mparel

I never want to put a staff person in a position where he / she feels bad & always treat them the way I would want to be treated. Never complained but made a single call to a senior customer relations person I've known for a while and a Jr. suite became available.

lsed

So what is the upgrade policy for RAs these days?
I booked using my ITN certificates and wrote in to inform them of a special celebration for this trip (stayed here about 6 times the past 3- 4 years).
I also sent a picture copy to show proof.

Received a reply from a reservations consultant that the special occasion has been noted.

However I see on my account that I've received the usual upgrade of Opera View deluxe room that I've been upgraded to the last 3 trips.

I'm wondering if I should inquire again if I can get the Junior Suite instead. What do you guys think?

336

All depends on your preferences. It is open for debate whether a junior suite (no view) is better than an opera deluxe. As a regular Ambassador I have been upgraded twice to a junior when I did book club rate.

scubaccr

ITN cert is booking as an award stay not paid so no RA right to an upgrade. PLG do upgrade on awards too as I am sure you know, but it is incorrect to expect the same extra generous upgrade on award like on a paid stay. Chances are as an RA award gets Exec Room and Paid gets J/S as initial modify

Chances are your initial upgrade will be further boosted at checkin if PLG is not busy, maybe to a Presigue Suite but not an opera view even on award as your special day is noted
On my two birthday stays I get nice cake and full bottle if champagne without even asking . So PLG may give you a bottle instead of extra room upgrade boost

As a regular on paid nights I know I as RA am in line for better upgrade on my paid stay over award stays. I tend not to mix my paid/award stays though
PLG know my preferences - and eg I will turn down an internal view full suite upgrade for an external view J/S.
I used to often get j/s with side view of opera if you go to balcony/window but these days they give me othe rooms as they know I am not bothered if I get one of limited number of rooms with opera view
I don't think you can normally expect both upgrade of room and the best view, you have to compromise in one of the aspects room or view

lsed

Thanks for the replies 336, scubaccr.

Well I used to love the opera view deluxe rooms, they used to have L'Occitane toiletries, now I dont think they do. But those rooms are really noisy. You can constantly hear and feel the Metro passing by.

However on my last trip I had really bad food poisoning and was bed ridden for over a day in the Opera View room - the constant noise and vibration from the metro almost drove me mad.

Anyways I will inquire about getting a Junior suite at check in, not too fussed about it as we should be spending more time outside the room shouldnt we?

ThreeA4Me

4 night stay in October was pretty good.

Arrived at 10a and was told room would not be ready for a few hours, but was offered 2 drinks in the great open air lounge which was much appreciated.


As an ambassador, I was upgraded to an opera view room that had a great view of the opera -- truly a highlight.

room was small.

there was a chemical/bleach-y odor that was offensive.

The bed was very soft -- which I prefer to very hard -- and the service was really good in that whenever we called down for ice or whathaveyou, it arrived quickly.

Was offered the ridiculous 140 euro PER DAY to have lounge access, which we declined. A change in Ambassador policy is that you now DON'T get the free movie when staying on points.

I went every day to Erik Kaizer for amazing pastries to bring back to the hotel since the charge for breakfast was laughable.

I liked the hotel, and the use of points will probably bring me back, but there are far better hotels in the area and throughout Paris for bang-for-your-buck and charm.

TravelTheWorld66

I stayed there last weekend on a points night. I was upgraded to a Junior Suite right from the start. I asked if I could trade my upgrade for club access. The front desk agent asked his manager, and they just gave me club access on top of the upgrade!

stimpy

Huh? There's something wrong here. Le Grand has probably the 2nd largest IC club in the world, Champagne at all hours along with a nice Chablis and Bordeaux, lots of great food at all hours. Plenty of liquor at happy hour and good hot food. In short it is as good or better than any other IC. It doesn't sound like you were there at all? Are you sure they didn't put you in some lesser lounge?

336

2 remarks:
IC Amstel on points instead of 250 euro: They might have done themselves a favour in the first place. If the hotel achieves an occupancy of >95%, they are compensated for the reward night, based on average room rate. At this property this easily exceeds the quoted 250 euro.

Lounge at Le Grand:
They offer soda and champagne all day. Once breakfast is finished you will also find wine all day. IIRC, as from 6PM they offer the hard liquor, which includes some premium bottles. Note that they might put the drinks on a small table in the room to the right of the 'buffet'. Perhaps you overlooked.

They offer a high quality lunch and dinner selection. Often including sea food hors d'œuvres, foie gras, cold pasta, and two hot offerings. There is a superb selection of pâtisserie in the late afternoon.

(Last time I checked was about 2 weeks ago.)

IAN-UK

Gosh! You are going to worry an awful lot of people

mitpat474

To be honest when I visited last year ,I didn't think this lounge was great as most say either. I thought there must have been something I missed.

stimpy

Maybe what you and TravelTheWorld66 missed is that there is a second floor. I don't understand how anyone could say it is small! There's a set of red-carpeted stairs leading up from next to the welcome desk and people going up and down throughout the day. But I also don't understand how anyone could miss all the food and drink and all day Champagne?

boekel

Bangkok, Singapur, Berlin and even Puebla are larger. Only to name a few. The lounge has indeed the drinks listed and food offerings during all day.

The offerings at the above mentioned clubs are in my opinion with the exception of Puebla way superior to the LeGrand Club and the upsell is also significantly lower.

In my opinion its solid but other for convenience I wouldn't book the club in Paris for 120 EUR as a RA

TravelTheWorld66

Maybe I was missing something??? I was in the club lounge on the 5th floor, with the dreadful red carpet throughout. There was a reception room with a desk, the food display behind it, and then 2 other rooms with tables (maybe 3 tables in each). From what I could see this was one of the smallest lounges I've ever seen.

While I was there I only ever saw one bottle of wine out (no other alcohol whatsoever). Food was limited to some slices of meat, some breads, mini-sandwiches, and a few desserts.

Ahhhh....just read the other post. I didn't know there was a second level!! Anyways, I hated the red carpet and didn't find the food to be anything special. As a disclaimer, I was only in the lounge during the morning and afternoon, never after 5PM.

stimpy

Yes you could walk up the stairs next to the desk and have access to the rest of the lounge. And while I haven't walked off the square meters in Bangkok or Singapore, etc., to me it certainly seems that Le Grand is larger. And better in some ways.

Like any lounge almost anywhere, there is a happy hour spread. Plenty of good hot food and a full selection of spirits. And all day long there is a good red and white wine and Champagne. And most important of all, like any good lounge, you can ask for whatever you want and they will bring it to you, morning, noon or night. You can also place orders for breakfast. I always order a nice omelette.

As for the downstairs rooms, there are 6 tables in the room with the windows, and 6 more in the adjacent room.