UASPG

To make it short: No.

Dr. HFH

What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favorite color?

willphillipson

For what it is worth, I am mostly happy with my Ambassador. But you have to set expectations. If you're expecting white glove service, you're probably out of luck. However, my Ambassador has helped out with bookings - particularly multi room bookings for family holidays. Very helpful at reaching out to the hotels and getting special touches arranged - ordering birthday cakes for my wife, letting the hotel know when to expect our arrival, making sure the breakfast restaurant has food my family can eat (allergy restrictions). All of this can be done by myself if I took the time to reach out to the hotel... But it is convenient to have someone do this for me... And having someone from within the chain call the hotel seems to get to business faster then me, the customer, calling. So, particularly with 9 nights left, I'd recommend it, if only to help out with your extended honeymoon. :-)

pageboy

I think there are some intangibles that come with Ambassador status. i just achieved this designation (after 4 years Plat 75) and have seen a difference in hotel desk recognition, room gifts, and upgrades. My last stay I was given green choice coupons, and they still cleaned the room. I will be testing my Ambassador at a later date. I haven't felt the need get him involved. It is just easier for me to book my own rooms.

kittiyut

I have to agree with the majority here, it is nice to have, but not worth spending an extra $1K to get.

I do think, however, that 75 is worth pushing for (if you are close).

LPC6

Out of curiosity, anyone know approximately how many ambassadors there are / how many people are at 100+ nights?

Felixishim

depends what kind of hotels you are looking to stay in too right? if it is just for the credit as low as possible rate if not minding staying at some four points or aloft then it may be a good reason to do so for better honeymoon upgrades and amenities as you ambassador will definitely

schoflyer

YTD+year end bookings put me at 94 nights.
I know how to "push" for nights...

The big question I have is regarding the Plat50 award options.
10 SNAs, 5 Elite nights+MR for 1 night and take an ambassador I won't use, or 1 free night.

How does a bad ambassador stack up vs 10 SNAs or a free night?

Dr. HFH

Depends on where [else] you travel, my friend. Stay in SEAsia, and your upgrade success rate will be markedly better than in the U.S.; so the SNAs might not be that valuable to you. A bad Ambassador is useless. But a good one can be quite valuable depending on your requirements. I contact my Ambassador quite infrequently since, as you know, most of my stays are in your hotel; and I hardly need anyone to run interference there. But if you stay in a lot of different hotels and get a good Ambassador, it's my opinion that s/he can be worth his/her weight in gold. Free night? I think that I'd rather have the Ambassador. As I know from experience, an Ambassador can work with a hotel to make a special occasion verrry special.

coleo

After a couple months working with my ambassador I can say it has been worth it. He has helped me on everything from amending bookings, billing inquiries, SPG points, early check ins, early departure, late check outs and finding availability for certain nights and properties when my plans change. I'm not sure if I will make it again this year, but having a point of contact for all things SPG related is great. I also like the treats in my room upon arrival sometimes

flyeronac

Short answer: absolutely not.

I had an Ambassador two years ago. It was utterly ridiculous. They did nothing useful and never went out of their way to make my travel more comfortable. I like Starwood very much but this ambassador program is a pile of crap.

helvetic

I've had every single request I've made for Your24 denied… not sure why I'm having such poor luck.

Dr. HFH

Undoubtedly depends on the hotels and dates. Details?

bhrubin

I love my Ambassador. She has helped me get tremendous experiences, usually only at those hotels I highlight as being particularly important to me: most often those being luxury hotels from StR, LC, and W.

I've found I'm upgraded a lot more often with Ambassador status, and with some seriously amazing upgrades, most impressively at the higher end brands like StR, LC, and W where I often stay for leisure, and impressively even at some Westin and Le Meridien properties where I most often stay for work. Sheraton properties have rarely translated into superior experinces for me, but then anyone expecting a superior experience at the brand level of Sheraton is likely confused...or has a different expectation of superior than I do!

My Ambassador seems to have helped in some instances where I had Your24 requests...but it's impossible to say whether or not her arranging those helped or whether it was just coincidence. Unlike many, I find Your24 to be a great SPG benefit, even if I get it appproved only 40-60% of the time on average.

FYI, this is is a briefer and less thorough reiteration of another thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...00-nights.html

Moderators may want to merge this into that thread.

There are a lot of people who complain about bad Ambassadors...who too often have ridiculous expectations for those Ambassadors IMO and/or likely stay at Sheraton or comparable brand hotels that have a tough enough time delivering a consistent good experience.

Ambassadors can help, a lot--and the more I stay at higher end SPG hotels, the more I find my Ambassador can do for me. I don't ask for much when I'm staying at non-luxury brands, to be honest. But they can't magically make upgrades happen when a hotel is sold out, or change SPG policy to suit you, or turn a Four Points into a Four Seasons experience, and they may not send you a birthday card or holiday card every year (even though mine has!). Tragedies.

rdlmitedu

Mine has been great (I guess I was in the pre-launch trial, but didn't use it much, and then legitimately hit P100 a week or so ago). I didn't really get much out of it earlier (since I was staying in a smaller number of properties and personally knew the staff there -- Kuwait and UAE are pretty small places), but now being able to convert all customer service interactions into essentially an async-for-me process (email once, it gets done and reported back) is pretty great. She actually introduced herself and listed my upcoming stays and asked what I'd like to have done with them before I even asked.

I'm also a big fan of Your24; 100% success so far. I think the key is I've been going to off-peak locations.