Creative marketing to present a normal offering (or less than normal offering) as a special offer. What a surprise... To be fair Marriott is far from the only company who does this type of marketing. I guess enough customers go for it that they consider it worthwhile to keep doing. Otherwise, if no one took the offers, why would they continue to do them over and over again. E.g. the uneducated consumer is the target for these offers and not the typical FT'er. I am sure there is probably some boundary case where the offer is actually good. Nevertheless, the general offer is usually not advantageous. YMMV....

--Jon