Fairmont President's Club - will nights booked through a 3rd party apply to my FPC account?

I just booked a trip to Victoria through Clipper vacations, since it worked out to $175 per person for a trip on the clipper plus 1 night at the Empress. The clipper is $80 normally, which brings our room at the Empress to an amazing $95/night. :cool:

2 questions:

1: has anyone done this before at the Empress and had the nights apply toward their FPC account?

2: Can I use a room upgrade certificate for this booking if I call Fairmont? I didn't get a confirmation # for the Fairmont room from Clipper vacations but I assume if I call and give them my name and when I'm staying, they'll be able to figure it out.

I stayed at the Fairmont Orchid last year and had those nights (booked through Costco travel) apply to my FPC account once I submitted a missing stay request on their site, so I may just have to do that again this time.

So - Does it depend on what company you book through, or should the nights count no matter what? I'd be interested in hearing what people have experienced with Clipper Vacations or otherwise.

thanks! ^

Sorry, no experience with Clipper Vacations.

Fairmont generally is very generous regarding qualifying stays for stay credit (but very restrictive in awarding airline miles), unlike most other hotel programs which only count rates booked on their website.

AFAIK rates booked through a third party (Travelzoo, Expedia etc.) do count while some other third party rates and tour/package rates do not qualify, from your description I´d say you have a 50:50 chance. :p

I´d call the hotel regarding the upgrade, the Fairmont Empress has always been very generous in giving me (1-2 category) upgrades even when not applying a room upgrade cert.

Please report back how it goes.

You can upgrade your third party reservation by calling FPC reservations with your third party confirmation #. It won't be a problem subject to availability, but the third party may have strict cancellation policies, so be careful when booking a room, and your expectation is an upgrade on the reservation.. you might be stuck with what you booked.

The stay will be credited to your FPC profile, so long as FPC links your third party reservation and Fairmont assigns a reservation # to your third party reservation.

Agree with both. Nights will count, and upgrade cert should be applicable.

Thanks Ancien Maestro and CanuckFlyHigh! I will update this after my stay with my results ;)