<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sbrower:
DJ, let me ask it another way (not a challenge to you, just a lawyer to lawyer inquiry). Do you think that Marriott Platinums have a "reasonable expectation" that, when they arrive at a Marriott hotel, they will receive an upgrade to a suite at least 1/2 the time? Unfortunately, I don't. (I used to, 10 years ago, but not recently.)</font>
Well, I'm not a lawyer but I'll do my best at self-representation...
Maybe this is why I'm not as upset about this as some folks seem to be. I see any kind of upgrade as a pleasant surprise, not an entitled benefit. Yes, I give Marriott a lot of business, but when I pay for a standard room (usually at a fairly low rate), I think I DESERVE a standard room. Upgrades are nice, and enhance my loyalty, and sometimes I get upset when I don't get them because I know they're an advertised benefit, but... well I guess I just choose not to lose sleep over it. Since Marriott provides a consistently high-quality product I'm satisfied to keep spending nights with them.
Now I know some of the activists are foaming at the mouth, ready to attack me for having such low standards. I can almost feel the post already: "If you pulled you head out of the sand and came over to Starwood, you would see how great 90% suite upgrades can be!"
My point in this thread was simply that there are apparently an awful lot of dissatisfied Starwood platinums, too, who are not getting those phenomenal suite upgrade percentages.
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CO plat, UA prem; Marriott plat, Hyatt plat, Hilton gold, Starwood gold, Fairmont gold; Avis select, Hertz 5-star, all the others base level...
