Founders Card kills Caesars Diamond benefit

[Dan Druff]

The Founders Card is a pretentious club which purports to be, "A Membership community of over 100,000 entrepreneurs and business executives who receive unprecedented benefits and networking opportunities."

It is not a credit card, despite its name.

Despite all of its lofty promises and supposed exclusive status, the main perk people sign up for is automatic Caesars Diamond status.

This has been offered for many years as a perk of the card. The price of the card varies. Regular price is $595 per year, plus a $95 "initiation fee". However, there are various ways in for cheaper, especially for existing members who often get offered to renew for less. Some get it for as low as $195. There used to be a trick where you could do a "free preview" of the card (which did NOT come with Caesars Diamond), and then ghost them when the preview was up, and they came running to you with a lower price. However, as far as I know, that stopped working in 2022. I'll get to the reason shortly.

The problem is that there's an approval process.

Because it's supposedly a club for entrepreneurs, you have to meet their "standards" for membership. If you're just a regular working guy -- even if you have a very good job -- they will reject you.

I applied for it in 2022. I claimed I was both a pro poker player and owner of several gambling-related websites. I did not mention that the websites made no money.

This seemed good enough to meet their standards, as they claimed to be looking for "unique" individuals with unique professions. Unfortunately, I applied right as the easy Wyndham status match to Diamond was eliminated, so they got inundated with people who wanted to sign up.

I got jerked around for like 2 months. They weren't accepting me or rejecting me, and just kept telling me to wait, with no timetable as to when they'd get to my application. I was getting sick of it, and was just going to earn Diamond the old fashioned way (by playing video poker) if I couldn't get an answer. They kept promising "any day now" I should get an answer. But week after week, nobody responded.

Finally I escalated the matter, and still no response. I tried one final time to re-escalate. After still not hearing anything, I called back one final time to check, and found out I was...




I called and asked why. They wouldn't tell me, but only stated they decided to decline my membership. I think it was because I had a "friends" offer from another PFA member for $399 and the initiation fee waived, so they said fuck it, we don't need this guy for $399 if there's a bunch of chumps willing to pay $690. I have no idea why they limit the number of memberships. I think it's about pretension.

Anyway, I said fuck them and found another way into cheap Caesars Diamond.


Looks like I made a good decision, because starting this year, the Founders Card / Caesars match is going away.

Read on...

[Dan Druff]

According to a Reddit user, he noticed that his Caesars Diamond was not renewed on February 2nd, as it had in other years.

He then saw a message on their website, "For current active FoundersCard Members in good standing, accounts should be updated and extended to 2025 by February 2, 2024. If your account is not extended by that date, please email us."

He emailed them and got quoted a timeline of early March, which surprised him, as that seemed excessive.

He then noticed the perk vanished from the website entirely. He inquired about this, and got the runaround. This is very believable, because my dealings with their customer service were full of cluelessness.

Sure enough, he was finally told by a Founders rep that the perk was gone:

I'm sorry to report that the Caesars benefit is no longer active unfortunately. We have just removed it from our site, and we are actively working on a replacement for this benefit. I'm so sorry for any disappointment. We have been working with Caesars for about a decade so this was not expected, otherwise we wouldn't have told you just a few days ago that we could get your status corrected

We do have about 500 other benefits of Membership as well that I hope you will take advantage of.

If you have any other questions about this please don't hesitate to let me know.

What if your benefit is already in process of upgrading?

According to this guy, Founders is going to "try" to process those who requested it in the first week of February via email, but this may or may not work.

Those who did not request the upgrade, or those who are new members, will not get the Caesars Diamond perk ever again.


What if you got the benefit already? Then you're highly likely to keep it for 2024, but it will be gone on 2/1/25.


It is not clear what happened here. I am not sure if the Caesars Diamond match was a marketing partnership, or if Founders was paying Caesars something. I have a feeling it was a marketing partnership, and Caesars was paying zero. If that's true, perhaps Caesars audited this partnership in early 2024, and realized it wasn't returning them much (or anything), which would make sense because those wanting cheap Diamond aren't likely to gamble a lot.

Anyway, it's over.

[nolawojy]

What was your "cheap way" of getting diamond? I earned diamond plus and mgm gold 2 years ago when I was gambling like a massive degenerate and was bummed when the wyndham carousel disappeared. I only gamble on dk sportsbook now so there's no way i can earn diamond plus or mgm gold. Its too costly. I was thinking about trying the founders card because I have a referral rate for 395. Im glad I saw this post.

[Bilbodoggins]

I explored Founders Club a few years ago but then I tried the status matching route which worked like a charm so I gave up on Founders. Since I didn't continue with my application, after a few weeks they offered me membership for $299 (I think). After my Diamond status ran out I never tried again. I only play poker so none of the slot machine methods have any meaning for me. I just checked resort fees at the Rio. $45/night, yikes! Don't know what the other hotels are getting, but I might just get a VBRO for me, wife, kids and siblings for a couple of weeks.

[Dan Druff]

What was your "cheap way" of getting diamond? I earned diamond plus and mgm gold 2 years ago when I was gambling like a massive degenerate and was bummed when the wyndham carousel disappeared. I only gamble on dk sportsbook now so there's no way i can earn diamond plus or mgm gold. Its too costly. I was thinking about trying the founders card because I have a referral rate for 395. Im glad I saw this post.

