[2006] Compound Freebies

AwayWeGo · Sep 10, 2006

If you don't hear from The Chief Of Staff & me for a week or so, that doesn't mean we have gone underground or been abducted. We're just going to Las Vegas for some frivolity -- leaving Sept. 11 & coming back Sept. 16.

This particular junket is an example of Compound Freebies. Round-trip flights (ATA & SWA) plus 2 nights' accommodations are freebies we took home as a reward for going on a BlueGreen timeshare tour last fall. Accommodations for the rest of the trip are freebies (along with some show tickets, buffet tickets, etc.) for signing up to take the no-obligation 120-minute Tahiti Village timeshare presentation while we're out there. That is to say, it will be freebies on top of freebies.

If the headhunters happen to get hold of us & sign us up for another timeshare tour while we're in town, then I supposed you could call it Triple Freebies.

If we notice anything interesting or curious or amusing in Las Vegas next week, we'll put something about it on TUG-BBS after we get back.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

Karen G · Sep 10, 2006

Have a great time, Alan. Hope the timeshare presentations aren't too painful. I'll look forward to your report.

Jestjoan · Sep 10, 2006

Wtg, Awg........

AwayWeGo · Sep 23, 2006

Carol's & Alan's Las Vegas Adventure (Even More Than You May Care To Know).

Notice: The views expressed below are not necessarily those of The Management
& are subject to correction and/or revision at any time without notice by The Chief Of Staff.

Our Las Vegas junket was loads of fun. We took home $28 casino dollars -- not much, but still better than losing $28. (I play slot machines by depositing money & pulling the handle. The Chief Of Staff plays slot machines by not putting in any money, just pressing the Cash Out buttons that careless players have gone away from & left unpushed. The biggest jackpot she collected that way this time was 50¢, although on another trip she once collected way more. Maybe some day lightning will strike twice.)

Our airline tickets & our 1st 2 nights’ accommodations were leftover Spirit Incentives freebies from a BlueGreen timeshare tour we took in October 2005. We departed from DCA on ATA from & changed at MDW to SWA. Both outgoing flights & both return flights were delayed. So it goes.

We rented a car from PayLess, after making our reservation via Internet the day before we left -- got a nice 2006 PT Cruiser. (The Chief Of Staff liked the rental car so much that she bought 1 just like it on eBay the week after we got back. We’re picking it up in New Jersey next week. Who’d a-thunk?)

Monday night we checked into our Spirit Incentives freebies accommodations. About the nicest thing I can say about the free hotel room is that the price was right. A couple of years earlier, when we took a similar Spirit Incentives free trip to Las Vegas, our free accommodations were at the Sahara -- not great, but not bad. Naturally we expected that the free trip this time would include a comparable room, but we were wrong.

Accommodations for the rest of the trip were provided by Tahiti Village as part of the timeshare tour deal we agreed to attend while we were in town, and that room was a big improvement. They put us in a nice room at the New Frontier -- roomy, attractive, up to date, well kept. It was so far from the elevator, however, that we asked for a change after 1 night & got a comparable room in another wing just 3 doors past the elevator.

We had been on a Consolidated Resorts Las Vegas timeshare tour a few years ago, & ranked that experience high on our list of Most Irritating Timeshare Tours. This time, it wasn’t so bad. A very nice guy softened us up for an hour or so before turning us over to the closer. The closer looked at the information sheet about us that the 1st guy filled out & right away zeroed in on the list of 4 timeshares we already own. “You got those on the resale market, didn’t you?” he said.

“Right,” I said. “And as of now I’m not sure how we’re going to use up all the weeks & points we currently have on deposit.”

“So you’re declining our offer?” he said.

“Yes,” I said. So that was that. The guy signed off on the gift sheet & sent us over to the freebies window. Over there, the lady gave us a receipt showing a $99 refund on our credit card for the deposit we paid when we signed up for the tour, then handed over 2 $50 Shell gasoline cards, a chit good for 2 tickets to the Comedy Club show at the Riviera, a chit good for 2 Tropicana buffet tickets, 6 chits each good for $100 in free pulls on the promotional slot machines at Casino Royale, & a chit good for renewal of our marriage vows at the Circus Circus wedding chapel.

