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-   -   Marriott Bonvoy ‘Ambassador Elite’ Level : experiences (2020 and earlier) (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marriott-marriott-bonvoy/1906860-marriott-bonvoy-ambassador-elite-level-experiences-2020-earlier.html)

MSPeconomist Sep 15, 2018 6:59 am


Originally Posted by Marriott15 (Post 30205572)
It seems to me then if they are having issues with all the Marriott folks getting new ambassadors why not just give them the general ambassador line and have the ability to call in that way until they are assigned a personal one. Set it up in the prompt section that when you enter your marriott number if you are not ambassador level it says this line is only for ambassadors. That's what I would do!

This should have been done on day one for those of us who qualified for an Ambassador as soon as the rules of the new program kicked in, which should have been August 1st but was actually August 18th.

As it is, I'm not at all convinced that Starriott is even assigning new Ambassadors first to people who qualified first.

The pointless delays are creating resentment before their best customers are contacted by Ambassadors.

It would not have been rocket science to actually count the number of people who qualified for Ambassadors early in the year or were on paths to clearly exceed the requirements. In fact, I'm sure Starriott had analytics to predict the numbers very accurately long before the qualification standards for Ambassador service were announced.

flo_147 Sep 15, 2018 7:11 am

Just got that:

"Congratulations! Welcome to Platinum Premier Elite with ambassador status. We’ve been working hard to match you with your Ambassador. We have had a few delays and are sorry that it is taking longer than expected. We appreciate your patience and can assure you that you’ll be hearing from your personal Ambassador within the next week.

Your Ambassador will be your personal point of contact for anything you need, any time you travel. From special in-room requests to local area recommendations and beyond, your Ambassador has you covered."

Let's see what the next week will bring ;)

kaizen7 Sep 15, 2018 7:18 am


Originally Posted by flo_147 (Post 30206196)
Just got that:

"Congratulations! Welcome to Platinum Premier Elite with ambassador status. We’ve been working hard to match you with your Ambassador. We have had a few delays and are sorry that it is taking longer than expected. We appreciate your patience and can assure you that you’ll be hearing from your personal Ambassador within the next week.

Your Ambassador will be your personal point of contact for anything you need, any time you travel. From special in-room requests to local area recommendations and beyond, your Ambassador has you covered."

Let's see what the next week will bring ;)

Received the similar email today.
:D

MSPeconomist Sep 15, 2018 7:19 am


Originally Posted by flo_147 (Post 30206196)
Just got that:

"Congratulations! Welcome to Platinum Premier Elite with ambassador status. We’ve been working hard to match you with your Ambassador. We have had a few delays and are sorry that it is taking longer than expected. We appreciate your patience and can assure you that you’ll be hearing from your personal Ambassador within the next week.

Your Ambassador will be your personal point of contact for anything you need, any time you travel. From special in-room requests to local area recommendations and beyond, your Ambassador has you covered."

Let's see what the next week will bring ;)

I got this yesterday, of course sent from the general Starriott email account with no possibility to respond.

Why oh why did this email not include a phone number for the general Ambassador service line that people can call when their own Ambassador isn't available?

I'll believe the one week statement only when it actually happens.

ADDED: What's with the "we've been working hard to match you...."? AFAIK there's no matching going on as no one has asked me anything about my preferences in hotels, when/how to communicate with me, etc.

Maybe a more accurate statement would be "we've been somehow desperately hoping to be able to hire some new Ambassadors and quickly train them to be no worse that the typical (terrible) Starriott phone agent these days...." Or even "we're taking our normal incompetent phone agents who have been handling calls so badly recently when they even answer and training some of them to tell callers that they're Ambassadors."

The way this has been (MIS)handled is not causing me to be optimistic that Ambassador service will mean much more than just having phone calls answered without waiting for hours.

bhrubin Sep 15, 2018 11:04 am

I also received the aforementioned email yesterday—even though I obviously already have an assigned legacy Ambassador who I also already know will continue to be my assigned Ambassador in the new Marriott era.

Clearly, this was an automated email to everyone who has Ambassador service. Presumably, they have completed the manual and/or any other IT checks to be sure that their pool of Ambassador elites are truly qualified for the Ambassador service. I’m sure the IT fiasco made those checks more challenging than they had asssumed. No surprise there.

Clearly also, the obvious delay in new Ambassador elites being assigned their new Ambassadors has a lot to do with the obvious Marriott IT fiascos from the systems merge.

I think many here are mistakenly conflating a weakness of Marriott IT with a weakness in the new level of Ambassador service. There is no evidence at all of any weakness for the Ambassador service. There is evidence galore of IT fiascos causing delays with just about every Marriott elite function imaginable. Let’s be sure not to Improperly scapegoat Ambassador service and Ambassadors for the failure of Marriott IT.

Marriott IT caused the delay in new Ambassadors being assigned until this coming week. Marriott IT also caused the delay with already assigned Ambassadors not always receiving communications from their guests, giving the (now obviously false) impression that Ambassadors weren’t responsive.

It turns out that Marriott IT has sucked big time. Everyone now knows that. It doesn’t follow necessarily that Marriott Ambassador service will not impress as much (or as little) as it did in its legacy SPG days.

kaizen7 Sep 15, 2018 11:17 am

Received the same email yesterday.
Reach 100 nights + $20000 spends on 6/9/18

RogerD408 Sep 15, 2018 11:21 am


Originally Posted by bhrubin (Post 30206843)
I also received the aforementioned email yesterday—even though I obviously already have an assigned legacy Ambassador who I also already know will continue to be my assigned Ambassador in the new Marriott era.

