Originally Posted by
Copilot23
I just find it amazing how many people whine because they are not allowed to unethically abscond with a rate they were not entitled to anyway. If you are entitled to the rate, that is one thing, and usually that rate was public or the company that negotiated the rate provided it in confidence to those entitled. Face it, using a rate not entitled to you is no different from walking into a target store and changing price tags on an item. Your rationale, well the cashier didn't check to see if it was the right price so I'm okay. Last I heard shoplifting was a felony. I don't know if Marriott requested its removal, but even if they did, they were probably entitled, as the codes, in some cases, could probably be considered propietary information (especially those codes that reflected privately negotiated rates.)
Your message implies that anybody who uses one of the codes is a thief. You are speaking for yourself.
In addition to corporate codes, the list was also a nice digest of the promotional codes available to anybody.
As for the corporate codes, in the "old" days (until the end of the last century
)virtually all business trave was done through travel agents. Many companies (including mine) had an in-house agent, whose costs were paid for by kicking back some of the commissions. Once the commissions dried up, these agencies were gotten rid of. At the same time Internet booking became ubiquitous so we were told to make our own travel arrangements. Before, the travel agent would take care of getting any applicable corporate discounts. The fact that the travel agent obtained the corporate rate somehow added a sense of legitimacy to the booking and it was never questioned.
As
inside_edition shared with us, the corporate discounts are still available. Instead of booking via a website, we just now have to call either Marriott or the hotel itself to get it. This negates the purpose of Marriott.com and adds to both mine and Marriott's phone agent's time.
...or someone can start a new list.
