DUflyer

Consider yourself lucky! My budget is $100. Man, this is really insulting.

DUflyer

You said they would. I count on you...

QPRfan

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DUflyer

No need to apologise.

I think it is even more ridiculous:
Aurelian gets 8.8% reward, Sterling gets 8.4% reward. You have to spend $1,250 to get $5 more reward (8% are $100 reward, 0.4% are $5 reward).
So in order to make up for the $1,500-$175=$1,325 difference, you have to spend $1,325/$5*$1,000 = $265,000 or $726 per day.

r281

scienm

I contacted by email regarding refund of my unlimited membership. And see what I have.

Thank you for your email and sorry to hear of your disappointment. Kindly note, that our refund policy as stated on the program terms and conditions, is that refunds are only offered on unused memberships within 30 days of joining. Pro-rated refunds are not available.
We hope that you will enjoy and see the benefits of the new program and please feel free to contact us if we can assist further.

Sucks..

I had 11 stay credits and didn't even had a moment to stay at another hotels due to business trip.. Haa....

Epicura

FYI: LC will send out an e-mail this weekend to Unlimited members. I don't know what will be anounced exactly but it was my understanding that LC would offer something. I strongly suggested to at least consider proactively offering a free cancellation of previously bought memberships and a refund (full or partial depending on each individual case of course). Pacta sunt servanda and LHW should obviously respect this. We are not talking about a free loyalty programm where you can just mess around during the course of a membership year.

By the way, it seems that everybody got 1250 points. Independent of previous spend or stays. Does even makes less sense. My husbands account has over 50k spend and the poor man got 1250 points.

DUflyer

Let's hope it's true, but I only believe it when I get the email. Just today I got another email with the blurb about 30-day refund rule and how a refund is not possible.
Well, they can apparently change all other clauses of their T&C, why not change this clause as well to make some of their best customers happy, or at least less upset...?

scienm

It calculated only for current stay credits you had not entire spending. I had 11 stay credits because I stayed at one particular hotel so couldn't be free night certs. And it all converted to points which was disaster.
If anyone's stay credit's spending was less than $1250, they got 1250 points as a minimum.

QPRfan

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DUflyer

I don't understand why they make such a big deal out of these pre-upgrades. Lots of other programs have suite upgrades for their top-tier members and I could understand the attraction if it were 1 or 5 suite upgrades per year. But just knowing that you got upgraded 3 days in advance as compared to at check-in really doesn't make a difference to me, and it is not even guaranteed. If it doesn't include suites and not even junior suites it is completely pointless anyway. For example IC Ambassador (another paid membership scheme), where you get a guaranteed upgrade on every stay I often book the category below an attractive suite and by doing that spend more than if I just booked the cheapest room, so it generates additional revenue for the hotel.

scienm

I understand why they made these disastrous changes. I heard LHW's profit comes from membership fee mostly. That means it is hard to increase their revenue unless getting more money from member hotels. So I guess they needed to negotiate with member hotels to increase fee and minimize benefits so they could get more from hotels. Also points system makes multiple times harder to get free night who spend less.
What they're doing is giving up membership fees and focus on richest customers they have. They think it would be more profitable.
Let's simulate it. If someone stays 3 nights per stay, average $500 hotels, 12 stays per year.
With new policy, 1500 points per stay. For just 3 stays, they will get free night and it's better part than before. For 12 stays total, get 18,000 points which equivalent around $1,350 value, and $300 Sixt credit. But no $1,200 customized benefit, have to pay $1,500 per year. Pre-Arrival Upgrade means nothing since suite category excluded. (+1350, +300, -1500)
With old policy, get 3 free night certs(it's around $1,500), several times of Groundlink Transportation(If using it 8 times, around $800), $1,200 customized benefit, and $1,200 membership fee. (+1500, +800, +1200, -1200)
With Virtuoso or FHR, no free nights, no transport, but $1,200 credit or benefit, and no membership fee.(+1200)
Rich people are not dumb..

DUflyer

The either they are not good at math or they think their customers are not good at math. If you want people to pay a membership fee you need to incentivise them and make sure the membership offers good value. Otherwise, why would anyone pay for it?

In the past, if you stayed around 10-12 times a year, the Unlimited fee paid off just with the $100 per stay benefit (kind of), all the other benefits were extra. It was a good deal and worth paying because of the free nights (the $100 stay benefit you get with FHR/Virtuoso/etc as well, but no fee nights). With the new benefits, I don't see any reason whatsoever to pay the membership fee, not even the basic level fee. You don't get any additional value that you wouldn't get with other means of booking your stays.

The new benefits are ok for a free membership, but even then I would be hard pressed to see additional value over booking with FHR/Virtuoso/Visa/Kiwi etc., which I get for free, or with the memberships I already have (e.g. Amex).
Of course if the majority of their customers don't know about these other ways of booking hotels, then they might benefit from it.

Epicura

The substantial revenu comes from hotel membership fees, not LC fees.

Epicura

In theory bookings with Virtuoso and credit card programms aren't free either: you do pay an annual fee for your credit card, Virtuoso comes typically at a slightly higher room rate and in some cases with an extra reservation fee.

I am not trying to defend these changes, au contraire, but we should have our facts straight.