I checked delta.com several days before my vaction trip to Phoenix. I was not surprised to see that my outbound itin had been rebooked. I was, however, surprised to see that my class of service had changed from U to Y. They changed my routing once more before the 72 hour gold window arrived and it remained Y. I was able to upgrade to F on my outbound. What a way to start my first vacation in 3 years. 228.00 MIA/PHX in U upgraded to F! I am hoping for a schedule change on my return!

I arrived in PHX on the afternoon of the 25th. I was pressured by the National agent inside the airport to take the insurance as "nobodys" personal or credit card pays for their "loss of use." I felt like i was at an Alamo counter. After refusing all insurance, I was high pressured to upgrade my rentafrom compact. I declined. I hope that that the common ownership between Alamo and National is not the cause of this. If so I will be finding another car rental company. The National coach took me to the compact aisle and the driver announced, enjoy the upgrade, we are out of compacts! I was pleased and annoyed at the same time.

I drove to the Hilton Pointe at Tapatio. I was expecting a "resort fee" from an article in the local paper about this hotel this past weekend. My confirmation showed $0.00 in the service charge area. I did not notice any such charge on the rate disclosure sheet at check-in. I was given a nice king suite (all rooms are suites) with a nice view. In the room I found a basket of chips and bottle of salsa, 4 bottles of water (not the normal water that they charge you for drinking) and a bucket of 4 mini coronas along with a nice note from the GM.

I relaxed for the afternoon and had a nice dinner in one of the hotel restaurants.
Breakfast the following morning was room service delivered on time.

I noticed a slip of paper in the key folder advising of an 8.00 per day resort fee that covered unlimited local phone calls for free for the first 60 minutes, unlimited toll free phone calls free for the first 60 minutes. Use of the resort shuttle (getting around inside the resort) free USA Today andfree use of the health club. I looked on the in room bill review on the TV and found the 8.00 charge posted. As HHonors Gold provides for free paper and use of hotel owned health facilities I did not really want to pay the charge. I was also not about to make a big deal out of it. After all, I am on a stress free vacation.

I went to the hotel business center to use the computer with internet connection to check on my email. I inquired of the staff member, "what are your charges?" $0.50 per minute or $15.00 per half hour..... wow... big savings! I spent 10 minutes online and printed 10 pages and then logged off. As I was signing for my time she noticed the paper. "How many pages did you print? Oh...10. thats an extra $15.00 sir. I was a bit shocked at the high price and the fact that I had asked about the chagres and was not told about the printout charges. She pulled a small rate card out of a folder on the wall and said.. "see...here... it says $1.50 per page" After reminding her I had asked about any charges she directed me to a sign posted on the back side of the cube next to the one I was sitting in that showed the charge as well. I told her that I didn't mind paying something for the printouts but to hide the charges and not disclose them when asked up front was not right. Her response was "I'm just a trainee, I won't charge you for the printouts."

I passed by the front desk and asked if it was possible to get the resort fee removed and was told absolutely, no problem at all.

At mid day I wandered over to Tempe and had a a nice lunch with Motnot. Following that it was back to the airport and a brief visit with Dsimon in the airline club before his trip back east. They are both really fine people!

After that I went over to a local Tempe internet cafe and paid 3.50 for an hour of surf time.

Today (Wed) I am at The e-palce.com a very nice shipping store, check cashing, coffee bar, internet store where the surfing is free. This place is great. I hope they franchise it and grow. The coffee is very good and they dont charge for refills.

To be continued....



[This message has been edited by Tolarian Wind (edited 12-27-2000).]

It was very nice to meet you yesterday, for however brief that we met. Nice report so far, and glad to hear that you have some free time after three years without a vacation.

I look forward to the rest of your report, and seeing you at Catman's "Do" in March.

I am glad your trip is going well...I lived in Scottsdale for 2.5 years and it is fantastic. See you on 1/20 01 in MIA for the FT party at the Mand.-Oriental !

------------------
MRKEY

I had a superb meal last night at Cowboy Ciao in Scottsdale. Anyone visiting the Phoenix area should make it a point to dine there. Locals should have already been.

I started with a nice single malt scotch at the bar.... (sorry, I dont recall what it was now) After moving to my table the owner stopped by and sat for a moment. (I had introduced myself to him at the bar while he was working on his award winning wine list ('97,'98,'99,'00 Wine Spectator Award of Excellence)

I began by ordering a selection of 3 merlots served in mini decanters each holding 3 oz. It was presented in a carved wood block with holes for the decanters and slots holding 3 glasses, one for each wine. I had a 97 Kiona a 97 Dutch Herny and a 96 Ferella-Park.

For an appetizer I had Buffalo Carpaccio which was rolled in a cumin-espresso dry rub, seared and served with ared onion honey marmalade and chevre. It was outstanding.

