The list of participating hotels is printed on the back of the certificate. It isn't a bad list and does include some top properties such as Maui and several in Asia. European participation seems to be sparse. I feel somewhat misled by Merrill's claim on their website:

"Available at all participating Ritz-Carlton Hotels worldwide, with the exception of The Ritz-Carlton, Chicago, IL."

I don't know why they explicitly say they exclude Chicago but not list any other properties.

Participating Ritz Carlton list
 

I hope that it is not too much to ask a friendly holder of the Ritz certificate to post the list of participating hotels or scan it ... from the web, it sounds like only the Chicago property has opted out. Thanks!

Ritz suite upgrade is now nearly useless
 

The $10 suite upgrade is replaced by a vague upgrade process. I called to evalute the new upgrade process, the price is close to what Ritz would charge for a suite. You still save some money, but not $10 more than the standard room anymore. Looks like that there is some revamp of benefits this year. Be aware.

Dang. Now I understand why FT'ers aren't drooling over this card. It's just like every other half-baked home-grown points card on the market: full of vaguely-described benefits, exclusions, restrictions, overnight changes, poor processes, poor definitions, and deteriorating value to the end user over time.

I'm disappointed: I was starting to think this card might be different, because Merrill seems like a cut above the usual suspects that market these cards. But the underlying parties are MBNA and Carlson-Wagonlit. Guess I should've noticed that from the beginning.

Looks like I'll stay with SPG Amex. At least that card is no bull: every month, I earn a couple of free hotel-nights with very few strings attached. The idea of the Ritz sounds tempting, but I'm really dying for a fancy hotel, Starwood has 'em available with very straightforward terms and conditions.

Rats :(

Park somewhere else. ;)

[QUOTE=pinniped]Dang. Now I understand why FT'ers aren't drooling over this card. It's just like every other half-baked home-grown points card on the market: full of vaguely-described benefits, exclusions, restrictions, overnight changes, poor processes, poor definitions, and deteriorating value to the end user over time.QUOTE]

Yep.

Not only is the Starwood card a great value numbers-wise, but unlike the Merrill card's obstacle course of restrictions, Starwood essentially has none. In fact, you could argue that Starwood is undervalued when just comparing the numbers, because of the substantial intangible value that comes from the program's extreme flexibility (i.e., the ability to xfer to other programs at a competitive rate.

[QUOTE=Bidkat]Starwood does have restrictions, as the ritz-certificate: standard room only. Last Oct. I tried to redeem rooms at both ritz and spg maui, ritz have availability till Dec23, spg is a little better, gave me avaiability till Dec24, both are not avaiable after Dec24. SPG is more flexible than ritz because it has more hotels and points can be transfered to airlines. No doubt SPG has the best affinity card program of all hotel chains except the dread Amex financial review, I got hit last year and I decided to close all my amex cards and never use them again.

I made 3 reservations at ritz, that's what I got based on my experience and chat with ritz-reservation: before you make reservation, check rate at ritz website, for the ritz-maui, , if it's $25X/night, then u can use your merrill+ certificate; for the ritz-VI, if rate is $35X, u r fine too.

[QUOTE=Bidkat]True...the fact that I never have to call somebody, wait on hold, and then beg for permission to use my earned points for a hotel room is worth something, isn't it? The ability to use Starwood to do a top-off to liberate orphaned FF miles is merely an added bonus!

Starwood has *some* upgrade awards available through SPG. I understand that these are harder to get and can't always be gotten online. One of the complaints about the Starwood program is that some hotels will cheat the system by classifying a lot of their rooms as something other than standard (even when they truly are normal hotel rooms) to get around the No Capacity Controls rules. I know the Four Points in Cincinnati does this, but I've never been bitten by it anywhere else. (Thankfully.)

What is the Amex financial review?

I'm guessing it's what every creditor does - periodically review your credit report to make sure everything is OK. If something negative has been reported by another creditor, AmEx might want to raise your interest rate, lower your credit, see extra documentation, etc.

Sounds like the Ritz benefit isn't great, but getting free airline tickets for each X tickets you buy sounds pretty good.

To avoid amex fiancial review, these info may be useful
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...ncial%20review
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...ncial%20review

Thanks for the links. That's some serious hardball, but then again, the people that triggered the Financial Reviews are in a waaaaay different league than I. I don't see myself busting out $88,000 in monthly charges anytime soon. :)

Unless Amex is willing to compensate me for my time spent responding to the request, they are clearly saying "We don't want your business anymore." Assuming that they aren't compensating me handsomely for my time, why wouldn't they just immediately close the accounts? Why the song & dance? There is a zero percent chance that I would comply with a financial review for free. They can get all the information they need about me from a credit report - that's how they base their decision to give me the card to begin with.

What the Ritz-VI?

Ritz-carlton St. Thomas, Virgin Island