Originally Posted by
rny321
Which is part of the problem with communication through travel forums and bloggers instead of providing information directly to customers or putting new information in the Terms and Conditions.
Completely agree.
Originally Posted by
dsquared37
As Marriott hasn't released to new T&Cs all people have to rely upon is the mostly spurious chatter offered by agents. It's impossible to judge what the restrictions will be moving forward unless you're Carnac.
Originally Posted by
OssianBlue
The terms and conditions are silent. CSRs are speaking as agents of Marriott Corporation. That is not an inconsequential problem for them.
I agree that it's not an inconsequential problem for Marriott, but I think that the takeaway here is that Marriott, for whatever reason, has decided not to release the information yet. Any statements by employees concerning embargoed, non-public information could well be (is likely to be) considered employee misconduct, potentially subjecting the employee to some type of internal discipline.
The CSRs are not "agents" in the legal sense of the word. I doubt that there are a lot of frontline, customer facing employees (or phone agents) who have legal authority to bind the corporation.
Here are the Ts & Cs. See, in particular, paragraph 5 under General Membership. Marriott can pretty much do what it wants. Also note that employees may participate in the Rewards program.