Originally Posted by
broadwayboy
From Karen (GP Concierge)'s post:
"In addition, existing award reservations for stays subsequent to June 4th will receive a refund for the point difference if the hotel moved to a lower category. We will also allow award reservations made by June 4th to be modified by September 2nd under the terms of the original award chart."
Now, travelexpert, it's not so bad after all, is it?
Agree.
But it is still disappointing that the focus of the devaluation is the highest end properties, which is where I want to focus my vacation stays after giving a hotel chain hundreds of nights of revenue business. And as I mentioned before--this devaluation is occurring when the luxury hotel sector has been hammered worse than any other sector--and anticipated to be the slowest to recover.
As I steer business from Hilton and consider whether I should include Hyatt to my ongoing relationship with Marriott--my biggest concern is another devaluation as soon as Hyatt realizes the consequences of dolling out boatloads of points with credit cards. Like in two years when from now when hotel rates have returned to prior highs, they'll say this devaluation in June 2010 was just a "minor readjustment".
As you gather--I am starting to view loyalty point executives in a similar way I see politicians. Big on promises and ready to grab my tax dollars. And full of excuses when it comes to actually delivering on promises.