Well well well, you'll never guess what happened to me today.
Short version: Hotel refused to honor EEO BOGO on Global Rate rate.
Long version: check-in and get my keys but the fd lady has no idea what the BOGO is- literally not the slightest clue. She would've understood it just as well if it had been written in gobbledegook. So she passes me to the fd manager. He has no idea what it is either. Starts typing in a bunch of stuff and then prints out a paper showing me that BOGO can't be combined with any offer and the Global Rate is a special offer. I say I booked it through the plat. line and there should be a note about using the EEO on the res. and the lady told me I won't have any trouble using it. He says there's no note. I ask if he can contact someone to find out that I told him is correct. He says hold on and goes to the back. He comes back with term 2 on the EEO cert. highlighted- that EEO BOGO is not valid at U.S. Marriott and J.W. Marriott Resorts. He says this means that the BOGO cert. cannot be used at any Marriott in the U.S. (I've had other hotels tell me this too). I say but this is not a resort. He says no it's not valid at any Marriotts or J.W. Resorts in the U.S. (nevermind that Marriott isn't plural, so very hard to read that way). I. tell him that I know that that isn't correct and can he please call Marriott to straighten this all out. He asks for the number. I give him the plat. line # and the # for customer care. He calls the plat. line and puts in my MR #. He then introduces himself and tells the lady the two issues. After much back and forth she sets him straight on the fact that it is valid for U.S. Marriotts and also valid at his hotel. As far as the Global Rate being a special offer and not combinable with BOGO she concurs. FD manager gets off the phone and says that csr said need to add 20 percent to rate to make it work with BOGO (a rate which could not be booked before- all rates were either Global Rate rates or special packages). He asks if that's okay. And I think for 3 seconds (figuring where else I can stay) and say you know what that's fine just cancel it. He asks cancel the 2nd night? (can't imagine why he thinks I'd do that except that that's what he'd like) and I say no cancel both. He says check you out of the system? I say yes. He asks are you sure and I say yes and give him back the keys. He types some things and says all done and I go. If I had more time I may have escalated all this to talk to higher ups but a two minute check-in had already turned into half an hour and I had other things to do (namely a doctors appt.). What I'd like for my compensation (at the very least) is to get 1 night credited towards my status and counted towards my Megabonus. Which I think is not a lot to ask for for my trouble.
What failed: plat. line csr forgetting to put a note in res. (even though she told me she did), fd lady and fd manager having no clue about EEOs and specifically the validity at U.S. Marriotts and combinability with Global Rate, and the plat. csr also not knowing the combinability. Seems like much much training is needed. Also, maybe someone can rephrase term 2 on EEO cert. so we don't have anymore problems understanding the validity of EEOs at U.S. Marriotts.