Originally Posted by
C17PSGR
That being said, so far in March, there are signs that it is starting to come together.
1. Points are automatically posting again at the proper rate
2. Lounges I have been in have exceeded brand standards with additional fish/meat/cheese at breakfast not required
3. All properties have greeted me at the proper level
4. Mega bonus brand posting posted properly without the need for me to call -- after the initial glitch, of course, posting only two brands
5. Suite upgrades are happening again
6. Ambassador continues to respond in a timely manner
7. App and website now allow be to download bills from all properties
8. Website is mostly working
9. Mobile key is mostly working at several Marriott properties
10. In the earnings call, Arne acknowledged there are actual problems
Just as an aside, I have not once seen 5 happen and that includes the time I went to a property on my birthday, knew they had availability and mentioned very directly that it was a special occasion not only to the front desk but also to the concierge, the manager and whatever poor soul answers the questions in the app chat room. Nothing.
And 7 and 8 are factually incorrect, and could not be true. I have looked at the website and the app and determined that the reason some of the hotels are having issues is because it appears there should have been a migration script of some sort that ran moving things in and out of a directory (/aries-reward along with permission changes) that apparently did not happen. You can watch it all play out in real-time if you go to the site and use the developer tools in Chrome to see the network panel flicker back and forth trying to get into that directory and failing, but only doing so for some properties. I have a stay in San Francisco, works without a hitch. And then there are some that will kick me right back out to the activity page with the hidden error for authentication. So, unless it was fixed in the past 30 minutes when I double checked this to still be the case, then no, it does not work for all properties. The website is awful and I say this as a career professional in web development but I digress.
The website and app are broken and they are doing everything they an to make a bad situation worse. There are entire industries built around crisis management -- textbooks written, studies already done and categorically everything they have done (or failed to do) flies in the face of that wisdom.