5 ms·

My story isn't nearly as extreme, but I'm still pretty proud of it. Three years ago, there was a LivingSocial deal with a headline to the effect of "$10,000 fo

by whafro 13y ago

My story isn't nearly as extreme, but I'm still pretty proud of it. Three years ago, there was a LivingSocial deal with a headline to the effect of "$10,000 for one night in the SF Fairmont Penthouse Suite." In a moment of "who would buy this?!," I of course read the whole thing, and the offering was impressive -- it included monogrammed Tiffany table settings for 20 or something, and the suite had a helipad accessible via bookcase-door -- but nothing I'd ever spend my money on. At the bottom of the blurb, LS mentioned an alternative offer -- "$2000 for a night in the Presidential Suite." In reading that, the last bullet point read "plus Fairmont Platinum Status for Life." Now that, I thought, might actually be a good deal. Fairmont Platinum gives you a night free, 10 nights of suite upgrades, 10 nights of room upgrades, $100 in spa/dining certificates, and a few other things each year. I'm a young guy, so the math is fairly compelling when you add this up over a lifetime. So I redeemed the deal and posted the opportunity on the frequent flyer forums for Fairmont, where many of Fairmont's best customers lurk, and they quickly snapped up dozens of the deals, leading to Fairmont/LivingSocial putting a freeze on it. Apparently the "for life" bit had been an error, and they meant "for one year." But now they had some of their best customers, people who often earned their Platinum status anyway, encouraging them to honor it. After taking a weekend to think it over, Fairmont decided to honor the deal, and I've been a Fairmont Plat ever since. I used the actual night in the suite to throw a surprise engagement party, and it was pretty amazing. Since then, my wife and I have stayed in suites on the cheap in Sonoma, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, and we actually spent 5 nights in an oceanfront suite on Hawaii for $129/night (the AAA rate for the suite was $1200/night). And we get lots of nice perks along the way. Like I said, it's no 4MM miles for $4000, but for doing next to no work, it'll be a nice perk that my family and I will hopefully take advantage of for decades to come.

skrebbel 13y ago
Cool that Fairmont stuck with the erroneous promise. It would've been easy for them to say no and "well, sue us if you dare!" you, without any significant loss-of-sales effect on the bottom of their end-of-year Excel sheets. Implies some long-term thinking or just plain decency (which I wager are the same thing).
- joezydeco 13y ago
  At the level of customer that the Fairmont deals with, losing any Platinum customer would be a major deal for them. They also realize that one negative customer experience in their line of work gets retold over, and over, and over. Taunting customers with "go ahead, sue us!" would be a P/R disaster of even larger magnitude if it got public. Didn't we just see an HN discussion on how rage spreads faster than good news? It was cheaper for them to honor the deal in the long run. Upgrades are one of the cheapest things hotels can give away, when you think about it.
  - acjohnson55 13y ago
    And yet, many companies choose to act that way. The RIAA and MPAA companies come to mind, in particular. You might argue that they're just protecting their products from piracy, but when it comes to things like the blank CD-R tax and DRM keeping you from backing up your own files, they definitely are that bellicose in my opinion, and I think they've destroyed their goodwill.
    - joezydeco 13y ago
      I would never categorize the RIAA and MPAA as service-oriented companies. I believe this is comparing apples and oranges.
- 6cxs2hd6 13y ago
  > It would've been easy for them to say no and "well, sue us if you dare!" But the headlines. "Sweet Suite Deal Means Suits Dealt Suit" "President in Suit Sued over Presidential Suite" &c
  - joezydeco 13y ago
    Did you ever work for Variety Magazine? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticks_nix_hick_pix http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticks_nix_hick_pix
    - 13y ago
mryan 13y ago
A few weeks ago I attended a party in that penthouse as part of Puppet Conf, which was held at the Fairmont. It is an incredible place, but the advertised rate of $15k/night made me quite certain that would be my only visit. Unfortunately the "secret door" in the library was locked so it was not possible to take a look at the helipad. $2k for lifetime membership to the Fairmont Platinum club is a good deal, nice one!
vermontdevil 13y ago
Great story. But don't be surprised Fairmont will drop this 'lifetime' deal eventually. AA did that with the Unlimited Miles First Class group - http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/05/business/la-fi-0506-golden-ticket-20120506 http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/05/business/la-fi-0506-... So take advantage of it every year as much as you can!
- ben1040 13y ago
  That's a little different, though, as "unlimited flights in first class" is something that has lots of opportunities for abuse and it was only a matter of time before they 86'd it. It's harder to abuse something that has defined benefits, like 10 upgrades a year. Meanwhile, for years, AA has offered lifetime Gold and Platinum frequent flyer status for those who have accumulated one and two million miles, respectively. It used to be an unpublished thing, but as of recently AA started prominently displaying it as a benefit you can attain.
denzil_correa 13y ago
Nice job! No doubt Living Social has run into all kinds of problems. http://valleywag.gawker.com/livingsocial-is-all-kinds-of-fucked-up-825053475 http://valleywag.gawker.com/livingsocial-is-all-kinds-of-fuc...
hbbio 13y ago
Mention this in your next YC application.
bsullivan01 13y ago
I wish you the best but Fairmont might wait for a better time to drop the "lifetime" perk. Looks like you already got your money's worth and then some so enjoy it. Hopefully it lasts for a long long time.
- ameoba 13y ago
  If it's only a dozen people or so, it's a pretty minor expense for them. The cost to the company is easily offset by the urban legends circulating among business travelers about knowing some guy that got free upgrades for life. That's a lot of persistent, viral PR for the quality of your customer service for very little outlay.
wdr1 13y ago
> on the frequent flyer forums Out of curiosity, which forum?

