The Lucky Donut

Two years ago, Virgin Trains sent me an unexpected Christmas gift: port, cheese, biscuits and mince pies.

Last year, it was just the port and cheese.

Today I got another parcel.  This time it's just half a bottle of wine and a corkscrew that looks a bit like a parrot. 

I don't like moaning about free stuff, but if you're going to make cutbacks like this just send me the bloody mince pies.

You'll have to excuse my ignorance about wine.  I never drink it, so I don't need to know anything about it.

But I did a little research and apparently Sauternes is usually sold in half bottles because it can be difficult to find the half-rotten grapes that it's made from.

Sounds lovely.

I'll either mix it with lemonade or use it for cooking.

If you're looking for some gambling toys to give the kids this Christmas, head down to Macro.

I saw these "Las Vegas" products in their store today among the 3ft boxes of washing powder and 12lb bags of nuts: slot machine, coin pusher and candy grabber.

Apart from the coin pusher and candy grabber, they are indeed all things you'd find in Las Vegas.

I've spent way too long looking at my web site stats.

Here's another top ten.  Not questions this time, just search terms that Google in their infinite wisdom decided to send my way.

As far as I can remember, I have never used any of these phrases as they appear below on my blog.

10. "if donuts could talk"

9. "vicky coren tits"

8. "pokerstars fucks people over"

7. "the gold coast casino makes the bands work a ridiculous 6 sets"

6. "games where you can be a donut"

5. "shit foam"

4. "spork funny pictures"

3. "doughnut disaster shirt"

2. "cinnabon tree"

1. "sims 2 i have looked in the trash and there are not any donuts"

Also an honourable mention goes to whoever searched for "puts baby in -corner" for its combination of randomness and advanced search term formation.  Indeed, if you don't exclude the word "corner" and just search for "puts baby in" all you get is quotes from Dirty Dancing.  But why?

***

I noticed that some of the Las Vegas hotels have published their Christmas Day menus now.

In fact, I've already found lots of places offering a special seasonal menu on the 25th.  Most of them even have turkey, which is cool because I didn't think turkey for Christmas was a big deal in America.

Most of these restaurants are in Harrah's casinos.  They seem to be on the ball with getting their menus out there, but it must help that everything is housed under one web site.  Whereas the MGM Mirage web sites are all over the place.  I found some info for the MGM Grand but nothing yet for any of their other properties.

The seletion at Paris is impressive.  Five different restaurants doing a Christmas menu (7 in total if you count the Paris/Bally's complex as a single property) and that even includes a choice of turkey burger or turkey sandwich at Burger Brasserie.  I have to admit I'm intrigued, but I was looking for something a little more traditional.

Bottom of the pile has to be the Christmas Day buffet at Imperial Palace.  The $16.99 price tag is a good indication not to expect much from this - that's still cheaper than a standard dinner buffet at all the other Harrah's casinos. 

Bally's: Al Dente Sidewalk Cafe

Caesars Palace: Augustus Cafe Neros

Flamingo: Garden Buffet Steakhouse 46 Tropical Breeze Cafe

Harrah's: Cafe Flavors Buffet The Range Steakhouse

Imperial Palace: Embers Emperor's Buffet Teahouse

MGM Grand: Nob Hill Wolfgang Puck's

Orleans: Canal Street Prime Rib Loft

Paris: Les Artistes Burger Brasserie Le Cafe Le Provencal Le Village Buffet

Rio: All American Bar & Grille Cafe Martorano's Carnival Buffet

This list serves as a reference for myself as much as anything (although the Crown and Anchor is currently first choice, it doesn't hurt to keep options open) but people may be seaching the net for "Las Vegas Christmas Dinner" and stumble on this.  I know I've done that search in the past and found very little so I hope it's useful.

I'll update the list as and when I find more info.

EDIT:

Crown and Anchor menu now online.

Go posh at Terrible's buffet.

I finally received a response from the Financial Ombudsman Service this morning about the fiasco I had trying to get a refund to my credit card after MaxJet went bust (which is now almost a year ago) and I had to rebook two flights to Las Vegas.

I'd paid on an MBNA credit card, and their position all along was that I couldn't have a refund until I'd actually been unable to travel as planned, despite the airline telling customers that they absolutely would not be flying.  In other words, I had to wait for each departure date to pass before I'd get my money back.

In this respect, MBNA were true to their word and did post the refunds shortly after the start of each trip.  However it meant I was waiting three months for some of it and seven months for the rest and as far as I could tell there was no legitimate reason for them not refunding immediately.

