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Old May 4, 2014, 10:15 am
  #1  
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Confirm Suite Upgrade Before Arrival

Is there any way (short of booking a suite) to use points to confirm a suite at booking? In the past when the 5 day window arrives the suites no longer seem to be available.

Given I am willing to use 16,000+ points per night you would think I could upgrade earlier that five days prior to arrival.
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Old May 4, 2014, 10:19 am
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Originally Posted by milemonkey
Is there any way (short of booking a suite) to use points to confirm a suite at booking? In the past when the 5 day window arrives the suites no longer seem to be available.

Given I am willing to use 16,000+ points per night you would think I could upgrade earlier that five days prior to arrival.
Call customer service to use points to upgrade. Not sure what you mean by the "5 day window" as hotels don't assign upgrades like airlines.
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Old May 4, 2014, 10:37 am
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It has been my understanding that you cannot use points to confirm an upgrade until five days before arrival. Perhaps this has changed?
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Old May 4, 2014, 11:26 am
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Some hotels allow you to use points to upgrade to a higher category of room. I would check directly with the hotel itself. You might be able to bargain too.

A year or two ago, the program was changed to allow C&P rates for higher tiers of rooms including suites. But you have to check with Cust Service to find the rates - it's not online. So far I've found the rates to be unattractive and have stopped checking.
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Old May 4, 2014, 11:59 am
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I'm confused about whether we're talking about making a reservation to be paid with money and using points for the suite upgrade or booking a room with points and wanting to pay more points to get the suiite. If it's the latter, one can confirm the suite when making the booking if it's available with points but doing so (or even checking whether this is possible) requires that one call SPG.
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Old May 4, 2014, 12:07 pm
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
I'm confused about whether we're talking about making a reservation to be paid with money and using points for the suite upgrade or booking a room with points and wanting to pay more points to get the suiite. If it's the latter, one can confirm the suite when making the booking if it's available with points but doing so (or even checking whether this is possible) requires that one call SPG.
I'm asking about the former. It does not seem to be a standard benefit to upgrade paid stays with points prior to arrival or before five days out
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Old May 4, 2014, 1:16 pm
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Originally Posted by milemonkey
I'm asking about the former. It does not seem to be a standard benefit to upgrade paid stays with points prior to arrival or before five days out
No, it's not but a number of hotels allow it. It's also not an elite benefit, so if you have the points and the hotel has a suite that it wants to give out for points, status doesn't matter. Regardless you must call SPG to do this.

If you were trying to negotiate a cash upgrade, you would normally contact the property.

Last edited by MSPeconomist; May 4, 2014 at 1:53 pm Reason: typo
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Old May 4, 2014, 1:19 pm
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There are many hotels on spg which you can book a suite online.
It'll tell you how much a reg room is, and then how much it would be for a suite,
with points.
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Old May 4, 2014, 4:16 pm
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Try emailing the property to see about a confirmed upgrade or what you might be able to offer in exchange for one @:-)
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Old May 4, 2014, 5:21 pm
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Originally Posted by zipo
There are many hotels on spg which you can book a suite online.
It'll tell you how much a reg room is, and then how much it would be for a suite,
with points.
Can you provide an example of a property that shows "regular room $X, upgrade to suite for an additional Y points"? I've never seen that.
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Old May 4, 2014, 11:24 pm
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Originally Posted by CPRich
Can you provide an example of a property that shows "regular room $X, upgrade to suite for an additional Y points"? I've never seen that.
That's right, I've never seen that either. I think zipo might have seen wrongly.

But the Redemption Options do show how many points or C&P is required.
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Old May 5, 2014, 3:10 am
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Originally Posted by CPRich
Can you provide an example of a property that shows "regular room $X, upgrade to suite for an additional Y points"? I've never seen that.
Several properties in Germany allow you to use points to upgrade to a higher room category or even suite (Instant rewards)

The LC-Fuerstenhof and LC-Elephant are among them. Pretty sure that LC-Schloss Fuschl in Austria had the same option.
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Old May 5, 2014, 3:20 am
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Originally Posted by FD1971
Several properties in Germany allow you to use points to upgrade to a higher room category or even suite (Instant rewards)

The LC-Fuerstenhof and LC-Elephant are among them. Pretty sure that LC-Schloss Fuschl in Austria had the same option.
That's right, Instant Awards are available at every property I believe. I'm currently compiling the list for the hotels in Asia and adding them as wiki in the respective property's master thread.
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Old May 5, 2014, 4:13 am
  #14  
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Originally Posted by FD1971
Several properties in Germany allow you to use points to upgrade to a higher room category or even suite (Instant rewards)

The LC-Fuerstenhof and LC-Elephant are among them. Pretty sure that LC-Schloss Fuschl in Austria had the same option.
Are these confirmed suite upgrades in advance or is it based on availability at the time of check in?

I get e-mails from some properties offering cash upgrades, but again they are apparently not confirmed in advance so I'm not interested.

Unless such upgrades enable one to get a specialy suite, it just seems like a ploy to get me to pay for exactly the same benefits as I should receive as a Plat.
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Old May 5, 2014, 8:11 am
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Are these confirmed suite upgrades in advance or is it based on availability at the time of check in?

I get e-mails from some properties offering cash upgrades, but again they are apparently not confirmed in advance so I'm not interested.

Unless such upgrades enable one to get a specialy suite, it just seems like a ploy to get me to pay for exactly the same benefits as I should receive as a Plat.
There are a few examples I can think of, The Sheraton HKG allows use of points to upgrade from a regular room to a Towers Room upgrades to Towers are outside the Plat upgrade pool.
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