I wrote yesterday (or two days ago? All messed up from Hong Kong time) about how the Chase travel concierge kinda sorta screwed my friend and his family out of a hotel room. Well I’ve got some updates, including what we think happened, how he was compensated, etc. It was getting too long to update the original post so I just decided to start a new post. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Quick recap

To quickly recap the original situation, my friend and his family of 5 (one baby) made a reservation through the Chase Sapphire Reserve portal for a suite at Homewood Suites in Williamsburg. They showed up the first night and Homewood Suites had no record of the reservation.

They checked in for one night, were told by Chase that they would be reimbursed, and then were later told by a second rep that they would NOT be reimbursed. They also had to move hotels on the second night of their trip due to the Homewood Suites being full – a standard smoking room to add insult to injury.

Since I posted, a room opened up back at the Homewood Suites so they moved back because they needed the space and clean air for the baby. They originally redeemed about 50,000 points for a $762 four night reservation.

What we think happened in terms of the reservation being missing

My friend and I think we’ve pieced together what’s happened, but I’d love to hear if this makes sense given what you all know about how Chase travel works and your own experiences.

It seems that Chase travel uses Expedia for their bookings. Yup, a third company is involved. Apparently Expedia faxes their hotel confirmations but this hotel in Williamsburg doesn’t have a functioning fax machine. My friend said the manager at the hotel told him that this happened to a few more reservations over the last few days.

So yeah, maybe Expedia should start using that popular new technology e-mail. Also, to avoid this happening, please remember to call the hotel to confirm your reservation.

Another wrinkle in all this is some info from this Flyertalk thread which indicates that sometimes hotels don’t receive the confirmation until 24 hours before. That seems a little bit last minute to me. Also, I should note that a bunch of people commented with similar “lost reservation” datapoints.

How customer service handled things

Just wanted to make a couple notes on the customer service here. It seems like the first Chase rep my friend spoke to did her best to rectify the situation. She asked to speak to the hotel manager, promised to compensate for that first night (I think it was pretty late already), and overall seemed very helpful.

The manager at the Homewood Suites also seemed like he did his job well – although he had to deliver the bad news that there was no room for nights 2-4, he did call other hotels in the area trying to find them a place to sleep (a suite specifically).

Chase CSR 2, who refused to listen to Chase CSR 1’s phone call, did a terrible job customer service wise. Again, we are talking about a Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholder. If a customer spends $450 a year on an annual fee, I expect them to be treated with respect and for CSRs to be going out of their way to help.

Finally, Chase reached out to me on Twitter offering to help, so good on them for that. I’ve heard nothing from Hilton, so take that for what it’s worth.

Chase’s resolution and compensation

Ultimately, a Chase rep called my friend about two days after the first night. They confirmed that they will pay for that first night and they will also refund all the points from the reservation plus an extra 5,000 for compensation.

One thing I find interesting is that the two Chase reps who confirmed that he would be reimbursed for the first night stated that it would happen “because they listened to the recording.” They didn’t say for the inconvenience or anything like that. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, they possibly felt that the original rep had already stated that. Being cynical – did that first rep screw up giving him compensation for that first night? I’ve reached out to Chase for comment.

IF the cynical view is true, that super sucks. So a Chase Sapphire Reserve $450 annual fee payer shows up at a hotel with the reservation bricked and is just s.o.l.? That seems…bad. Hoping I get to delete these sentences after clarification. Update: They won’t comment since it’s not my reservation.

Should he have asked for more compensation?

So do you think he should have asked for more compensation? For reference, he originally budgeted out $600 for four hotel nights. He used 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points instead. Subtracting out the cost of the first night, he will end up spending $578 on hotel. He also missed one night of free dinner at Homewood Suites due to having to live in that other hotel.

My gut feeling is that he didn’t get enough. Whether Hilton, Expedia, or Chase screwed up, I believe the whole point of a concierge is to figure out what happened and make the customer whole accordingly. Plus, 5,000 points won’t make up for the stress and hassle my friend had to put his wife and kids through.

Ultimately, he said they’ve been enjoying their vacation because “thankfully my kids are low maintenance.” But this is the kind of potential nightmare scenario that a $450 annual fee should severely mitigate; in his case, I’m not sure Chase did enough.

Update, 5/4 – after messaging Chase four times, they gave him another 5000 points. “I think they just gave them to me to get rid of me.” It shouldn’t come to that, in my opinion.

Your thoughts? If you’ve had similar experiences with Chase or other card issuers, what did you receive for compensation?

Featured image courtesy of Pixabay

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I’ve spoken a few times about how important staying in suites can be for families. Anyway, a buddy of mine shared a story with me about a Chase Travel concierge fail that really turned into a bit of a nightmare situation. I’m not sure if Chase can be blamed for the situation itself, but I’m 100% sure it can be blamed for some parts of its response. I’ll update this post as the situation gets (hopefully) resolved.

Update: I posted about the resolution and compensation here.

