Originally Posted by
Mort
I'm reserving judgment until we know for sure that the contract won't be renewed. Or if it is renewed, what the redemption levels will be.
But I've got a sick feeling about this.
In just two more weeks I would have had enough points for an Alaska cruise. After months of watching my "progress chart" and getting more and more excited, the rug was pulled out from under me.
I feel like a chump for leaving HHonors and Hyatt. Earlier this year I switched to Marriott mainly because of the HAL relationship and also the 7-day hotel packages. But it's been a steady stream of bad news ever since.
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I just joined FlyerTalk so I could share my conversation today with a Marriott Rewards representative. He told me that there would NOT be a renewal of the points contract with HAL. I called them today because I had been saving up my points for a HAL cruise, had 400,000+, and wanted to request my Rewards certificate for a Spring 2009 cruise. The MR points rep (would hate to have his job if many people are calling about the disappearance of HAL cruises) told me lots of members were wanted more flexibility as to duration and location of cruise redemptions, so they added the certificate program discussed earlier in this thread. Which is a very lame value compared to the HAL cruises, I pointed out. He agreed. I asked why they couldn't have BOTH cruise options, reminding him that for many years members had a choice of Carnival or HAL cruises. He didn't know why HAL contract wasn't being renewed, or whose decision it was.
I used my MR points for 2 HAL cruises in the past, and they were wonderful. I noticed in the literature that HAL sends past customers that they are starting their own points program affiliated with VISA. Maybe that had something to do with it. For 150,000 points with HAL VISA, you get a cruise worth $3000, among other options. Compare to the flaky Marriott generic cruise certificates, with 145,000 points "buying" only a $1000 certificate.
I shared with the Rep I was VERY disappointed that loyal Marriott customers weren't told about this IN ADVANCE last Fall, so we could have used our points before HAL was dropped from the program. He was very polite (as was I) but he really didn't seem to care how I felt.
Seems very counter intuitive that Marriott corp would try to save money by treating its loyalty customers so poorly.
I think I may switch my Marriott Rewards VISA to Holland America's and start staying at Hiltons.