Wonderful upgrade and service at the Fairmont San Francisco

My husband and I were celebrating our 34th wedding anniversary, and found it challenging to set aside some time for a short break from work. We are President's Club members, and have the Fairmont visa, so we were looking to use some of our points(although we are not one of the top echelon members by any means!). The time we set aside to travel to San Francisco turned out to overlap with a huge convention in SF, for Oracle. The very helpful representatives at the Presidents Club call center helped me figure out how to maximize the points and upgrades we had...but because the conference was going on, we were told we would not be able to use the suite upgrade the first 2 nights, only the last two. We figured we would just move after the first two nights, but might have to plan our Friday activities around the move. My husband was at a conference elsewhere and was flying in late one afternoon, I was arriving on a separate flight from the east coast, and arrived before 11 am at the hotel. The lobby was absolutely packed with conference goers...but no line at the check in. Rich, behind the President's Club desk, asked "checking out?"....no, I told him, checking in(and i figured it would be 5 pm before we had a room to settle into). Rich began reviewing my information from the computer and said..."I think I can offer you something you will be pleased with, and you won't have to move rooms". Hmmmm, I said....what would that be? He replied that he could make it so that we could use the suite upgrade for all 4 nights. I asked where it was, what floor, was there a view? He leaned forward and said ..."trust me!" Being sleep deprived from an early flight, I asked if the room was available now to check into...it was, and he offered to take me to see it, and if I did not like it, he would look at working something else out. So, off we went to the 5th floor, and he opened the door to a huge living room with wood panelling...and then pointed to another door, telling me the bedroom was through there. When I opened the door, there was a huge picture window overlooking San Francisco Bay, with Alcatraz and Coit Tower in full view!! Absolutely breathtaking...I said "oh My God!" very loudly and Rich laughed...I think he wanted to see my face when I saw the view. The suite was very nice, and I also surprised my husband when he arrived, he was equally stunned! In fact, when I let him know I was checked in by texting him, he asked if the room had a view and I told him, well, sort of, but not a great one ...so he could experience the delight the same way I did.

Every staff member at the hotel provided excellent service, from the evening refresh/turn down staff to the concierge and front desk folks who made sure we liked our accommodations. I was even able to see the last race of the Americas Cup from my window and see the Oracle sailboat zip across the bay on its way to victory. We had four lovely days of blue sky and sunshine, the last morning brought fog, which was very interesting to look at. My husband and I had a vey memorable wedding anniversary thanks to Rich and the great staff at the Fairmont San Francisco!

Susan H.