Galun

Over the years we had tried FS, TheHotel, MO, Bellagio, Wynn, Encore, and Venetian.

IMO The best benefit for FHR is the guaranteed 4pm late checkout. Before we had kids, we would "hotel hop" - one hotel a day for a couple days. The late checkout works very well here because check in is usually at 3pm, so the late checkout at 4pm allows hotel hopping with no down time. It was awesome back when there were more food credits available (instead of the useless spa credit). Now that we have kids we don't do that anymore. It was fun while it lasted.

At the Wynn and TheHotel, our entire breakfast was taken off instead of just the breakfast credit. But this was a while ago. Haven't been to these hotels on an FHR rate recently.

Venetian and Bellagio were not memorable at all.

MO service was a bit too over the top... intrusive may be too strong a word but that's what it felt like. The lobby staff actually recognize you and greet you by your last name. Some people may like it, but I found it to be wierd.

The FS was awesome but I don't remember if that's on FSPP or FHR. We emailed the hotel ahead of time to alerted them that we would be bringing our kids with us, so make sure they give us a room with two beds. They called back and asked for the ages of the kids and also whether we planned on using the mandalay pool (we said yes). When we arrived, we found two plates of "chocolate puzzle" with our kids' names written in chocolate syrup. In the bathroom we found letter sponges spelled with our kids' name and bubble bath stuff. In the closet we found two sets of kids bathrobes and slippers, and also pool toys (I guess that's why they asked if we plan on using the pool). Oh, it was mother's day weekend, so they had a box of chocolate and a flower for my wife as well. This was in just a normal room (not a suite or anything like that). My wife thought I planned it. In hindsight I should have claimed credit. It couldn't have cost them more than $20 to put this stuff together, but that kind of (surprise) service is one that people remember, and what will get us to keep going back. They also allowed us to combine our lunch credit and breakfast credit for the mother's day brunch. I do average 10 - 15 nights / yr at FS properties for work and pleasure, so maybe that had something to do with it.

ayodeji13

So is consensus that MO has the best amenities/service of the LV FHR properties?

AFAM-DFW

Depends on the type of Vegas hotel experience that you want. I love the MO but my wife is a slot player and prefers to be in a gaming hotel. However, we both agree that the MOZen has the best breakfast in Vegas

pastrami5

Does anybody have any recent experience with booking FHR suites at Wynn or Encore and which rooms they have gotten when they received an upgrade?

I am looking at a weekend coming up... Saturday, Sunday, Monday night.

The Wynn site shows the following availability:
Tower Suites - Wynn:

• Tower Room
• Executive Suite
• Parlor Suite
• Salon Suite

Tower Suites - Encore:

• Tower Suite

I am highly interested in the room upgrade.

If an upgrade is available (I've had good success in the past from Parlors -> Salons):
- Does the Wynn Tower Room upgrade to an Exec (not that big of an upgrade) or a Parlor (I've heard of both cases)?
- If I booked a Wynn Tower Room, got an FHR upgrade to Exec, can I pay to get into a Parlor? And if so, does anybody know what that rate is typically?
- Have people received an upgrade from Wynn Exec -> Parlor? The FHR site never shows Exec rooms, although Wynn's site does, so wondering if this room falls outside FHR and doesn't upgrade to or from?
- I am assuming that an Encore upgrade is slim given the availability of higher level rooms are not displayed on the site... or does anybody have experience with the site not actually reflecting inventory?

Thanks.

sorrowfull

I stayed at the Wynn and Encore a few months ago.

I booked 2 rooms for 2 nights in the Wynn tower suite and both got upgraded to an executive suite. I asked if I could get a 2 bedroom Salon suite instead (salon with attached tower suite) and was told I could upgrade for $200 a night. I accepted.

I booked 3 rooms for 4 nights at Encore. When I checked in, they didn't mention any upgrade. When I asked if I could get any upgrades, the person checking me in told me there were no suites available. I asked if I could pay for an upgrade, and another clerk who just happened to be there said there were plenty of parlors and salons available. The clerk checking me in gave her a death stare and begrudgingly upgraded all 3 to parlor suites. If the new clerk hadn't shown up, I would have been stuck in regular tower suites.

mlad1101

If you call Amex, they can tell you the exact upgrade policy per property. (Which booked room upgrades into which room category)

tyberius

Just be careful as some of these hotels refuse to upgrade suites. (Bellagio for instance). You can't upgrade into a suite nor can you upgrade a suite if you have one.

Wynn I think will upgrade suites, but you can't leapfrog (i.e. next category, if available, otherwise nothing). So don't expect Parlor. If you want Parlor you should book the Exec and cross your fingers. Sometimes a hotel will upgrade you into any available higher category room, but I don't know if any of them will say that they do this as policy, maybe case by case basis.

Amex will prefer to just read back the FHR program policy to you word for word if you ask. Most of the agents you deal with will not have the practical experience of being there on the ground and having hotels interpret the program in different ways (above and also below the expectations from the program agreement). When the hotel departs from the program there is nothing Amex or you can do, it is just suck it up, tell other people, and never return (i.e. have I said that Bellagio refuses to honor upgrades even if available when you have a suite?

mia

Merged pastrami5's question into the established FHR/Las Vegas thread. reviewing previous posts should be helpful.

xray

I have rarely missed a FHR upgrade at Wynncore Tower Suites. Weekends are obviously a bit dicey compared to weekdays. Encore TS to Encore Parlour is the best deal. However, with no online availability, I wouldn't chance it.

For Wynn, I would book Exec Suite if you want the Parlour Upgrade. Even though there aren't very many Exec Suites and people have received the upgrade from TS to Parlour, it's not the official policy so I would go with the official 1-category if available route.

For Bellagio, I believe it's in the FHR contract what the highest upgrade category is - which excludes the suites. People do get further upgrades but YMMV depending on who checks you in. For this reason, I don't book FHR at Bellagio. I usually go with AAA rate and get the comps on the back end if I want a larger suite than my comp grade...

S.Bling

Wynn (and Encore) tower is all-suites.

Many other (especially the newer) hotels are too.
The Bellagio is noticably different in that they have far smaller rooms than their competitors.

So yes, The Wynn tower will upgrade with FHR to the next category of suite - but only from the base level.
They don't guarantee to upgrade from an exec to a salon, etc = though if you ask nicely you may receive.

RedPanda5

heads up the MGM Skylofts no longer upgrade from 1 bdrm to 2brm. I read this on tripadvisor and confirmed it directly with them:

xray

I don't understand the part in her reply about this is for ALL hotels, not just Skylofts ? Is she saying that upgrades are not a part of FHR contracts anymore - this would be hard to believe.

RedPanda5

i too found that troubling, I think she is mistaken and trying to disuade me from canceling my existing reservation.

JoeBloe123

Sounds like it. My experience matches xray's. I too have heard (but not tried) skyloft 1-2 upgrade is a no-go these days, but this seemed to be limited to skylofts. Recent (<4wks) personal travel suggests that the "ALL hotels" bit is incorrect.

--JoeBloe

Aaron01

That worried me as well, but I don't believe that's true as I recentely received the 2012 FHR book and it did mention upgrades, even for the Vegas properties.