Originally Posted by
nmpls
The logic for a one time status extension is this:
If persons who stay at marriott frequently enough to be at a very high status (amb, TI, maybe plat), you don't want them to go back to being "regular members" because of something outside of their control, like stopping travelling to save money or switching to Hyatt or whatever. If these people are back at square one, they may explore non-marriott options. It costs Marriott very little to extend status, so the loses could be greater than the cost of extending.
I agree that appeals to "loyalty" or something won;t do anything, only money talks, but I bet if they extend Marriott will claim it is out of loyalty.
I think you missed my point or I didn't articulate it well enough. I said nothing about one-time status extensions in that post. Actually, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Personally, I think they should give extend
everyone's status due to this pandemic for the reasons you articulated. I mentioned earlier that cherry picking certain members for status extension doesn't make sense. One suggestion was (and I'm paraphrasing), say hotels are closed for 3 months, lower the qualification threshold by 25%. To me that doesn't make sense because not everyone's travel is evenly spaced out, much like a CPA is super busy in April, but less so in May.
My disagreement with another poster was that I didn't see any reason, ethically or from a business perspective, why someone who stayed at Marriotts during the
shelter-in-place should receive special consideration from Marriott compared to other members. My observation is that when a frequent traveler uses the word loyalty as the major basis for a position, they have drunk deeply from the Kool-Aid. They think the purpose of these programs is to reward past travel. Of course, not. These so-called loyalty programs are a marketing item to convince travelers to spend , and continue to spend, their travel dollars with them instead of a competitor. To this end, the travel provider increases the return on investment (ROI) on your travel dollars commensurate with your perceived value. Past travel is relevant to the travel provider's decisions only insofar as its a potential indicator of future travel. Staying at Marriott during the lockdown says nothing about what you will do for the rest of the year, or next year, or the year after that.
In the words of the immortal Janet Jackson, Marriott will ask "What have you done for me ... lately"