In our experience, should you be travelling or going on a holiday during (or even close to) a special occasion, then very often you can get some nice little extras (freebies) or occasionally a free upgrade.
Special occasions we have used are: birthdays, “special” birthdays (eg 50th), anniversaries, and of course don’t forget honeymoons!
Our motto is ALWAYS let the travel agent / hotel / airline / cruise line etc know if you have any special occasion that you can say you are celebrating, even if it’s a week or so before or after the event. And if you are using a travel agent, don’t stop there, also message the hotel you are staying at, or cruise line you are cruising with etc.
We use Booking.com a lot, and they have a system where you can send a message to the hotel / guest house when you book. My method is to normally make up a “special request” such as asking for a room with a good view, or king sized rather than double bed, or directions if we are hiring a car. Then I will add something like “We are really looking forward to celebrating our anniversary / birthday …. at your beautiful hotel”. That way you have let them know you are celebrating a special occasion without actually asking for anything, and more often than not, when you arrive will find they have given you a room upgrade, or wine / fizz, or such like. Most hotels are very good and always keen to please. In return please do go on later to Trip Advisor or you booking website and write them a nice review!
We have found that hotels, guest houses & cruise lines are the MOST LIKELY to give you freebies and/or free room upgrades.
If you read our Ecuador & The Galapagos travel blog, you will hear about the fantastic suite upgrade we got on our Galapagos cruise for our silver (25th) wedding anniversary, and how they made a cake for us and decorated the room with candles etc on the day.
Also in our Top 10 Most Awesome places to stay, Vila Istra in Slovenia gave us superb room upgrade for my 50th birthday, along with flowers, chocolates & chilled prosecco waiting in the room.
There have been many more over the years ranging from room upgrades to bottles of wine / prosecco / champagne, chocolates, professional photographs (on the old QE2 and new QM2) to name a few.
In our experience the airline is the LEAST LIKELY to give you any freebies or upgrades, although we did once get a free upgrade on a long haul to business class (which was AMAZING!) however that appeared to be totally random.
By the way, what they say about dressing smartly gives you a better chance of an airline upgrade…. well, we were on our way to do some trekking in Nepal and were in casual clothing and hiking boots! (And we weren’t the only people who were obviously going for that reason, who got upgraded). This was with Qatar Airways.
There is one other way we have managed to get Freebies or Free Upgrades … COMPLAIN! You have to ask yourself if this is morally ok, is your complaint justified? A couple of examples when we have complained and got a better room or upgraded room:
- When we booked a cruise with Norwegian, paid for an all inclusive drinks package, then noticed a couple of months later that they had changed to “All Inclusive” anyway (with even more gam included) & also that the prices had dropped a bit, presumably as it was closer to our departure. We made our complaint through our travel agent, and ended up with also getting free bottled water in the room (which was part of the new All Inclusive anyway), and a free upgrade from an inside to an outside cabin.
- As it happened on that same trip, we had independently booked a stay in Tahiti at the end of our cruise. We were gobsmacked, and totally disappointed to find our room overlooking building works! It took a lot of fuss and talks with the hotel manager (and a wee white lie telling them it was our anniversary) for us to eventually get a better room, away from the building works. It was not easy, and perhaps morally a bit naughty, as some other poor couple would have ended up in our room, as the hotel was fully booked. The manager was sympathetic but not initially willing to move us due to the hotel being full, however, with persistence and the suggestion that perhaps there was a room away from the building works that no-one had yet checked into, we finally got our move. I would add however, that as the noise was so dreadful, if I was that hotel manager I would not have even contemplated booking these rooms out in the first place.
Finally, in addition to the above mentioned, it is also worth a try if booking a restaurant for your special celebratory meal!
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