tigerhunt2011

I know to expect tax & resort fees, especially somewhere like Fairmont, but I was just very put off by the fact that the phone agent couldn't even tell me

Adam1222

It might be best to reserve your accusations of deception and very strong language for cases beyond an unhelpful phone agent.

mia

tigerhunt2011's rant has been appended to the established thread about this program.

Arjun

I traveled to South Florida over Thanksgiving and through the weekend. I used the Visa concierge service and used the luxury hotel collection offer to book a room for one night at a Waldorf Astoria resort in Key West. If any of you read the offer, most of the VISA luxury hotel collections offer 7 benefits to book through their website including a 3pm late checkout subject to availability, free room upgrade, as well as free continental breakfast. Long story short, in that 24 hour period the hotel staff were mostly clueless about these perks through the program and I had to waste a lot of time explaining it to each individual as and when I wanted to use the service and sometimes had to speak to multiple treatment. It was not the "VIP" treatment they had mentioned on their website.
In either case, prior to checking out I did send an email to the concierge informing them about my experience. In less than 24 hours I had the person responsible for training all their staff across two Resort properties called me apologizing profusely and also refunded my daily rate. $240 in total was refunded! The people working at the concierge do go above and beyond to ensure that if the customer doesnt receive the level of service advertized they get reimbursed. Although that doesnt bring back the time spent there etc, atleast it makes me feel better about not having to pay for it! Also, the next time I go there, the resort manager has asked me to personally contact her for my reservation!

roastpuff

Any other experiences with the Visa Signature/Infinite Luxury Hotel Benefits? I'm interested in using this on an upcoming vacation in late 2014/early 2015, hoping to snag some room upgrades and breakfast in the Maldives and HK.

TheCaptain

I've utilized the Signature Hotels twice in the last 30 days..

Waldorf Astoria (Orlando).. Went to Disney for the Christmas event, stayed there since it was on property but not crazy resort price.. Got everything listed on the Signature site, including getting upgraded to a Disney view room for free, which was great for the kids..

Aria Sky Suites (Vegas).. I couldn't get upgraded because I had already got the 1 bedroom panoramic view penthouse suite.. So the only upgrade available there would of been to a villa which is several thousand more.. IIRC, I got a $40 breakfast credit per day and a $25 food credit per day..

Both experiences I was treated very well.. However, both hotels are fairly upscale so I'm sure I was treated the same as anyone.. They each mentioned the fact that I booked through Signature Hotels, so they were aware of the program..

carson_04

I have also booked at Aria through Visa Signature, upgraded from a standard room (maybe a deluxe?) to a sky suite. I got all of the promos listed without having to put up a fight. I e-mailed the Aria concierge before the trip to ensure I would get all of the extras and it all went smoothly.

roastpuff

Thanks for the feedback guys, sounds like the program works great, at least in the USA!

If anyone can chime in with experiences from Asia that would be great.

Wildcatz1

This is a great thread, thanks for the useful info. I am looking at using this in CO as well. I also am trying out the MC World Elite Concierge for the first time to see what they can arrange (I am looking at a mix of properties some in Luxury Portfolio some not) and how good their concierge is.

I must admit that first impressions with the concierge on MC World Elite (the initial conversation) was not as good as with Visa Signature. I had to repeat things multiple times and help them understand simple things like car services. I will see how they answer my request but did not get the warm fuzzy I got when using Visa Signature concierge (which you can also email which is a nice feature).

Be interesting to compare the products and benefits of these 2 hotel programs and their benefits.

WC

JAGMAP

Don't rule out MasterCard's World Elite Luxury Hotels & Resorts program - benefits seem to be a bit more robust: http://bit.ly/MCLuxPortfolio

blueheronNC

How do hotel loyalty program points work for Visa Signature Hotel stays? For example, if I'm Hyatt Gold Passport and book an Andaz through the Visa website, will I earn Hyatt points for the stay? How do I associate my Hyatt loyalty program number with the stay?

bgriff

I can't speak for this program for certain but with the similar Amex FHR program you can earn all the usual loyalty credits. Easiest way to add your loyalty number would probably be to call the hotel after your stay is booked (at which point the property would presumably be able to tell you if it was a non-qualifying rate at which point you could cancel and book directly with the hotel if you preferred).

Duke787

Has anyone tried a BRG with Visa Signature? I'm looking at the Hyatt Kyoto for this March and I have a Visa Signature rate of JPY 85536 which matches the Hyatt.com rate.

However the Visa Signature rate includes free breakfast, room upgrade if available, $25 food / beverage credit, etc., so it seems like you could potentially BRG the Bed and Breakfast rate which for my dates is 104k JPY

bgriff

Why not just book the Visa Signature rate then?

I would imagine that, though Hyatt might do something for you (especially if you have status), if they wanted to be strict they could easily claim that this doesn't count for any number of reasons -- BRG may only apply to lowest rates, not packages, and the Visa Signature rate may be excluded since it is not truly publicly available (only open to people with that credit card).

Duke787

That's my tentative plan but I figured I would find out if anyone had success BRG-ing it since that would get the rate even lower