A Look at the Total Rewards Great Gift Wrap Up

The Great Gift Wrap Up is an event hosted by Caesars Entertainment through their Total Rewards program. It is an event that they use to provide additional rewards to members for gambling activity throughout the course of almost the entire year. Anyone that is a member of the Total Rewards program can participate and earn Gift Points, and the best part is that there is nothing specific that a user has to do to sign up. All they have to do to begin accumulating Gift Points is to gamble at one of the properties participating in the program.

Points are earned above and beyond the standard Reward Credits and Tier Credits that members already earn. And the rate they are earned at is approximately 1 Gift Point for every 1 Reward Credit earned between January 1, 6:00 AM PST 2015 and the close of the last day of the last redemption event that is held. This year, that end date was December 6, 8:00 PM PST. These Gift Points are earned for any tracked gaming activity, such as slots, video poker machines, table games, poker, and the race & sports book. The properties that were participating in the event included all the Caesars properties in Las Vegas, as well as some of the other Harrah’s named properties, such as Southern California, Ak-Chin, Reno, Laughlin, and Tahoe.

Escalators up
The end of year redemption event is held all the way up in the Palace Ballroom

While I have only participated within the last several years, Total Rewards has been running this event for ten consecutive years, and it seems very well liked by members. Others I talked to at the event, as well as some of the people working the event, all stated that it was very popular among members with many people coming and participating each year.

Something that Total Rewards does that probably helps the event’s popularity is host five events during the year that count as boosters. These events mean that simply for showing up to Vegas, you will get a certain number of additional Gift Points, usually 5-7,000. In addition to that, if one earns enough tier credits during that trip to pass certain thresholds, the amount of Gift Points that are gained will increase by anywhere from a couple thousand to doubling. In addition, if a player attends more than one of these events, they are rewarded with even more Gift Points for each additional event they attend, starting with 25,000 all the way up to 100,000. These are all in addition to the Gift Points the player will earn just from gambling at the specified properties during their trip.

Beyond that, individual casinos will sometimes host their own boosters for Gift Points. These tend to be smaller in scale than the Las Vegas-wide booster events, but they are still a good deal for the player if they frequent those casinos anyway.

Pre-entrance calculators
Before one enters, there are machines to check your current point balance and calculators that one can take for their shopping

At the end of the year, there are there are two events that are hosted at Caesars properties where one can spend the points that they have accumulated throughout the year.  This year, these events were held at Paris, from November 5th – 9th, and at Caesars from December 2nd – 6th. Both events are the same, simply a chance for anyone with points to make their selections regarding how to spend them.

In my experience, the earlier event is typically at Paris, while the later date is always at Caesars. I’ve only ever attended the events at Caesars, and the setup there is done very well. It takes up the whole ballroom that it is assigned too, and the space is filled with many different kinds of gifts, organized by their overall category.

Ballroom entry
The view immediately upon entering the ballroom

 

Ballroom overview
The view to the right immediately upon entering the ballroom

There are housewares.

wrapup-housewares

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Different kinds of computers, tablets, and game consoles.

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TVs, monitors, cameras, and other electronics.

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There are many more categories, such as toys, outdoor and fitness equipment, jewelry, luggage, and purses. There was even a Bose section that was isolated and geared towards home theater elements. I took pictures of many of them which can be seen in the gallery below. As one is looking at all these gifts, there are cards assigned to each one, usually right next to the item, or grouped together by category. These cards provide the specific details of the gift, as well as its cost in Gift Points.

I found it very easy to walk around, peruse all the different items, and simply pick up cards that I felt could potentially be part of my order. Within each section there were many helpful attendants there to answer any questions that people had, demonstrate or talk about a given item, or even simply just provide some holiday greetings and conversation.

A close up of the Xbox One display and its card
A close up of the Xbox One display and its card

There was a designated section of lower Gift Point cost items that was called Point Burners. These were designed for using up some extra points that may be left over after making the other larger cost selections. Alternatively, if someone had a smaller point allocation, or if they simply liked the options in this section better, they could conceivably spend all of their gift points on these items. This section included an array of gift cards from many different vendors, Shell, Starbucks, Home Depot, just to name a few. The amounts ranged from $10 up to $100. There were also many kinds of simple utility items such as wallets, sunglasses, water bottles, board games, and various other items that would make nice simple gifts.

Some of the point burner gifts
Some of the point burner gifts

Caesars also does a nice job of providing ample places to sit and do some calculations or make decisions regarding their gift choices. There are some areas designated for this, as well as many other areas where some hi-top tables are in place for someone to be able to quickly organize or use a calculator. Additionally, they provide some refreshments, Godiva-flavored coffee, and hot cocoa, as well as access to water and lemonade. Sometimes there are even some free shots of a chocolate or peppermint liquor provided, as well as access to beer and some snacks or hors d’oeuvres.

wrapup-hot-cocoa

When all the browsing and decision making is done, Total Rewards does another good job with its organization of how to handle the checkout process. In a separate room, attached to the main ballroom, there are many stands set up with attendants that are ready to take your final order. The process is very well organized, the attendants simply take your cards, scan them in, and ask you where you want them shipped. It is possible to have different items shipped to different addresses, which is a nice benefit, and none of this costs any extra fee.

A distance shot of some of the many checkout stands, as well as where the line is organized
A distance shot of some of the many checkout stands, as well as where the line is organized

Hard copies are printed out to confirm your order and the shipping address, and then you are sent on your way with a Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings. Overall, it is a very well run and well-organized event. The value, in terms of points to dollars, is somewhat dubious, coming in at about 350 points to a dollar at the lower valued items and getting to about 300 points to a dollar at the higher levels.

This is not something that I would recommend as a goal or reason to be gambling, however as an added benefit that a player can take advantage of based off gambling that they would already be doing anyway, it is a very nice program. Especially if a player can make it to one or two of the booster events during the course of the year.

Seasons Greetings from the Great Gift Wrap Up
Seasons Greetings from the Great Gift Wrap Up

[Images: gennadius]

2 thoughts on “A Look at the Total Rewards Great Gift Wrap Up

  1. I never knew about this and never really thought about the gift points factor of my Total Rewards card. Sometimes I think I learn more about Vegas from blogs like this compared to actually being there!

    1. Glad to hear it was of use! If you have any other questions, please just let me know. Hopefully we can continue to bring you more useful information!

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