philemer

I wouldn't wait. The POV Suites may be gone by the time you call back. I'd write down the name of each person you talk to in case you get the same one.

pancakex

<deleting out of date information>

mrredskin

0-2 on trying to get the POV suites. This agent said the same - Mountain upgrade books into Garden. Will try again tomorrow, I guess! trip isn't 'til June, BTW.

philemer

They really need to work on corporate training. Geesh! You'll eventually get the right person.

joshc40

I'm pretty sure the T's and C's say to give them to the waiter (and to tell him/her you'll be using them as soon as you're seated). Taking the thread further away from the Kea Lani, though, we actually forgot our certs when we were at the Princess last month. As an afterthought, as I was at the front desk checking out, I asked the clerk if she would apply our certs to the part of the bill we had from dinner at Bourbon Steakhouse. And she just looked up my FPC account, applied the certs, and handed me a reduced bill. Not sure if you can count on that, but it was pretty cool. And that took a heck of a lot less time than watching the waitstaff not even know what the certificate was when we handed one to them at the Fairmont in Santa Monica. That was a couple of months into the Visa program...hopefully they've worked out the kinks by now...

MtlFire

I just left. Booked it the week before I arrived, 50% of the spots were still open.

Cruban

Depends on the time of year. We went in June and it was booked solid for weeks.
Never hurts to send an email to the concierge asking to make the reservation for your date.

ac/elite

I've never booked before arriving at the hotel and have never had trouble getting a spot on numerous trips to the hotel. In any event, if you for some reason can't get a reservation, just go down in the morning and there's a good chance you'll get on anyhow. They have a high no-show rate. Just mention to Chris ("Ula Ula"), the guy with the red hair that runs the program, that you are waiting to get on and he'll likely find you a spot.

MtlFire

Recently back from a week at Kea Lani. One of the first places I've stayed at that everyone knew exactly what the various Fairmont certs were and how to use them.

I used the Authentic Local Food Experience at Ko, the server knew exactly what I was talking about and explained it was a surf & turf plate. Maui Rib Eye and choice from two catches of the day.

I'll let the picture speak for itself, it was amazing (click for a larger image):



Two pieces of fish, and a nice piece of steak. The steak alone on the menu was $46, so this plate was easily worth at least that.

VickiSoCal

My husband is going to a conference here in January and I've decided to tag along. He's Marriott Plat with Hilton as his backup (Gold) chain. He's a 100-125 night a year in biz travel room guy, with no plans to stay at a Fairmont again. Staying on the conference rate of 249/night. Is there any particular reason to sign up for the Fairmont program for our stay?

I'm planning on doing the canoe trip, at least once, and doing a lot of swimming( I do some fairly long ocean swims so this is the perfect opportunity to get some miles in) while he's slaving away at meetings during the day. I'm not covered by his company insurance on the rental car, so I'm pretty much marooned at the hotel during the day, except for the shuttle. I think there will be enough to keep me occupied for 3 days, though?

josephstern

Free internet with the loyalty club signup. Might be included anyway in the conference rate.

Pretty nice rate, by the way.

Jasper2009

+1

Free internet is the main benefit of signing up for FPC, he may also be able to earn some 500 airline miles depending on the exact T&C of the rate.

And indeed, $249/night is an excellent deal!

VickiSoCal

His company is paying the room, his flight and car and will cover internet, of course I'm sure they wouldn't complain about it being free. I figured that was a good rate for Jan 6-9 which is when we'll be there. Didn't think about signing up and getting airline miles though, think I'll do that. I expect we won't get a great room/view, but they all sound pretty nice. He gets breakfast and an evening reception every night, I'm on my own. I may run to the mall in the morning to get my breakfast, it's about a mile along the beach path then cut thru the Marriott (where we have stayed a couple of times).

Jasper2009

The suites are pretty much all the same (very nice and spacious layout) except for the view which could can be anything from bushes/the parking lot to a view of the ocean from the top floor.

If you donīt want to have a full-size breakfast in the restaurant, I can also highly recommend Caffe Ciao Deli located on the lower level which has a great and reasonably priced selection of food.

mrredskin

finally got upgraded to POV suite. took some other means to accomplish this, but glad I was able to get the upgrade that we deserved.