Originally Posted by
RichMSN
Thanks. Something I didn't know.
I PMed William and he's going to help me out. Thanks, William.
So I booked the Harbor Corner View room for 363 NZD a night. Includes lounge privileges, which is nice since I'll only be a Gold then.
I just did a search in the FAQ and found out that Cash+Points stays do not earn stay credit (for another stay I'm planning in Sydney), so I'll have to use points for one night and pay for the other, I suppose. Great stuff here.
--Rich
This has truly been awful, so far.
I checked in, was given my rate, verified I had an SPG50 stay for $363 NZD / night, went to my room, and the Harbour Corner room had been transformed to a Deluxe Terrace room (which I later found was an "upgrade."
It took the better part of an hour and I had to show the night manager the confirmation on my computer so he would believe I booked that room (I actually had to log in to their wireless internet to get the email confirmation, which tells me I should really go back to my old habit of printing confirmations). I tried to impress on him that nobody would book a rack rate $725 regular room and use an SPG50 when you can get a regular room for less than that (or about the same price) and that we had come a long way to be in that Harbour Corner room. It was a special treat I had planned for my wife. Of course he said it was booked and occupied.
Finally, he admitted that it was only booked tomorrow night and he upgraded the OTHER guest to the Presidential Suite after offering it to me for mucho bucks (which I found to be somewhat insulting - the offering it to me for money part, not that he didn't upgrade us to the room) and he put me in the room I had actually booked.
And all this helpfulness didn't come about until I started talking about changing hotels after tonight. I'll pay $363 for a regular room one night, mainly because it's midnight and I'm tired from a long day of travel, but not for 2 nights.
Nothing but an apology. No offer of breakfast or Starpoints or anything. And instead of being in my room at 11:30PM, it was almost 12:15AM before we got settled in.
I sure hope I have a better day tomorrow.