If the hotel doesn't show up in the TYP portal, does calling in generally allow you to book some of those? The website implies it would ("Don't see your hotel listed? Call in now!") but I'm curious to see if anybody has had success in the past.

Please try that and let us know. It would be great if that worked.....

You think it's possible to take advantage of the 4NF and then call the hotel to add your membership number to get elite benefits?

You can try, but I've never gotten it to truly work across various brands I stay with. No one has ever awarded points. They might give you a parking benefit, maybe a breakfast one.

The properties fundamentally don't like OTA bookings.

That being said I booked a stay yesterday where booking directly through the hotels website would have cost me about $100 more than the OTA I used.

This property didn't show up in Connexions but was available in other big OTA's.

So note that the platform itself is fairly cramped in their selection.

So as long as properties are unable to manage their pricing, customers will keep on using agents.

And that's not even counting that some OTA's have their own loyalty programs and that one can typically get a small portal kickback too.

Most chain hotels are franchises, and there is not the same consistency in decision making as there is at airlines. What works at one location may fail at another. You can show your elite credentials at check-in and see what happens. Much depends on staff training.

In other words, odds are pretty high, they won't recognize my elite status.

Thx. This perk is essentially useless for me then.

I would suggest checking prices for properties via multiple channels*.

For hotel bookings, I don't have one universal solution that works for all cases.

So I end up having to spend a little bit extra time to make sure I'm getting a fair price.

But I think its more important to pick the right property, and expend the most efforts on that.

In the majority of cases, I'll call the front desk and query them on all kinds of stuff (what floor, elevators, perks, transfers/shuttles, etc.)

I feel like people do a lot of research before buying $700 phones, but seem to think that 5 min on TripAdvisor / Yelp is enough for a $700 hotel wknd.

Of course FTers are not really in that camp and this is a great resource.

* if you are booking indy properties, loyalty programs may not mean much there to begin with.

Who would be the contact if I wanted to inquire about a 4NF booked and not yet rebated via the concierge prior to the September change? Citi customer service? The concierge?

Email the Concierge as a reply to your 4NF confirmation email they sent when booked. Attach a copy of your paid folio.

I did this for a stay last month and the credit appeared within a week or so.

I contacted Citi customer service via chat but if you are less than 2 billing cycles after your stay, you may want to wait or you will get the standard response that credit appears in 2 billing cycles. Mine did at exactly 2 billing cycles. Stayed 8/8/2019 and billed to the 8/18 bill and the credit appears on on 10/18 bill.

If I made a booking prior to 9/1 and travel plans have changed will they let me change the dates on the reservation?

I was told adjusting the reservation for price drop is okay but adjusting the a different hotel and/or dates will not be eligible for 4NF.

Same here.

they are seriously just lagging on posting those last bookings!

never once had an issue til they announced they wouldn�t be offering the concierge bookings anymore.

I still have about 5 upcoming stays booked with the concierge so I�ll be on top of those.

Just got the email yesterday for an end-of-August stay. Nearly 2.5 months after the stay!

I double-checked the rate of an upcoming booking at a Marriott property that I had made 6-8 months ago through the Citi Prestige Concierge and found that it was now a lot lower than when I originally made the reservation. I forgot that I had made it through the Congierge, and cancelled it manually myself via Marriott and made a new booking.

Do I need to inform the Citi Prestige Concierge of this, or will they contact me (as they should have received the cancellation notification)? The reason I am asking is that I mistakenly received the 4th night credit at the time of booking, despite it being a fully flexible rate.