Melia birthday upgrade

[Micbacon]

Hi all,
I’ve booked to go away over my birthday through melia. I have gold status and have used the 20% off voucher. Can someone let me know how the birthday upgrade works. Does it come through before your birthday? I check in the day before my birthday, so not sure if it comes through in time?
Thanks

[Dave]

I got an email from Melia on my birthday about the birthday upgrade so you may miss out.

[Stu_N]

I don’t think the timings will work, unfortunately.

Melia will email you on your birthday with the option of upgrade or another 20% off. You have to select the upgrade as your preferred option and then I think it takes a day to come through into your account (I can only see it in the app by the way). To use it, you apply it when you check in online approx 48h before your stay. It does last 12 months though so all is not lost…

[Micbacon]

Thanks both!

[BBbetter]

It looks like they are making it intentionally inconvenient for customers by having a hard deadline for choosing the option. Make it appear like they value you and quietly take it away from customers who dont track it.

[Niall]

Expect little from the upgrade voucher. If you would use it, it is generally better to take the 20%. But if not doing 4 stays in a Melia, I guess upgrade better as they do seem to stack (although I think terms suggest they don’t, or at least used to). There is another thread here where people advise to expect little from the upgrade.

The birthday vouchers do come on your birthday. I assume you’re MeliaRewards Gold from Amex Platinum, as otherwise birthday voucher options may vary.

I think you’re being unfair to Melia BBbetter, they give you months to choose which option you want and then months again to use the voucher so you can get use out of it more than a year after your birthday! Melia points themselves expire after a year of no use. This is a loyalty scheme meant for people who do stay regularly at Melia hotels, I don’t think this is unreasonable.

[kevinchoi]

Agreed that the 20% off and upgrade offer can stack, in practice.

I actually find the upgrade benefit quite good though. I don’t know if it’s some sort of technical issue, but the upgrade voucher stays in my account even after I use it, which means I’m able to use it multiple times!

I find that with the upgrade voucher, it’s best to be careful to choose which room type you book. So for example if a hotel has “Standard room”, “Standard room on a high floor”, “One bed apartment”, then book the middle option, as the upgrade would be much better than if you booked the standard room and got upgraded to a higher floor only

[elguiri]

On the back of the above, I have chosen the birthday upgrade benefit, and have a cheap one nighter coming up which offers me with my ‘status’ to upgrade the room type (standard to premier, so nothing exciting).

Are there any data points as to whether this is a one-use benefit (in which case I’ll save it for when I choose a better hotel) or can I use it for any stays throughout the year?

[xefo]

Reviving this thread – Have an upgrade voucher in my account but when I checked in online this morning – there was no option to use it on either of the two screens. Does this mean there was no availability (believe the level above would have been a suite)?

[chiraagnt]

Hi all,

Just wanted to jump in here with a quick query – I’m currently making a booking with Paradisus (a Meliá property) and using one of my 20% off vouchers, for a stay in 2025. I am using the pay now rate (i.e. the cheapest rate that requires me to pay in full now).

My birthday is coming up this year – am I to understand that I can use the 20% voucher I get on my birthday to this same booking (i.e. it stacks on top of the 20% voucher I’ve already used)? If so, how does that work? Would Meliá refund me the 20% I’ve paid?

If this is not how it works and I opt for the upgrade voucher instead, can I then stack that voucher on top of the 20% voucher which I’ve already used for this stay?

Thanks for your help!

[djdj]

chiraagnt wrote:

Hi all,

Just wanted to jump in here with a quick query – I’m currently making a booking with Paradisus (a Meliá property) and using one of my 20% off vouchers, for a stay in 2025. I am using the pay now rate (i.e. the cheapest rate that requires me to pay in full now).

My birthday is coming up this year – am I to understand that I can use the 20% voucher I get on my birthday to this same booking (i.e. it stacks on top of the 20% voucher I’ve already used)? If so, how does that work? Would Meliá refund me the 20% I’ve paid?

If this is not how it works and I opt for the upgrade voucher instead, can I then stack that voucher on top of the 20% voucher which I’ve already used for this stay?

Thanks for your help!

We stayed at Paridisus Playa del carmen in April, booked using 20% off code, I don’t think you can stack 20% off codes.
When checking in online, I couldn’t work out how to use the birthday voucher. However, we were still upgraded when we got to the hotel, that may have just been luck.