Originally Posted by MN_travler
Barry;
Just to redirect, as I am afraid you missed the point.
Simply stated is that Marriott rewards does NOT differentiate levels of travlers. If you are a silver or a platinum you have essetially the same reward opportunities (excepts for % bonus of points).
That is indeed not bad at all if you are at the silver level. However, frequent travelers (I suspect you are not one of those, but I may be wrong) expect deserve just a little bit more.
If I am on an airline, you may think being upgraded to 1st class is a big deal if you never have. Trust me, the level of service (I have found) is just about the same as in coach and the food is still airplane food.
What it does do is remove a bit of hassel from the travel rountine. I am sitting now in a hotel on a Sunday and have not seen my family in 3 weeks.
I am not crying about that as it is part of my job, but a hotel is still a hotel.
What counts to me is when I am with my family and ready to cash in on some of the priviliges of the shared pain (theirs and mine) of travel.
That is when I count on my friends (Marriott, Hilton, airlines, etc) to come through and be loyal to me. Isn't that what loyality programs are about? going both ways? Or am I missing something?
Yes, you are.
You are mixing apples with oranges. The Hilton program has its benefits and drawbacks, especially for non-Diamond tier members. No, as a Platinum or a Gold or a Silver or a non-elite -- there are no blackouts on awards -- unlike Hilton. You want the room and the inventory is exhausted? Pay more points -- it is that simple. Not so with Hilton, unless you are Diamond -- you are nothing. No rewards rooms, period, unless you contact the hotel and they relent. So, you have a choice -- pay more points with Marriott or stay at a Hilton, period.
Hilton does not guarrantee you a suite on reward reservations -- show me where in the rules that is stated. That you may get a suite -- as a courtesy -- has more to do with your Diamond status and your yearly room revenue, than anything else. In all likelihood, you would have been given a suite at the RI, as well, again based on your Platinum status. Sorry to say, but your statements are quite erroneous.
Until you can provide me a clear and concise statement from Hilton's rules that they provide automatic suite upgrades, your comments are just anecdotal, and they certainly do not qualify as the ironclad guarrantee that you present them as.
You are coming quite late to this argument about suite upgrades. I suggest you do a search and re-read the approximately 17 threads that deal with this subject since the first of the year.
You don't like the Marriott rewards program and you want it to be more like Hilton's? Fine, that is your perogative. But, your theory of extinction is very sadly misplaced. Marriott and Marriott Rewards are nowhere near in such danger, indeed, they are probably the healthiest of the bunch. That is why they can take the position that they do as compared to the rest of the hotel programs.
I do not endorse every aspect of their program -- far from it -- and, I believe their shee size and numbers allow them to get away with certain things that other programs could only dream about.
You do not need to educate most of us on this board about the relative merits of the various programs for very heavy users of hotel services -- more than the average road warrior. What you need to do, is convert the vast numbers of Marriott Rewards members who don't know much about the program, or any other program, to get things changed. They probably do not frequent this board all that often, so your comments are probably not providing the intended effect you had hoped.
By the way, your knowing a little more about the hotel business would not hurt, either. Whereas Marriott is generally a franchisor of a propery -- and, therefore, gets paid whether or not a property is making money, Hilton, often owns its own properties. Therefore, they could and should be more responsive to a high revenue generator such as yourself.
Again, it is apples and oranges. You like Hilton more in the way it rewards your loyalty. Fine. But stop your bellyaching about Marriott, and its business model, as they are very different from that of Hilton. What you should really do is convince your boss that you and your team would be happier and more productive employees if he were able to book you more often than not at Hilton family hotels, because of the perceived perks that you would receive away from the job. Complaining about the issues that you do on this board is spitting in the wind. Marriott has considered the issue of guarranteed suite upgrades, and it is no.
Want the guarrantee, switch to Starwood.
