Not sure whether to put this here or in other hotels but for the time being I'll leave it here. Before this was offered only for JGC members but this time it seems open to all JAL elites. Free upgrade to Gold status with My JAL Hotels with full details here in Japanese only. Available until the end December 2011. I believe the Gold members is valid until the end of 2012 unless my translation is incorrect. The biggest benefit of Gold is getting room upgrades but I am not sure how well this is received as this program is relatively new. The other benefits of late and early check in are nice but the bonus points is probably a waste of space as the plans in order to get them are not worth the extra cost. I qualified for Silver at the start of this month but I'm still waiting for my status to change online that they say will take 2 months like their airline status so I'm not exactly excited about this program. See below benefit table again in Japanese.
Interesting that upgrades are part of the plan as my impression is that hotels in Japan (with the possible exception of big American chains) are pretty resistant to doing even rather minor upgrades for free, even when there are problems with the room IME. Not many--or perhaps I should say fewer than I would expect--hotels in Japan seem to participate in plans such as FHR or Leaders Club given the number of top properties in major cities.
Hmm.. I forgot to mention they have some special plan campaign running as well for stays at JR Tower Hotel Nikko Sapporo, Hotel Nikko Osaka, Fukuoka Hotels,Hotel Nikko Yaeyama (Ishigaki Island) with some 25 off or something for elite members. Not exactly sure of the details and need someone to help with this translating. But is valid from now until end of August.
Nope. Nikko Hotel Narita refused to honor this benefit when fumitani stayed there a while back. Participation to this program and the benefits provided are up to the individual hotel management
Yep but I realised I translated the word incorrectly. The lifetime of the Gold status is until end of 2012 not lifetime status.
That is correct...maybe you should put an edit/reply and quote that sentence instead next time in case someone has read it
The other thing I don't get is that this is JAL Hotels therefore you'd think you could get a lot of JMB Miles from staying with them.... even as a Gold member you'd be better off staying in another brand hotel and earn points with them and transferring to JMB given their woeful earning rate. Their new (3 night min) J-Saver makes earning some points at a somewhat reasonable price possible but still not quite up enough. Does anyone regularly stay at JAL hotels?
Account was upgraded in less than 2 hours to Gold which is impressive and quite surprising given how long it takes if you actually earn the status.
Just got the card today. Very unimpressed. No congrats for being gold. If i had actually stayed 20 nights or more, I'd be pretty upset with the supposed Gold kit. No, here are your benefits like upgrades and bonus points. Nothing. Only a generic letter and T&C plus list of properties with elite benefits but nothing about the normal elite benefits. I wouldn't get excited if you are waiting for this card to come although anything for free is good! Thank god they managed to send a card that is gold in colour because even that seems like a miracle.
Not sure if it's relevent to this discussion, but I've had some very positive experiences with free room upgrades due to room problems. Not at a major hotel, but at a popular resort. FWIW.
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