Fairmont’s loyalty program (President’s Club) explained

Friday newsletters always feature luxury travel contests, tips, series, or news.

Today (April 22, 2016): Travel series: Fairmont’s loyalty program (President’s Club) explained.

*** IMPORTANT NOTICE: Fairmont’s President’s Club had been discontinued and replaced by Le Club AccorHotels, the loyalty program of AccorHotels. Read my review of AccorHotels here ***

Being a member of a hotel loyalty program is one of the easiest ways to get free nights and/or score upgrades at luxury hotels. I previously published the details, with pros & cons, of the loyalty programs of Starwood, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, InterContinental and Jumeirah hotels. Today, I have a look at the Fairmont Hotel Group’s loyalty program.

President’s Club is the complimentary loyalty program of the Canadian based, Fairmont Hotel Group. With more than 70 hotels globally, and many more in development, the Fairmont collection boasts some of the most iconic hotels in the world, including The Plaza in New York, The Savoy in London, and The Fairmont Makkah Clock Royal Tower in Saudi Arabia. Fairmont is owned by FRHI Hotels & Resorts, a leading global hotel company that operates more than 130 hotels and branded residential properties under the Raffles, Fairmont and Swissôtel brands.

In this overview, I explain the Fairmont President’s Club:

• Membership tiers & benefits
• Pros & things I like about The President’s Club
• Cons & things I don’t like about The President’s Club
• Key points
• Poll: what’s the best hotel loyalty program?

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PRESIDENT’S CLUB: MEMBERSHIP TIERS & BENEFITS

The Fairmont President’s Club has three membership leverls:

• Club is the base level and has the following, complimentary, in-hotel benefits:
  • In-room high-speed internet access
  • Local calls and no service charge on toll-free calls
  • Health club access (excluded spas)
  • Shoeshine (city-center hotels)
  • Daily room delivery of local or national newspaper
  • Private reception desk, offering express check-in and check-out

• Premier membership is awarded to members with 5 stays or 10 room nights in a calendar year. In addition to the benefits of Club members, Premier members also receive the following benefits:
  • Personalized membership kit, with membership card
  • Exclusive concierge reservation service
  • One complimentary room upgrade per year
  • One complimentary suite upgrade per year
  • One Fairmont dining or spa e-certificates of $50 USD per year
  • Complimentary third night on a three-night stay
  • Priority wait-list status

• Platinum membership, the President’s Club highest level, is awarded to members with 10 stays or 30 room nights in a calendar year. In addition to the benefits of Club members, Platinum members also receive the following benefits:
  • Private reception desk, offering express check-in and check-out
  • Personalized membership kit, with membership card
  • Exclusive concierge reservation service
  • Two complimentary room upgrades per year
  • Two complimentary suite upgrades per year
  • One Fairmont dining or spa e-certificates of $100 USD per year
  • One complimentary night per year
  • Guaranteed room access
  • Guaranteed early arrival/late check-out
  • Personalized welcome amenity
  • Turndown service

PROS & THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S CLUB

• Fairmont is one of the very few luxury hotel chains that owns a loyalty program and thus makes efforts to reward its most loyal guests. For example, hotel chains such as Four Seasons, Rosewood, Aman, Banyan Tree, and Mandarin Oriental do not offer a loyalty program.

• The program is uncomplicated and thus very easy to understand. You don’t collect points (as compared to the other, better known hotel loyalty programs) but you are rewarded with benefits based on your loyalty status.

• With the President’s Club, you can earn airline miles per stay with more than a dozen participating airlines: Aeroplan, American Airlines AAdvantage program, Air China, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Etihad Guest, Emirates Skywards, Jet Airways, Lufthansa Miles and More, Qatar Airways, Saudi Airlines, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, and United Mileage Plus. To receive airline miles, reservations must be booked on qualifying rates. The number of airline mile you earn per stay depends on your membership tier: Club members get 500 miles, Premier members 750 miles and Platinum members 1000 miles.