Now the Chase Sapphire Reserve deservedly gets a lot of good press. Getting 1.5 cents per point for travel can really make travel possible for families on a budget, so my friend used it for his trip for a family of 5 to Williamsburg. Now like I said, suites are important for families – they’re even more important for families of that size.

He booked a four night stay and received this confirmation:

Now that looks pretty solid to me. But, you guessed it, you won’t believe what happened next.

No room at the inn

When my buddy showed up at the Homewood Suites, they told him he didn’t have a reservation. I’ll let him pick up the story from here, paraphrased for grammar and clarity:

“Yeah I received my confirmation number from chase and everything. But the hotel had no record… The first rep I spoke with told me that the hotel had one night available and to go ahead and check in and that Chase would pay for it and that Chase would figure reservations out for me.”

OK, so Chase representative one seems to be doing a good job taking control of the situation. While my friend didn’t get an explanation for why things broke down, at least they promised to accommodate him. Now, again, for a family of five, this situation is far from ideal – they were going to have to move the next day, but at least they had a place to stay for the night and Chase offered to pay for it. I’m assuming they offered to refund the points too, which were a significant amount:

A bad customer service representative

Now at this point, many people would probably just let things lie for the night and figure things out in the morning. I personally would not be able to do that – I’d be too stressed out not knowing where I’m going to stay for night 2. My friend apparently felt the same way because he called back a few hours after checking in. Again, in his words:

 

“So I check in and call Chase back several hours later to check the status. This second rep confirms that the hotel has no space for us for the remaining nights. I ask her about Chase paying for the first night because the previous rep had made the offer. This second rep flat out refuses saying that it wasn’t Chase’s fault so she isn’t giving me anything, even after I said that it was already promised to me by the first rep.

 

 

“I ask her to listen to the recording and to look at the notes. The second rep does nothing and puts me on hold for 10 minutes. She kept blaming the hotel and said wouldn’t transfer me to anyone else, basically accusing me of lying about the first night being paid for.”

 

OK, so people might disagree, but to me this is ridiculous. The whole reason they record these calls is for situations like this. That’s what bailed me out of my Thank You points snafu a few months back. Also, regardless of whether this is Chase or the hotel’s fault (unclear to me), if you’re going to have a premium card with an annual fee of $450, then your travel concierge better work on making the customer whole in situations like this. Especially when it’s within reason, like one hotel night for less than $200.

A frustrating resolution

So I don’t believe you should have to do this with a premium card like Chase Sapphire Reserve’s concierge, but at this point my friend did the right thing and hung up. I’ll let him finish the story:

 

“I hung up and called back to speak with someone else who looked back at the recording and confirmed the free night. The second rep wouldn’t even go back to the recording. But now all suites in the area are booked and we are all in one standard room that’s smoking.”

 

That totally sucks. Again, to me the point of having a premium card is to avoid travel stress. If you’re in a smaller room than you were expecting, and one that is a smoking room to boot (why do these still exist), that is the opposite of decreasing stress.

 

Let’s recap here. Family of five, the youngest a toddler, books hotel through Chase and receives confirmation. Shows up at hotel, no record of confirmation. Chase offers to pay for one night before they have to relocate due to no room at the hotel. Then second Chase rep reneges on offer and essentially questions customer’s integrity (at least that’s how he felt). Family eventually needs to relocate into a standard sized, smoking room at a different hotel. As of right now, family has received no offer of compensation for their troubles.

 

What I hope happens next

I have no delusions of grandeur, this is a small blog, but I hope someone at Chase reads this. I recognize that everyone can have bad days so I’ll give CSR 2 some leeway, but I believe Chase should have been going out of their way to make my friend whole.

Now I’m not a “ask for compensation for every little thing like a seat not reclining” type of person, but I think my friend should receive compensation for this. If it’s Chase’s fault, they should compensate above and beyond the one hotel night and the returned points. If it’s Hilton’s fault, they should compensate as well. I believe that the Chase concierge should at least work to figure out what happened.

Now my friend wanted to see me type this up for two reasons:

1. Has anything similar happened to anyone working with Chase travel concierge before?
2. What do you think is fair compensation for this situation, if any?
3. He now feels hesitant to book anything with Chase travel, including airline tickets. Fair or unfair?

So I’ll end things there – do you think Chase (or Hilton) did my friend wrong? What could he have done differently? (Oh, on that point, I’d say he could have called the hotel to confirm before arrival, though I don’t think you should have to do that.) Your thoughts and comments would be much appreciated. Let’s keep it civil – I know these things can sometimes get people heated.

And Chase or Hilton – please make my friend whole and I’m happy to update this post accordingly. Both these companies have done very well by me in the past and I’m hoping they do the same for him.

Update: Obviously one way to avoid this happening is to call the hotel to confirm your reservation. One problem, according to this Flyertalk thread, is that the reservation sometimes doesn’t load until 24 hours before check in!

Update 2: The original hotel had a room open up so they moved out of the smoky room and back to the original hotel.

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