NIGHTMARE! Attempt to DOWNGRADE Rio suite from Diamond Aspirations offer was repeatedly REFUSED

Here's my situation:

I earned Diamond Aspirations (80,000 tier credits) on the way to Seven Stars in 2017. This entitled me to a two-night suite stay at any Caesars property. It had to be booked by January 31, 2018 (more on this later), but could be used up until June 30, 2018.

On January 12, I booked it at the Rio, starting tomorrow (June 15).

I did this because the free room benefit for Seven Stars was ending in 2018, so I was simply using it as a two-night comp stay for the World Series of Poker (WSOP). I didn't care about the suite.

Later, as the WSOP schedule was announced and I made my plans, I ended up booking most of my nights in mid-June at another Caesars property (because I qualified for some comps there, and didn't qualify at Rio).

So basically I have 14 consecutive nights booked starting June 15. Two are at the Rio (in a suite), and 12 are at another property in a regular room.

I decided that I didn't feel like moving, so I just wanted all 14 nights at the other property. I was looking to DOWNGRADE from a comped weekend suite at Rio (which they could resell for a lot of money), to a much CHEAPER regular room at the other property!

I'd be doing them a favor, right? Should have been easy, right?

I called Guest Services last night to see if they could do it. NOPE! I was told that since the Diamond Aspirations offer had to be booked by January 31, they could no longer modify it. If they attempted to cancel the booking at the Rio, they couldn't rebook the offer at another property, because it was after January 31. They said I needed to speak to a host. I asked to be transferred to one, but was told none work after 1am (lol).

I called back today. I went through several agents, all of whom tried to help, but FAILED. Everyone was telling me there was no way to downgrade from this Rio suite to a much cheaper room at another property. They kept advising me to simply cancel and rebook at a standard rate, and then talk to a host on the back end to comp it off. No fucking way I was doing that.

I kept being passed around from department to department, and no one could help me.

Finally, I got what appeared to be a helpful rep in Guest Services. I had tried to reach Casino Services (I had been told to call them), but they were busy and the call had kicked back to Guest Services. The Guest Services rep fully understood my situation, but was powerless to fix it. She called Casino Services, and they told her that a host had to do it. She got a hold of a host (all of this took like 30 minutes or more), and the host told her that my play didn't qualify for "further comps", and refused to help me.

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WTF!!!!

I didn't want further comps! I wanted to DOWNGRADE my existing comp, and give them BACK a valuable suite that they could resell for a lot of money!

I was then transferred to Casino Services to speak to them. The Casino Services rep asked for my info, and then transferred me to a manager back at Guest Services (lol).

The Guest Services manager was very combative and uncooperative. He kept telling me that there was no way around this, and that I needed to just book the new property at a rate and deal with it later. He was refusing to even acknowledge my point about how absurd this all was.

Then came the dumbest part of the conversation.

"Look", I said. "I have a suite at the Rio. I want to give it up and exchange it for a cheap room at a lesser property. Why can't I find someone to do this?"

"Sir, you don't have a suite", he explained. "Rio calls itself the All-Suite Hotel and Casino, but in reality you're just in a regular room."

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"What??", I exclaimed. "No, it's a real suite. It's part of the Diamond Aspirations offer."

"Sir, it's booked as a regular room," he repeated.

"Well, then it's wrong. Go look at the offer I'm booked under. It says SUITE," I replied.

"All I can see under the offer is 'National Casino Marketing'. I see nothing about a suite. And besides, it appears this room is comped based upon Howard. Maybe you should talk to Howard about this", he responded.

"Wait!! Who's Howard? Are you telling me that there's someone named Howard in my room? I don't know any Howard! What is going on here?"

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"Sir, it sounds like you're getting very agitated. But I can't help you. Again, you need to speak to Howard, and if he can't get it changed, then you need to book at a rate and talk to a host."

I hung up on the guy. This was just too weird. I decided it was time to talk to an actual front desk manager on the property I wanted to move to.

I called the property, but it automatically got forwarded to the call center. Again, I was transferred the Guest Services. I asked for the front desk manager -- the ACTUAL front desk manager.

After some hold time, I heard a familiar voice on the line -- it was the same Guest Services manager I had just talked to -- the one who went into that whole spiel about Howard! Oh no!

"Sir, I just talked to you," he said. "Unfortunately, the front desk advised me that they don't wish to speak to you about this matter, and I was told to be the one to handle it."

