bhsu21

Am I able to book the room on AA.com and use my Diamond suite upgrade?

I think I read some rates they won't accept.

SeamasterLux

should be fine

Diamond suite upgrade cert work but points don't

bhsu21

Thanks!

I called the Diamond line to be sure before I went ahead.

They said for just hotels it's okay, but for flight+hotel packages you can't.

Just wanted to share for future reference.

bhsu21

Just booked this hotel for June and looking forward to it after reading all the reviews.

First time Diamond member and used my suite upgrade.

After it was confirmed, I asked what type of room it'd be upgraded to. She said the Andaz Suite.

What are my chances of getting upgraded to a larger room at the time of check in?

Is that just something they would do automatically if there is availability?

SeamasterLux

Absolutely zero

Definitely not

Sorry but that's the way it is at the Andaz 5th

The Andaz Suite is already not so bad.

RichardInSF

However, it's not a suite, no matter what they call it.

I have read in this thread where some folks have been upgraded beyond this level. So the chance is greater than zero, but it may not be much greater than zero.

hotelfanatic

In June - is zero. Come back next Jan/Feb and your chances for the 2 BR suite increase if you stay only 1 or 2 nights.

bhsu21

Thanks for your replies.

I did read old posts and saw some got upgraded to larger suites, but I understand it's summer so it'll be much busier.

Will be happy with the Andaz Suite and hope I get lucky.

verve

Just checked-in here an hour ago and got upgraded to a beautiful 2 bdr suite.
Now I finally understand why the GH down on 42nd is so poor - I guess they want to keep the differentiation quite high...

suspire

And yet it is larger and nicer than more expensive "suites" in some of the other NYC hotels, so YMMV. It just depends on whether you're hung up on the specifics of what entails a suite or you're more interested in the best experience.

SeamasterLux

True that I arrived there in September so very peak season but they even tried to downgrade me I won't tell the whole story again since I already mentioned it at that time and I even discussed that with the GM over the phone a week after. He was quite keen on getting some comments.

I don't know if it's any better but the fact that all reception staff is considered as concierge isn't serious at all. They were, last September, in serious need of a golden key concierge.

Benner

Stayed at this property a couple of weeks ago for seven days. It is one of my favourite Hyatt hotels...

I used a Diamond Suite upgrade. Was upgraded to an Andaz Suite, which was nice but was a little on the small side, especially in comparison to the suite I had last time, where they upgraded me to the two bedroom one. The suite had a balcony which was cool and was on the top floor.

A few things about the property:

Housekeeping: The folks in housekeeping do an excellent job. The room was well cleaned every day. A small thing, but I had a little tube of toothpaste that was almost out. The housekeeper noticed and put a new box of toothpaste beside it. That made me happy

Sofa bed: I had a friend crash with me and he slept on the sofa bed. It was really comfortable. Most sofa beds are awful but the ones they have are good.

Breakfast: We ordered quite a bit of food every morning for breakfast, and as a Diamond I didn't have to pay anything. Breakfast was pretty slow when ordered in the morning (took about an hour) so if you are in a rush you will want to pre-order the evening before.

Cabs: Catching a cab on 5th can be kind of tricky, so you are better off to walk to Madison, etc.

Gym: The gym is quite nice and wasn't busy at all. It would be nice if they added a couple of pieces of equipment, but overall it is a decent hotel gym.

Overall a really good stay (as usual). I ended up extending the stay by a night and they didn't charge me the higher rate which was displayed on the website, but charged me my original rate of $395, which I thought was kind of classy.

frogss29

Stayed here for four nights last week.
We had booked a loft room but were upgraded to a suite.
Lovely room!
Very clean and sleek.
Sort of like the way Grand Hyatt has been redone but with more care to the details and quality IMHO
Love the Nespresso machine, the microwave and big fridge.
We had our breakfast delivered each morning.
It says breakfast is available 24/7 so I am assuming that means the $75 credit can be applied all the day??
Breakfast was really lovely!
Only problem was that when we came to check out we had extra $$$ from our breakfasts to be paid.
It turns out that although the menu prices changed last January, they forgot to remove/replace the old menu in our room.
The girl at the front desk was unable/unwilling to deal with this. But, surprisingly, they WERE able to come to the room and replace the offending price list!
It sort of soured my stay until I contacted Meghan, the Front Office Manager, who immediately deleted the extra charges.
The only other minor problem we had was in trying to make a restaurant reservation that we found in the hotels info manual. The staff member we spoke to in the lobby said there was no need to make a reservation.
So, we walked there.....only fifteen minute walk.
But when we finally found it , it was shut. And had been since last March.
The only other odd thing that happened was the taxi driver from JFK had NO idea where the hotel was.
Maybe it was our Australian accent????
But I told him it was on the corner of 5th and 41st........and he drove straight by it.
It is sort of exclusively hidden!!!!

Benner

Was checking my Visa bill today and noticed a couple of extra charges from the hotel. Called them and they said they were for overages on the breakfast beyond the $75 charge. Both charges were over $100.

The guy at the hotel stated that the Diamond breakfast benefit was up to $75 (nobody mentioned it at the hotel). I had him remove the first charge, but felt the second one was somewhat reasonable as we had two guests for breakfast and ordered a lot of food.

Still a good deal, but you will want to make sure you don't go over $75! Fairly easy to do with sides, juices, etc.

hotelfanatic

Am very surprise as they usually tell you at breakfast if the bill is taken care of. If they knew you exceeded $75, they should have informed you of the overage. I myself never exceeded $75 and they've always told me everything is taken care of and I typically leave a tip behind. But is good to know they are enforcing the $75 policy.