Combining Suite Upgrades with Virtuoso Upgrades?
 

I have just booked a stay at the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica.

I booked a base level room, and used a suite upgrade to move to the Pallisade Suite (the designated suite upgrade category). The Virtuoso rate comes with an 'Upgrade at time of booking,' however the hotel is stating that that upgrade will not be valid, because I am using a certificate.

I had come to expect that Virtuoso upgrades (and likely similar AMEX FHR upgrades) were valid no matter whether an FPC certificate is used or not, so this surprised me.

Does anyone have any experience with this at Miramar or other Fairmont hotels? Has this changed in the past year?

FPC benefits (incl. the use of room/suite upgrade certs) are stackable with any benefits offered through Virtuoso / AMEX FHR / Travel Leaders Select / etc.

Some hotels exclude their speciality / top-level suites from any upgrade benefit, but I see no reason why the hotel shouldn't offer an upgrade from the Pallisades Suite to the Ocean View Suite (previously: Grand Pallisades Suite), for instance, if it's available at time of check-in.

Thanks Jasper. I would totally understand the exclusion for the top-level or specialty suites, but I was surprised at their reluctance on the more base level suites.

Is there some document or source material that I can point to that states this rule, for when I am questioned about this?

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any such document or a published "rule", it's just how virtually all properties tend to handle this IME (and it's the only logical approach IMHO).

But at the end of the day the "upgrade based on availability" is pretty much at the hotel's discretion; though checking availability before arriving and politely asking at check-in may be a goodidea.

I got this from AmEx today, on a FHR booking. “We can add your FPC number but know that you can’t get any of your FPC benefits because you booked via FHR” what???