Concorde Hotels/Delta Airlines experience
 

Stayed at several of concorde hotels recently- they have many nice hotels throughout mostly Europe. I enjoyed their hotels. But one word of caution, their customer service is terrible. I have had problems with them crediting my Delta Sky Miles Account, and despite their offices in NY being aware of this, they insist that I need to keep calling their Paris office to work this out. Overall they have nice hotels but if you have any sort of problems from your stay their customer service is not responsive and I would certainly think again about staying at one of their hotels.<BR>Delta has also been extremely unhelpful. They told me the only way you know credit will be given through their frequent flier program is on their flights, they told me hotels/car rentals are often problems in getting credit. They too despite being faxed of my receipts like they asked, have also insisted that I keep writing letters and calling Paris. Unfortuantely the Delta Sky Miles program seems to discourage customers rather than encourage customers from flying Delta!<BR>

I have had similiar experiences with Delta on crediting my account. They seem to want your business and advertise their Sky Miles program all over the media, but the program is not very good. I have never stayed at Concorde Hotels, so can't comment on that portion.

Concorde has some very outstanding hotels. They do have a phone number for US customers(think it is in New York that office). They do so seem to have some difficulties with communicating with their various properties throughout the world. When I booked through them their was a bit of a hassle in terms of each one notifying each other that I had actually made a reservation. It is too bad their customer service isn't better, beacuse I like their hotels I have stayed at.

I have received some great awards on the Sky miles program. Their was only one time when I had a problem getting credit on my account, although that one time was a bit frustrating. Be persistent and they will credit you the mileage.

I stayed at a couple of Concorde Hotels in past- they key is to book dircetly through their individual properties and not through their NY number.

I don't think much of Delta Sky Miles program, either, mainly because they make it difficult to redeem the mileage because they seem to limit the seat availability so much.<BR><BR>However, I recently had a similar problem with my AA FF account on the hotels -- I stayed at a Tulip Inn hotel in the Czech Republic and only after getting home did I realize this was one of AA's FF partners and I should get some credit for that. I FAXed AA a copy of my hotel bill marked paid which clearly indicated I had stayed there and yet they also insisted it had to be transmitted to that exact hotel in Prague for them to credit the miles to AA. I don't understand that at all, it's AA's program and they are giving the miles, I clearly had the documentation, so I don't see why that specific hotel has to do something for me to get the miles. However, it appears that is the system for these hotel/airline FF link programs for some administrative reason.

I think Delta has some great frequent flier partners that you can earn miles with. in fact, I have earned several free trips through this program. they do have a "customer care" division you may want to contact, although my experience with them admittedly has not always helped solved complaints I have had in past.

I LIVE IN ATLANTA AREA, SO FLY DELTA QUITE FREQUENTLY- THEY FLY DIRECT TO MOST EUROPEAN CITIES. ON MY LAST TRIP TO EUROPE WHEN I GOT BACK TO ATLANTA AIRPORT MY LUGGAGE LOCK WAS TORN OFF AND MY BAG RIPPED OPEN AND INSIDE MAY BELONGINGS WERE A RECK. I TOO NOTIFIED THE CUSTOMER CARE DEPT MENTIONED IN AN ABOVE REVIEW AND FOUND THEM TO BE TOTALLY UNHELPFUL. I BASICALLY ENDED UP EATING THE COST OF THE BROKEN LUGGAGE- LUCKULY I HAD NO VALUABLES INSIDE MY LUGGAGE- A REMINDER CARRY ON ANYTHING WORTH MUCH AT ALL TO YOU! DELTA IS CONVENIENT FOR ME BUT LIKE MANY OF ABOVE REVIEWES THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND RAPPORT WITH CUSTOMERS CAN BE MUCH IMPROVED.<BR>STU

I have flown on Delta for many years and overall had very good experiences. That being said they do seem to be much more customer service oriented when trying to sell you tickets. I have had a few issues over the years in regards to problems, and looking back now I guess it could have been handled better. They are probably average when it comes to customer service for airlines.

I went on their website concorde-hotels.com. They seem pricey but quite luxurious. I may decide to book directly with hotel as a previous reviewer said.

I have flown air france/delta never any problems with service. I have heard from friends of mine some of the topics discussed here. Delta's frequent flier program isn't all that great compared to many of the other big airlines, particularly so if they don't credit your account like some people have been saying.

I dropped the sky miles program last year, as I did not find it all that rewarding. I did earn a few tickets but like many on this site had to spend so much time trying to get them to credit my account, even when I fly delta now I don't utilize the program. Be careful about their american express advertisement to earn mileage- they charge and annual fee up to $135- a little high.

The hotels, car rentals, and other "partners" that award mile for any of the airline programs are actually paying AA, Delta etc for the miles and offering them as an incentive to the traveller. This is why the miles earned must be credited through whomever is awarding them. Most hotels will not award them unless you present your card at time of checking in/checking out. If you did present your card at that time and have it on your receipt, the airline will then generally follow up to get the paperwork, at least have had this with AA. If not, it is a lost opportunity unless the hotel is feeling extremely generous and/or you can threaten some later withholding of business!!

To explanation: I disagree with your above comments.<BR>Actually I have had this exact experience with Delta in past. Before I recieved my card in the mail, I went on a trip and was assured by you guessed it Delta that all I had to do was give them my number when I checked in and I would receive the credit. Needless to say Delta after my stay did not think that was acceptable. I told Delta to cancel my membership after that incident and my company avoids flying with them if we can avoid it.

My experience with concorde is you can book online or contact their hotels directly. either way will work. I think it is easier to make reservation directly with hotel, as others have well noted concorde can have its share of problems as I have felt they have way too few people in their customer service despite having a large number of hotels.

Hi Mike,<BR> I didn't mean to appear to be defending Delta or any other airline, I was just giving them the benenfit of the doubt! My main point was that hotels etc.pay for those miles and really should be the ones to post them.

In response:<BR>The airlines if they want our business should try to listen to customers! The sky miles program is intended to help, not hurt their business. It is no wonder the airline industry is in sever financial problems and not having good rapport with their customers certainly doesn't help.

well, your explanation does make it somewhat more understandable, "explanation", but I'm not convinced. As someone else said, they promote that you can sign up at a certain time and get credit before you get your card. And Delta is the one I have an account with, not Tulip Inns, and Delta is the one sending me promotional literature all the time about how I can get miles with all these partners. It IS a Delta account, not a Tulip Inns account. So, that might have something to do with it but doesn't make me change my mind that it is not an efficient or reasonable method.<BR><BR>I did finally get 25K miles which took me a long time as I don't fly on business, and I have never been able to use them on a flight I wanted because there are never any seats available for FFlyers, even when trying to book weeks ahead of time in non-peak periods on planes that have some empty seats (I know because I paid an APEX fare on one plane that I wanted to do that with because they refused to let me use my FF miles and I did want that flight, and the plane still had empty seats upon takeoff).

I just realized I am sort of confusing myself because my Tulip Inns experience was with AA, not Delta, but I think all these airlines are acting the same way, I guess. But, the incident with not being able to use miles on a flight that even had empty coach seats WAS on Delta.

I have had similiar problems with getting credit on my account. I used to have frequent flier program with Southwest Airlines before I moved to where they no longer fly. Their program was simple in that you were awarded points for flying. They didn't deal as much with the hotel,car rentals etc. Delta seems to add new partners on a weekly basis but seems to have no accountability for making sure these partners act responsibly. It of course reflects poorly on Delta. I would rather see less partners in the program and it being better organized.