Jasper2009

ThatŽs my understanding as well.

The points can redeemed for gift cards and ovation certs (which can be used at Swissotel/Fairmont/Raffles hotels). Generally speaking redeeming gift cards gets you a value of 1 cent per point, so a $150GC for 15000points. YouŽll need a minimum of 25000points to redeem for an ovation cert.

Btw, just in case you didnŽt know. The earning rates are much better when using the CC at Fairmont hotels (5 points per $) and travel (2points per $). For regular puchases a 1% return isnŽt great, but a 5% discount on stays at Fairmont hotes canŽt be bet.

rfrost

+1. I decided I would NOT use my points for the Fairmont GCs, continuing to pay for my rooms at Fairmonts with the CC instead, and hoard my points for Ovation certs to use for something I probably wouldn't otherwise do, like a suite at Raffles Singapore.
For those who want GCs, IIRC, the Amazon GCs are a slightly better deal than most of the other GCs.

felicity5

I didn't see an answer to the question as to whether an authorized user can use the free nights certificate without the cardholder coming along.

I am curious to know the answer.
Thanks

koolr

Does anyone know if I can use 2 free nights certificate at Fairmont Mara Safari Club in Kenya?

Jasper2009

Afaik free night certs can be used there, however - if IŽm not mistaken - youŽd have to pay for the meals and the game drives separately which wouldnŽt make it such a great deal. As IŽm not 100% sure about the details, please double check with the property.

koolr

I checked at Fairmont Masa Safari site for the rates around Christmas 2013, and the rates are over $700! So, the free night certificate might save some bucks?

Jasper2009

The $700 rate youŽre seeing most likely includes all meals and two game drives daily (it should be in the rate details). However, some rates (e.g. when the Masai Mara is included in the monthy GRGD) only include accommodation. As free night certs generally only cover accommodation, IŽd double-check how free night certs work at that property.

koolr

Thanks!

lkar

How long after approval did your accounts upgrade to premier (for those of you with no status)? It's been over a week for me. I'm worried I did not properly enter my FPC number. Is there any way to check whether they have been properly linked?

Edit: Premier and the dining certs just showed up, so the answer in my case is about 8 days, FWIW.

PedroNY

Thank you for being patient with me, I appreciate it. I did just finish reading this whole thread, 400+ posts and I did learn a ton of information, thank you everyone. For sanity check, I just want to make sure my "plan" works and that I am not missing something here.

* Currently I do not belong to this program, my wife does not belong either.
* We can both sign up for the program independently and then both apply for a credit card
* we both will receive 2 free nights, for a total of 4 nights
* we both will receive breakfast for two with each free night
* we both will receive 1 Suite Upgrade (up to 5 consecutive nights)
* every March 1st (assuming we each keep our cards) we will receive 1 additional Suite Upgrade per account.

I do not plan to spend $12,000/year on the card, so I understand that I will not receive free night every year.

I hope I got this right.

Can I redeem all 4 nights (2 from me and 2 from my wife) consecutively at the same hotel and only use 1 Suite Upgrade (mine) and reserve my wife's Suite Upgrade for a later date/stay? Or we each must use one, as it would be two separate redemptions coming from separate accounts?

We are not planning to stay at Plaza or Savoy, an I understand that I need to have base room available and a suite available to get the upgrade.

Thank you,

PedroNY

Jasper2009

Almost correct. As long as you keep the credit card youŽll have Premier status which gets you 1 suite upgrade cert, 1 room upgrade cert and 1 third night free cert each per membership year (so new certs on March 1 every year).

YouŽd have two separate reservation, and as Premier members cannot transfer certs, youŽd technically need to redeem a suite upgrade cert each.

Some hotels have a more liberal policy when it comes to such issues, so you could politely ask to have your two reservations linked and ask them to redeem your suite upgrade cert and hope for the best, but itŽs nothing you should expect.

Yes, a Fairmont room needs to be available to use a free night cert, the "designated suite upgrade category" (typically lowest or lowest two suites) needs to be available to use the suite upgrade cert; plus your dates mustnŽt be blacked out for certs (please see Master FAQ thread for details; basically each hotels has a few dates where certs canŽt be used such as NYE, Christmas, Thanksgiving etc.)

PedroNY

Thank you for your excellent and detailed response!

pickles1107

Regarding the above, I had no issue combining mine and my wife's two free nights into one reservation and then applying a single suite upgrade for the 4 nights at the Kea Lani. I did not know that technically this was bending the rules a little bit. Thanks for the info... ^

mrstraveler

Just met spend for this card, statement closes in a couple of weeks, excited about getting my package too. Third night free? Did you receive a T & C with your package that explained the cancelation policy? Wondering what the rules are regarding changing dates or hotels after booking.


Huh, so after applying "free breakfast" certificates you still end up paying about $25.

We're looking to spend our certificates at the Kea Lani too

Ancien Maestro

Interesting reading through the whole thread and I'm personally glad Fairmont decided to make a splash in the US. This will build a nice loyalty foundation for the FPC program.

Question: Ovation Category C certificates, what category of suite does this book into for Fairmont Kea Lani?

I see on https://www4.aeroplan.com/mrch/trave...odCC00877.html that the reward can be redeemed for 48,500 AE miles. Imo not a very good use of miles, as its less than 1 cent per mile based ont he $380 category c sell rate. If the standard room is Fairmont Parking Lot view, then there is really no point to go through the trouble of obtaining and manually redeeming these certificates. Once you lose the certificate, then its lost. Or maybe you can redeem ovation certificates electronically? I haven't read that this is possible.

To be truthful, I've been looking into the Hyatt program more closely recently. We spent about 55 nights last year at Fairmonts, and this year we're travelling to places that don't necessarily have Fairmont. 3 weeks in Orlando, but we booked Floridays 3 bedroom condo for the 3 weeks for a monthly rate this time around. Just booked 5 weeks in the summer laying over in California for a week, heading to Hawaii for 4. 13 nights at the Hawaii Fairmonts, leaving over 50% of the Hawaii trip elsewhere. So 60 nights travel, 13 nights Fairmonts. 12 nights Fairmonts this year so far. Plat5 member here in Canada.