by whafro 13y ago

skrebbel 13y ago

Cool that Fairmont stuck with the erroneous promise. It would've been easy for them to say no and "well, sue us if you dare!" you, without any significant loss-of-sales effect on the bottom of their end-of-year Excel sheets. Implies some long-term thinking or just plain decency (which I wager are the same thing).

joezydeco 13y ago
At the level of customer that the Fairmont deals with, losing any Platinum customer would be a major deal for them. They also realize that one negative customer experience in their line of work gets retold over, and over, and over. Taunting customers with "go ahead, sue us!" would be a P/R disaster of even larger magnitude if it got public. Didn't we just see an HN discussion on how rage spreads faster than good news? It was cheaper for them to honor the deal in the long run. Upgrades are one of the cheapest things hotels can give away, when you think about it.
- acjohnson55 13y ago
  And yet, many companies choose to act that way. The RIAA and MPAA companies come to mind, in particular. You might argue that they're just protecting their products from piracy, but when it comes to things like the blank CD-R tax and DRM keeping you from backing up your own files, they definitely are that bellicose in my opinion, and I think they've destroyed their goodwill.
  - joezydeco 13y ago
    I would never categorize the RIAA and MPAA as service-oriented companies. I believe this is comparing apples and oranges.
6cxs2hd6 13y ago
> It would've been easy for them to say no and "well, sue us if you dare!" But the headlines. "Sweet Suite Deal Means Suits Dealt Suit" "President in Suit Sued over Presidential Suite" &c
- joezydeco 13y ago
  Did you ever work for Variety Magazine? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticks_nix_hick_pix http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticks_nix_hick_pix
  - 13y ago

mryan 13y ago

A few weeks ago I attended a party in that penthouse as part of Puppet Conf, which was held at the Fairmont. It is an incredible place, but the advertised rate of $15k/night made me quite certain that would be my only visit. Unfortunately the "secret door" in the library was locked so it was not possible to take a look at the helipad. $2k for lifetime membership to the Fairmont Platinum club is a good deal, nice one!

vermontdevil 13y ago

Great story. But don't be surprised Fairmont will drop this 'lifetime' deal eventually. AA did that with the Unlimited Miles First Class group - http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/05/business/la-fi-0506-golden-ticket-20120506 http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/05/business/la-fi-0506-... So take advantage of it every year as much as you can!

ben1040 13y ago
That's a little different, though, as "unlimited flights in first class" is something that has lots of opportunities for abuse and it was only a matter of time before they 86'd it. It's harder to abuse something that has defined benefits, like 10 upgrades a year. Meanwhile, for years, AA has offered lifetime Gold and Platinum frequent flyer status for those who have accumulated one and two million miles, respectively. It used to be an unpublished thing, but as of recently AA started prominently displaying it as a benefit you can attain.

denzil_correa 13y ago

Nice job! No doubt Living Social has run into all kinds of problems. http://valleywag.gawker.com/livingsocial-is-all-kinds-of-fucked-up-825053475 http://valleywag.gawker.com/livingsocial-is-all-kinds-of-fuc...

hbbio 13y ago

Mention this in your next YC application.

bsullivan01 13y ago

I wish you the best but Fairmont might wait for a better time to drop the "lifetime" perk. Looks like you already got your money's worth and then some so enjoy it. Hopefully it lasts for a long long time.

ameoba 13y ago
If it's only a dozen people or so, it's a pretty minor expense for them. The cost to the company is easily offset by the urban legends circulating among business travelers about knowing some guy that got free upgrades for life. That's a lot of persistent, viral PR for the quality of your customer service for very little outlay.

wdr1 13y ago

> on the frequent flyer forums Out of curiosity, which forum?