I got the survey some months ago and made very strongly negative comments.

Pretty sure the app hasn’t been coded for the Ambassador line. Worthwhile changing your details, as it really is significantly better than the normal Marriott customer service (even if it’s still somewhat unreliable on follow-through).

I’m still struggling to understand what the Ambassador Service is suppose to do for its elites? I’ve asked a few times but have received vague responses from them and other Marriott team members so I’ve just been trying to use them as a central point of contact for resolving general Marriott issues with very limited success. This is a summary of my experiences year to date:

1. I forwarded a folio for a $20 something line item charge marked “Point redemption fee” for a stay at the Aloft Tulsa. Received a response two business days later from a backup ambassador that this was a resort fee and could not be waived. I sent a follow up email email questioning this logic which was acknowledged but the agent refused to review the issue again. A quick 5 minute call to a general reservation agent in Manila was able to resolve the matter quickly by contacting the hotel which confirmed this was a clerical error and should have been a back charge to Marriott corporate.
2. I was planning a point redemption trip to London and wanted to shift the dates of the reservation, I reached out to my ambassador received a response from another back up ambassador three business days later that the rate was unavailable at my preferred hotel and suggested a few alternates. I replied with my alternate, and after waiting another day for a reply, I decided to do it myself and discovered I was able to rebook my preferred hotel on the new dates without issues. Granted the inventory may have changed during this time but felt this process should not have taken a week.
3. Accidentally booked to hotels for the same work trip, discovered this on the day of check in. My Primary Ambassador was able to successfully cancel one of the hotels without incurring a fee. Success!
4. Two weeks after booking a room for a planned trip I discovered a bug on the Bonvoy Mobile App that will occasionally list a prepaid rate in the list of results when searching on a corporate rate (even if the prepaid rate is lower than the corporate rate, it usually excludes them), adding to the confusion, the return results will bold in red that the corporate code was used in the return results when displaying prepaid rates. With 3 weeks remaining before the trip I reached out to my Ambassador who worked on it for a few days but was advised he was unable to get the franchisee to waive the fee. Decided to make the trip based on this information, figured I’m out the $500 regardless, might as well get the points, right? At check in, I casually asked the desk agent if they ever make exceptions to the cancellation fee on this rate and was told with my status it would not have been an issue, he also noted there were no notes in the reservation indicating I wanted to cancel it.

In the end I feel my experiences with the Ambassadors have damaged my relationship with Marriott.

First, sorry you’re having challenges with the program!

Second, there are a myriad of possibilities with the scenarios you shared.

Marriott IT can be terrible as you know. Ambassadors get stuck with bad IT just as we do.

If you aren’t often enough hearing from your own Ambassador during the week and regular business hours, you should—with a 1-2 day delay in email. You should share your frustration wilt your Ambassador in a polite but firm phone call, seeing if you can find ways to speed up response times and to get better responsiveness. If this fails after a few months, then you might want to contact Ambassador management and get a new Ambassador.

When hotels tell you they have no record of any contact with Ambassador, it’s easy to assume the Ambassador didn’t do as promised. But it’s just as if not more likely in my experience that the hotel goofed—and the right hand and left hand at the hotel don’t even know it. So they blame the Ambassador. So you blame the Ambassador. Usually, IME, the hotels executing the actions and requests are the ones that get it wrong more often than not. The fact that every hotel now can see your Ambassador status well in advance of your arrival (something that wasn’t true with SPG) makes it even more obvious in most cases. Just food for thought.

I would try to think of Ambassador STATUS as the issue. Your status can make a big difference in getting upgrades and better treatment at well managed hotels. Poorly managed hotels will not necessarily treat you better. But none of that has to do with your actual Ambassador anymore. Except for special occasions, hotels now can recognize your status and act to treat you accordingly (or not) all on their own. The actual Ambassador is now a more convenient contact person for your other needs and issues.

FT fairy tales apart, ambassador service is pretty much worthless. It’s good to have a single point of contact and minor issues can get sorted out in a more practical way than just phoning in to the general ca lines. However my experience aligns with yours: ambassador is not always promptly reachable; reply times frequently take much longer than they should; my ambassador is rarely, if ever, proactive regarding my upcoming stays; and whenever he encounters an obstacle he will simply drop the ball and tell me whatever it is that I want cannot be done (one time he flat out refused to open a ticket regarding a property).As for ambassador status I have yet to see any difference from the P75 status that I’ve had in the last 5 or 6 years (in fact, many properties fail to recognize the status, and thank me for being a platinum member) . I understand this is a transition year with way more ambassador elites than Marriott anticipates because of the SPG P100 holdover and I will make the effort of renewing ambassador for next year just to see if things improve. However if things remain as they are currently I will not bother to renew ambassador for 2021.

Why is Marriott not communicating any of these expectations in the first place, the program just doesn’t seem to outline any objectives. I agree that Marriott IT is a mess that is not getting enough attention internally. I was recently advised by my Ambassador that he didn’t receive half of my emails due to an internal glitch which routed them to backup agents, I don’t see how changing Ambassadors will fix this or anything else outlined here.

Unlike @MePlatPremier, my Ambassador status has been invaluable for me since Bonvoy launched in February. I’d have to say my upgrade rate has improved substantially, including at legacy SPG, legacy, Marriott, and at Ritz-Carlton properties.

I think the types/brand segment of hotels we visit makes more a difference in upgrade rates than people realize—nicer hotels tend to have more suites, for example, allowing far better chances for suite upgrades. My impression is that most people complaining about lack of suite upgrades don’t stay at hotels with many suites...or stay at hotels that have suites booked more often and consistently.

The actual Ambassador service is just the now: a service. The status does far more now for us than was ever possible in the SPG days. With hotels now knowing our Ambassador status without needing a call or contact from our actual Ambassadors, it frees up the Ambassador personnel to help with the assorted other details with which we may need assistance. Marriott IT blunders being a chief area where we need that assistance!

In truth, my Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador experience has been even more impressive than my previous and wonderful SPG Ambassador experience.

If you really don’t see improvement in your experience or believe there will be improvement based on where and when you stay, then you certainly might consider sticking with Marriott only through Titanium and/or staying with another chain more.

A lot of people like Hyatt, though I think you’ll find that Globalist concierges don’t do any more (and often less) than Marriott Ambassadors. But if the more limited Hyatt portfolio works for you, you have them to compare and choose as you prefer. Hilton and IHG don’t have anything close..and have seriously watered down elite benefits and their own IT issues, too...so good luck!