Tried the trick, between ID and card — the lady stated she was sorry, she was unable to upgrade because the hotel was full (very high occupancy during our stay, and it also appears blocks of rooms are being renovated at a time, from what we saw and heard). Gave the $20 back to us, no problem. However, she stated that they had blocked the last available strip-view room for us, so that was fine. While a regular room, it had the fantastic soaking tub that the Aladdin has been known for, and though we were next to the elevator and ice machines, I think we heard them once only, the entire stay. Some of the old Aladdin touches are still there (carpets, etc.) but the big fake jewels are long gone, and this hotel’s evolution is going to be very interesting.

I love the fact that you do not need to walk through the casino to check in. Very, very nice, a seamless stay.

Of most note: a Trader Vic’s (!!!!) is coming into the Desert Passage Shops (soon to be “Miracle Mile.”) Spice Market Buffet is keeping its name and continues to be good.

The official change-over to the PH was formally made on Tue 4/17. The PH is very sleek and hip, it appears to be going for the “Palms of the Strip” vibe. We LOVED it and will stay there again. Thanks to the fatwallet/promo code forum, I got a fantastic rate which included “Stomp Out Loud” (excellent!) show tickets — and they weren’t the cheap seats, we got two front mezzanine tickets normally $75 each — this equaled half the cost of the room. Heart Center Bar is great, and has lovely go-go girls at 10 p.m. nightly.

Checked in at the Starwood Gold/Platinum line. I asked about an upgrade and tipped $20. The clerk (early 30s, asian) told me that the only resort room open was smoking, but the smell wouldnt be too bad, and that every resort vista, strip suite, and panoramic suite was taken. Although skeptical, I said if that’s the best you can do, we’ll take it. This clerk was full of lies.

The room’s smell was unbearable and the view was mediocre, so we went back down to the front desk to try again. We went to a different clerk(caucasian, early 30s) at the SPG Gold/Platinum line. Even though we didn’t tip the second clerk, she had no problem finding us a wide selection of non-smoking resort rooms with a view. She let us take our pick. Resort vista and suites were available, but she said only she can only upgrade platinum members for free, and even then, resort vista is the highest they go. (Contrary to the Platinum “Best Room Available” guarantee touted by starwood) I asked her if they had changed their policy, as I was positive upgrades beyond resort vista were available for free. She said with supervisor approval, any discretionary upgrade is possible, and she kindly offered to go ask for me. A minute later she came back saying it was a no-go. The resort room we ended up with was fine. The extra sink was worth $20.

Arrived Easter Sunday early…10 AM…gave the c.c and id with $20 showing….asked for a Vista Resort Room…no can do she said but a strip view 18th floor resort room was offered…yes I said…to her credit she offered the $20 back…told her to buy some easter items for her kids…she was very thankful…yes worth the $20..over the last two years never had them say no to this type of upgrade…deluxe to resort..maybe one day deluxe to a Vista Resort room…

Asked if there was any complimentary upgrades so she checked and said she could get us a resort room with 2 queen beds or our deluxe room with king bed with strip view. We went with strip view and it was a nice room.

Checked in at 1:00 on Sunday afternoon. It was busy but executed the patter perfectly. The woman with glasses pocketed the $20 stealthly and gave us what must have been one of the nicest rooms in the place. It was a jr suite with 5 floor to ceiling windows with gorgeous view of the strip and a partial view of the fountains.

She was super nice and told us we were getting a really nice room.

We were stunned by how nice it was as we’d booked the $58 special.

worked like a charm. Thank you frontdesktip!

slipped the twenty folded in 4’s under the credit card and handed it over, asked him if there was an upgrades available, he said yes and thats all there was too it. wam bam thank you sir!

When I handed him my ID and credit card, with the $20 bill peeking out between them, he handed the bill back right away and said, “Sorry, but we don’t have any upgrades available because we are at high capacity.” Although it is not the reason I came to town, I will be staying until Friday and the NASCAR race, which is a big draw, is in town, so I believe that may be why

Might have gotten the same upgrade from just asking nicely. The room wasn’t on a high floor but was good enough, and construction noise wasn’t a big problem. They also didn’t charge me the extra $30 for having an extra person; don’t know if that was because of the tip or an oversight or what.

We booked the room with a players club promo that came up about a week before we were traveling. Checked in at 1PM thinking to avoid the lines which we did. I handed the clerk my $20. along with ID and credit card and asked if there were any upgrades available. After tapping on his keyboard for a few minutes he offered me a choice between a resort room or one with a view. I hesitated a moment and said that it was a tough choice, we had three women rooming together. He tapped a bit more and said that if we wanted to wait a bit for it to be cleaned he could get us a resort room with a view. Since we had already stored our bags with friends we said we would wait.

Our room was ready when we went back down at 3PM. It worked very well for the three of us, lots of room (housekeeping even brought us extra luggage stands), nice size bathroom, great view of both Paris and the fountains. Still quite a bit of construction going on but it didn’t disturb us a bit.