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"NOOOOOOOOOOO", I cried. "We just went through all of this. You couldn't and wouldn't help me. I'm a Seven Stars member. I should have the right to speak to a front desk manager if I need to."

"I'm sorry, but I show you as a Gold (bottom tier card), not a Seven Stars", he replied.

"What??? I'm definitely a Seven Stars! You must have the wrong person up or something!"

The manager paused, then asked me to verify my address. I gave it to him, and he said it didn't match the one on file.

"Please spell your first and last name again," he requested.

I did so, and he made a starting discovery.

They had the wrong name and reservation pulled up this entire time! Apparently they thought they were talking to some other Todd W, who was booked at the Rio over the weekend, who was in a standard room, was staying with a guy named Howard, and had a Gold card.

The manager said that the guy who transferred me must have pulled up the wrong (but somewhat similar) name, and that caused the confusion.

Suddenly he got a lot more cooperative, and said he would take a shot at fixing the problem.

Amazingly, he was able to override whatever was stopping everyone else from fixing the issue, and indeed now I have 2 comp nights at the other property, starting June 15th.

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Only took like 2 hours of phone calls to get done, though.

So let's review:

- I wanted to DOWNGRADE an expensive comped suite to a regular room at a cheaper property

- Several reps in several departments couldn't help me

- A host arrogantly refused to help me because he felt I "didn't qualify for any more comps", failing to understand that I was simply looking to DOWNGRADE AN EXISTING COMP

- Casino Services somehow pulled up a different "Todd W" who was a Gold Card member, and thought that was me

- Because I was seen as Gold, I was treated like dirt and basically told to eat shit

- The front desk manager refused to take my call, again probably because I was seen as a Gold member

- When the identity confusion was cleared up, suddenly the Guest Services manager was a lot more helpful and did the relatively simple override that I was asking for the entire way

- Two hours of my time was wasted


FAIL!!!!

Wow....who the fuck cares?

Lots of people care. This is a subforum dedicated to MLife and Total Rewards, and this was a major failure regarding a Total Rewards offer.

If you don't find it interesting, move on.

I probably would not have made it to the (good) conclusion. I would have lost it in some fashion when it was explained to me that I didn't really have a suite. Yeah, that would have been the blowup point for me.

Vegas has by far the worst people to deal with out of all the CET props. And we find it almost impossible to get decent comps and can't remember the last time we had a winning trip there. Contrast that to CET props in Tahoe and Bossier City, La. Great comps. Odds of winning much better. I am not surprised at all with what you had to deal with there. They are trained to say no rather than listening to you and trying to do the right thing.

BTW, I just want to also mention that hosts at CET properties are SUPER uncooperative these days, unless they think something's in it for them.

So unless you're putting in a lot of action at that particular property, they find every reason to say "no" to you, and basically refuse to listen to your points.

Unfortunately, a lot of "rate/reservation adjustment" type stuff falls under the umbrella of host responsibility, so everyone just wants to push you to a host, where you're almost surely to get a "NO" answer, often without a lot of thought or consideration of the situation.

That's exactly what happened here.

I always cringe when they say, "Let me connect you to a host" or "Talk to a host" about something I need fixed, because I know it's about 100% the host will refuse, even if it's a straightforward and common-sense fix. They just don't want to do work if there's nothing in it for them.

I always try to get this stuff fixed by managers at the hotel end (either on-property or at the Vegas call center), because at least some of those people are willing to try to help.

Hosts at CET are literally trash. Amazing how they say “If you need anything, don’t be afraid to ask, I’m here to serve you” or something. Then you’re like, “yeah, can I get a comp for 2 at the steakhouse? I don’t drink or any of that, so $150 or $100 comp would work great” and they’re like “oh no.....I can’t do that”.

There’s a good reason I call them “floor rats”.

Nothing surprises me with these people anymore. I just had to cancel a trip to the Millionaire Maker final because they wouldn't let me use the entire airfare allowance on myself, as if they should care if it's just me, or me and my wife/gf/dog.

This will be my last year as 7 Star, after I'm done no-playing them on as many room offers as I possibly can. I already have a host at another place bending over backwards to give me room/spa/restaurant/tournament entries for similar action. I'm hoping they will ask me why at some point, so I can tell them exactly how much they suck.

Dan--you may want to double check that you don't have to share the room with Howard now. May I suggest Tasha/Karen/Nathan?