ohcanada

My wife and I were stuck in EWR last night due to the snowstorm and AC's refusal to take any flights out. None of the EWR-area hotels had any availability due to the number of cancellations. AC was phoning hotels for us. When the Sheraton res agent told AC they had nothing available, I got on the phone, told him I was Gold and - voila - he said there was a room I could have. Not cheap, but better than nothing. Then we were upgraded to the Club floor.

I'm amazed since in the past I've found that Gold status doesn't mean much. This time it really worked!

------------------
Oh Canada!
Standing on guard for thee...

choptliva

Canadians STUCK in a snowstorm?
Ah, you're from TO. No wonder.
Just couldn't resist. Greetings from a fellow Canadian.

fly co to see the yanks

they probably didn't want to release rooms on cheap airline rates but were happy to give you a room at a more expensive rate.

ohcanada

I think that had a lot to do with it. The intial rate they quoted me was high, so I told him he's have to come down. What I eventually paid was the same rate as is being quoted on spg.com for the Club rooms at the hotel next week. I know that everyone elase at EWR last night was being told by everyone that there was nothing available.

------------------
Oh Canada!
Standing on guard for thee...

JBLUA320

If the rate was for a Club, I assume that was no upgrade!!!
-AG

kjbtraveler

Gold just worked for me as well.

With the hideous exchange rate, I couldn't afford a "real" room at the Park Lane in London and booked a double. Lo and behold, reservation now shows "queen room."

While I don't expect it to be a spectacular room, at 6'3" and 240 pounds, the bigger the bed the happier I am.

Looking forward to hitting platinum . . so daddy can have some more room to spread out :-)

I switched all my hotel stays to Starwood from Marriott at the end of last year, and can't believe I didn't do it sooner. This program, most of its properties, and of course William serve to kick Marriott butt.

As a side note, the input of other Ft'ers in invaluable as well. And this board is much more active and relevant than Marriott's. Thanks to you all as well.



------------------
CO Gold, US Gold, SPG Gold, MR Silver

ohcanada

That's true in retrospect, but they were going to stick us in a broom closet for even more money until I asked. Unless you had booked the spg.com rates in advance there were no deals being given out in Newark last night! The fact remains that there wasn't a room available until I said I was Gold - that's a real benefit in my books.

------------------
Oh Canada!
Standing on guard for thee...

[This message has been edited by ohcanada (edited Mar 17, 2004).]

choptliva

Just for future reference, I assume this is EWR airport Sheraton? How was the hotel? Thanks.

ohcanada

Not bad. The room on the Club floor was quite big. The bed was really comfortable, but that may have been because we had been travelling for almost 24 hours and were pretty wiped. The Club lounge was OK.

There are three restaurants/bars. The steak house was closed. The sports bar was very smoky and only served a limited menu. The food in the other restaurant was just OK and fairly expensive - pretty typical hotel food. Service was terrible as they were clearly not expecting the crowd that descended on them from EWR.

Airport shuttle runs every 15 minutes 24/7.

------------------
Oh Canada!
Standing on guard for thee...

kjbtraveler

I take back the kudos given to the Park Lane. I am mysteriously back in a double.

While I appreciate the thoughts . . . its pretty cheesy to play give and take . . .

fly co to see the yanks

this story also shows why it is valuable to have a laptop with wireless access. you can pull up hotel rates and secure a room without a wired connection real-time.

ldsant

I read the first post and thought - wow! What a great story. Then I started down the thread and some of the cynicsm just amazes me. There was a snowstorm, rooms were limited at best, and *wood came through because he has Gold status - he got upgraded to the club floor level which is a very nice perk (and usually reserved for Platinums or people who pay for it). I think this is a great story and glad that you found your status worth something to you.

As far as the Park Lane - email them - when I stayed there I found that direct contact with people worked a lot better than going through the "system." I don't think it's a give and take thing on purpose. Also, just FYI - the beds, no matter what the size are SMALL.

fly co to see the yanks

again, the hotel had empty rooms. it's not liked the hotel walked someone to give this gold a room. but, they weren't about to rent the rooms at airline discount prices. so, they told the airlines no. if joe no SPG status had called offering to pay rack, this hotel wouldn't have said no.

Grog

Exactly. Except for a few more points, SPG Gold's value remains questionable to me. But, as I've heard often, don't expect much and you won't be dissappointed. From the looks of the Report Your Platinum Upgrade Problems thread, even a lot of Platinums have their heartaches.

--Grog--

[This message has been edited by Grog (edited Mar 22, 2004).]

ohcanada

I don't want to prolong this, but the rack rate was about double what I paid. Clearly the hotel was not going to discount anything that night, but I was able to get a room for exactly what I would have paid if I'd booked it online before I knew that there was a snowstorm coming. I booked at 6 pm and for sure the hotel was going to hold back a couple of rooms in the hopes that people would get more desperate as the night went along and flights kept getting cancelled. There were still lots of people in the RCC when I left hoping to get on flights that might be going out - I bet a few of them started looking for rooms later that evening and would have paid a lot more than I did. All I can tell you is that I felt pretty good getting on the Sheraton bus at Newark P4 while the hotel phone board was lined up 6 or 8 deep!

------------------
Oh Canada!
Standing on guard for thee...