Review: Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection – Aria Resort & Casino (Las Vegas, NV)

Editor’s Note: The following review is of Chase’s Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection [as utilized at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas]. This post is not a complete review of the Aria Resort & Casino. 

Update: Click here for my more recent post and Second Review: Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection – Aria Resort & Casino (Las Vegas, NV)

Recently over Thanksgiving, I discovered a very valuable travel-hack for staying in Las Vegas – booking through Chase’s Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection (LHRC).

About The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection:

How To Use It

To use the LHRC program, you’ll need a premium Chase credit card that grants you access. Cards known to work include the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Business Ink Cash, and United Mileage Plus Explorer cards.

(Other Chase cards like the Ritz-Carlton or the British Airways cards may work as well – to know for sure, check their eligibility by using the card to sign-in on the LHRC website).

The Benefits Of The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection

Chase’s Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection is a little-used benefit, but sometimes it can provide tremendous value. The perks of the program include the following 5 benefits:

• Daily breakfast for two
• A special benefit unique to each property
• Complimentary Wi-Fi
• A room upgrade, if available
• Early check-in and late check-out, if available

The Benefits Vary By Property – But Aria’s Benefits Are Among LHRC’s Best:

Aria’s “special benefit unique to each property” is a $100 Food and Beverage Credit and a $30 per person, breakfast credit. So for two people, this benefit is worth $160 at minimum!

Review: Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection – Aria Resort & Casino (Las Vegas, NV)

For the record, I’ve stayed at the Aria Resort and Casino a dozen times in the past, and it’s been one of my favorite Las Vegas hotels since I first stayed there opening night in 2009.

However, I had never stayed there using the LHRC program so I was excited to see what kind of differences in the overall experience the LHRC would provide.

For reference on the LHRC’s Aria benefits, I have provided the official email excerpt below:

(LHRC email explaining the Aria benefits)

The Check-in: The Invited Guest Line

Those of you who have stayed at the Aria Resort and Casino know the line to check-in can be insane, sometimes taking over an hour just to check-in.

Thus, LHRC’s benefit of “Invited guest check-in” was potentially very valuable. I skipped the line of 50+ people and moved to the “Invited guest/M Life elite” line that was only 2 people long (located at the far left of the front desk).

However, I was immediately asked what I was doing there and asked to show my M Life elite card, which I didn’t have on me at the time (nor should I have needed it). I tried explaining that I had booked my stay through the LHRC program, but the attendant said he’d “never heard of it”.

As he aggressively tried to usher me out of line, I quickly fumbled through my phone to find the email stating LHRC bookings come with the “Invited guest check-in”. The attendant showed the email to the front desk, and then said, “I apologize sir, turns out you are welcome to check-in here as an invited guest after all”.

I have to admit, I felt anything but “invited” at that time.

Rating: 1 out of 5 points for Aria’s treatment of “invited guests” and not for knowing about the “luxury program” they participate in.

The Check-in: The $160 Food And Beverage Credits

The lucrative benefit of $160 in credits was the single biggest reason for me booking through the LHRC program.

I asked the front desk for the official LHRC letter detailing the program at Aria, but they said they didn’t have it (although they said they usually did). I asked how exactly to use the credits – did I need vouchers? Should I bill meals to the room? Should I inquire at the restaurant?

The front desk attendant said he was unsure, but that I “could try billing it to the room”. I knew right then and there that I’d be arguing for the $160 in credits at check-out the next day.

Rating: 1 out of 5 points for Aria’s lack of information and explanation of how and where to use the food credits.

The Check-in: The Room Upgrade

There is a huge difference between rooms with views and those without views in Las Vegas, thus this benefit has the potential to make a big difference in your stay.

Eventually, I was recognized for my Gold M Life status. My room was booked as a Deluxe King Room, Corner View. The benefit stated: “room upgrade upon availability to Deluxe City View,” and I figured I’d have a half-decent shot at an upgrade as a M Life Gold member. I was wrong. Availability was not discussed at all, and I was not offered an upgrade.

Predictably, my view was of the valet circle – not the strip.

Rating: 1 out of 5 points for Aria’s lack of mention or discussion of upgrade availability (to be clear, they didn’t have to discuss this, but doing so is a key difference between good service and mediocre service in the LHRC program).

The Deluxe Room, Corner View:

Using The $100 Food And Beverage Credit

Now, one thing I truly hate is buffets. I absolutely despise them. However, due to the fact it was Thanksgiving, my travel partner insisted that we’d get the best meal by eating at the Holiday buffet where we’d get the best “bang for our buck”.

Against my better judgment, I agreed – but only because it was Thanksgiving. Well, turns it this was another huge debacle. The “regular line” was about 2 hours, but we were told by the Aria staff that the “M Life elite line” was only 45 minutes. “OK, well, looks like M Life Gold is worth something after-all,” I thought to myself.  Turns out I was wrong again.

