Nick Art

Tomorrow on July 2nd the Fairmont President's Club will be integrated in to Le Club AccorHotels.

I'm not quite sure as to how I should feel, but I think user nmenaker described it quite well: It just feels as if a dear friend will be put down tomorrow and there is nothing we can do.

So today on July 1st as we near the end of our beloved Fairmont President's Club I've taken a moment to sit down and ask myself as to what would be a fitting goodbye to my favorite Hotel loyality program. This thread is what I came up with:

So while I sip a little more of my champagne and endulge myself in nostalgia on how things used to be I ask you to share your memories and experiences or just any story you had with the Fairmont President's Club or with Fairmont Hotels in general with me and others in this thread, so we can remember and say Farewell to this great program together.

I'm looking forward to hear all of them.
Thanks for your time and Farewell FPC!

Brendan

Remember "Goodbye, Mr, Chips?" Now it's "Farewell Mr./ Mrs. Fairmont!"

HeavenlyJane

I spent this morning booking 3 nights at the Fairmont Royal York (Toronto), using room-upgrade and 3rd-night-free certs. I thought my swan song would include a suite but they are renovating the floor where the suites are.

As for memories, Fairmont taught me and my husband the meaning of aspirational hotels. We honeymooned in a campground in Banff and told ourselves we'd return someday and stay at the Chateau Lake Louise. We fulfilled that promise for our 27 anniversary, courtesy of our freshly minted credit card. The following year, it was a river-view suite in a tower of the Chateau Frontenac. Year 3 we hit a bonanza: the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, following by a weekend at the Hamilton Princess (Bermuda), then a weekend at the Fairmont Mayakoba (Mexico) and then final get-away to the Fairmont Washington; all because each time we came home we found our certs had not been marked redeemed. Year 4 was a weekend at the Montreaux Palace in Switzerland. Year 5 (2018), our final set of certificates were spent at the Fairmont Royal Pavilion in Barbados.

There are so may fine Fairmont hotels that we never get to stay at for free. It was a truly sweet run.

Arthurrs

Sad to see the program go, but really looking forward to August when I take my family to Hawaii to the Kea Lani and the Orchid and burn through several certificates before my son goes for his final year of undergrad, and my daughter starts graduate school!!

Maybe a long weekend this fall with my wife in Banff or Jasper as well to use up the remaining certificates?

Gotta figure out the best bang for the buck with all these certs!!

Jasper2009

Great photo!^

What a sad day indeed to see a great hotel chain and loyalty program go down the drain.

One of the few hotel chains that truly understood the meaning of loyalty; a loyalty program that actually succeeded in creating loyalty and meaningful benefits; helpful and knowledgable customer service agents; employees that were empowered and often went the extra mile.

Having had the pleasure of spending over 500 nights across ~30 Fairmont hotels, Fairmont has played a major role in many trips taken with family and friends. Especially the Fairmont Macdonald, the Fairmont Pacific Rim and the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge were like a 2nd home at times.

Farewell FPC!

lbotez

Just got back from the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park last night. What a lovely hotel. Got upgraded to Fairmont Gold for a reasonable price, and totally enjoyed the breakfast, and the Gold Lounge and all the extras and wonderful service. Definitely will do that again sometime soon. And a month ago got back from staying at the wonderful Fairmont Kea Lani... been there a couple of times... got to love that hotel and their wonderful beach. Last year went to the Fairmont Royal Pavillon in Barbados.

Sad to see them taken over by Accor, but am hoping to see them keep it going; perhaps not as generous for frequent guests, but hope they keep what makes the Fairmont Hotels so special.

Good luck, Accor.

codesinvan

My wife and I are very sad to see it go. We loved Fairmont - especially the older (and pre-renovated hotels). It was always our first choice while on vacation and the loyalty program made that easy to continue to do by rewarding us and prvided exxceptional service and value.

We've been trying Starwood/Marriott and Accor over the last few years in preparation and it is just not the same. A modern Sofitel or JW just does not have the feeling of a Fairmont and I think that maybe it was the last of its kind. . .

Farewell.

laner

Definitely sad to see the end of FPC. I started with the program over a decade ago as I was spending a lot of time in Vancouver & Montreal for work and we had a corporate rate with Fairmont. Between work and pleasure I have since stayed in all but two of the Canadian Fairmonts, plus several in the US as well as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Montreux. Montreux was one of my favourite Fairmont memories - we took a detour there on our honeymoon on the way from Spain to Greece - without FPC we never would have thought to go but we were very glad we did (the upgrade to a Lakeview Suite certainly didn't hurt!). We're heading back to Banff in August to burn our remaining certificates. I'm sure I'll continue to stay at Fairmont when the opportunity arises, but it won't be my default choice and I'll definitely be shopping around more in the future.

longtimeflyin

My loyalty to Fairmont is now gone. An end to a great era.

Guava

This is a sad moment especially because Accor's customer service is questionable at best. I doubt many of us will stick with Accor given the fierce competition out there for our business and there is nothing special or remarkable about Accor that the other hotels and chains don't have or do better.

makfan

My favorite loyalty memory had nothing to do with the program per se, but one time when Vancouver had a series of snow storms and I spent an entire day having my flights to SFO cancelled, I called the Airport Fairmont and they somehow got me into a room. I don't know who got bumped, but I was incredibly loyal after that.

I also appreciate the cards with the little welcome amenities. Yeah, the amenity itself has steadily shrunk over the years, but I liked being welcomed back or welcomed for the first time at a new property. I've stayed at a huge percentage of the North American properties.

Between this and the Starwood / Marriott merger, I've spent 20 years accumulating status and will be falling back in both programs. I'll never be able to make the new Accor platinum level nor the combined SPG/Marriott platinum level. The new lifetime gold level in SPG/Marriott only includes 2 pm late checkout. I guess I can kiss the 4 pm late checkout goodbye once my rollover status expires. Might as well start booking on price and location.

Guava

Accor allows you to achieve status by spending, which can in fact makes it easier to requalify for top status than under FPC. The way they count spending tends to favor FPC members who spend given that most incidentals such as dinning do count towards that spending total.

MasterGeek

Brendan

Makfan, that room became available for you perhaps because somebody was stuck in SFO trying to fly to YVR !

makfan

Thank you for this info. I had a bunch of Accor activity last year in April and May on by RTW trip and I did notice that I was elevated in status along the way after what seemed to be relatively few stays. I hadn't really researched it, was just booking hotels as I went based on location, reviews, and availability.

Problem was that Accor hotels are few and far between in my area. I had to do a mattress run to Redwood City to keep my points alive. I won't have too much trouble now.