3DH

Through a strategic partnership with Bruce World of Travel, part of the American Express Travel Network, destination club members, their families, and friends can book all commercial, personal, and business travel as well as luxury adventure vacations.

See more at Sherpa Report

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"Boutique" is better! Another extremely satisfied LUSSO member!

Steamboat Bill

I also read that on SherpaReport, but could not find anything about this on either Ultimate Resort or the Bruce World of Travel website.

I find this a strange relationship as Ultimate is a Florida based company and there are TONS of great travel concierges in the Orlando area and Bruce World is located in Toronto, Ontario.

Also, the Bruce World of Travel web site is pretty lame and needs updating.
Bruce World of Travel - Home page

TarheelTraveler

I'm not sure that I understand why this is a big deal. So you have access to a higher end travel agent. Is this something that you normally couldn't get on your own?

DC4MS

I just spoke with Ultimate Resort (and I am meeting them next week at their headquarters) and they stated that they are starting a new Travel Desk service for their members to model the same benefits as the American Express Centurion card (black card).

The goal is to partner with travel agencies that have already been approved by American Express and work with members desiring trips to locations where UR does not have a presence.

LTTravel

I do not have a need for a travel service to get me tickets to the super bowl for $10,000 a ticket or the Us Open for a similar price. I would like a travel service that will get me free upgrades and the best prices. I find that most of these travel services are geered for those business individuals who don't have time to make travel plans themselves and rarely do they save them any money, in fact, often cost more. The best benefit of the Black Card in my opinion is the free lounge access, free status upgrades in hotel, car rental, airline, etc travel clubs and discounted pricing, free upgrades and late checkouts for some luxury hotels. For me, just a 10% discount is no great shakes as you can often find packages that are cheaper yourself. I also don't find it difficult to go online and book a hotel reservation myself. What I really want from these travel services are things I can't get myself on the internet, like status upgrades, free room upgrades, significant discounts, guaranteed late checkouts, free amenities. I don't see how one of these travel services will do that for UR.

3DH

I noted that one of the "perks" was that this travel service could book private jet travel... I, like you LT, wonder if any of this would be at a savings to the member! Even though I dropped the money to be a DC member, I am still prudent enough to search for the best prices for getting there and the things I choose to do while in residence!

As of yet, I have not used the AMX Platinum travel concierge for the same reasons... now, if they could get me tickets to sold out events (as I have seen mentioned elsewhere...), free upgrades (why would they bother... they have folks willing to pay the price and never ask!) or the like, well, that would be a different story!

Hopefully, someone that is with UR (UE?) can enlighten us with whether or not this is a true benefit!

Call me cheap if you will...

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"Boutique" is better! Another extremely satisfied LUSSO member!

Kagehitokiri

first, the sherpa article doesnt even say anything about benefits.

and thats absolute nonsense that they will get you amex centurion level travel benefits, like FHR (the card costs $2500 a year, and requires $250K/yr spending along with a $5000 initiation fee)

i would presume it will just be comparable to virtuoso (free) or amex platinum FHR/etc ($450/yr)

quintess used to offer members leaders club unlimited ($2000/yr) but they recently dropped it to leaders club access ($300/yr) leaders club benefits, particularly upgrades, are not well regarded at all on flyertalk.com

DHH offers quintessentially, which has some good hotel/travel benefits ($1500/yr)

IMHO a lot of the comments some of you are making are not taking all the benefits into account. there are plenty of high value-added benefits, that are free or have a very low cost-to-benefit ratio, that are offered by concierges, or centurion travel, etc. there is tons of discussion of such things on flyertalk.com, as well as a large number of people with centurion cards both in the US and internationally. for example 3DH, PTS can get you free upgrades, and concierge can get you sold out tickets. just because they cant do it in one case etc, does not mean they can never do it. why would you pay the fee, if not considering the travel benefits/concierge/etc as valuable to you??

DC4MS

Helium Report just posted an announcement on this partnership.

Ultimate Resort Lands New Travel Partner | Helium Report - Luxury 2.0 Guides and Reviews

3DH

Is it just me, or does it seem odd to anyone else that UR made this announcement, although they will be soon merging with PE and becoming UE? Why not just wait until the club merges, or are these so-called benefits only going to be available to the original UR members? Strange...

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"Boutique" is better! Another extremely satisfied LUSSO member!

Kagehitokiri

announcements should always be made as early as possible IMHO.

but that is a good question. technically it could just be for grandfathered UR.

DC4MS

I am at the Ultimate Resort headquarters and they just informed me that approximately 13 high end Super Bowl packages with airfare, tickets, hotel, transportation, etc. and they were extremely happy with the rates as the members told UR that the Bruce World of Travel provided a better rate for the package than they could do on their own.

Ultimate Resort is very happy with this first experience with Bruce World of travel.