Business Platinum Card from American Express
130,000 MR points
I Pushed for Marriott Suite Upgrades for a Month
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Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card
- Earn 55,000 Bonvoy points upon spending $3,000 in the first three months
- Also, receive an annual Free Night Award worth 35,000 Bonvoy points starting in your second year with the card
- Also, receive 15 elite-qualifying nights every year and automatic Marriott Bonvoy Silver Elite status
- Bonus Bonvoy points for referring family and friends
- Annual fee: $120
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I’m sure you mentioned that you run a travel blog right? These guides aren’t realistic for regular customers. Would love to see screenshots to confirm that you just approached all as a “regular” customer since the other 99 times out of a 100 the stories online don’t match yours.
Of course I didn’t, that would defeat the purpose of this experiment. 99 times out of 100, people don’t ask for upgrades, and so mostly don’t get them.
Ricky, this is the most helpful suite upgrade guide I’ve found anywhere, just the information I was looking for! Just out of curiosity, do you think it mattered which room you booked originally? (i.e. do you think you would still have the same success getting upgraded to a suite if you had booked the cheapest available room instead of a mid-level room)?
I almost always book the cheapest available room, including in all of the examples shown here.
Expect an even more comprehensive suite upgrade guide coming soon.
Im a Marriott gold elite and have received suite upgrades many times (despite not being entitled to it) by using the chat feature as you mention in the article. Great article !!
What is the best way to accumulate hotel points now? Just through the amex bonvoy personal and business? You mentioned the personal bonvoy sign up bonus is YMMV now in a other post but is it the same for the business card?
The Business Bonvoy Card has been a bit more consistent when it comes to bonuses (knock on wood). It’s worth applying for both Bonvoy cards if you have the goal of earning hotel points. If you don’t end up receiving the WBs, it might be worth looking at US cards since it’ll be the first time holding one of them.
Business cards are fine so far. People mostly accumulate Bonvoy points through the signup bonuses and transferring over Cobalt points as well.
Your posts are my favourite weekend reads 🙂 Thank you for all the incredibly helpful tips!
I am a Hilton Honors guy and I wonder if I could do the same using the chat feature on the Hilton website… Ricky – do you have any experience with Hilton?
I completely agree with you Ricky. I have been doing the same thing for years. This year I have been upgraded on almost every stay and have scored some beautiful presidential suites.
Please don’t encourage Gold Elite members to ask for suites. It creates a huge headache for Marriott employees in dealing with these members. Hotels are currently having issues upgrading their top tier members.
I don’t see why Gold Elites shouldn’t ask nicely just to take a chance. If a hotel knows that higher-tier elite members will be arriving that night, I’d fully expect them to say no and block off the suites for Platinums and above. But what if the suites would sit empty otherwise? Then a Gold Elite member might receive a nice surprise by asking.
The problem is that it sets a precedence in the guest’s head. We have to deal with that on a daily basis. If a guest gets an upgrade he or she is not eligible for, chances are they will try to get it when they come back or go elsewhere. Most of the people that write these blogs don’t understand what we have to go through on a daily basis. Members should only be offered whatever benefits that com with their tier period. That way, expectations don’t start to derail and all is fair.
Understandable and I do respect the opinion from the other side.
I guess I’d advise my Gold Elite readers that it never does hurt to ask, but that they indeed aren’t entitled to suite upgrades as part of the advertised benefits. And if you do care about making the hotel management’s lives easier, then maybe consider holding your tongue.
As a lowly Gold member, I’m fine with the hotel telling me that I’m only a Gold member and as per the benefits, I would not be eligible for a complementary upgrade. But I’m sure there are Gold members that will argue for an upgrade, even without reading travel blogs.
Last April, I did get upgraded at the JW Marriott Singapore South Beach, even though I am a Gold member. First I booked 2 nights ( Deluxe room) with Marriott Reward point saver, 45K/night, (prior to March 5, 2019). When I have to alter my itinerary, we would have to arrive a day earlier. So I booked another night in Club Premier room, reward with $120 cash. This allowed us access to the Executive Lounge, for the first day only. But then I emailed the hotel 2 weeks before arrival and requested to get upgraded, which mean I get to stay in the same Club Premier room and full access to the Exe Lounge. Marriott South Beach allowed us with the request.
So, As Ricky said, email ahead of your arrival and ask nicely, you will get it. I did this with Marriott in Paris and Marriott in Rotterdam, they all allow me to upgrade to Executive rooms and Lounge.
Seek and ye shall find…:-)
One of my favourite articles you’ve written Ricky! Great insight.
In your experience, how many days before check in does the chat feature become available?
Usually it becomes available at the same time as mobile check-in. So about two days in advance.
Is your approach then to have a back-and-forth over chat first, before actually checking in via mobile?
Yep, I try to secure a suite upgrade before pressing the mobile check-in button. But I don’t think it really matters, since you can still try to sway the chat associate after you’ve done mobile check-in. It’s just the way I like to do it.
Okay that’s what I thought. Thanks!