What’s the Difference Between Tier Status and Tier Credits?

Whenever a tier cycle resets, inevitably I see posts around various slot forums about the loss of tier credits. This was particularly enhanced by the changes announced in 2020 by the various casino companies for 2021, where they promised that tier status would be extended through 2021.

That didn’t stop some players from posting about how they were about to tier up, and yet saw all their tier credits disappear, and that the companies promised they’d keep their tier credits. Sorry to say, they didn’t.

I also received a number of emails to here at the site complaining that I took away their tier credits and promised they wouldn’t expire until the end of 2021. Sorry, but I don’t have that power, and I don’t work for any of the casino companies.

But I thought that it was as good a time as any to review two slot players club concepts, how they differ, and how they relate.

Tier Status is the tier you earn from playing games or spending money in the casino. A tier status, once earned, is kept for the remainder of the existing tier cycle, as well as the complete tier cycle that follows.

Let’s say you reached Diamond status during 2020 with Caesars, whose tier cycle works on a standard calendar year. You’d not only have Diamond for the remainder of 2020 once earned, but you’d also get to enjoy the benefits of Diamond throughout 2021.

Now let’s say during 2021 you didn’t earn to Diamond level again, but only enough for Platinum. For 2022, you’d get Platinum status, with its benefits. But, if you earned enough in 2022 to regain Diamond, you’d immediately be upgraded again, and keep it for the rest of 2022 AND all of 2023.

Tier Credits are the scorecard that determines what status you earn. Tier credits have no inherent value, like comps or the status itself do, but instead keep track of where you are towards earning, increasing, or renewing a tier. They will reset at the end of a tier cycle, putting all players back to 0.

In the case of the example above, Caesars has a calendar year tier credits earning cycle. So on January 1 each year, the tier credit balance is reset to 0. In the case of them extending status through 2021, this effectively gave players who were unable or unwilling to visit casinos in 2020 a pass on having to re-earn their tiers, and in essence an extra year to enjoy their tier status.

Many other casino companies did some similar sort of tier status extensions, giving players their tier status for an additional period of time. Many also reduced the tier goals by some percentage to give other players a chance to tier up. But in every case, the tier credit count still reset at the start of a new tier cycle.