Clearly, this was an automated email to everyone who has Ambassador service. Presumably, they have completed the manual and/or any other IT checks to be sure that their pool of Ambassador elites are truly qualified for the Ambassador service. I’m sure the IT fiasco made those checks more challenging than they had asssumed. No surprise there.

Clearly also, the obvious delay in new Ambassador elites being assigned their new Ambassadors has a lot to do with the obvious Marriott IT fiascos from the systems merge.

I think many here are mistakenly conflating a weakness of Marriott IT with a weakness in the new level of Ambassador service. There is no evidence at all of any weakness for the Ambassador service. There is evidence galore of IT fiascos causing delays with just about every Marriott elite function imaginable. Let’s be sure not to Improperly scapegoat Ambassador service and Ambassadors for the failure of Marriott IT.

Marriott IT caused the delay in new Ambassadors being assigned until this coming week. Marriott IT also caused the delay with already assigned Ambassadors not always receiving communications from their guests, giving the (now obviously false) impression that Ambassadors weren’t responsive.

It turns out that Marriott IT has sucked big time. Everyone now knows that. It doesn’t follow necessarily that Marriott Ambassador service will not impress as much (or as little) as it did in its legacy SPG days.

Actually, the blame for all these issues falls much higher than the Ambassadors or even the IT staff. We have no idea when IT got their marching orders. We have no idea what resources were made available. We have no idea what training material was generated for the customer-facing staff (Ambassadors and CSRs alike) or when it was (if it was) distributed. Management has failed, let's not shoot those on the front line.

damon88 Sep 15, 2018 11:30 am


Originally Posted by bhrubin (Post 30206843)
I also received the aforementioned email yesterday—even though I obviously already have an assigned legacy Ambassador who I also already know will continue to be my assigned Ambassador in the new Marriott era.

Clearly, this was an automated email to everyone who has Ambassador service. Presumably, they have completed the manual and/or any other IT checks to be sure that their pool of Ambassador elites are truly qualified for the Ambassador service. I’m sure the IT fiasco made those checks more challenging than they had asssumed. No surprise there.

Clearly also, the obvious delay in new Ambassador elites being assigned their new Ambassadors has a lot to do with the obvious Marriott IT fiascos from the systems merge.

I think many here are mistakenly conflating a weakness of Marriott IT with a weakness in the new level of Ambassador service. There is no evidence at all of any weakness for the Ambassador service. There is evidence galore of IT fiascos causing delays with just about every Marriott elite function imaginable. Let’s be sure not to Improperly scapegoat Ambassador service and Ambassadors for the failure of Marriott IT.

Marriott IT caused the delay in new Ambassadors being assigned until this coming week. Marriott IT also caused the delay with already assigned Ambassadors not always receiving communications from their guests, giving the (now obviously false) impression that Ambassadors weren’t responsive.

It turns out that Marriott IT has sucked big time. Everyone now knows that. It doesn’t follow necessarily that Marriott Ambassador service will not impress as much (or as little) as it did in its legacy SPG days.

FWIW- the only Ambassador emails I have received this week have been from my personal Ambassador.

i never received that one.



UA-NYC Sep 15, 2018 11:42 am


Originally Posted by damon88 (Post 30206903)

FWIW- the only Ambassador emails I have received this week have been from my personal Ambassador.

i never received that one.



Me neither

kaizen7 Sep 15, 2018 11:42 am

Does all ambassadors based in North America?

bhrubin Sep 15, 2018 11:47 am


Originally Posted by kaizen7 (Post 30206942)
Does all ambassadors based in North America?

No. AFAIK now, there are Ambassadors in N America, Europe, and Asia.

azoomee Sep 15, 2018 1:57 pm


Originally Posted by flo_147 (Post 30206196)
Just got that:

"Congratulations! Welcome to Platinum Premier Elite with ambassador status. We’ve been working hard to match you with your Ambassador. We have had a few delays and are sorry that it is taking longer than expected. We appreciate your patience and can assure you that you’ll be hearing from your personal Ambassador within the next week.

Your Ambassador will be your personal point of contact for anything you need, any time you travel. From special in-room requests to local area recommendations and beyond, your Ambassador has you covered."

Let's see what the next week will bring ;)

I received the same note though quite delayed — made that status about 30 days ago.

bhrubin Sep 15, 2018 1:59 pm


Originally Posted by damon88 (Post 30206903)
FWIW- the only Ambassador emails I have received this week have been from my personal Ambassador.

i never received that one.

If you have your communication preference set to not receive Marriott emails, you wouldn’t have received this. So tough to know what the reason might be.

Kobetraveller Sep 15, 2018 8:07 pm

Deleted: no longer relevant

Look Ma No Hands Sep 15, 2018 11:18 pm


Originally Posted by bhrubin (Post 30206843)
Clearly, this was an automated email to everyone who has Ambassador service. Presumably, they have completed the manual and/or any other IT checks to be sure that their pool of Ambassador elites are truly qualified for the Ambassador service. I’m sure the IT fiasco made those checks more challenging than they had asssumed. No surprise there.

No it isn't. I haven't received the email yet. My communication preference are set to receive all emails and I have been receiving everything from Marriott for years. I qualified for Ambassador service when I merged accounts and have also completed 100 nights at SPG legacy properties now.


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