Upgrades at the SWAN

[pszack]

I was wondering how you go about gettting a room upgrade at the SWAN. We are staying there from April 24 to May 4.
We a standard room with a price of 69.00. Can I request a certain
room? If I can which rooms have the better views of EPCOT
and such?
Thanks

 

[pewing]

Originally posted by pszack
I was wondering how you go about gettting a room upgrade at the SWAN. We are staying there from April 24 to May 4.
We a standard room with a price of 69.00. Can I request a certain
room? If I can which rooms have the better views of EPCOT
and such?
Thanks

You got a room at the Swan for $69!

 

[jillz]

I know!!! I'm paying 162 for the same period and i thought that was good!
Priceline??????????

 

[chrissyk]

I got the Swan for $59/night for 2 nights in May via Priceline, so I'm guessing that the OP did the same

OP, DH and I applied for the Starwood Rewards Amex. This allows you to call and be automatically upgraded to a Gold level Starwood Rewards card. What I then did was call the hotel directly to make sure that they had our Gold Starwood Rewards card # ahead of time so any incidental charges would get credited to it. If this doesn't trigger an upgrade, we're planning to pay the 1000 points/night to upgrade to Club Level when we check in.

 

[anne60]

I am so excited...I just checked the spg website, and I have been upgraded to gold, and my bonus 5000 points have been posted!!! I expected to have a fight on my hands, based on what has happened to others, but they upgraded me to gold and posted my points without a problem!! I booked my room thru Travelocity, so who should I call to make sure they have my gold membership number? If I do not get a complimentary upgrade, can I then "use" my points right then and there? I CAN"T WAIT!!!!
I have not researched anything on Club Level, since I didn't want to get my hopes up.

 

[chrissyk]

Originally posted by anne60
I booked my room thru Travelocity, so who should I call to make sure they have my gold membership number? If I do not get a complimentary upgrade, can I then "use" my points right then and there?

You call the Swan directly to make sure that they have your Gold Starwood # on record for any "incidental" charges. I got this advice from a friend who has more experience in this than I do, LOL! She told me that if this does not result in an automatic upgrade to CL, then I pay the points to upgrade. I already made the call, so now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that we get upgraded to CL w/o using our points. Also, I'm still trying to figure out if you can stay in a corner king on a different floor than the Club Level floor and still have club privledges. Anyone know?

 

[marymrg]

anne60 - how long did it take for your bonus points to appear? (from the date of your first purchase) I made mine in January and am still getting the runaround.

Mary

 

[anne60]

call amex directly and ask for a supervisor, right off the bat. Tell the supervisor you were told to do this by starwood, and ask about the bonus points. I joined 2/26, made my first purchase 3/03, and my points showed up sometime between last weekend and thursday.

 

[marymrg]

anne60 - Ok - after being on hold with Amex forever(5-10 minutes) so they could locate the promotion, they couldn't find it and said to call Starwood. Of course, once again Starwood said it had to come from Amex. I called AMEX back and finally talked to someone who said they don't always have direct access to all internet promotions and gave me the fax and address to send in the promotion I used. Luckily, I had saved the print-out from the January offer. I'll do that today but don't expect to hear anything until at least 48 business hours after they receive it.

If after all of this, I don't receive the bonus points, I will end up cancelling the card within the next few months. (after my Swan stay in May) Life is too short to worry about these SPG points!

 

[jills]

chrissyk,

When you used Priceline, what box did you check off for hotel vicinity? Thanks,
Jill

 

[chrissyk]

Originally posted by jills
chrissyk,

When you used Priceline, what box did you check off for hotel vicinity? Thanks,
Jill

Jill, I checked off "Resort" and "WDW Vicinity" when I made this bid. However, the Swan and Dolphin only show up sporadically on Priceline, and they aren't showing up right now I made my bid back in Feb. The good thing is that when they were showing up, they were showing up pretty consistantly and pretty often. Keep an eye on www.biddingfortravel.com on the Orlando hotels board, and you'll see what hotels are coming up for your timeframe. There is no guarantee that you'll get what others are getting, but I've had great luck using the info from that board to bid. Also, someone on this board posted about getting the Dolphin via hotwire recently for $86/night, but I'm not sure of specifics other than that it showed up as a 4*. I've never used hotwire, so maybe someone else can help out on that bid.

 

[Yzma and Kronk]

chrissyk - thanks for your info. I am Starwood Platiunum, but when I called Starwood to make sure my number was on the file, I was told that since I got such a good rate (Priceline $69) she was unable to put our number on the reservation. It blocked it out, as she tried to put it in twice.
(Heads up for everyone on this)
I see you called the Swan directly. When you told them you just wanted to ensure you got points credit for your incidentals, was there any problem since you booked through Priceline??
As far as your question about the corner King - we were at the Dolphin last year, and got a suite upgrade. However, they didn't have any on the club floor so they just gave us club access with our room key. In fact to get to the Club Floor from where we were we actually had to go down to the lobby and change elevators. From our experience, you can stay on another floor and get Club access.

 

[chrissyk]

Originally posted by Yzma and Kronk
chrissyk - thanks for your info. I am Starwood Platiunum, but when I called Starwood to make sure my number was on the file, I was told that since I got such a good rate (Priceline $69) she was unable to put our number on the reservation. It blocked it out, as she tried to put it in twice.
(Heads up for everyone on this)
I see you called the Swan directly. When you told them you just wanted to ensure you got points credit for your incidentals, was there any problem since you booked through Priceline??
As far as your question about the corner King - we were at the Dolphin last year, and got a suite upgrade. However, they didn't have any on the club floor so they just gave us club access with our room key. In fact to get to the Club Floor from where we were we actually had to go down to the lobby and change elevators. From our experience, you can stay on another floor and get Club access.

I had no problems adding our Starwood card # to the reservation for "incidentals" when I called the Swan directly They never even mentioned that it was a Priceline reservation!

Thanks for the info on having a room on a different floor from the CL and still having Club privledges. How did you get upgraded to a suite? Is it because you're a platinum member? That's awesome!

 

[Yzma and Kronk]

I believe it was because we were platinum. We just asked at checkin and no problem. DH also has a real talent for asking for upgrades (I personally don't know how he does it) and very rarely gets denied! (airlines as well). It really doesn't matter to me, if it happens great - I'm just looking forward to trying those heavenly beds!!