Here’s my most recent experience, from earlier this evening.

I’m off to Tokyo for a few days next week, and want to book a Club King room at the Grand Hyatt in Roppongi, a hotel I’ve stayed in a few times (always booked through CTS).

First I was told the hotel was fully booked for my dates. It isn’t - there’s lots of availability.

Then I was told that the hotel doesn’t participate in the FHR program. It (still) does, according to the FHR website.

Then I was quoted a rate of over 70000 JPY/night, which is 40% more than I paid for the same room there a few months ago. The highest rate for that room during my stay on the Hyatt website is 53200 JPY/night for the Spa package (which includes breakfast, a 10000 JPY spa credit and late checkout).

Then I was told that late checkout is not guaranteed for Centurion cardholders. It is.

Throughout this absurd conversation, I got the distinct feeling that the CTS agent didn’t want me to book the room for me. In fact at one point, he actually said he “didn’t think the room was worth it.”

Over the last couple of years, CTS has increasingly failed to impress me, and about 50% of my calls for hotel booking resulted in my hanging up and just making the reservation myself online. But this was by far the worst. They used to be pretty good. What happened?

There are very good Canadian CTS agents, but recently I rarely get them. This service is no longer worth the annual fee.