philemer

Can someone explain the differences between the $25 Dining/Willow Stream certs and the Visa $25 breakfast certs. Forget the Willow Stream part just the differences in using them for breakfast.

Scenario: We are staying at a Hilton in San Fran and want to eat breakfast at the nearby Fairmont. Would we use the Dining/Willow Stream certs or the Visa certs? Since these are electronic do you just give the waiter your Fairmont membership #? I'm guessing either would work for breakfast. Yes?

And, if the hotel has a restaurant that serves dinner, we could use the Dining/Willow Stream certs for dinner? Again, just give the waiter our membership #?

Easy on this newbie.

Jasper2009

I´m not sure how easily your plan would work as I believe the dining certs are intended to be used when you´re staying at the hotel. AFAIK the T&C do not specifically mention such a requirement, so in theory it should work, but redeeming dining certs electronically (vs. just handing over the paper certs) can be a pain in itself even when staying at the hotel.

I.e. some restaurants do not have access to the FPC system, so they´d have to call the front desk to confirm the certs are available, and IME it sometimes takes a while for them to sort things out.

Btw, you should receive paper dining certs with your Premier package, so I´d recommend using those as redeeming paper dining certs is much easier.

gregorygrady

You would give the waiter your Visa $25 BREAKFAST CERTS. Your $25 Dining/Willow Stream certs CANNOT be used for breakfast (at least according to the T&Cs, only lunch & dinner). Furthermore, the $25 Dining/WillowStream certs are Premier/Plat certs. The Visa $25 Dining certs don't seem to be usable at WillowStream, rather they are DINING ONLY.

FWIW, at the end of Feb I have used expiring FPC Plat Dining certs at 2 different local Fairmonts EVEN WHEN NOT STAYING. Yes, I had the physical certs in hand which made it much easier, but AFAIK there is nothing outlawing this. Also agree that using paper certs in this case is MUCH easier than trying to get your waiter to understand what you are talking about, and then pulling e-certs from your acct.

gregorygrady

I have one question somewhat related:

Anybody know if $25 Visa Breakfast certs can be redeemed at The Plaza NYC? I don't see a limitation on the cert, however we all know that Dining certs aren't accepted at ONLY this hotel within the Fairmont chain.

If would be kind of annoying for a new credit card customer who is successfully able to book The Plaza NYC with his/her Free Nights to not be able to get Free Breakfast with that stay even though it was sort of inferred in the CC advertising that Free Breaky would come with the Free Nights.

And on a similar note, can the Free Breaky coupons be used anytime? They don't HAVE to be used when redeeming the Free CC Nights, correct? I can use them on a paid stay? Or I can use $200 of them at the same time at a hotel even if I'm not even staying there (assuming my wife and I both have the CC)?

nmenaker

Card arrived yesterday, haven't seen certs and such hit my lifetime platinum account. Any links to this "lounge" benefit?

gregorygrady

The certs should hit your FPC acct in about 10 days. No idea about the Lounge Benefit as I actually haven't even registered for it myself yet. Glad you mentioned this otherwise I likely would have forgotten.

mrredskin

Just saw my certs hit my account but expire at end of Feb - even when I just got my Premier account? Are these issued every year? Was hoping it would be good for a full year.

Jasper2009

Yes, Premier certs always expire at the end of Feb. of the following year (end of the membership year), however as cardholders are given Premier status for as long as they have the card, you should get a new bunch of certs on March 1, 2013 - again valid for one year.

mrredskin

thanks coach!

ORDPLATAA

Card arrived yesterday - great presentation! The only thing that I found a bit worrying was that the card was ready to use right out of the box - no call to activate the card. The package was sitting on my front stoop so, if anyone would have picked it up, they could have set off on a little holiday and I wouldn't have known it.

That being said, we have a weekend planned in Chicago so the card purchased our plane tix + upgrade stickers (my balance was low anyway). Just need to spend another $150 and we'll hit our minimum spend. Looking forward to using those two free night in Singapore next March!

gregorygrady

FWIW, here is the website to enroll in the VIP Lounge access (first 2 visits per year are free, everything past that is $27 per visit):

LoungeClub.com/Fairmont

Enter invitation code: FAIRMONT

BTW, the lounge offerings are fairly sparse, only 16 USA airports have lounges associated with this program, and only 6 airports in Canada. I assume that means that there are lots of lounges in other parts of the world since supposedly there are 300+ participating lounges.

nmenaker

Received the certs to my account yesterday, the 4x25$ dinning and the gold floor upgrade. All had valid till dates of 8/13/2012, so 1 year out. Nice.

Now, to get some of the free nights certs after spending the 1000$, and we'll have four free nights (have a couple from Lifetime Platinum status still) time to make a trip. Let's go to Hamburg!

lov2trav

Correct, just used them on a paid stay.

nrjanga

We just completed our stay at the Fairmont Charlevoix/La Malbaie using the Visa free night certificate.

We were able to use our dining and breakfast certificates together for dinner. The front desk redeemed 2x$25 dining/willow and 1x$25 breakfast cert. to cover our dinner charges. Best thing is tax and tips were also covered with the certificates. I am sure if we spent enough, they could have let us use all 4x$25 + 2x$25 together for one meal.

At the restaurant all we had to do was charge everything to our room and did not even have to mention the certificates. At the checkout we have requested the front desk agent to apply our certificates.

We forgot to take our paper certificates with us (free night, breakfast and dinner). We called the customer service ahead, they added a note to our reservation and the hotel did everything electronically.

Big thumbs up to Fairmont for the offer and their impeccable customer service. The resort was pretty nice too to say the least.

gregorygrady

FWIW, I called FPC to get the answer to this question. The Plat agent was stumped as well but went to ask a supervisor. Came back and it turns out that Visa breakfast certs (and ONLY breakfast certs) are usable at The Plaza NYC.