• Fairmont has a Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) program, which means that, when you book directly with Fairmont (Fairmont website, Fairmont’s worldwide reservation offices, or directly with a Fairmont hotel), you can be sure that you are getting the best publicly available price on the room of your choice. If within 24 hours of making your booking you find a lower price for the same hotel, room type and reservation dates, Fairmont will honour the lower rate and provide an additional complementary 10% rate reduction. To submit a claim, you need to call the Fairmont Global Reservation Center at 1 888 540 7077 (International: 1 506 388 6949) and provide them with the online address of the lower competing rate. Finding a better rate is not difficult at all, as I previously explained in my tips for booking a luxury hotel at the cheapest price.

• Fairmont is owned by FRHI Hotels & Resorts, which also manages the Raffles and Swissôtel brands. Members of the Fairmont President’s Club also earn credits for stays at Swissotel and Raffles properties, and those credits are awarded based on the qualifying rate requirements of the brand where the stay took place. In addition, Premier and Platinum members also have access to many of the membership benefits that they enjoy at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.

• If you reach the treshold for Platinum membership, you will receive a complimentary hotel stay of one night per year. Guests who stay with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts over and above the Platinum membership criteria of 30 room nights are awarded an additional complimentary night for every 10th additional night stayed beyond Platinum tier criteria. For example, those who achieve 40 room nights in a calendar year will receive one complimentary night in addition to the complimentary night certificate that is included with Platinum membership. Members who reach their 50th room night will have earned an additional night, and so on.

• All President’s Club members, regardless of status, save 10% on Willow Stream Spa treatments and products, and also enjoy 15% savings at The Fairmont Store.

• Fairmont hotels are famous for their golf course. Premier and Platinum members enjoy a “two-for-one golf” benefit: when they check-in at any of the Fairmont golf resorts, they will receive a certificate which is good for one complimentary round of golf during their stay when purchasing a round of golf at the full rate.

• President’s Club members also enjoy benefits from Fairmont’s partnerships with other brands, such as:
  • Complimentary use of TaylorMade golf clubs at select hotels
  • Fairmont Fit (in-room delivery of Reebok shoes and apparel, yoga mats and stretch bands)
  • Complimentary access to BMW bikes at select hotels and resorts

CONS & THINGS I DON’T LIKE ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S CLUB

• Fairmont is a rather small luxury hotel chain with only around 70 properties in its portfolio, making it very hard to achieve any status (and thus enjoy benefits) at all unless you are a Fairmont die-hard fan. However, you can also earn President’s Club credits and enjoy benefits at Raffles and Swissôtel properties, which makes the loyalty program a tad more interesting.

• Contrary to most hotel loyalty programs, member of the President’s Club do not earn hotel points for their expenses at Fairmont hotels, and as such cannot save credits towards a free hotel night. You only get to enjoy some complimentary hotel benefits based on your status. On a positive note, Platinum members get at least one complimentary hotel night per year.

• The future of the program is uncertain. Last year, The French-based hotel chain AccorHotels announced that it will acquire FRHI Holdings Ltd, the parent company of Raffles, Fairmont and Swissôtel. The acquisition of these three global brands will broaden AccorHotels’s geographic footprint in the luxury segment. However, as a consequence, the future of the Fairmont President’s Club program is uncertain. This may not necessary be a bad thing as the Fairmont loyalty program may be integrated into AccorHotels’ loyalty program – where member can earn and spend points – in the long term.

• The benefits for the top-tier members are disappointing in comparison to other hotel programs. Complimentary breakfast is not offered, and while Premier and Platinum do receive a limited number of upgrade certificates per year, there’s no complimentary room upgrade at check-in (based upon availability) during your membership year.

• While I appreciate Fairmont’s Best Rate Guarantee program, it’s ennoying that you need to submit the BRG claim by phone and not by email (especially for those living outside Northern America).

• Turndown service – which is a common feature these days at most luxury hotels for all guests – is only provided to Platinum members at Fairmont properties.

KEY POINTS

• Fairmont is a small but luxurious hotel chain, so be sure to subscribe to their loyalty program when you stay at one of their hotels since it will get you access to a few complimentary benefits, such as free high-speed WiFi.

• Always make a booking using a Best Rate Guarantee to throw in an additional 10% discount.

• Fairmont’s loyalty program also includes credits and benefits at Swissôtel and Raffles properties.

• The future of the program is uncertain as Fairmont was recently acquired by AccorHotels, but this may turn out a good thing in the longterm (enabling you to collect and spend points at Fairmont properties).

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