New You First Program UPDATE

[macraven]

So, from what I understand, if you do your 5 stays during HHN 2008 and then go a week earlier in 2009 so you are within your 1 year and do 5 more stays , then you have your 10 stays within any 12 month period. You now have Platinum for the next 12 months or until October 2010. You would have to do the same thing and stay 10 more times in the next 12 months to keep your Platinum for 2011.

Hope that makes sense.

love that....don't i wish i could fly down every thursday for 5 weeks and do hhn.........i would if i could

that will be my wish the next time i get to do the wish on the wish bone on a turkey/chicken!!

ok, this puts me at a better running then.
i'll be staying in october this year and will do a short trip in spring 09 and then my regular in oct 09 on the platinum status.

then january 1 2010 hits and i will be knocked down to gold for the spring and oct stay.
i can live with that.

there is no way i will be making all those stays in a one year time period.
i could get it by number of nights, but not at individual stays.

all i have to say about that is, it was great while it lasted!! woo hoo...

 

[Subi WRX]

Well, I'm so glad that some of you got personal responses.

I specifically asked how can a person stay 12 nights in 2 stays and be blue yet a person who stays 10 nights in 10 stays be platinum, and I got a simple form letter.

I responded that they didn't answer my question, and I got a shorter form letter:

I have confirmed that your YouFirst status is Platinum. Again, we are extremely sorry that you are disappointed in the changes to the program, but hope that you will give YouFirst a chance.



Sincerely,



Your Friends at Loews Hotels


Sorry to all the cheerleaders for LF/UF/Business First/Families Last/Leisure Last, but I call BS on that.

It makes no sense.

In the interim, I plan to take full advantage of their $100 per "stay" for Platinum members. We usually stay 5-6 nights per stay. I'll be happy to fluctuate between resorts every single night. That amounts to 5-6 stays per vacation, and amounts to $500-600 per vacation in resort credit.

For those who have such faith in Loews and their customer service, good for you.

I have been just as loyal (though not as vocal here), but do not have that faith. We used to maintain platinum by # of nights. Now, they've lost all their credibility with me. I will no longer plan my vacations around the Loews resorts. There are other resort destinations that honor the # of nights I stays in addition to the numbers of stays.

 

[macraven]

i like the way subi thinks.

after my fall trip, i'm gonna do that too.

you know that saying about living out of a suitcase.......

maybe i will meet my needed amount of stays now...

 

[damo]

When I look at the old requirements that goofy posted, I realize that I am lucky to have been platinum for as long as I was. I really don't think I qualified for all those years since there were only a few years where I stayed the 10-15 required days. I should have been gold.

Loews probably would have been smarter just to enforce the rules they already had.

 

[Subi WRX]

dup

 

[Subi WRX]

When I look at the old requirements that goofy posted, I realize that I am lucky to have been platinum for as long as I was. I really don't think I qualified for all those years since there were only a few years where I stayed the 10-15 required days. I should have been gold.

Loews probably would have been smarter just to enforce the rules they already had.

Thank you. I would have been thrilled if they had done this. We were platinum because we stayed 15 nights per year, every year. It seems that Loews got lax in enforcing the rules, and as a result, created new rules that make it almost impossible for a family/leisure traveler to maintain current status.

Who was the poster that stayed 3 weeks at RPR? Under the new rules, that's just one stay. Which, under the new rules, wouldn't even have made him Blue. He would just be a member. (This poster is Platinum, but like many of us, probably won't be for long even though he stays 21 nights ... that's crazy.).

I can see taking away the welcome gift for Blue members.

I can see making someone Blue after 2 stays and not on his very first stay.

The free internet is nice, sure.

The $100 credit for Plats is nice.

I would've much rather them, however, simply started to enforce their old rules.

 

[calgarygary]

I certainly am not happy about the changes. I think Loews did a huge disservice to the family traveler.

Many of their hotels such as the Universal Hotels, the Don Cesar, the Loews Santa Monica, the Coronado are just as much resort destinations, perhaps even more so resorts than business destinations. We have stayed in many of them as a vacationing family. I think they had a unique niche in the tight market competing for the traveling family dollars which they blew just to be another in a long line of business incentive programs.

But a minor glitch with a brand new website showing the wrong status level is not a huge indicator of poor service. No matter how much you beta test something, a bug will pop up. It happens to the best. Most everyone here has reported that when they called, their status is properly recorded in the Loews database. So the bug is in just what is showing on the website.

Why did I and many other friends of mine get responses? Who knows. Luck of the draw? The fact that my e-mail went out at pretty much the minute the new website launched before they were probably inundated with e-mails? I personally know many people that did get replies from Loews, so I am a bit satisfied that they are at least trying to wade through their complaints.

I have always been treated well by Loews, so although quite disappointed, I am willing to give them a bit to fix the bugs and see what happens.

Goofy, it is not the "minor glitch" only that has me concerned. I dealt with another issue, not discussed here on the Dis that went up to a V.P. and was not resolved to my satisfaction. The combination of that issue, with the current failings of their IT department and the obvious eventual reduction in status that most of us will encounter has me concerned about their level of service. As I indicated earlier, even the smallest level of surveying their LF members would have given them the necessary feedback about stays vs. nights for status.

 

[damo]

As I indicated earlier, even the smallest level of surveying their LF members would have given them the necessary feedback about stays vs. nights for status.