At the 1.5 hour mark, elites in the M Life line were starting to get angry because they realized the regular line was going much faster. Somehow, Aria buffet management instituted a completely ridiculous policy whereas large parties in the regular line were pulled aside and told to wait for large tables to become available, allowing for small parties to be quickly seated. However, this was not the case in the M Life line. Several large parties stopped the line dead in it tracks, as Aria management refused to move the line until the large parties were seated.

M Life elites predictably revolted and shouting matches with buffet staff ensued.  Some left to talk to hotel management about this ridiculous policy. At the 2 hour mark, upper management apparently intervened and forced the M Life line to be expedited. We were finally seated at the 2.5 hour mark, which would have been only 1.5 hours had we stood in the regular line.

When we finally got to the buffet, it was Thanksgiving chaos. Lines were super-long, some people were saving spaces for their entire families, others were just straight-up cutting in line. Food was smeared and scattered everywhere, and what little was left over had been throughly picked-through.

I resolved to deal with the situation by telling management of my experience later. Unfortunately, we used the entire $100 food credit there on the very disappointing buffet experience. I billed the buffet to the room as recommended.

Note: I’ll take responsibility for going to a Buffet on Thanksgiving, that’s on me. But that still doesn’t excuse Aria’s basic mismanagement of the Buffet Restaurant; they’ve had a full-year from the previous Thanksgiving to prepare for it. 

Rating: 1 out of 5 points for Aria’s handling of the buffet and the M Life line.

Using The $30 Per Person Breakfast Credit

The first major ray of hope for the LHRC program came the next morning at the Aria Cafe. As bad as our dining experience was the night before at the buffet, the Aria Cafe was a great counter-experience. We were promptly seated, served delicious coffee, and ordered off the excellent breakfast menu.

We went with the Crab Benedict and Red Velvet Pancakes, both of which were excellent. We topped it off with delicious green juices “to go” from the juice bar. When all was said and done, we just barely went over the $60 total breakfast credit. Again, I billed it to the room as recommended.

Rating: 5 out of 5 points for Aria Cafe’s food, staff, and kitchen operations.

The Check-out: Guaranteed 4:00 pm Checkout

Around 10:00 am we decided to head back to Los Angeles early to beat the traffic (as one does). When I attempted to check out utilizing the invited guest line, the front desk staff notified me – to my utter shock – that I had already been checked-out and that other guests were already in my room!

I was dumbfounded by this. I mentioned the LHRC’s “Guaranteed 4:00 pm checkout” benefit and asked how this could have happened. The front desk staffer said she didn’t know, but nevertheless I was already checked-out and fully charged for my stay.

Rating: 0 out of 5 points for Aria’s shocking and forced 10:00 am checkout.

The Check-out: The Final Folio Invoice

Since I had apparently already been checked-out, I asked for a copy of my folio statement for my stay. Sure enough, I found that Aria failed to credit me both for the LHRC $100 Food and Beverage Credit and the  LHRC $60 Breakfast Credit.

I complained that I was incorrectly billed because I had booked through the LHRC program and didn’t receive my credits. The front desk staffer was very annoyed by this. I again had to pull my LHRC email and go down the folio item by item explaining my overcharges.

I was initially charged $315.03 for my stay, with no LHRC credits. After producing my LHRC invoice email and arguing for a full half-hour, the front desk staffer finally said she, “realized what the problem was”, but she did not apologize to me. Just then, I heard the guy at the desk checking-out next to me complaining that his bill was wrong because he didn’t receive his credits either. It was unbelievable.

When she finally corrected the bill, the final price was $145.92 for the room and taxes, plus $67.57 in resort fees ($39), taxes, and tips – totaling $213.52 for the entire stay. Not bad, considering that I received in $160 in food and beverage credits. It effectively cost me just $53.52 for the stay, although it cost me way more than that in heartburn dealing with incompetent Aria staff.

The Bottom Line Review: Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection – Aria Resort & Casino

Unfortunately, utilizing the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection was not the luxurious experience I had hoped for. Ultimately, the benefits were great and provided real tangible value, but they were so poorly executed by the Aria Resort that the whole LHRC experience was ruined instead of enhanced.

As somebody who’s stayed at Aria a dozen times, this was by far the worst stay I had there. I thought the LHRC program would be seamless at Aria, but instead I found myself constantly explaining the program to the staff and fighting for every last benefit and credit instead of having them extended to me as a “valued guest” as per the details of the program.

In the end, I rate the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection experience with Aria a dismal 3 out of 10 due entirely to Aria’s poor execution of the LHRC program. The only reason for any score at all was because of the stellar Aria Cafe and the valuable $160 food and beverage benefit.

Giving It Another Try

Would I have more luck with the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection at a different Las Vegas Hotel? Stay tuned.

Cheers!

Update: Click here for my more recent post and Second Review: Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection – Aria Resort & Casino (Las Vegas, NV)