Free stay at Conrad Las Vegas / Resorts World via Ocean Prime status match

I’ve written numerous times about the free cruises one can get through casino status matching, but this week I finally got a chance to put another match benefit to use and I’m pretty excited about it: with my Ocean Prime status (which can be had by starting with a credit card and matching around a bit in Atlantic City), I was able to book two free nights at Conrad Las Vegas, which is going to be a fantastic deal.

Ocean Prime Complimentary Resorts World Las Vegas benefit

One of the benefits of Ocean Prime status since July 1, 2023 has been a complimentary two-night stay at Resorts World Las Vegas (prior to July 1st, the benefit offered two free nights at Wynn Las Vegas, but that partnership was replaced by the one with Resorts World). That fact has been included in my guide to how to get free cruises by gaming casino status matches since that change came about in July. However, if you hadn’t read that whole post, you might have missed what could be a valuable status match benefit.

Here are a few key details about this complimentary stay:

• You should be able to book this starting on the 15th of the month in the calendar month following the month in which you match to Ocean Prime
• Book by calling 702-676-7832
• You get a complimentary two-night stay at Resorts World. That complex houses three Hilton properties: Crockford’s (a Hilton LXR property), Conrad Las Vegas, and Hilton Las Vegas. According to Miles Talk, the complimentary stay can be at either Conrad Las Vegas or Hilton Las Vegas (not Crockfords)
• You additionally get a $100 dining credit. To use this, you must have the server deduct the $100 reward from your players club account (you can’t just charge the whole meal to your room). While people have been told that this must be used all at once, John in the comments reports being able to use it over multiple transactions and even in the food court via self-service.
• You additionally get a $100 “Free Play” credit
• There are no resort fees or taxes (the room cost is $0)
• If you link your Hilton Gold or Diamond number, I understand that you will also get your daily food & beverage credit ($25 per person for up to two people). Troy and John in the comments report being told that the casino offer is not eligible for the Hilton dining credit.
• The email confirmation noted that there would be an additional charge of $50 per person per night for more than two people in the room. In this case, we were booking for two people, so we did not have the circumstance to see whether that would be enforced for kids.
• You must book at least 72 hours in advance of the stay
• You must cancel no later than 48 hours prior to check-in day

Status matching to Ocean Prime status

Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, NJ has long been offering a status match to members of select other casino loyalty programs. Ocean’s “Prime” status is the highest status with a published tier requirement (each of the major casino loyalty programs additionally have some sort of invite-only tier).

For readers of this blog, here is your most likely path to match to Ocean Prime status:

• Get the Wyndham Earner Business credit card ($95 annual fee). One of the benefits of this card is complimentary Wyndham Diamond status (top-tier hotel elite status)
• Wyndham Rewards has a partnership with Caesars Rewards whereby Wyndham Diamond members can match to Caesars Diamond. See this post for more information. Match your Wyndham status to Caesars Diamond. Note that this process takes at least a week and Wyndham probably won’t help you unless at least two weeks have passed since your request, but sometimes this gets caught up and doesn’t happen as it should. See this post for a potential solution.
• Go to Atlantic City and print your Caesars Diamond card at Caesars Palace if you don’t already have the physical card.
• Go to Hard Rock Atlantic City and match Caesars Diamond status to Hard Rock Rock Royalty status at the Hard Rock players club desk. Note that I’m not sure whether Hard Rock Atlantic City has yet changed to the new unified Hard Rock loyalty program (if they have, this would be “Icon” status). Note that if you have MGM Gold, I believe that also still matches to Hard Rock Rock Royalty / Icon, though I don’t think there is any easy path to MGM Gold at the moment since the demise of the Hyatt partnership.
• Go to Ocean Casino & Resort and match Hard Rock Rock Royalty (or Icon) status to Ocean Prime. Note that the Hard Rock match is necessary — Caesars Diamond does not match to Ocean Prime, which is why you need to do the match at Hard Rock before heading to Ocean.
• Read more about my experience with all of the above in this post.

Once you have matched to Ocean Prime, you can begin booking benefits like the complimentary MSC cruise (up to 10 nights anywhere in the world) and complimentary Resorts World Las Vegas stay beginning on the 15th of the month following the calendar month in which you match. In other words, if you match any day in December, you can begin booking travel benefits on January 15th. If you match any time in January, you can begin booking travel benefits on February 15th, etc.

It is also worth knowing that Ocean Prime status runs through June 30th. If you match now, you’ll have status until June 30, 2024. Last year, Ocean automatically extended status for 1 additional year for anyone who matched from March 1st onward. If you haven’t yet done the Atlantic City matching, you may want to wait until March to get the ball rolling. Keep in mind though that benefits like the complimentary MSC cruise or Resorts World stay or even the status match itself could change or be removed at any time.

My experience booking a free Resorts World Las Vegas stay with Ocean Prime status

Earlier this week, I booked my stay (which will happen next year) at Conrad Las Vegas at Resorts World and I was very pleasantly surprised at how smooth the process was.

I called the phone number and explained that I have Ocean Prime status and understand that there is a complimentary room offer for Ocean Prime members. The agent took my Ocean Prime number and verified my name and then she verified that the offer was for two complimentary nights at Conrad with the dining and free play credits and no resort fees.