I'm not sure about that. If the majority of their business is with business travellers, they would prefer the stays instead of the nights. The Universal hotels are just a portion of their business and even at the Universal Hotels there are many conventions and corporate events.

 

[calgarygary]

Granted that the majority of their business is with the business traveller, however more than any other chain that I am aware of, the destination, vacation traveller is a significant portion of Loews Hotels business. They could have easily taken that market's needs into consideration with the you first program by combining stays/nights as in the old program. I believe that Loews got this wrong, plain and simple.

 

[damo]

Granted that the majority of their business is with the business traveller, however more than any other chain that I am aware of, the destination, vacation traveller is a significant portion of Loews Hotels business. They could have easily taken that market's needs into consideration with the you first program by combining stays/nights as in the old program. I believe that Loews got this wrong, plain and simple.

I think they should have made it an either/or choice for stays - keep the old requirements for families but add on the new ones to made their business customers happy.

 

[goofy!]

love that....don't i wish i could fly down every thursday for 5 weeks and do hhn.........i would if i could

t was great while it lasted!! woo hoo...

Mac - I was thinking more of Subi's theory. 1 flight down, 5 separate "stays" - ie: 1 night per hotel

 

[goofy!]

I think they should have made it an either/or choice for stays - keep the old requirements for families but add on the new ones to made their business customers happy.

That would be a great solution! And maybe, after they see the results for a few months, they will tweak it some.

18 months is a long, long time and plenty of time to do some thorough statistical analysis on how well the new program is working.

 

[macraven]

me too...

 

[Disneyhappy]

I sent off another email Friday directly to a VP since I did not get answers to my phone call and two other emails. My issues were my status continues to show "member" when I am Platinum and I wanted an answer to the "form" email response I recevied almost 2 weeks ago stated the eligle rates for the new program have been greatly expanded. I wanted to know which rates count towards a qualified stay that did not qualify under the old program.

I received two email back-to-back this afternoon. One addressed an issue that I did not even inquire about:

With the new Loews You First program the definintion of qualifying stays has changed. A qualifying stay is determined by how many times you stay (not nights) at Loews Hotels. So if you spent 1 night or 3 nights it would qualify as 1 stay.

The second email answered my inquiry about qualifying stays. It appears to me that the qualifying stays are the same under both the old and new program. Please correct me if I am wrong but I know that AAA rates qualified before but the inference is that a AAA is a new qualifying rate:

The following rate types are included in the YouFirst program, but were not included in LoewsFirst:

Corporate Stays
Group Stays
Travel Agent Bookings
AAA Rates
Senior Citizen Rates

And lastly, nothing on correcting my status in my profile. Ugh!

 

[Subi WRX]

I sent off another email Friday directly to a VP since I did not get answers to my phone call and two other emails. My issues were my status continues to show "member" when I am Platinum and I wanted an answer to the "form" email response I recevied almost 2 weeks ago stated the eligle rates for the new program have been greatly expanded. I wanted to know which rates count towards a qualified stay that did not qualify under the old program.

I received two email back-to-back this afternoon. One addressed an issue that I did not even inquire about:

***With the new Loews You First program the definintion of qualifying stays has changed. A qualifying stay is determined by how many times you stay (not nights) at Loews Hotels. So if you spent 1 night or 3 nights it would qualify as 1 stay. ***

The second email answered my inquiry about qualifying stays. It appears to me that the qualifying stays are the same under both the old and new program. Please correct me if I am wrong but I know that AAA rates qualified before but the inference is that a AAA is a new qualifying rate:

The following rate types are included in the YouFirst program, but were not included in LoewsFirst:

Corporate Stays
Group Stays
Travel Agent Bookings
AAA Rates
Senior Citizen Rates

And lastly, nothing on correcting my status in my profile. Ugh!

***First, that drives me nuts!!! I know, I've said it before. Still..... ***

Second, what about Super Saver rates?

I've booked AAA before and had it count many times for upgrades, welcome gift. That is no change at all??

 

[keishashadow]

I am found in the system, still good as Gold

email address partially fixed as to login, not in m profile though

ressie for October still not showing up either in YouFirst, guess if u book on Universal it still won't show up in the new system

Wildly OT: see senior rate mentioned earlier...anybody know the online code for it...i've tried aarp, sen, sr

 

[macraven]

the code for senior rate is SEN

only problem you will have is orlando does not honor it.
the other loews generally will though

 

[Sleepy]

Wildly OT: see senior rate mentioned earlier...anybody know the online code for it...i've tried aarp, sen, sr

I was going to ask the same question. I want to know what this Senior rate is.

 

[damo]

I was going to ask the same question. I want to know what this Senior rate is.

We actually got a good deal using the senior rate in Montreal two years ago. You had to be over 50 for it and it was cheaper than the AAA rate.

 

[macraven]

i have booked thru loews in most of the years past and have used the aaa rate.
that was with the original program of loews first.

and i have used the ss rate booking thru loews.

i have always in the past years, been considered a qualifying stay for the program.


i don't know why i am just finding out it wasn't in the program.
gee, it made me obtain platinum status years ago.


i need to find out clarification on the new program for the ss rates.
i am not using ss this fall but aaa for the discount.
i'm thinking for next year if ss is better.

i have not tried the sen code lately. last time i checked for homies the ENT and the SEN was not taken on line. i even called and was told that the universal hotels were not in the program for those discounts.
i assumed different discounts honored depending on the area of the country you are staying. with florida having many seniors, i can see why that code is excluded at the loews in orlando.