Platinum Guaranteed Access vs. "Blackout Dates": Royal York
 

I've just experienced my third unsuccessful attempt this year to use the "guaranteed access" benefit of Platinum status at the Fairmont Royal York. Over the same period, I have successfully used the benefit once.

My travel agent shows the hotel as sold out, so I call the Platinum Concierge line, and have been given the response that there are various blackout dates for this benefit throughout the year, determined well in advance, so I'm out of luck.

I have seen the blackout dates for "free night" certificates, but I seem to have missed the blackout dates for "guaranteed access". Have others seen these or had a similar experience?

guaranteed access should be just that! and no blackouts.

+1, why use the word "Guaranteed" when op is 0 for 3 fairmont?

Reminds me in the difficulty I had last year to use my free night cert.

Also curious to know why the Resort hotels aren't included since FPC is a "Individual" program....

Late checkout and early check-in at Hawaii properties are subjective as well.. A Platinum member friend.. she booked well in advance at Orchid a late check-out only to be told that she needs to give up the room and move to another room for the late check out. Same thing happened to us 4 years ago at Orchid, where we moved from the suite to a small room for the remainder of the day for late check-out.

Is it just me, or does everyone's card gets timed out around noon and must get another card for the remainder of the late check-out? Seems to happen to us all the time, where we need to get new cards to access the room.. Maybe a computer program incapable of processing late check-out, and must be done manually.

Guaranteed access is the biggest sham in ALL loyalty programs. The one time you need guaranteed access, is when there is something going on in the city and the hotels are all full, and that is the same time in which they always say "sorry, blackout or special event"

Are blackout dates not published ahead of time? Or is it updated when the hotels feel like it on an ongoing basis? I thought it was the former..

Very odd. I always thought the black-out dates for guaranteed room access were the same as the black-out dates for free nights/upgrade certs.

The following clause on the FPC website seems to support my interpretation: "*The guaranteed room access benefit at city center hotels, does not apply at the following hotels on the specified dates. "

The dates are usually published at the beginning of each membership year.

Just to confirm: Your dates were not listed on the limited access page, but you were still refused the guaranteed room access?

No, Jasper...you are absolutely right. The date I was looking for was indeed listed on the limited access page, so no argument there. I think where the confusion came from was that if you look at the link (www.fairmont.com/fpc/limitedaccess), it says:

2011 LIMITED ACCESS DATES FOR CERTIFICATE REDEMPTION
Fairmont President's Club complimentary night certificates issued to Premier or
Platinum members can not be used at the following hotels on the following dates.

And then it goes on to list the dates. Okie dokie, fair warning given on certificate redemption.

It is then, at the bottom, with an asterisk, that it notes that those hotels with the asterisk do not qualify for guaranteed room benefit on those dates.

Absolutely, unequivocally my bad...I missed that little caveat at the bottom as I glazed over at the very long list of hotels that didn't concern me :)

I only saw the very general description of the "guaranteed access" benefit in the bottom right corner, and thought I had been wronged!

Apologies for the confusion!