MyVegas Baby! Part 1

It's gonna be free baby! (almost)

So late last year we took a short vacation in Las Vegas and got some free food courtesy a Facebook game called myVegas. We got more free stuff this time... a lot more. Here's how it went down:

November 2012

We get back from our vacation and Beth signs up for Facebook and starts playing myVegas. We both become daily players to maximize the number of "loyalty points" (the myVegas equivalent of cash) we'd be able to accumulate.

December 2012

Over the holiday break (I had to use up a week of vacation time) I get bored and buy some chips with real money. $39 worth. You can play for free - there's no requirement to spend money. This would have an interesting side effect a soon.

January 2013

By the 15th (remember the date) I've accumulated enough loyalty points to purchase three nights in a Mirage Tower Suite. I "purchase" them (in the form of two rewards: a 2 night and a 1 night stay) using up almost all my accumulated loyalty points and we begin to plan our vacation. Our usual trip runs five nights, so we want two more nights.

February 2013

I finally accumulate enough points to purchase two nights in a Mandalay Bay Spa Suite and do so. Meanwhile MGM Resorts International has realized people have become myVegas maniacs and they begin to make it more difficult to accumulate chips to play the games.

March 2013

Bad News: myVegas makes it even harder to accumulate chips to play the games and announces that for all reward purchases made after January 15 players will only be able to redeem three in any 30 day period. Good News: I can purchase 2 more since I bought my first 2 before the the deadline.

By now Beth has a ton of loyalty points saved up and we decide she'll purchase food. We buy $150 steak house meals at Tender in the Luxor and The Steakhouse at Camelot in Excalibur. I use some of my accumulated points to buy two passes to the Bellagio lunch buffet.

Then:

myVegas introduces another new twist on the game. If you've purchased chips, you can redeem not three but as many as ten rewards in any 30 day period. Now I have two more rewards instead of one and we buy Beth $5 worth of chips so she can purchase two more rewards.

I use my accumulated loyalty points to buy 2 $170.50 tickets to the Cirque du Soleil show Love. I still have one more reward to purchase and Beth has two. I book our hotel reservations by the old fashioned telephone method.

April 2013

We wrap up our reward purchases. Beth buys a $50 dining credit at Nine Fine Irishmen in New York New York and we each buy High Tea (technically afternoon tea, but they didn't ask me when they named it) at the Petrossian Bar in Bellagio. I make restaurant reservations and we're all set.

At this point we've purchased:

3 nights at Mirage	$945
2 nights at Mandalay Bay	$366
2 Steakhouse Dinners	$300
Bellagio High Tea (2)	$70
Dinner at Nine Fine Irishmen	$50
Bellagio Lunch Buffet for 2	$43
2 Tickets to Love	$341
Total	$2115

All for a grand total of $45 in actual money ($39 and $5 chip purchases) and maybe an hour total each day playing the myVegas game.

Coming Soon:

We go to Las Vegas! Cheap Flights! Gambling!  Food! Shows! (and a small bummer)

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Days 4 & 5