Second 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. 

Click here to read my first post on using the LHRC program at Aria: Review: Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection – Aria Resort & Casino (Las Vegas, NV)

After my previous, shall we say, “less-than-stellar” experience at Aria Resort and Casino utilizing Chase’s Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection (LHRC), I’ve been meaning to give Aria another try.

Since then, I’ve had amazing stays utilizing both Chase’s Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection (LHRC) and American Express’s Fine Hotels & Resorts (FHR) program with stays at Bellagio, Delano, Mandalay Bay.

How would the Aria Resort and Casino handle Chase’s LHRC program this time around?

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!

Second 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.

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

As with last time, the main check-in line was long. I’d estimate it was about 30-40 minutes long.

But like last time, I skipped the main line and moved to the “Invited guest/MLife elite” line that had no waiting.

I was pleased to see “Invited guest/MLife elite” line had been moved to its own dedicated desk (to the left of the main line).

Unlike last time, I was not singled out and demanded to either produce my MLife card (which is not required for this program) or get out of line. Seriously, this was a big “plus” this time around.

Rating: 5 out of 5 points for Aria’s valuable new dedicated Invited Guest desk, their professionalism and friendliness, knowledge of the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection.

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

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

Last time, the front desk staff didn’t know exactly how I was supposed to receive my credits.

This time, the only negative at the front desk was that I was not given the official LHRC welcome letter specifying the Aria benefits in writing. However, the front desk employee read off the list of all the LHRC benefits and where to use them [everywhere] how to use them [bill everything directly to the room].

Rating: 4 out of 5 points for Aria’s detailed explanation of how and where to use the food credits with a “-1 point” for failure to produce the official LHRC letter.

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.

As I checked-in, this time I was thanked for being a MLife member and thanked for using the LHRC program.

The woman at the front desk was very professional, friendly, and helpful as she explained to me that although Aria was at full capacity over Labor Day, she would be issuing me an upgrade to a top floor with the all-important strip view. This was another major improvement over last time.

Rating: 5 out of 5 points for Aria’s room upgrade to the “strip view” even at full capacity on Labor Day weekend.

The Deluxe Room, Strip View:

The Hallway

The Bedroom

Finally, the elusive “strip view”

The Bathroom

Around The Room

Using The $100 Food And Beverage Credit

Having thoroughly learned my lesson at Aria’s buffet last time, this time I was determined to try one of the most popular premium restaurants Aria has to offer. All I had to do was find the restaurant with the biggest line.

So what was the restaurant with the biggest line? Javier’s (of course).

Image courtesy of aria.com

I strolled into Javier’s when the line went down a bit, but was still told the wait was “about 1 1/2 hours” for two people, but that we could sit immediately if we could find a spot at the bar. Predictably, there were zero spots at the bar.

The bar – before opening. Image courtesy of aria.com

I went back to the hostess and said “there is absolutely no space at the bar” and asked her to please put us on the list. To my surprise, she said, “sir, please follow me – we can seat you now”. “Uhh OK”. I wasn’t about to argue.

Tequila! Image courtesy of aria.com

I had eaten at Javier’s before (in Orange County, CA) and I didn’t remember much except that they have awesome pitchers of Margaritas (perhaps that had something to do with my memory?), oh, and great salsa.

This time around, I was recommended the Trio Del Mar, and it did not disappoint. In fact, it was a trio of shrimp, crab, and lobster awesomeness. I cannot recommend this dish highly enough!

Image courtesy of aria.com

We also went with the Enchilada, Chili Relleno, and Taco combination – also highly recommended.

In the end, the bill came out to $100.67 (not including tip), which is about as optimized a use of the $100 credit as you can possibly achieve.

$100 Credit? This is how you do it!

Rating: 5 out of 5 points for Javier’s. I highly recommend Javier’s in terms of quality and value (especially with the credit). More importantly, the Margaritas and salsa were just as great as I remembered!

Using The $30 Per Person Breakfast Credit

Like last time, the Aria Cafe was great. We were promptly seated, served delicious coffee, and ordered off the excellent breakfast menu.

Also like last time, we went with the Crab Benedict and Red Velvet Pancakes, both of which were again excellent.

This time around, I tried the fresh fruit and the strawberry/banana smoothie to max out my $60 breakfast credit.

Rating: 5 out of 5 points for Aria Cafe’s food, staff, and kitchen operations. This place is always a solid pick!

The Check-out: Guaranteed 4:00 pm Checkout

You might remember my insane automatic check-out experience the last time around. Well, this time things went a lot smoother.

Although I was given the 4:00 pm checkout automatically at check-in, I again decided to leave a bit early to try and beat the traffic back to California. Thankfully, there was no “forced” check-out this time.

I tried to checkout via the room control panel, but was unable to see my complete folio for some reason. As such, I was forced to checkout out the front desk.

Rating: 3 out of 5 points for Aria’s automatic 4:00 pm checkout and “standard” checkout experience this time around, but they did get “-2 points” for not having my complete folio available in the room.

The Check-out: The Final Folio Invoice

Last time around Aria failed to credit me both for the LHRC $100 Food and Beverage Credit and the  LHRC $60 Breakfast Credit, and boy was it a pain to get it fixed.

Well, this time around, I was again not correctly credited. Apparently, I was credited $60 for Javier’s, but my $100 was nowhere to be found. Luckily, I was being helped by an Aria front desk manager who saw the problem, and changed my credits to correctly reflect $60 at the Aria Cafe and $100 at Javier’s. She was very courteous and professional and apologized for the mistake while quickly [and painlessly] correcting it.

This was a huge improvement over last time.

The final total price for the room was $247.57 (that included the room rate of $179.35, the resort fee of $39  and taxes $24+5.22). Not bad, considering that I received in $160 in food and beverage credits – so it effectively cost me $87.57 for the entire stay – with dinner at Javier’s and breakfast included!

This my friends is why you should definitely use the LHRC program!

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

What a difference a stay makes. It had been about 10 months since my prior stay, and I can say things have overall changed for the better. It’s almost like they used my previous post in employee training for “how not to implement the LHRC program at Aria”. This time they pretty much got it right.

This time around, I rate the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection experience with Aria a solid 8 out of 10 due entirely to Aria’s much improved knowledge and execution of the LHRC program.

After this experience, I can finally wholeheartedly recommend using the LHRC program at Aria.

Cheers!