I’m still struggling to understand what the Ambassador Service is suppose to do for its elites? I’ve asked a few times but have received vague responses from them and other Marriott team members so I’ve just been trying to use them as a central point of contact for resolving general Marriott issues with very limited success. This is a summary of my experiences year to date:

1. I forwarded a folio for a $20 something line item charge marked “Point redemption fee” for a stay at the Aloft Tulsa. Received a response two business days later from a backup ambassador that this was a resort fee and could not be waived. I sent a follow up email email questioning this logic which was acknowledged but the agent refused to review the issue again. A quick 5 minute call to a general reservation agent in Manila was able to resolve the matter quickly by contacting the hotel which confirmed this was a clerical error and should have been a back charge to Marriott corporate.
2. I was planning a point redemption trip to London and wanted to shift the dates of the reservation, I reached out to my ambassador received a response from another back up ambassador three business days later that the rate was unavailable at my preferred hotel and suggested a few alternates. I replied with my alternate, and after waiting another day for a reply, I decided to do it myself and discovered I was able to rebook my preferred hotel on the new dates without issues. Granted the inventory may have changed during this time but felt this process should not have taken a week.
3. Accidentally booked to hotels for the same work trip, discovered this on the day of check in. My Primary Ambassador was able to successfully cancel one of the hotels without incurring a fee. Success!
4. Two weeks after booking a room for a planned trip I discovered a bug on the Bonvoy Mobile App that will occasionally list a prepaid rate in the list of results when searching on a corporate rate (even if the prepaid rate is lower than the corporate rate, it usually excludes them), adding to the confusion, the return results will bold in red that the corporate code was used in the return results when displaying prepaid rates. With 3 weeks remaining before the trip I reached out to my Ambassador who worked on it for a few days but was advised he was unable to get the franchisee to waive the fee. Decided to make the trip based on this information, figured I’m out the $500 regardless, might as well get the points, right? At check in, I casually asked the desk agent if they ever make exceptions to the cancellation fee on this rate and was told with my status it would not have been an issue, he also noted there were no notes in the reservation indicating I wanted to cancel it.

In the end I feel my experiences with the Ambassadors have damaged my relationship with Marriott.