Originally Posted by
kugelfischer
I was at the Monaco in San Francisco over the weekend and recited the secret word at check-in. The clerk told me, "With your Inner Circle upgrade and amenities, I'm not sure what else we can do for you."
I chatted up the front-desk supervisor at wine hour the next day and brought up the exchange. She was apologetic and gave me a $15 minibar credit (on top of Raid the Bar) and an in-room movie credit.
That's been my experience on a couple occasions, that when mentioned upon check-in, the benefit becomes the room upgrade, which I think they would have given me anyway. Overall, the agents are now usually excited when I mention the secret word, and have something specific for it. This wasn't the case early on, but hey, welcome gift, raid the bar, free wine hour, sometime upgrade...no complaints! ^