Response times recently got a lot shorter, but I agree that everything under an hour is unusual. Although my best time so far is under ten minutes, and that included a initial rejection...I had a response rejecting my claim only three minutes after submitting it (for LAX not being part of the USA and the voucher-exclusion), responded to that within a minute and got the approval another approx. five minutes later.

Greetings - Dirk

new email "name" for LNF replies
 

Until recently, all my claim reply emails from LNF came from:
as the sendee name. But this weekend, when I filed an LNF claim, the claim reply email came back from:
(The actual email address, [email protected], didn't change, just the name associated with that email address.)

Interesting. But my claim from late last night had the same old email address. But the good news is I filed at 8:30pm and had my answer by 11:00pm.

Marriott has now introduced a minimum of $1 difference that needs to be found when you find a lower rate elsewhere to be acceptable. From the T&Cs:

This is certainly a change (not sure how recent) as I had a difference of a cent accepted previously - but I still think this is somewhat reasonable...

Greetings - Dirk

I got a rejection and it wasn't because of that but they added in a paragraph saying that due to currency fluctuation the difference has to be at least $1. I wonder whether it's $1 or 1 local currency, e.g. 1 EUR.

That's the perfect example of currency fluctuation! Not long ago, 1 EUR was about $1.35. This Friday it got around $1.05, and it could be that be next week there will no difference between $1 and 1 EUR!

So it's largely because of the wild $/EUR fluctuation recently that what was a lower price in one currency (by several cents) when the LNF was submitted late one day may have been a higher price (by several cents) by the time the LNF claim was being processed early the next day!

recently Marriott has been VERY difficult w/ LNF rates. Even comparison sites that I used for years are now causing issues and need several follow-ups or rebookings to get an LNF adjustment. Especially w/ bookings in Europe they are now as difficult as I have never seen them before ... sorry, your comparison rate is fully refundable till the day of arrival and the Marriott rate must be cancelled before ... thus we are declining you rate comparison :confused: I hope this is just a temporary fluke ... it is costing me a lot of time to get these approved and I imagine it is not just my time but also the time on the Marriott side ... I am sure they know me by now ;)

Please, I think they have put PITA next to my name.

Has the IHG BRG folks moved over to Marriott? I have trouble getting LNFs through too - even with my usual sites. First they said they can't find the rate (nothing special - happened tons of times), then when I reply, they really dig into it and turned out to be a voucher site (it wasn't like that before).

They might as well put in 1% like IHG did! I used to file LNF for $0.01! The site is billed in USD and it's like to be set up for LNFs :D Now it won't be qualified.

It's sad for us in Europe to see the currency change - it's more expensive for us to travel out of the Euro zone although we don't use EUR here in Sweden/Denmark.

Does anyone know what exchange rate Marriott uses?

You can use the currency calculator at marriott.com by making a dummy booking, you don't have to complete your booking in order to use the calculator.

Ok , be gentle. This will be my first attempt

I am looking at rates for the Marriott Rive Guache, Paris in about 10 days. Best I can do on Marriott,.com is 180 euros,but I can get a $122 rate on expedia. Both rates are fully refundable, no prepayment etc... I went ahead and booked Expedia, do I also book Marriott and send both in for the proof and adjustment?

yep, that's how it works.
(but there was no need to book the 3rd party beforehand)

]

Thanks!

I figured it was "proof" that the lower rate was out there with the same cancellation etc... Plus when I was reading the claim form it seemed to indicate that if it was a Travel Agent site it had to be booked to do the claim. Maybe Marriott doesn't consider Expedia a Travel Agent, but I did so..... I just compared the two bookings and it's a 300 Euro savings on Expedia.

Sent the claim in around midnight last night and will see what happens.