Originally Posted by
Radiation Station
I would consider Ambassador worth the money, perhaps, if they actually had the teeth or balls to handle the occasional issues I have with hotels - but they don’t stand up for you at all in such disputes and just try to fob you off with points. And I often find my initial email doesn’t solve the issue, unless it’s very simple, so I can waste far more than two minutes emailing the service. I’ve found that Marriott Bonvoy Twitter is just as efficient at solving the simple issues, sometimes more so. So why would I pay a massive premium for a service that doesn’t provide CS above the average?
The status should come with both hard and soft benefits above Titanium and it fails on both fronts.
Originally Posted by
clarkef
That would make sense if the issues were either large issues or issues which I believed were Marriott specific. My issues tend to be more of the points/nights not posting. Or, if I'm going to a hotel, seeing if the Ambassador can arrange for a pre-arrival suite upgrade. Pre-pandemic, my Ambassador was routinely able to get properties to agree to pre-arrival upgrades to specialty suites which were not part of the upgrade pool.
Sure, I get that. We each have our own experiences.
That is the thing, particularly dealing with people. And Marriott, whose IT capabilities is only superior to Flyertalk's.
It depends on where you stay. In US property points not posting is a hassle. When I stayed in a property in Asia I notified the hotel about the points not being posted properly and guess who did the followup with Marriott? The hotel. They were persistent and kept apologizing and giving me updates.
An ambassador is just a concierge, and while I don't have personal experience with one I do have experience with Hyatt. The value totally depends on who you get. I had one that was marvelous, then another one that was useless, and now one that has a semblance of utility (but not really).
The one that was great retired. So, did Hyatt deliver what they promised?
I find the question of points posting a Flyertalk thing. Some of my friends don't bother to check their receipts when taking out food, don't bother looking at their credit card bills to check for errors. It definitely adds up to more than 2k a year, probably more than 6k. But they view it as a hassle.
And I want to say most travellers don't care much about points in general, especiallly after they try to book for their specific dates and find no availability at the particular hotel they want.