After pocketing all those freebies, we went out & got on the Tahiti Village shuttle heading back to the hotel. Pretty soon other timeshare tour non-purchasers joined us, & we started chatting about timeshares as we waited for the van to fill up with passengers. We noticed some stretch limos picking up people at the main entrance of Tahiti Village. "Those are people who bought," 1 of the van passengers said. "They get to travel in style while the rest of us peons ride the bus."

"Pretty smart," The Chief Of Staff said. "Those new buyers get VIP treatment while riding in the limo & by keeping them out of the van, the sales people make sure they don’t hear any of us non-buyers talking about rescinding or buying timeshares resale."

The free comedy show at the Riviera was pretty good -- a little off-color, but not too raunchy. "Anybody lose any money?" the comic said.

"Yeah -- bigtime," a lady said.

"You lost bigtime? How much?"

"$80," the woman said. Everybody laughed.

"Listen, lady," the comic said, "there are people in this room right now who would give $300 to be down only $80. There are even people who would pay $3,000 to be down only $80."

Bargain hunters that we are, we got our non-free show tickets at those half-price booths along The Strip. We saw “Barbra & Frank: The Concert That Never Was” at the Riviera, featuring amazingly talented singers impersonating Barbra Streisand & Frank Sinatra. Then we took in a performance by The Scintas at the Sahara -- good show & great talent pretty much ruined by sound amplification that was cranked up to the pain threshold. It would have been twice as good if it had been half as loud.

The Tropicana buffet was OK -- I liked it better than The Chief Of Staff did. The most delicious meal we ate was also the biggest bargain -- $4.95 steak dinner at Ellis Island, No. 1 on the Las Vegas Top 10 Values list. We didn’t check out everything on the Top 10, but we did have the 99¢ shrimp cocktail at the Golden Gate & the $2.49 ham & eggs at Arizona Charlie's -- yum. We were going to eat the $6.99 prime rib dinner at the California downtown, but went for the equivalent at the Sahara instead -- signed up for their slots club to get their $6.99 prime rib dinner & got $10 (each) in free slot machine pulls. (With those, I won $11 & The Chief Of Staff won $8. Call us Low Rollers.)

Our $600 in free slot pulls at the Casino Royale did not amount to much. They only work in certain “promotional” machines, & those pay out real money only on the big jackpots -- $500 & up. For lesser winning combinations, all you get are more free pulls -- 1 or 2 or 10 or 20 or 40 or 50 or 100 extra free tries. Lots of free pulls, but zero money. The attendant claimed that sometimes people do win jackpots on the promotional machines, but none of those paid off for anybody while we were there.

We did not try to redouble our timeshare tour freebies beyond the “compound freebies” we were already enjoying. Tahiti Village tour headhunters are all over the city, inside hotel lobbies, outside on the sidewalks, & just about everywhere. We were approached by a TrendWest headhunter & we saw a FairField sign-up booth as we strolled through a lobby somewhere, but at the time we lacked the energy for another tour. The Tahiti Village resort promotes itself as being “on The Strip.” But it’s so far down the south end of Las Vegas Boulevard that I'm guessing it will be some time before any big hotels or casinos get built right in the vicinity. Still, the resort is extremely pleasant in appearance -- reminded us in unit layout & amenities of Vacation Village At Parkway in Orlando FL. Wouldn’t want to buy at full freight, but would enjoy going there on exchange. Unfortunately for us, Tahiti Village exchanges through I-I & The Chief Of Staff & I are strictly RCI. So it goes.

Based on the hoops we jumped through to get our free Spirit Incentives trip to Las Vegas -- & to get that trip to coincide with our Tahiti Village timeshare tour trip -- we are not inclined to be much influenced by any future offers we might receive to attend sales pitches in exchange for more free Spirit Incentives air fare & accommodations. Rather, next time we feel like vacationing in Las Vegas, we’re more apt to go for an RCI timeshare exchange & buy our own airline tickets out & back.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

mishugana · Sep 23, 2006

Where was the Trendwest Headhunter?

AwayWeGo · Sep 23, 2006

On The Strip Somewhere, But Not Exactly Sure Where.

mishugana said:
Where was the Trendwest Headhunter?

I took note that they were promoting TrendWest, but I didn't pay much attention to exactly where we were when we saw those particular tour headhunters, who were vastly outnumbered by Tahiti Village timeshare tour promoters all over town.

It had to be on The Strip somewhere, or possibly Downtown. About the only other places we went were the supermarket, a clothing store, In & Out Burger, Arizona Charlie's, Rio, Ellis Island, & the airport.

