Originally Posted by
GrayAnderson
The 48-hour room guarantee was actually useful [!] this week...it let me push into a hotel that was about 30 minutes closer to where I needed to be today (and where I was going to be staying for the next week anyway, so it saved me a hotel swap). It turns out that the "main" issue was a softball tournament in town (which explained the odd mid-week sellout), but it's the first time I've really "needed" the benefit.
(I ended up paying $160 for a $110 hotel room for it...but this is one of the few times I'll say that convenience won out over cost since this was the day I needed to be somewhere and also had to juggle a phone conference in the morning as well.)
Good your you, glad you got it! I only had one experience post merger and it was in Tokyo. Like you, one property was across the street from where I needed to be so I tried to book a 3-night stay through CS. First email was told it was sold out, second email (where I had copied and pasted the benefit from the Marriott website) was not answered in 3 days so I finally called. After 25 minutes on hold the agent came back and said the minimum stay would be two weeks. A year later similar situation and I called the hotel directly., They said the minimum stay was 3 nights and suggested I not go through CS for this in the future.
Originally Posted by
margarita girl
Does this mean that people who have LT Tit have no incentive to stay at the Marriott chain? There is nowhere to go from there.
I can say for myself in the years since getting LTT I do book Marriott less than before. Now I can make a decision what property/chain with what benefits works best for that stay. I actually like this more, get to see a wider variety of hotels. Conversely it also means that lifetime tiers are effective at concentrating stays within one hotel group, at least until you reach maximum status. If there are not many people who are likely to get LTT Marriott may think it is simply not worth the trouble of having it. UA is the same with lifetime Global Services. It does not matter how many millions of miles you fly after 4, there is nothing more. The number of people in that situation is probably so small to them they don't worry about.
(I still fly UA a lot because the benefits are just that good.)
Originally Posted by
lsquare
True, but in terms of fairness, just give the rest of us a chance at LTT. I have long suggested 10 years of Titanium and 1000 nights...
Maybe they will open it up again. Having a goal to reach for in the current environment makes sense to me. Wonder why Marriott does not offer it. They are not offering LT Ambassador, so at least let people reach for the second highest level.