remymartin

Might have been hasty choice of words on my part, but what I ultimately meant was this:

Platinum Member Upgrade Terms and Conditions

Subject to availability at check-in for the entire length of the stay, provided the room was not booked through a pre-paid third-party channel. Specialty Suites such as, but not limited to, premium view, Presidential, Honeymoon, and multiple bedroom suites are excluded. This benefit does not apply to all-suite hotels. Best rooms are identified by each property and may not include upgraded Towers level accommodations unless Towers level accommodations were booked originally. The upgrade benefit is available for one room for the personal use of the Member only, regardless of the number of additional rooms purchased by the Member. This benefit is not offered at Aloft and Element properties.


A decent summary and reminder of what many newcomers seem to forget - definition of "best available room" and which brands are included, or rather, which excluded, from the upgrade altogether.

catarina

Some of my stays have the MAGC, others do not. I don't see option for Platinum Amenity either.

Room upgrade options are not like Suite Awards. Just larger room, higher floor, better, view, then option to select first available room even if not upgraded.

catarina

I do like the choice to telling the hotel that I would prefer a larger room over a view or higher floor. Sometimes I want the view; other times I need the space.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out. Some hotels I received an email ahead of time asking these questions, other properties I do not (even across the same chain as Westins for example).

For my next 50 stays this year, and then into next year I will be returning to the same properties multiple times per year. I think this pattern will gain me better upgrades than Plat 100 alone.

supatight80

Ah ok got it im kinda slow today. Someone mentioned being able to select "platinum amenity choice" earlier. I thought it meant being able to pre-select the 500 points/breakfast/ or hotel product.

catarina

I was thinking we'd be able to choose that, like in the emails we get. I wonder if we will still get those emails?

LovetoTravel83

So does this mean if a refundable stay is booked through a third-party website a Plat member would get the plat upgrade benefit?

DBCme

What's value-added here by using generic titles, "MR/MRS"?
It looks sloppy, there's no room to edit as one or the other, and it's potentially offensive to mis-represented people. This wasn't flagged in the focus groups/market research?

controller1

If you pay the third party for the stay when you make the reservation (prepaid), it is not eligible for elite benefits even if the reservation is refundable.

If you pay the hotel property directly for the stay (whether prepaid or not), then the reservation is eligible for elite benefits.

JohnnyP

Hate the new site. Did they do any usability testing before they launched this? For example, colleague at work was looking for a credit card so I recommended SPG Amex and had her navigate to SPG.com to learn about the program. I was trying to tell her about Nights and Flights -- dang ... Super unclear about the number of points required, how many nights that got you and how many miles it gave you. Not to mention at least 4 clicks and then navigating back to try to piece all the information together. I eventually gave up. Same for cash and points. To explain it, I actually had to take her through a sample booking.

And then I wanted to tell her about miles transfer. First, very confused about which links to click on. Clicked on Inside SPG > Travel. Started to scroll down. Register for CrossRewards? Nope. Double Down on Caesars? Nope. Keep scrolling ... "Take your earning power to cruising altitude"? Huh? Maybe ... keep scrolling. "Pack your travel pillow"? Huh? Maybe that one too. ... Keep scrolling. "Sky's the limit"? Huh? What does that even mean? Keep scrolling ... "Your Starpoints are cleared for take off"? Um ... ok? Keep scrolling ... etc. etc. Where the heck do I find out about transferring SPG points to airline miles? Oh, wait, there are tiny little tabs next to each one of those, one entitled "Transfer Air Miles" -- I guess that's it, although technically I'm transferring SPG points. So we clicked on that ... ok, 1:1 exchange on most airlines, great. Which ones? I guess I click on "Learn More". It basically gives the same information and then a list of phone numbers. But which airlines?!!?! (getting very frustrated at this point) Clicked back. Tried "Transfer SPG Points to Air Miles" link ... nope, that requires me to log in. Clicked on "Terms and Conditions" -- nope, no airlines listed there. It's gotta be here somewhere, right? Clicked back on "Learn More" -- maybe I missed a link there? Ah ... if I keep scrolling past all those phones numbers, keep scrolling, keep scrolling, there it is! No wonder I missed it.

A lot of the clicks are circular, clicking on one link about learning more would take you back to the same page you were previously on where you want to learn more to begin with! The pages are heavily editorial rather than being user-centric in their design of the information being presented. Are bullet points really the best way to explain point redemptions? The old table style was much more effective.

Surprising fail for SPG who I've counted on the past for being fairly design-forward.

JohnnyP

And I agree the MR/MRS. and the upper case user name and password are very sloppy. Both of those would have easily been caught in good usability tests.

derpelikan

applause.com is your friend

FozBoy

With the new website I had 1 night posted to my account history under the description "EQ Txn"

I have no idea what this is about… is this somehow related to the new website? What does it refer to and why did it credit 1 night to My Recent Activity ?

FoxCrane

Are those supposed to be drop-down menus at the top of the page... because when I click on them, nothing happens.

Condition One

After blundering around the website, I realized they just added a useless interface on top of the old website.

CHOPCHOP767

The new site reminds me of delta.com. It's aethestically pleasant to look at, but the functionality is a little dicey. That said, AA's website had the old eagle forever in what I'm assuming are the less frequented parts of the site. When they get around to cleaning up the site, it will be great. SPG's mobile app is one of the most functional ones out there and the site looks like it's going to mirror it.