In addition to seeing lots & lots of Consolidated & Tahiti Village vans parked & in motion, I did see 1 van marked TrendWest in traffic along The Strip.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

Cat · Sep 28, 2006

Nicely done!:whoopie:

AwayWeGo · Sep 19, 2011

Back To Las Vegas Next Month.

AwayWeGo said:
If you don't hear from The Chief Of Staff & me for a week or so, that doesn't mean we have gone underground or been abducted. We're just going to Las Vegas for some frivolity -- leaving Sept. 11 & coming back Sept. 16.

That was 5 years ago. Time now to go back.

This time we're buying our own airplane tickets & making our own resort reservation (Grandview At Las Vegas, RCI Last Call) for a Las Vegas vacation October 9-15, 2011.

Not attempting compound freebies this time.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

Dori · Sep 19, 2011

Alan, we will just miss you. We are checking in on the 15th-22nd. We have partial freebies for this trip. My flight is free on SW (a Rapid Reward ), and we are doing a 2-day side trip to Sedona Summit, compliments of Diamond Resorts. We did a presentation with them at Polo Towers last year, and got a free travel certificate from them. We used it to book Sedona.

Have a great time! The Grandview is very nice.

Dori

Passepartout · Sep 19, 2011

Take your electric computer along. Free Wi-Fi at Grandview (or they have some free-to-use terminals in the lobby). If DW didn't have a concert to play that Sunday and we are leaving for Europe a little later we'd consider motoring down for a couple of days. Have a wonderful desert vacation. (Go to Blue Man Group if you can- it's almost indescribable)

Jim

BevL · Sep 19, 2011

Passepartout said:
Take your electric computer along. Free Wi-Fi at Grandview (or they have some free-to-use terminals in the lobby). If DW didn't have a concert to play that Sunday and we are leaving for Europe a little later we'd consider motoring down for a couple of days. Have a wonderful desert vacation. (Go to Blue Man Group if you can- it's almost indescribable)

Jim

THe Grandview charges for internet - $10 a day or so when we were there in May. They do have a computer room with about six or eight computers in the reception area.

Passepartout · Sep 19, 2011

BevL said:
THe Grandview charges for internet - $10 a day or so when we were there in May. They do have a computer room with about six or eight computers in the reception area.

I recall that it was free the last time we were there, but perhaps I was mistaken. Could be I paid for a few days Wi-Fi and it slipped my mind. Wouldn't be the first time. Sorry for any confusion.

Jim

Dori · Sep 20, 2011

I also think they charge for WiFi connection. We were with friends (actually stayed at the same time as Bev!), so I didn't take my computer. Hopefully they have free connection in the lobby.

Dori

AwayWeGo · Sep 20, 2011

Free Wi-Fi Is Mox Nix.

We carry our own little wi-fi hotspot along with us in the form of a (pardon the expression) "app" on our teeny-tiny Palm Pixi cell phone.

Any place we have cell phone service, we have wi-fi internet. We turn that on, open up the portable computer, & -- WHAP ! -- we're on line.

Works great.

Data plan is not unlimited, but the limit is large enough that we've never bumped into it.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

AwayWeGo · Sep 23, 2011

Las Vegas Timeshare Tour Headhunters.

Are there particular places in Las Vegas we should avoid if we don't want to encounter the timeshare tour headhunters ?

Putting it another way, are there places we should be sure to go if we want to sign up for Las Vegas timeshare tours (just for the freebies) ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

Rene McDaniel · Sep 24, 2011

AwayWeGo said:
We carry our own little wi-fi hotspot along with us in the form of a (pardon the expression) "app" on our teeny-tiny Palm Pixi cell phone. Any place we have cell phone service, we have wi-fi internet. We turn that on, open up the portable computer, & -- WHAP ! -- we're on line. Works great.

Data plan is not unlimited, but the limit is large enough that we've never bumped into it.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

Alan,

I've heard of people doing that? But how would I get something like that to work? We have Virgin Mobile cell phones. I don't have a data plan on mine, I have the el-cheapo plan and just pay 20 cents for a text or 1-minute call, and I spend all of maybe 10 bucks a month.

But my teenage daughter is on Virgin Mobile's unlimited text & data + 300 phone minutes $35/mo. plan. She recently bought a used Ipad 1 from her friend for $200 bucks. so it would be nice if she could do all that sych-up stuff for the times where she is someplace with no WiFi, but has cell phone service. Especially since we are already paying for unlimited data on her phone.