I'd read plenty of accounts online about other travellers getting their money back straight away from reputable banks - including those who had booked on a debit card, which does not carry the same level of consumer protection as a credit card.

So I was having none of it.  After I made an official complaint and MBNA stood firm, I took it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

FOS are slow.  I complained on March 10th, after which I had four separate letters telling me they were very busy and would look at my complaint eventually.  Which, eventually, turned out to be more than 7 months later.

I'd had all my money back in July but being the stubborn bastard that I am, I told FOS that I still wanted them to process the complaint.

I had also suggested that MBNA should still be liable for the difference in cost because of the more expensive flights I booked as an alternative under the Consumer Credit Act, which they have tried so hard to pretend doesn't apply to them.

It looks like it was worth the wait.  The FOS adjudicator has sided with the law, rather than MBNA's interpretation of "MasterCard guidelines".

Although they made an adjudication last month I only received a copy of it today because MBNA have (predictably) rejected this suggestion that they pay me money.  So it's now being referred to an actual ombudsman, rather than a henchman, who will make a legally-binding decision.

This could still take months, but I don't care.

It's super satisfying (assuming the ombudsman does reach the same conclusion) because if MBNA had simply given me a refund straight away (like they were meant to) I almost certainly wouldn't have bothered doing anything to recover the cost difference.

The adjudicator also decided I should have the amount rounded up by about £150 as compensation for having to wait for the refund.  Which is nice.

The only reason I still have this credit card is because I can earn BMI miles on everything I spend, but with the Lufthansa takeover looming and the possibilty of Diamond Club getting swallowed up by their programme as well as the cancellation of BMI's transatlantic flights next year, I'll probably be doing away with it soon.

Sadly, MBNA won't miss me as a customer.  I've never paid a penny of interest on that card.

Anyway, if you're interested in seeing what FOS had to say about these shenanigans, here are copies of the letter I had today and the adjudication sent to MBNA (click to enlarge).

I had a bit of a scan through this web site's usage stats to see how people are getting here from search engines. 

Many of the searches are phrased in the form of a question, or at least in a way that suggests they are looking for a specific answer.

So, for those visitors, just in case you didn't find what you were looking for I'd be happy to answer your questions. Here's the top ten, in no particular order probably.

10. "7/5 odds pay out on $1"

Let's start with an easy one.  $1.40, plus your $1 back.  Good luck on that dollar.

9. "how much is a cab ride from imperial palace to binions"

Bank on $20-25 depending on how generously you tip.  It's a 6 mile journey, which at $2.40 per mile and a $3.30 drop charge would be $17.70 on the meter, assuming you get green lights all the way.

8. "poker hands what is good"

Umm... a flush is pretty good but a full house is better.  Does that actually help?

7. "how far is harrah's rincon from the airport"

Assuming you mean San Diego airport, it's 47 miles by road which will take about an hour on a good run.  Oceanside airport is a little closer (33 miles) but you'd probably need a private jet to get there.

6. "neteller difference between prepaid card and net prepaid card"

God alone knows.  Neteller's card is touted as the prepaid card you don't have to load and I'm afraid I still haven't figured this out.  Use a real bank instead.

5. "i earned 250 base credits over the weekend at casino will i have cashback waiting for me"

Sounds like a Harrah's question if you're talking about base credits but I may be wrong.  Cashback doesn't wait for you, it comes in the mail.  You get a voucher which either has to be cashed at the cashier or inserted into a machine.  However, 250 base credits is nowhere near enough (you have to earn 4500 reward credits in a month) and you don't get any cash back from Las Vegas casinos any more.

4. "what is the least common demonitator of 18 and 27"

That's a fairly random maths question to somehow end up here looking for an answer.  Demonitator is my new favourite word, but ignoring the awesome typo the answer is 54.

3. "is there a way around being able to take money from my account and put it into a online poker site"

In most of the free world you can just use a debit card on your bank account, so it sounds like a USA-oriented question.  Post UIGEA, you'll have to slip some money to a dude at your local cardroom who says he can make it happen and hope that he remembers your screen name correctly.

2. "what if i charge 3000 dollars on my credit card and say it wasnt me"

It's a coinflip: either free money or prison.

And finally, I'm just going to file this one under rhetorical questions.  It's depressing enough that Google thought I might have an answer.

1. "why do children like violence"

You're all very welcome.