Chris,

First of all thank you for your follow-up and my guess is what you shared with us is what you were told. Well, I wouldn't put much credence in anything you are told without at least a little investigation supporting what was said.

Actually this is not the case with this hotel for award or PAID stays as of yesterday. I called them yesterday to speak with someone at the hotel and the following happened:

• I got transferred to reservations where I got voice mail; so I called back and asked to speak to the GM

• I got the asst. FOM and explained the situation of not being able to reserve any rooms after Jan 5 2008. He wanted to transfer me to reservations to which I replied "No. If you transfer me to anyone then transfer me to your boss or the GM". He told me to wait a minute and put me on hold.

• After 20 minutes on hold I conference in the Platinum Reservations who, after I explained the situation to them, transferred me to Customer Care. I am still on hold with the .... FOM as evidenced by the hold background music that both the Plat CSR and I can hear.

• After explaining the situation to customer care and also telling customer care that we are still on hold with the .... FOM, I asked if they like the background music? We are at about 40-45 minutes on hold at this point. Customer Care puts me on hold and says she is going to locate someone at the hotel. After coming back a few times, apologizing for the wait each time, she finally has the Reservation Sales Supervisor at the hotel on the line.

• I explain the situation to her and she says that the first couple weeks in January (up until Jan 16) are booked solid with a conference and that they are trying to make decisions about later in January and February availability. She said they would have their inventory up to date by April 21.

• Call was wrapped up after 59 minutes on hold... Yes, we were still on hold with the .... FOM. BTW, the .... FOM told the Customer Care and Reservation Sales Supervisor that I had been mysteriously disconnected. Funny that the 3 of us could still hear the hold background music.

With the exception of the .... FOM, all those I spoke with were very helpful.


Now, since all of this occurred yesterday and involved PAID stays at the JW Orlando, I decided I should go out to the web site and check Reward availability starting with January 6. Well nothing available for the night of January 6 so I decided to check on alternate availability. I check for 1 night of Reward availability during the 4 week period starting on Jan 6. Lo and behold up comes links to 9 different types of rewards at this hotel.

I click on the first Select This Room Type button and I get a Windows Internet Explorer dialog box that says, “The rate you have selected is not available. Please select another rate or return to the previous screen and select alternate dates to check future availability again.” I click the OK button to get rid of the error dialog box.

Then I click on the second Select This Room Type button and I get a Windows Internet Explorer dialog box that says, “The rate you have selected is not available. Please select another rate or return to the previous screen and select alternate dates to check future availability again.” I click the OK button to get rid of the error dialog box.

Then I click on the third Select This Room Type button and I get a Windows Internet Explorer dialog box that says, “The rate you have selected is not available. Please select another rate or return to the previous screen and select alternate dates to check future availability again.” I click the OK button to get rid of the error dialog box.

Then I click on the fourth Select This Room Type button and I get a Windows Internet Explorer dialog box that says, “The rate you have selected is not available. Please select another rate or return to the previous screen and select alternate dates to check future availability again.” I click the OK button to get rid of the error dialog box.

Then I click on the fifth Select This Room Type button and I get a Windows Internet Explorer dialog box that says, “The rate you have selected is not available. Please select another rate or return to the previous screen and select alternate dates to check future availability again.” I click the OK button to get rid of the error dialog box.

Then I click on the sixth Select This Room Type button and I get a Windows Internet Explorer dialog box that says, “The rate you have selected is not available. Please select another rate or return to the previous screen and select alternate dates to check future availability again.” I click the OK button to get rid of the error dialog box.

Then I click on the seventh Select This Room Type button and I get a Windows Internet Explorer dialog box that says, “The rate you have selected is not available. Please select another rate or return to the previous screen and select alternate dates to check future availability again.” I click the OK button to get rid of the error dialog box.

Then I click on the eighth Select This Room Type button and I get a Windows Internet Explorer dialog box that says, “The rate you have selected is not available. Please select another rate or return to the previous screen and select alternate dates to check future availability again.” I click the OK button to get rid of the error dialog box.

Then I click on the ninth Select This Room Type button and I get a Windows Internet Explorer dialog box that says, “The rate you have selected is not available. Please select another rate or return to the previous screen and select alternate dates to check future availability again.” I click the OK button to get rid of the error dialog box.

Then if I want to go back to the Alternate date finder screen I have to click OK on all 9 error dialog boxes again to do so.

Now that I am back at the Alternate date finder I repeat all of the above for 1 night of Reward availability during the 4 week period starting on Feb 3. And then do the same again for 1 night of Reward availability during the 4 week period starting on Mar 2. After 81 clicks of the mouse and numerous keystrokes I have determined that there is no Reward availability.

I sure am happy the analysts made Marriott.com so much more user friendly over the past year. Why list these choices if there is no award availability? Why make me go through needless mouse clicks. IMO, Marriott has fixed something that wasn’t broke. But guess what, now it is. Think “New Coke”. My guess is that the analyst and programming staff were thinking of a different type of coke. This is your analyst and programming staff, this is your analyst and programming staff on crack.