What app would she need, and where would we find it? Then, what do you do after that?

Thanks much!
--- Rene

timeos2 · Sep 24, 2011

Rene McDaniel said:
Alan,

I've heard of people doing that? But how would I get something like that to work? We have Virgin Mobile cell phones. I don't have a data plan on mine, I have the el-cheapo plan and just pay 20 cents for a text or 1-minute call, and I spend all of maybe 10 bucks a month.

But my teenage daughter is on Virgin Mobile's unlimited text & data + 300 phone minutes $35/mo. plan. She recently bought a used Ipad 1 from her friend for $200 bucks. so it would be nice if she could do all that sych-up stuff for the times where she is someplace with no WiFi, but has cell phone service. Especially since we are already paying for unlimited data on her phone.

What app would she need, and where would we find it? Then, what do you do after that?

Thanks much!
--- Rene

You should have the choice embedded on the phone or you need to get a "tethering" app for the PHONE to make it work.

Most newer smart phones have it as a menu choice (Mobile Hot Spot) but many providers charge for the use of it. One exception is the Pre+ on Verizon that has a free hot spot with it's data plan. But that is unique to that specific phone - otherwise you pay $20/$30 or more for the service per month or a usually rather steep rate per MB if they allow that.

The big advantage is, as Alan says, once you have it you don't need a WiFi hotspot - you just use your phone to create one of your own virtually anywhere you may be. Very nice service.

AwayWeGo · Sep 24, 2011

Don't Try To Call Me. I'll Try To Call You.

Rene McDaniel said:
But how would I get something like that to work?

Good thing timeos2 knows the answer, because I don't.

Our cell phone with built-in wi-fi is just an extra line our on son's & daughter-in-law's Verizon Wireless account. They got us the Palm Pixi & showed us how to make it work.

So far, so good.

Meanwhile, our regular, plain vanilla Verizon home phone is out once again -- the 3rd time in the past few weeks.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

AwayWeGo · Oct 28, 2011

Compound Freebies Not Attempted This Time.

AwayWeGo said:
Not attempting compound freebies this time.

Check-in at the Grandview involved the superfluous step of sending us over to the timeshare tour recruiters for our parking permit.

We gave in right away & signed up for lunch (South Point buffet) plus sales pitch for the offered reward of $100 cash or discounted show tickets.

Sales pitch was drawn out but not excessively high pressure. For our time & attention we got 2 tickets to Terry Fator's outstanding music & comedy show at the Mirage for $10 apiece. (Our seats were dead-center in the very back row, but we could see & hear everything OK.)

We went to great shows every night – Rita Rudner, Penn & Teller, Las Vegas Divas female celebrity impersonators, & Jay Leno.

Other than the timeshare tour freebie tickets, we got discounts at those Tix-4-Tonite kiosks, which sell off-price vouchers that have to be exchanged for real tickets at the various show box offices. All the shows were great & Terry Fator's was the best we saw all week.

We lost $2 in the slot machines at Rio -- after being ahead 75¢ at 1 point. So it goes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

Karen G · Oct 28, 2011

Alan, sounds like you had a great trip. You got to see some fun shows.
Glad it all worked out so well for you.

timeos2 · Oct 28, 2011

Rene McDaniel said:
Alan,

I've heard of people doing that? But how would I get something like that to work? We have Virgin Mobile cell phones. I don't have a data plan on mine, I have the el-cheapo plan and just pay 20 cents for a text or 1-minute call, and I spend all of maybe 10 bucks a month.

But my teenage daughter is on Virgin Mobile's unlimited text & data + 300 phone minutes $35/mo. plan. She recently bought a used Ipad 1 from her friend for $200 bucks. so it would be nice if she could do all that sych-up stuff for the times where she is someplace with no WiFi, but has cell phone service. Especially since we are already paying for unlimited data on her phone.

What app would she need, and where would we find it? Then, what do you do after that?

Thanks much!
--- Rene

Sorry for the late answer. Look on the web for a VM tether app/cable or an app to turn on any "hot spot" function your phone may have. The tether is the more likely one you'll find. For most capable phones you'll find two or more choices for under $30. Some are even free.

[2006] Compound Freebies

AwayWeGo

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Jestjoan

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mishugana

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Cat

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