ElevatorEnthusiast

The Personal Ambassador assignment is based on the home address you have listed in your profile - not where you currently are in the world.

mfirst

Elevator - I changed my address some time ago.... not sure the timing of when with regards to my assignment

but, it does prompt an interesting question - if I spent 180 nights in a M property that is on the other side of the world, why is it unreasonable to get access to a program/assistant that is somewhat in alignment with that.....recall, this is a "travel" program

-m

ElevatorEnthusiast

You could always ask - I’m often in different time zones, continents away from home - it doesn’t bother me. If I needed immediate assistance for a crisis, the Anytime line works just fine.

mfirst

I guess I dont need or use the service all that much to make it worth to explore options to optimize it for my needs - maybe in part because I just have not found it all that helpful..... but I guess for some people who dont want to learn how to use the existing tools and might have some challenging travel plans - especially if they know them in advance, it could be a plus.....

KingCanute

In my experience, some hotels only offer the base room for redemptions on all or some nights, whilst others offer the option of an extra payment on top of the base room points rate for a higher category. Perhaps the hotel you were looking at was one of the base room only types?

And I may be wrong on this and am very happy to be corrected, but I thought FNCs always booked into the base room? I just tried to make an award reservation into a higher category room somewhere and could only pay with points plus cash supplement, not FNC plus supplement.

1mileman

all award (points ,fnc, etc) redemption rate plans are tied to the base room, unless the property offers higher rated rooms on redemption rate plans

UnderEst

Just completed a 3-night stay at MGM Grand - which was highly recommended by my AMB. She saw I had The Cosmo booked and recommended I give an MGM hotel a try with the latest promotion. Biggest mistake...(although, I know, first world problems).

First, I thought the rates for these hotels were a bit much. 3-nights at the MGM Grand ran me an average of $465 for a standard king room, which puts it on par with my original booking at The Cosmo for a one bedroom terrace suite during this past week. Secondly, it appears hardly anyone at the hotel knows what the roll out of benefits were. It took two supervisors to remove the self-parking and resort fees from my bill today, because the 3 agents at the desk claimed this was a benefit only offered to certain MGM Rewards members. Also, the Marriott benefits claim "One Suite Upgrade Per Year in Las Vegas (SNA not required, up to 3 nights) - with no indication that it's based on availability, like some of the other benefits. I was offered 5 paid upgrade options at check-in, varying from $50 to over $500 a night. I inquired about a complimentary upgrade and was told they are only allowed to upgrade me 1-tier, which would be a higher floor, or one of the wellness rooms. Either way, if the upgrades were available for purchase, then certainly they'd be available based upon what Marriott outlined.

Sure, there are other gripes, but jeez...makes me wonder why my AMB recommended this. I let her know and she admitted, the MGM hotels haven't fully worked out the details, but hopes I'll give one of the other MGM properties a try next time. But hey, we got that cool AE box with playing cards and die.

Anyone else have better luck?

mfirst

UnderEat - you sound surprised?
heck, I had a recent CY stay (and far from a new property) in which the front desk staff - very friendly - had no idea of the basic benefits... for example, I had to explain the F&B credit and how to fill out the cards....

-m

UnderEst

I agree that some of these properties and agents don't have an idea of benefits, but for Marriott to go out of their way and push the MGM partnership with the mailed gifts and constant pushing of stays in Las Vegas, I'd hope it'd be slightly more seamless than it was for me.

But, I'm also surprised because my AMB personally reached out a month in advance and recommended me a reservation change from The Cosmopolitan to MGM Grand or Park MGM. Whenever I have to travel to Vegas, I've been staying at The Cosmopolitan, and that's always worked out well. She assured me that I'd have a better stay and I'd really enjoy the enhanced benefits package. Couldn't be further from the truth. Now if I just booked this on my own, willing to dabble a bit...sure, I'd be less surprised.