I inquired about a specific weekend, only half expecting this to work. Weekends in Las Vegas are always more expensive than weekdays and with the weekend I needed being a holiday weekend, I assumed I’d be subject to a blackout date or capacity limit or something.

As a point of comparison, the lowest Hilton Honors flexible cash rate for the Conrad Las Vegas came to $824.33 with taxes and resort fee for the same two nights.

However, much to my surprise, they had availability for the free room offer for Ocean Prime members and they offered me one king bed or two queen beds. The agent needed to collect some personal info in order to create a player account for me at Resorts World and I had to supply a credit card for the incidentals deposit, but overall the phone call was very quick and easy.

The phone agent pointed out that in order to use the dining credit, I should be very specific with the restaurant that they should charge $100 to my Genting Rewards (casino Players Club) account. She told me that sometimes the restaurant says they will just charge the meal to the guest room, but they need to specifically deduct the $100 from the players club card  in order to use the dining credit, so I’ll be extra careful to make sure that works properly. I don’t yet know for sure which restaurants will qualify for using the credit.

Additionally, the confirmation email mentions more than once that I can use the Hilton Honors app to skip the front desk and go straight to my front door.

With the Hilton Honors app, you can skip the front desk, go straight to your selected room, and unlock your door with just your phone.

That could be convenient because there is a new Hilton promotion out for stays during the first quarter of 2024 whereby you can earn 2,000 bonus points per stay and 500 additional bonus points for using digital key. Update: John in the comments reports not receiving any points for a past stay, so it sounds like that probably won’t pan out.

Sure enough, I was able to pop the first end of the long Resorts World confirmation number into the Hilton Honors app and it brought up my stay and associated it with my Hilton Honors account. I should note that the confirmation number in the email from Resorts World is really long — it has a hyphen in the middle. I just used the numbers from the beginning up to the hyphen and that appeared to be the correct Hilton confirmation number.

Within the app, under benefits, I see that I should be entitled to the $25 per person daily food & beverage credit, so I expect that we’ll get that in addition to the $100 dining credit associated with the Ocean Prime benefit.

That’s pretty cool, though I stayed at Conrad Las Vegas earlier this year and the Gold or Diamond member daily $25 food & beverage credit was only valid at a bar/restaurant on the casino floor called Dawg House that had a somewhat limited menu. The breakfast sandwiches at Eggs Up were far better than anything on the menu at that bar, but you couldn’t use the F&B credit for Eggs Up.

Still, I won’t complain too loudly over two free nights, a $100 free play, and $100 in dining credit. We actually need a third night in Las Vegas, so my wife has also booked a room (since she is also an Ocean Prime member), overlapping our stays and giving us an additional $100 free play, $100 dining credit, and the $25 per person in F&B credit.

At the very least, this is saving me four or five hundred bucks because I needed to be in Las Vegas on a specific weekend (that’s about the best I’d do with an on-strip property via Caesars Rewards over the weekend; unfortunately, the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts and The Hotel Collection options for Las Vegas are looking very thin in 2024). When you add in whatever value we get out of the Free Play and dining credits, this is a pretty sweet icing on the free cruise cake. We’ve also got a free European cruise booked for next summer via Ocean Prime, so we’re getting amazing value out of a status that can be had by starting with a $95 credit card.

Quick thoughts about Resorts World

My family actually stayed at both Conrad Las Vegas and Crockford’s earlier this year. First of all, we loved Resorts World. The casino is bright (in contrast to the trendy dark casinos with bright neon lights on the machines) and everything seemed really fresh. The location is at the far north end of The Strip, but I liked the place enough not to care much about its relative location compared to other places (and with Wynn/Encore across the street, you do have a couple of nice places in close proximity).

During our couple of weeks in Las Vegas earlier in 2023, we either stayed at or checked into (for mattress runs) the following casinos/resorts:

• Delano
• The Signature at MGM Grand
• MGM Grand
• ParkMGM
• Excalibur
• Luxor
• Treasure Island
• Crockford’s
• Conrad

Delano has long been our preferred property in Las Vegas, but our stay at Resorts World changed that. I intended to pay for a booking at Conrad Las Vegas for this coming trip until I remembered that Ocean Prime came with the free Resorts World stay benefit.

During our stays at both Conrad and Crockford’s at Resorts World earlier this year, we got upgraded to a 1-bedroom suite (at each property) and we actually preferred the Conrad Las Vegas despite the more exclusive feel of Crockford’s and the slightly more upscale fixtures (think more marble and gold plating in the bathroom and more gilded fixtures throughout the room). Our standard suite at Conrad was actually a bit bigger and the space was a bit more useful (for instance, the sofa was bigger and more easily accommodated everyone). We also got a much better view from our suite at Conrad Las Vegas (great view of the outdoor art installation and down the strip), so I am happy to return to Conrad Las Vegas. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t gladly stay at Crockford’s again, just that I preferred the Conrad hotel a bit.

I should note that the complimentary stay from Ocean Prime is only for a standard room and with my trip taking place on a weekend, I don’t expect a suite upgrade.

I’m sure I’ll report back on the free stay at Conrad Las Vegas after it happens, but in the meantime I wanted to alert readers who have done the Atlantic City match to the fact that this benefit is both easy to use and a great deal.

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