates that you should be aware of with the two most important being that as of 2/1/25, the Wyndham Diamond obtained from that credit card will no longer match to Caesar’s Diamond. And that the Ocean recently (as of 12/1 I believe) instituted a requirement for play (250 points?) in order to qualify for the travel benefits. Sorry – I have been meaning to update this post but the changes have been coming in so quickly!
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