If you have a business TIN, you can apply for the Wyndham Business Earner card.

However, that window may be closing as well. Some are reporting it is taking a long time to get matched, though as of 2 weeks ago, I know 100% they were processing these matches, and just claiming to be backed up.

It costs $95 in annual fees, so way cheaper than Founders. You do have to manually reapply for the match each time, including the first year. Also, getting the card approved can be a tremendous pain in the ass (for some it's instant though).

If you don't have a business TIN, though, you can't use this method.

[nolawojy]

What was your "cheap way" of getting diamond? I earned diamond plus and mgm gold 2 years ago when I was gambling like a massive degenerate and was bummed when the wyndham carousel disappeared. I only gamble on dk sportsbook now so there's no way i can earn diamond plus or mgm gold. Its too costly. I was thinking about trying the founders card because I have a referral rate for 395. Im glad I saw this post.

If you have a business TIN, you can apply for the Wyndham Business Earner card.

However, that window may be closing as well. Some are reporting it is taking a long time to get matched, though as of 2 weeks ago, I know 100% they were processing these matches, and just claiming to be backed up.

It costs $95 in annual fees, so way cheaper than Founders. You do have to manually reapply for the match each time, including the first year. Also, getting the card approved can be a tremendous pain in the ass (for some it's instant though).

If you don't have a business TIN, though, you can't use this method.

Ok yeah that was the only way I knew. Unfortunately my credit is in the toilet so that wouldn't work. Thanks.

[tigerpiper]

Very interesting. I do have that credit card and can report a much longer delay than usual (i.e. the last 5 years) on my match. I think I applied on 2/1 and still have no match.

Good to know its going through tho.

I haven't been playing a lot of poker, but when I do, I do not want to be in line with a bunch of unwashed degens.

[Dan Druff]

Very interesting. I do have that credit card and can report a much longer delay than usual (i.e. the last 5 years) on my match. I think I applied on 2/1 and still have no match.

Good to know its going through tho.

I haven't been playing a lot of poker, but when I do, I do not want to be in line with a bunch of unwashed degens.

Well, not so fast.

While it went through for some people in early February, it seems like it might be "stuck" -- similar to how Founders Card was, before they killed the Diamond match.

Try calling the Wyndham Diamond line at 866-443-6181. Ask for a US based rep.

Then ask them to expedite your status match, and note that you applied for it on 2/1, and it's been 3 weeks. Let me know what they say.

[tigerpiper]

Thanks Druff. I called and they said they had already sent my status to Caesars but would send it again. It might take 14 business days. So funny. 14 business days? People either say 10 business days or 14 days or 2 weeks, wtf is 14 business days?

Anyway very helpful. From this call, there was no indication the credit card status matching is cut off.

[Dan Druff]

Thanks Druff. I called and they said they had already sent my status to Caesars but would send it again. It might take 14 business days. So funny. 14 business days? People either say 10 business days or 14 days or 2 weeks, wtf is 14 business days?

Anyway very helpful. From this call, there was no indication the credit card status matching is cut off.

Then I have another number for you.

(877) 716-4500

Follow the prompts to get to "Caesars Rewards" (NOT the credit card, though). You might get a message that it's transferring you to room reservations, but just ignore that.

To speed up getting to a human being, press option 3, and then 7. (Last I checked, these were the options)

You will eventually reach a person working at the "Total Service Central Team", which is a Las Vegas based employee who has both knowledge and authority to help you. If you are having Caesars Rewards related issues, that's who to call.

The only downside? Laughably bad hours. They're open from 8am-1pm, Monday-Friday, Pacific time.

This isn't a "new" number, but rather a way I discovered years ago to get answers for Caesars Rewards related problems, and almost nobody knows about it.

Ask them if they've received the Wyndham Status Match for you, and ask if they can expedite processing of it for you, if they have.

[Dan Druff]

Any update?

I'm fearing that perhaps the matching cutoff occurred on Caesars' end, and perhaps it happened in early February.

That would explain certain people getting the Founders match for 2024, but most others being delayed at first, and then denied.

Caesars might be reevaluating these partnerships, and trashing them all.

[tigerpiper]

Update is I got upgraded to Diamond. I did not call that number, but I appreciate you giving it to me.

I used to play a lot more, and jumping the list was very important. Last time I played (not Diamond upgraded this year), the staff had me as Diamond anyway because of muscle memory or maybe because I'm such a great guy.

This will help for sure, though, when I go to Vegas where people think I'm an ass.

Thanks, Druff.

This is the Wyndham Barclays Business card, to confirm. Still works to match Diamond at Caesars. Costs $100/year but you get the dinner at Caesars and a bunch of points so I know its plussybee even without no resort fees etc.

Byyyeeeeee!

[tigerpiper]

https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/wyndha...aesars-rewards

It seems they killed the program.

"Please note: Beginning February 1, 2025, Wyndham Rewards Platinum and Diamond members may match to Caesars Rewards only if they earned their Level by staying the necessary number of hotel nights with Wyndham. (Wyndham Rewards Platinum or Diamond members who acquired their Level solely from being a Wyndham Rewards credit cardholder will no longer be eligible to status match.)"

Coincidentally, I cancelled the card yesterday because I don't play much poker anymore and didn't want to pay the annual fee. But they'd killed the benefit anyway.

Oh well. Nice while it lasted.