echelon0911

I spoke with Citi concierge tonight about four nights in Vegas. They were unaware of the MasterCard World Elite benefits at the Wynn and could not book it that way. They were able to do 4th night free however.

armstwa

I am booked via concierge and 4th night free for this exact same thing for my honeymoon the end of this month. Did you get a room upgrade? If so, how'd it go?

Thanks!

CaroPalms

I was on the phone with them for an hour last night. 30 minutes was waiting to get a representative (I put it on speaker phone and was doing stuff around the house so not a huge deal), but the other 30 minutes was trying to find a rate for a hotel in NYC. I knew the hotel and the dates, so the time wasn't spent searching for suggestions. The representative did not know what the World Elite rate was, and I had to explain it to him a few times. He was finally able to get to their website, but it was still taking a while to get any information.

It ended up being too late, so I gave up, asked him to email me the rates, and he said an email would be sent between 24 -72 hours.

Based off of this, I think the transition to Aspire concierge may take a little bit longer to work out the issues.

dinkoh

Any way to get MC World Elite hotel benefits without using Citi travel agent? I have a conference rate, but I wanted to take advantage of free upgrade and breakfast by using the Prestige card without going through CWT.

FlyingDoctorwu

You have to book a specif rate to get the benefits. There is an online booking engine. But, it's not an addon to already booked rates.

Fdw

Mavericks

Can you provide some clarity on this? I don't think I have seen a successful testimonial of this working recently. I attempted with booking a reservation at the Encore and the representative provided what sound like a made up answer which stated that Prestige no longer has the WEMC benefits. I asked her to explain why would a WEMC would not have the WEMC benefits and she couldn't clearly articulate that.

detaude

So last night I called up Citi Prestige and talked at length to a service rep from concierge about the details of the program.

According to him, the MC World Elite is a separate program and cannot be combined with the 4th night complimentary benefit. He said I could call up MC World Elite separately to obtain the MCWE special but Citi Prestige reps cannot book those. I pointed out to him that MCWE is still listed as one of the card's benefits in the terms and conditions but he correctly pointed out the fact that the relationship formally ended on 12/31/2015 - which leads to my question about 2016...

For 2016, he said Citi Prestige has a similar program that will provide you with specials such as free breakfast/late check out but you would have to ask the concierge rep to search for it when you are booking. Those promotional specials can be combined with the 4th night complimentary benefit because they are both booked through Citi. We ran through a couple of searches just to test it out and the benefits actually mostly reflect the MC World Elite program.

Cons: we can't search for these specials online and have to painfully go through 30 mins of phone conversation each time to find them. Also, Citi Prestige actually doesn't have an official name for their version of the MC World Elite! In fact, the rep I talked to was having difficulties describing what it is because it's not a formal program yet.

Overall, I m glad the benefit is there but it's difficult to find someone from Citi who is knowledgeable about it (the first rep I talked to was clueless and transferred me) and the process to book it is somewhere between painful and annoying.

Oh yeah, first time posting, long time reader. :-)

mia

Welcome to Flyertalk.

What's wrong with this? Does it matter to you if you call someone outsourced by Citi rather than someone outsourced by MasterCard?

dw

I haven't actually done this, but the Mastercard page for World Elite benefits does have a link to a travel agency partner where you can book the World Elite hotel rates online:

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/cons...-benefits.html

You just have to make sure you book the Mastercard rate, as regular rates (without any of the World Elite benefits) also show up in the search results.

detaude

Nah, it really doesn't matter who picks up the phone but it would be ideal if the program could be less complicated. I mean, I just wish they made an online site that will let the card user search and book hotels (with the 4th night benefit and the extra world elite ammenities, of course) without having to have an in-depth conversation with the concierge rep on the phone every time. It's the 21st century, people are lazy and don't want to talk on the phone anymore, haha.

Mavericks

Quick follow-up with my experience. I found the benefit the above poster mentioned by visiting citi.com/concierge. After logging in, click on hotels from the travel nav menu. On that page you can search by name. In my case I planned on staying at the Wynn and saw the benefits. You can then click to send a request to the concierge which contains a rate code.

JAGMAP

Speaking in general and without naming anyone, I don't understand how a vendor who already provides similar services to other companies, and one with stringent SLAs and remarkably high QA scores, is proving such a disappointment.

When a company hires a vendor, it oftentimes must pay to train newly assigned employees. Assume this rate exceeds $30/hour. If the primary function is booking travel, employees should have some prior experience, but this was not required. And I would probably have fairly high expectations.

If I were a financial institution paying for training, headcount, technology, etc. for a service solely designed to increase my revenue, I'd be disappointed.

If I were a global payment processor who negotiated value-added benefits, such as a Luxury Hotel Program (or I were a hotel owner who forecasted participation), to a counterparty who makes it difficult for consumers to take advantage, I'd be disappointed.

If I were a card issuer, and had a third-party vendor instructing consumers to book travel elsewhere, in the most lucrative spend category (the one that puts dinner on everyone's plates), I'd be embarrassed and livid.

If I were the vendor, who may also be a highly experienced travel agency well-versed in how commissions are earned, I'd feel stupid. For example, what if a major hotel chain pays a special 25% commission for booking suites, and one of my newly minted employees told an affluent consumer to book his or her 5 night stay in a $2,500/night designer suite elsewhere? Someone just lost $3,125. On a $20,000 First Class ticket to Hong Kong with an airline that provided a 35% concession on premium class travel, that's $7,000 #ouch (real world examples).

Furthermore, if that consumer places spend on a different credit card, the vendor also just caused an additional 2.5% loss in swipe fees.

Lastly, if I were a vendor who already had certain travel agency distinctions with suppliers that provided similar benefits such as free breakfast or late checkout, I would stop confusing consumers with other programs, and (just) take credit for the special status a supplier awarded based on historical booking volume.

troyb

Trying to book this rate is truly maddening.

I've spoken to probably half a dozen agents over the past month while trying to book various hotels in different cities. Not a single one knew what the rate was, nor did they understand what I was trying to explain. I give up.

DG206

Using the MC World Elite hotel benefit for first time. Called MC number, no issues booking 1 night at the Palacio Del Inka in Cuzco Peru. She said over the phone that yes, I am eligible for the free upgrade (if available), free breakfast, blah blah, and the $100 spa credit. Specifically booked this because my wife is into spas but my invoice that was emailed from CWT (who MC contracts) mentions nothing about this, or even has any sort of booking code it may fall under or anything. Should there be anything on the invoice?

smurov

Did you find the rate per night to be good compared to what you could get either directly from the hotel or a third-party?