Originally Posted by
bhrubin
If you don't want to waste your SNAs, you might de-select the Vineyard View Room and ONLY select the junior suite. The Vineyard View room is exactly the same as the entry Garden View room, after all but only with a different view--not what most of us would consider a great use for SNAs. Also, be aware that a longer stay typically means less chance for any upgrade since it's less likely the upgraded room type will be available for the duration! (If you're likely to get the Vineyard View upgrade by SNA, I'd say you're almost as likely to get the Vineyard View upgrade even on arrival as a Plat comp upgrade benefit.)
This is great advice, thank you
bhrubin!
From what I read on this place (and in this thread too), it seems like the base, garden view room leaves a lot to be desired (view wise). I only have one personal upcoming trip with the wife this year (two kids under 2 makes it tough), so figured I might as well use the SNAs for some sort of "guaranteed" room upgrade rather than nothing at all.
I'd love to have a chance to book into the junior suite, but would be super bummed if we both missed out on that as well as didn't even get upgraded as a Plat to the vineyard view room. On the other hand, I feel like if I select both the junior suite and the vineyard view room they'll just say "meh, he's good with the vineyard view room, just give him that even though the junior suite is available."
Thoughts on strategy? I have no other use for the SNAs this year other than business travel (don't really care about getting a suite for that) so if I don't use them for this they're pretty much gonna go to waste. Basically I want to definitely have at least a vineyard view room with a shot of the junior suite in there haha. I know I know, if I want the vineyard view room I should have just booked that room directly, but we used points for this trip so it wasn't an option (and saved a lot of money doing so).
Just want the wife and I to have a nice room for our only personal vacation this year.