Originally Posted by
Shareholder
Wow, such bellyaching. This is a 4/5 star property and you'd think you were stuck in a Motel 6! T&C is very clear that status benefits do not apply on award stays and this is one property that honours that reg. Considering the pittance you're paying in PC points and the normal cost of a room in Tokyo at this or any comparable property -- in yen, dollars, euros or points -- I really can't sympathize. You probalby earned the 5K in a single HIX one-night stay in the last round of bonuses at that! (Okay, I can see the complaints at 30K or 40K a night, but at 5K!)
I plan a week in Tokyo and Yokohama. It will cost me $87 for my AA award ticket (and a discounted 50K AAdvantage miles), another Y3500 for a Narita Express/Y2000 metro ticket, a few thousand yen to get to the IC in Yokohama by JR Rail, and Y3500 yen for the taxibus or NRTExpress back to NRT. I should get by for a week in one of the most expensive cities in the world for well under $500 all-in: hotels, flight, meals, ground transit. If my room is small, big deal...I'm there to see Tokyo, not sit in my hotel room (and suffer with DVD/flat screen HDTV, full Monty Japanese bathroom, robe and slippers).
as i said at 5K its a ok deal to end up even in the non upgraded cheapest and smallest room they have.
what did piss us off is, that they promised on the phone that they will upgrade one of the rooms to a suite (we had 4 rooms booked) due to the birthday of one of us.
they didnt give us the suite, even many suites were available at checkin, we were told that we shouldnt demand anything on an award .
(if they wouldnt have promised it, we would not have asked... )
its night and day with the IC ANA akasaka which is upgrading RAs to club floor even on award.
even we are only paying 5K, i am sure the hotels are getting the same money with the 30K or 40K booking, so what is wrong in advising other FTers not to stay at the strings whichi is not giving any benefits to RAs or Ambs?
and if you paid 30K and ended up in this mouth trap you would be really annoyed too.
in my eyes the strings had a great opportunity to promote their hotel ( and i think this is what the points breaks are for) and they failed to even convince me to move my usually 20.000 - 30.000 yen stays to their property even their location is unbeatable .
dp