Best Western Rewards - Elite Benefits on 3rd party bookings?

Hi all-

This seems to be a gray area from what I can tell looking at other threads on the forum.

Here is my situation. I am Priority Club Platinum, and considering status matching to Best Western.

I have an upcoming stay in Dublin, Ireland; however I booked the stay as a prepaid reservation through Expedia to use up a credit I had there.

My questions are:

-is the status match a once in a lifetime opportunity? If so, it may not be wise to use it now unless I think I have more BW travel in my immediate future.
-if I status match, would I receive elite benefits or points at all on the prepaid booking through expedia?

If this is a YMMV situation, I'd love any comments on recent experiences anyone may have had in similar situations.

Thanks in advance.

-is the status match a once in a lifetime opportunity?

Yes, AFAIK, but:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/best-western-rewards/1330289-targeted-bw-email-earn-back-diamond-elite-status-after-just-2-nights.html


--if I status match, would I receive elite benefits or points at all on the prepaid booking through expedia?

What elite benefits??? :confused:


I am Priority Club Platinum
About the same guarnteed elite benefits as in PC Plat, except even more so. (Ie, no such thing as guaranteed elite benefits program-wide, it's up to the individual hotel.)

In this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/best-western-rewards/792224-complimentary-upgrades.html

someone reports getting an upgrade at a particular BW in Dublin, but I dunno if it's the one you booked, because you didn't specify.

As to points at all:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/best-western-rewards/1191451-denied-points-when-reserving-expedia.html

Ie, I wouldn't count on it at all. If you do, consider yourself very lucky.

Now, would a particular hotel (which we don't know if it gives BW elite benefits to normal bookings) extend those benefits (even if not points) to Expedia bookings? It sounds to me like too convoluted a question to even ponder... :eek:

Me, I would certainly not bother with a status match just for an Expedia-booked stay, given all the things stacked against you. (But then, I don't use Expedia at all for properties that belong to hotel programs for exactly this reason. I only use third-party sites for actual bookings when I need to stay an indie hotel, which is most likely in smaller cities that have no [US presence] chain hotels at all. Otherwise I just use third-party sites as reference sites for Best Rate Guarantees. :D )

Yes, AFAIK, but:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/best-western-rewards/1330289-targeted-bw-email-earn-back-diamond-elite-status-after-just-2-nights.html


What elite benefits??? :confused:


About the same guarnteed elite benefits as in PC Plat, except even more so. (Ie, no such thing as guaranteed elite benefits program-wide, it's up to the individual hotel.)

In this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/best-western-rewards/792224-complimentary-upgrades.html

someone reports getting an upgrade at a particular BW in Dublin, but I dunno if it's the one you booked, because you didn't specify.

As to points at all:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/best-western-rewards/1191451-denied-points-when-reserving-expedia.html

Ie, I wouldn't count on it at all. If you do, consider yourself very lucky.

Now, would a particular hotel (which we don't know if it gives BW elite benefits to normal bookings) extend those benefits (even if not points) to Expedia bookings? It sounds to me like too convoluted a question to even ponder... :eek:

Me, I would certainly not bother with a status match just for an Expedia-booked stay, given all the things stacked against you. (But then, I don't use Expedia at all for properties that belong to hotel programs for exactly this reason. I only use third-party sites for actual bookings when I need to stay an indie hotel, which is most likely in smaller cities that have no [US presence] chain hotels at all. Otherwise I just use third-party sites as reference sites for Best Rate Guarantees. :D )

Thank you for your response.

The hotel is BEST WESTERN PLUS Academy Plaza Hotel, Dublin.

The elite benefits which would be valuable to me in this case are:

Best available room (may not include specialty rooms or suites)
Early check-in/late check-out**

In general, I agree with your suggestion that it is always best to book through the hotel website. In this case, I had a $25 credit from expedia for Hotels that was to expire, and the only confirmed reservation I needed was Dublin; the Best Western seemed to be the best hotel to fit our needs.

As an aside, I have one previous experience on a Best Western best rate guarantee for Europe. The price difference between Best Western and the 3rd party site in question was significant (IIRC about $100 per night); however, Best Western refused to honor their guarantee as their website quoted in Euros, and the Third Party site in $$...needless to say, that left me feeling that their guarantee is pretty worthless. I still would have tried it, but in this case, the rates were the same (within the margin of error for the conversion), and Expedia gave me an additional discount with my coupon...

I don't think there is any difference between being blue and DIamond with BW, at least with US Properties, outside of the added points.

I used to stay at a BW in chicago a lot and was treated great there but it was because I stayed there a lot and the front desk staff knew me by name and even told me if an upgrade (they had nice apartment type suites in their annex) was available I would get it regardless of my status, it was based ontheir avialablity.

I was status matched last year to Diamond. I haven't stayed at a best western property since then because the rates at the property I stayed at in Chicago had gone up drastically and I was also getting tread great as a diamond at Hilton Chicago properties. My status dropped to Platnium this year even with no stays. YMMV, but if they give you diamond this year, there is a good possiblity they will keep you at least platnium next year. But like I said you really have no benefits at BW.