Originally Posted by
GUWonder
No; I meant that Marriott has fallen short of reasonable customer expectations with regard to the integration-related program changes; and that Marriott hasn’t shown much intent and capability to make things right very quickly and easily for the negatively-impacted customers. And so of course such Marriott customers shouldn’t ever be satisfied unless and until Marriott does right by the many wronged customers.
Arguments by analogy don’t generally make for a logically sound and valid argument, so I’ll take that kitchen renovation story and chalk it up to being just friendly banter.
Unfortunately that is the sad truth. This FT forum has
become a Marriott-bashing haven and anyone commenting that doesn’t adhere to that narrative is all but trashed.
Some people have had bad, even maybe terrible, experiences with the program merger, especially on the IT and CS ends. Others didn’t. I don’t have to feel miserable — and I won’t — just because someone else had a poor experience when in reality I for one am very happy with the outcome of the merger and the way things turned out — and I come from the SPG side and had never stayed in a Marriott property before 2017.
This year I earned points like I never had the chance of earning with SPG and have been burning them in amazing properties for ridiculously low rates—sometimes as low as half what SPG charged. BRG success and reply rates are in a whole different league than what was the case with SPG. And on top of that in a single year I received more SNAs and free night certs than I would ever have received with SPG, got fabulous upgrades (after Aug 18); was made (or will soon be) a lifetime PPE or whatever new metal or alloy they will pick for that tier so that I will no longer have to worry about membership thresholds; and I now have a pretty decent (though not exceptional) ambassador.
In my own experience, 2018 was terrific year for my membership in Marriott’s loyalty program and really hope they can keep it up for 2019.