kaizen7

mine just 18 nights so far .. maybe needs more before the spending shown

kmersh

My wife has tried to keep an open mind about the Ambassador service, but really things are exactly the same as they were prior to be elevated to Ambassador service. She made a few requests of the Ambassador and twice she was told that the Ambassador would forward her request to the hotel. The first request (a room away from the elevator as this particular hotel has thin doors and one can hear the beep beep beep of the elevator all night long) somehow that request got lost in the shuffle and the request was never honored, she was assigned a room next to the elevator, whatever stuff happens, the second request was acknowledged but never acted upon (it was a dinner reservation) as the restaurant was booked and nobody though to alert my wife to the situation. When nobody said anything to her upon check-in, she asked and then the front desk employee found a note in the system that the restaurant was fully booked and that was that, no apology, nada.

Her upgrade percentage is exactly the same as it was prior to the merger almost non-existent, but she stays at mostly Marriott properties which tend to have fewer suites to begin with, so that is okay with her. Honestly, she has all but forgotten about the Ambassador and has not even contact her in about a month or so as she has said a few times what is the point, she takes requests but is unable to ensure that the hotel delivers on them (not the Ambassadors fault, but still makes the entire thing useless).

About the only thing that Ambassador was able to deliver on were two point corrections, but generally that is easily enough fixed by the standard phone reps.

helvetic

Segments

escape4

That's great to hear!

Do you mind sharing what brands have upgraded you within your 70% success rate, and what brands did not upgrade you to a suite within the 30% failure rate, and whether the lack of upgrade was due to the hotel being full or simply because the hotel simply seems to have a preference to not give out such upgrades.

For example I am curious to hear about recent suite upgrade treatment for brands such as Ritz, EDITION, and Design, when suites are available. Are Design hotels still out of scope for upgrades? And whether brands at the cheaper end of the scale have started to be more generous than in the past.

I am usually somewhat confident about the odds of getting suite upgrades (when available) at "middle" brands such as Westin, Marriott, etc. but I am less clear about brands at the top end and bottom end.

HeadInTheClouds

escape4

Good to know you see a difference at brands such as CY.

I suspect suite upgrades at Design hotels remains elusive, and RC+EDITION are a bit hit and miss. But I would be pleased to hear otherwise. I am looking forward to hear from others.

ethernal

Is anyone else having issues with the spend showing? I thought it was told upthread that once you hit 50 nights it would show? I don't see it either on the website nor the app. I see someone upthread with a spend counter even below 50 nights - maybe it's an iPhone versus Android issue? I'm not worried about hitting the spend limit by year end - I am more concerned about it not calculating correctly and want to be able to make sure spend tracks correctly...



Also - for all the people talking upthread about upgrade success.. I'm 1 out of 36 nights on suites staying at a mix of Marriotts, Westins, Luxury Collections, Autograph Collection, Courtyards, and Renaissances. The one "suite" upgrade was to a hospitality suite at the Westin St. Francis so not sure that even counts.

deac83

This is exactly the point. I was PP for 10 years and essentially quit Marriott (with Life time Plat) because for all the 'importance' of being in the top 2% of Marriott customers I rarely saw any indication at the hotels.

Moving to SPG 5 years ago significantly upgraded my travel. Suddenly those suite ugs came through (of course Marriott's policy was officially ugs to better rooms only). Needless to say I was not excited about the 'merger'.

I'm fascinated by this thread, because I've experience the good and the bad of the program. It pretty simply comes down to there are Ambassadors that live up to the 'standards' and those that don't. I went through 3 of them before I found my current Ambassador, who is great. She was great at SPG and is great at Marriott. So I'm not surprised to hear people that are unhappy and people that are happy.

I will say I know that there is a lot of stress in the Ambassador system since August. Just the fact that the Ambassador has had to double check reservations that were made before the merger, especially if they were on the SPG side, is a work load level that is not normal. From the stories my Ambassador has shared, the Marriott IT failure has been huge. If the programs had been seamlessly integrated it would be one thing but that's not what happened. I don't think Marriott has gotten to normal operations as of yet, which effectively increases the work load on the Ambassadors as they cover for the IT failures.

UA-NYC

the general public

My ambassador has done exactly 0 things for me. Our only contact was her sending a form email to me saying what she can do. When I asked what she could do that I can't do on my own, she replied with the same form email.

hockeyinsider

Everyone who has had issues or is still having issues, including unresponsive or unhelpful ambassadors, should let Marriott management know. It's difficult for them to claim they don't know if they get emails about it.

Arne Sorenson, CEO <[email protected]>
David Flueck, vice president of loyalty <[email protected]>

escape4

Do you normally verify at check-in time if the hotel has suites available? If you are 1/36 and there were suites available and they were stingy, this is bad news. If suites were simply full then there is nothing that elite status can help you with.

I have personally seen one Westin and one LC not upgrade me to a suite when they were available. But otherwise more often than not, I get the upgrade.

hockeyinsider

I ask at the time of check-in using the Marriot mobile application. In 45 nights this year, I've had an upgrade 41 of the 45 nights.

UA-NYC

I think "upgrades" should really be further defined in this thread

IMO a higher floor, corner room, club level, etc. - not an upgrade.

Anything less than a Jr. Suite - not an upgrade

"Upgrades" at a CY? Should really call those out as int'l, I'm assuming