Originally Posted by
C17PSGR
Here's an easy example
Last month, I stayed at a legacy Marriott property (Marriott Waikiki) where I have probably spent 100-150 nights over the years. On almost every stay, they have upgraded me to the ocean front junior suite as a legacy Plat Premier. This time they didn't and apologetically explained that the SNA program makes it harder to upgrade Ambassadors since they clear several days in advance and they had given the suites away to the SNA requesters.
So here is a hotel that follows the rules, treats repeat guests/top elites very well, but already gave away the suites to SNA's.
They didn't give anything away. Marriott, not the property, clears the SNAs.
There's nothing stopping a good operations director or rooms manager from going through the list of ambassadors and returning guests three, five or seven days before arrival dates and upgrading then. I've had plenty of upgrades show up without asking well before the 48-hour online check-in window. Heck, I've had Delta clear upgrades 6-7 days out even though officially the upgrade window is 5 days prior.