My entree was a Pesto Crusted Elk Loin. It was a strip loin, grilled medium-rare, served with pan-grilled vegetables, soft polenta, and a cabernet-multiple mushroom (half dozen, both wild and exotic) ragout.

The entire meal was perfect. I might just return there before I leave for home.

TW

Sounds great Stephen! I sure hope all the rest of it goes as well - you deserve it

Looking forward to the MIA do later in Jan... safe travels

Both of these things really get me going. A "no" is rarely enough to make these people back off. I don't want their insurance and I don't want their sales pitches.

The only times I've been asked if I wanted to upgrade have been the times where I was upgraded anyway. I find it really cheesy that they run out of one car category and then try to pressure their customers into paying extra for something they in fact are entitled to.

I left Alamo for Hertz because of Alamo's annoying sales pitches and can usually bypass the Hertz agents (who are slightly less annoying) by using No. 1 Club.

ooooops

[This message has been edited by Fly me to the Stars (edited 12-29-2000).]

I have been having a great time just relaxing. I am heading out on a 4WD tour of the desert later today. Hopefully it will be a good time.

A few general comments about my hotel experience so far, (one night left.)

The Hilton Pointe Tapatio Cliffs is a nice hotel. The rooms are comfortable and they have just finished a multi million dollar guest suite rehab. The suites are very comfortable. The entire staff at the resort is very accomodating. They do their best to make the stay as enjoyable as possible. The housekeeping department needs a lot of work.

There is a note on the nightstand that to conserve water linens will be changed every third day. You can opt out and have it changed daily by calling room service. I elected to go with the third day change.

I finised the tasty treat provided by the GM the night I checked in, Monday. When I returned to my room Tuesday evening the dirty dishes were still on the bar. I shrugged it off. The room was clean, except for the crumpled up newspaper from the morning left on the floor. The glass I had used in the morning was still dirty on the counter with my toothbrush now resting in it.

I awoke Wednesday morning and stopped by the front desk and asked one of the clerks if they could arrange to have the dirty dishes and glasses removed sometime during the day. After a full day out I returned to my room to find two days worth of newspapers still in the room, this time picked up from the floor and refolded and placed on the sofa. There were now two dirty glasses in the bathroom. The limes on the plate on the bar were now beginning to rot and the salsa caked onto the other plate was beginning to look like the rock formations outside my suite!

Thursday morning I made a small mark on my sheet (I had this feeling) and took the dirty dishes (3) and stacked them up on the corner of the bar. Guess what, when I returned they had been neatly rearranged and placed back on the bar, as if ready to be used to serve again. The glasses in the bathroom still had not been changed and neither had my bedding. I was now ready to open a branch library with my newspaper collection! I went down to the front desk and very nicely told one of the front desk representatives about the housekeeping situation. She offered to have housekeeping bring new glasses to my room right away and would make sure that everything else would be taken care of in the morning. This was fine with me. I retired to the executive lounge for a drink and returned to my room to find a stack of fresh glasses sitting on the bar in a sealed bag and all of the dirty dishes gone, and the unfinished portion of the ammenity removed as well (2 mini coronas and 4 bottles of water I was going to drink on my desert tour today.) Oh well....

Friday evening, returning to my room at 8:00, I stepped off the elevator on the 4th floor,(outside buildings) and ran into a maids cart topped with dirty towels. I rounded the corner and another cart was there, unattended and also piled high. Turning the last corner and heading towards my room I found each concrete post piled high with dirty sheets. Not really pleased with the condition of the surroundings but happy that I would have new sheets I entered my room......... Surpirse... no fresh linen.... and the robe that I had left out on the bed had been removed and not replaced and the used glass had been replaced and covered with the cap I had used for my wet toothbrush that morning. I went looking to see if there were any housekeepers around but it appeared that they had retired for the night to the main building. I went to the executive lounge and mentioned to the very nice lounge concierge the condition of the building and my room. Within 30 minutes they had stowed the carts, removed the dirty sheets from the railings and changed my linen.

If it were not for the poor housekeeping this would have been a perfect stay. I still have a day and a half left though!

TW

I also recently rented a car from National in Phoenix after a long trip from BDL. I was first told that someone "just returned" a convertible to the airport, rather than at the off-site location, and that I could have it if I wanted and save the hassle of getting to the off-site. I said, "Sure, for the same price as my economy." Guess what, there would be an additional charge of $20/day. As this was just a quick mileage run I said no.

Then, he said "How much coverage do I want for the car". Well, I am an Emerald member, and my profile says I decline all coverages. He knew that, of course.
I then said none at all and I got the look of death.

I would imagine there is some sort of commission paid to them if they can upsell their customers.

I will be back in Phoenix again the end of Jan, so I wonder if I will get the same pitch. BTW, I rent from National all of the time around the country, and never experienced the hard sell before, as I just did in Phoenix.

ctmike