CanadaDH

Does anyone have any experience with the lifeexperiences.ca certificates?

I've seen various ones sold in Shoppers Drug Mart, and they have certificates for some selected Fairmont properties. However, on the site www.lifeexperiences.ca, they seem to sell certificates for just about all Canadian Fairmont properties.

The certificates seem to be sold at face value, so no real deal. However, I also see that they sell general LifeExperience certificates at a 10% discount which can be used to purchase any other experience certificates they sell. I have some stays coming up, and was thinking of buying say a $500 LifeExperience certificate for $450, then use that to buy a $500 certificate for the properties I plan to stay at.

Has anyone tried this?

CanadaDH

Got a promotional e-mail from them today...

I've got my annual ski trip to Fairmont Tremblant coming up, so I just purchased $500 worth of certs for $400.

Yul_voyager

When you pay a stay with a gift card or certificate, is the stay still eligible for Amex Plat5 deal ? What about if you let some amount on your CC ?

CanadaDH

I was given a couple of of these certs a couple of years ago, and applied it to my bill on a stay at the BSH, still paying the balance of my bill with my Amex. I would think that as long as you have a charge to your Amex, even if it's not the full amount, it would still count, but that's nothing more than a guess. In my case, I can't tell if it affected my PLAT5 qualification or not, since I had well over 5 other nights to maintain anyway. I think this year I may even have enough to hit Plat without the help from Amex.

I've always wondered if they ever check that you charged your stays to the Amex, or if they just verify with Amex that you hold a valid Platinum card and post 5 stay credits on your profile.

Ancien Maestro

The few times we called into FPC for the Plat5 promo, the attendant did put me on hold to check on the account with Loyalty. I believe FPC does check and verify if the reservations have been paid with Amex Platinum, but this was a few years ago.

Yul_voyager

Thanks for posting.
Looks like you can double the 20% (when you buy a lifeexperience certificate and when you buy the Fairmont one).
Will buy a couple of those and try them. 600$ of certificate for 400$, worth a shot...

CanadaDH

You can probably do better than that if you really try to game the promotion. Their certificates are non-refundable, but they are exchangeable. So, technically, you can use any of their certs as payment toward another one. E.g. buy $500 worth of certs using $400. Then buy another $500 using $400 of your last batch (ie. no additional investment), etc, etc. Theoretically, you could grow it without a limit. While I didn't see anything in the terms and conditions specifically against that, I would imagine they'd catch on and shut it down. However, you might be able to do that a couple of times and still stay under the radar.

Yul_voyager

Yes I was thinking about that... However a 30-35% reduction is already very good (assuming it does work without issue), won't try the trick to buy gift certificate with gift certificate.

NealMac

Life experiences gift cards expire one year from date of purchased. If the card recipient hasn't used or at least booked their experience by then the gift is lost. Probably better off giving a pre paid Visa or MasterCard and suggest an experience.

HeavenlyJane

I have been trying to purchase some LifeExperiences GCs from Costco.ca today and my orders keep getting cancelled. Has anyone had this experience? The cancellation reason implies that there is something wrong with my payment but I have tried several CCs and got the same response.

It is possible that they have a problem with me being an US resident/citizen? I've purchased them before without issue.

CanadaDH

Have you tried calling them? They're closed today for Canada Day, but customer service will be open tomorrow from 9 to 6 (EDT).

Did you try putting a Canadian mailing address on the order? The certificates will be delivered by e-mail, so the mailing address won't be used, but the system may be looking for a Canadian address before processing orders from the costco.ca site.

HeavenlyJane

Good suggestion about calling. However I am not sure if there will still be a Fairmont redemption option after today. I will call tomorrow.

Yes, I put in a Canadian address, courtesy of a Toronto-based cousin. However my billing address is my US address.

mahasamatman

Frequently. In fact, I was very surprised that my order actually went through last week for the first time ever.

HeavenlyJane

But you're Canadian, right?

I had success last October but not today.

CanadaDH

There's no reason to think that Fairmont will be removed from the LE program tomorrow. Just because the hotel's loyalty program is changing shouldn't have any bearing on arrangements with other suppliers, which have nothing to do with the loyalty program. I guess anything is possible, and I sure hope they keep it, but I don't see the FPC changes as a reason to discontinue it. It wasn't even a Fairmont chain-wide program, but an arrangement they have with Canadian properties only.

How many certificates were you trying to purchase? The first time I tried to buy them from Costco years ago, I ordered 10, and my order didn't go through. I then tried with 5 certs, and it went through. Since then, I've increased my order sizes and have been buying them 20 at a time without issue, and I'm also a regular shopper on costco.ca for other items. Maybe Costco is suspicious of people without a big customer history buying large amounts of gift certificates online due to possible credit card fraud?