How much do you challenge "no Upgrade" as Plat Prem Elite
 

As the title says, how much do you question or challenge when you get to a hotel whereby they do not upgrade you? I'm a Plat Prem Elite (2 nights off Ambassador) and am not having upgrades when checking in etc. Being told none available or just no answer?

My question is, do you challenge this by searching availability for the dates of your stay? Any Tips?
Thanks

I think the answer to your question will really depend on the situation for most. For me, if I am on a one or two night business stay I don't really worry about it since I likely am not spending too much time in my room and I could care less about having a suite. On vacations, I tend to look at the availability on the app or online for higher category rooms/suites prior to my arrival IF I have not been preupgraded. When I check in I ask if there is any type of upgrade available. If they say "no" then I say something like...I just noticed that a Jr. Suite is available on the app....is there no upgrade available to that? In the past when I thought the hotel was playing games, I got SPG Platinum CS involved. I doubt that will work with Marriott since their CS has been less than stellar IMHO and I would probably spend 40 minutes on hold before I got anyone on the phone. Fact is that some hotels are good about upgrading if they have space available and other play a game. The ones that play the game tend to be know to us on FT so that you can adjust your expectations or plan of attack accordingly.

Thank you, I say this as I have been clocking up the stays in the last 6 months, going from Plat to Plat Prem Elite and now soon to be Ambassador and not seeing any upgrades. In my last 40 nights (all stays are normally 3 or more nights) roughly, I have had 1 upgrade. I have just got back from a 12 night stay at the Palace Hotel in San Fran (Lux Collection) and has zero upgrades.
I also book either standard or next room up. I have never had a preupgrade either....

@PrivatePilotDR40....Now that you say it, my upgrade track record has been horrible since the merger as well. Looking at my stays I only got one memorable upgrade at an all suites property from a suite to a "residence" since the merger. All the other upgrades have been to higher category rooms and NO suites.

Just from my experience: I have had better success with upgrades on short (1 or 2 night) stays. YMMV.

Yep, I have seen the same, although admittedly I was not that high of status with just SPG, and only just been hitting the high status since the merger. However I do feel there is cuts on upgrades and I get shot down by the check in people when I question there is no upgrades.. yet whenever I check the app there are always suites and higher cat rooms available for the entire trip!

Just hope the Trusty W (W Verbier) brand upgrades me in Jan when I stay there for a special vacation

I think we are all still learning our way around the merged program. With SPG the thing to keep in mind was that not ALL suites were part of the suite upgrade pool so just because a suite was showing as available it did not guarantee that it was actually a suite that they would upgrade Platinums to. Typically it was somewhat "safe" to assume that the lower category suites were part of the upgrade pool but it varied from property to property.

Can't you try to apply a SNA to your stay at the W Verbier? It won't guarantee a suite upgrade but I don't think it would hurt to give you priority. I would think the W Verbier is going to be very busy in January.

I never expect Suites, but at least some upgrade will be nice, also what does not help the fact is hotels call rooms different things, standard double, deluxe double etc whereby I actually don't know what I book and expect etc. So hard to then judge if I have been upgraded...

I had issues with applying the SNA to the W Verbier, and was not applying, so I contacted the SPG Assist team on Twitter and they say they have applied it but I still see 5 available in my account??

I think that old SPG implementation has migrated to MR. From the benefits page:

We’ll do our best to upgrade your room (including Select Suites), based on availability at check-in. Upgrades are subject to availability identified by each hotel and limited to your personal guest room.

Lots of people never understood that distinction with SPG -- now it's just a bigger property and MR participant pool and thus a yet bigger problem.

I've had zero upgrades since the merger unless I have used my SNAs. I'm Lifetime Plat Premier.

In fact, it's nearly impossible to get a hotel to recognize me as X4 (Plat Premier). They all say "Thanks for being Platinum". Only two hotels since August have recognized and thanked me for being Plat Premier.

I guess we'll be hearing, "Thanks for being Titanium" soon enough.

-RM

Agreed, they seem to not recognise the tiers. Even at the Palace hotel in SF their breakfast list has it written down as Plat Prem etc etc but still fail to recognise or thank you properly...

Absolutely true. Every time one thinks “it’s okay, not a big deal” and keeps quiet, service quality and elite recognition worsens further. (This does not mean of course one can demand upgrades when no availability is there.)