Gobber

Thanks, they are still there at FHR, however, you just get some perks while staying there as a Platinum(no redemption at least under my program). Does anyone know, can you get perks without having hotel booking via Amex? It asked to call them in order to book the rate, as far as I remember, and I hate calling, waiting, explaining while you can just press a button twice during nighttime to book online directly at the hotel website.

yosithezet

Lennys26v2

Having been following the thread since the start, I am curious as to any recent stay updates.

I have 2 bookings coming up in March:

• 1 via Chase -- This booking was recognized by Chase as an error early-on however they are honoring my booking and converted it to a prepaid, nonrefundable/non-changeable reservation. This booking is confirmed as per the Ritz.
• 1 via Citi - Citi has confirmed on 2 separate occasions that the reservation is valid however the Ritz says that they have no booking in my name. When I asked Citi why the Ritz had no knowledge of it, I was told that because Citi Travel (Connexions Loyalty, at the time) is a third party reseller, the hotel will not have record of the stay until 72 hours prior to arrival. When I mentioned that this did not make me comfortable, the agent insisted that this was normal and that the reservation was in fact valid.

My stay is in March, and assuming I don't get a call from Citi a few days beforehand as some have had, I honestly do expect that I will arrive and the Ritz will have no idea who I am. I will then have to pay for the room and start the dispute with Citi.

funkydory

Curious for updates

Lennys26v2

I completed my stay at the Ritz several in early March. The short version is that the Ritz had no reservations on file. Following weeks of calls to the inept and non-responsive Connexions Loyalty, they finally determined that due to an internal Connexions Loyalty error, my reservation had been made at another hotel (in another country). Connexions has issued me a refund check for the amount that I paid to the hotel directly.

Thoughts, Comments:

• I expected that the Ritz would have not reservation, despite multiple confirmations from Connexions by phone, and email stating otherwise, so I was not terribly surprised at check-in.
• The Ritz was very helpful in getting me checked in and sorted. While I was checking in, the concierge was already on the phone to Citi/Connexions trying to sort out what happened and what could be done. Throughout the stay, I understand that they attempted to contact Citi/Connexions several times and the calls were either disconnected or they were unable to discuss the situation with anyone because of 'security' and 'privacy protection'.
• Connexions was a nightmare of ineptness, lack of responsive and inability to investigate. At the final count, I had spoken to 13 different agents and managers in two different call centers. That said, they were a middle-man in the deal, so all of the investigation involved them calling Expedia who actually made the reservations, and from what I gathered, Expedia service is even worse.

All in all, this is the game that we play when booking these things, so I am not particularly surprised by the overall confusion, and I take it all as part of the deal. And, in the end, I did make out well -- Got the deal, big $ spend on my Bonvoy CC which was refunded by check, and got 6x Bonvoy bonus for the hotel although I was told by Bonvoy that this was a non-participating hotel chain.