Originally Posted by
cfabar1
Eliminating 4 pm checkout for everyone except plats was a huge mistake in my opinion.
Personally, I think it was thought out, deliberate and unlikely to really cause them any large push back from customers. First, legacy Marriott Rewards didn't have any guaranteed late checkout for any elites. What Marriott has done now is a compromise that gives a previously enjoyed benefit to their "best" legacy SPG members (i.e. Plats), as well as, adding a new guarantee to the legacy Marriott Rewards Gold and higher elites (which equates to the new Bonvoy Plat and above levels.) So they have added a new benefit probably to their larger elite base (Marriott Rewards members) while limiting the likely pushback legacy Marriott hotels had with adding this new benefit (by limiting it to the Bonvoy top 3 elite levels).
I just don't see that as a "mistake" and doubt they will change it to include the new Bonvoy Gold levels as there are too many elites with that level, but I've been wrong before and I'm sure I will be again. So who knows.
Originally Posted by
vincentharris
That along with losing lounge access at gold level, and the outrageous points redemptions now (Properties that were 10k - 12k a night in points at SPG are now regularly 60k + in Marriott which means the 1:3 transfer was crap) solidified me leaving
On top of that the last few times I HAD to stay (location requirements) at any Marriott property the customer service and stay has been awful. It is one thing to lose elites and others because you botched the merger, but that should mean from the top down customer service on property should be outstanding, and at least in my small sample set it has not been.
I'm not following you on this. The old SPG Gold level never had guaranteed lounge access and the old Marriott Rewards Gold level is now the Bonvoy Plat level. So the same people that had lounge access before have it now. I do guess there was a short period of time where having SPG Gold translated to Marriott Gold, but that was never implied nor intended to be a long-term benefit.
And if you are saying bonvoy to the Marriott Bonvoy program and going with IHG or Hyatt instead, I do hope that works out for you. But IHG now has 50K/night hotels that a few years ago were only 15K points (and there was no 1:3 translations or anything like that in there.) I used to use IHG as my secondary program, but their rate increases while limiting some of their bonus opportunities and all the while providing virtually NO real elite benefits and limiting award room availability, I've had to look elsewhere. And while Hyatt has some nice benefits, good hotel coverage where I tend to travel isn't one of them. So they are a niche player for me.