We cruised through immigration with not a single person in line ahead of us and walked over to the departure level and up again to the escalator to the pedestrian bridge, and across the way to the Sheraton.

I had reserved the hotel on a cash and points award, US$60 + 4000 points a night.
Walked up to the check-in desk, though I suppose we could have headed up to the Towers lounge on the 9th floor for checkin.

We were given a room on the club floor. I asked if suite was available as a platinum upgrade (not that I cared, actually, on a one-night stay at the airport).

The woman checking me in said “We don’t normally do that.”

I asked, “Are you sure, I thought that if a standard suite was available, I might be able to have it for an upgrade?”

She went in the back, and came out after a minute or two and said, “You’ve already been upgraded (to a club floor room). If you’d like a suite, you have to pay for it.”

Just to be clear on what she was saying, I asked “You have a standard one-bedroom suite available, not the Presidential suite or something, and I can have it if I pay for it?”

She confirmed this was the case.

I declined, took the keys to my club floor room, and I’ve already sent a note off to Starwood’s Corporate Customer Service – figuring there’s a training opportunity in here somewhere.

We checked out the lounge, got online (18 Euros for 24 hours, fortunately that’s expensable), and quickly faded away…. About 5pm local time.

First, the lounge:

Then, the room:

Hotel corridors:

We were up by 2am, went up to the lounge to snag some drinks and bring them back to the room, and both got some work done. Dressed and up and about before 7am, we went up to the lounge again for a quick bite prior to checking out and heading over to the First Class terminal.

  1. Troy said,

    Hi, Gary, Just let u know, you don’t get points on Cash portion of C+P award. I confirmed with William few months ago.

  2. mark said,

    what i like about starwood customer service is that they really will use your experience as a training opportunity. when one sends letters to airlines, i believe they go right in the toilet. but, with starwood, i think comments are taken into consideration.

  3. Gary said,

    Yes, it’s correct, no points for cash portion of cash + points rate, I had recalled otherwise but that was wrong…

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