dgwright99

Here's what I typically get as a plat in NA:

CP - club floor room, exec room or both. If neither, then usually free breakfast in the resteraunt. Sometimes I also get a free drink coupon for the bar.

HI - Not much; a few times I've been given a coupon for a free breakfast. Sometimes a nicer room, but this is usually just a room away from the road or on a higher floor.

HIX - Better than HI - often get a suite or bigger room. Varies by hotel, but IME many HIXs are more dilligent about explicitly recognizing plat status than HIs or even many CPs.

In EU and Asia I get Exec room upgrades almost every time at CP and HI.

DoubleJ

This pretty much sums up my general experiences with PC Plat recognition in the US as well. I tend to expect to receive a "preferred" room, by my definition a room on a higher floor, newer in terms of being more recently renovated and/or with newer furnishing, or perhaps one slightly larger. If I'm given a discernable room upgrade (one clearly to the next class of room type or above), so much the better.

Radioman

Well holtju2 a lot of folk dont have a choice but to use these limited service hotels and they try and make the best of what they can get out of it all, espeically if your having to travel a lot for work and spend a lot of time away from home.

Not every company or individual can afford to spend nights at ICs, for me I am lucky enough these days to be able to spend nights at CPs when travelling on company business, but a few years ago it was mostly HIx and HIs (and even then at a push). Also there are a very limited number of ICs in places where there are lots more HIs/HIx for folk to use.

So if I am travelling on business and go into an area and there is Hilton or an HIX, well I will stay at the HIX, as I will earn points for my preffered hotel programme and with some of the promos (as you know) the earning potential is great.

So please dont be so quick to knock the whole thing. I see it too many times in other FT Forums where we seem to have this "We are ELITE" and have massive travel budgets and fly what class and stay whereever we want, this is not good for FT and does not help others who are just out to earn some free nights in order to take thier families away for a well earned vacation in 2008.

Lets not have a "CLASS" issue within PC forum as we have managed to keep away from it, which IMHO is excellant.

At the end of the day if someones company is paying for things then at least you are getting a small return from your company for putting up with the work and also a return from the hotel for being loyal. To me this can be worth �1000s of pounds a year in free hotel nights and what have I spent on it? Hmmm nothing..........what a fantastic return.....

aleinvolo

Obvious, in continental Europe we're more generous

dgwright99

LOL.....but, is it really so generous to position HI as an upscale chain in continental EU ?

Like Radioman, I can't justify an IC (even though, unlike Radioman I could stay there if I chose), and except during gaps between promos, I stay at an ICHG property for the points. It's nice that HI/HIX in EU has exec rooms, though I don't enjoy the room rates (even when $US - EUR was 1:1).

To be honest, although UGs are nice, as I typically spend only 8-9 hours in a hotel, and the great majority of that time I'm asleep, so I'd prefer it EU has US-style HI/HIXs at something closer to US prices.