C17PSGR

Yes but .... as a pre 8/18 Plat Premier, I received way more than 10 suite upgrades per year at places where many people would use SNA's -- SoCal, Florida, Hawaii, Mexico, Europe. I've been wondering why my suite upgrade rate has collapsed since 8/18 ... and perhaps this is the explanation. In the future, under Starwoodization, we will only get suite upgrades at airports/medium size cities or when there aren't that many SNA's requested.

Kacee

I doubt it's SNAs. I would imagine it's mostly the economy, combined with the new war on benefits which seems to characterize the new Marriott program.

escapefromphl

Thanks, hockeyinsider. ^ I've never been one to haggle for an upgrade so I tried this approach for the first time on my last stay and I think it worked out pretty well. As a Titanium without using SNA's (booked too late) I was upgraded from base low level room to a high level suite with sweeping views on 2 a night stay. I would still prefer a system that allocated the upgrades to suites automatically and fairly, but since there is obviously human interaction in the process, manually flagging like this for an upgrade has 2 benefits: 1. It might get you upgraded before any automatic system runs & 2. Lets any reticent manager know you understand the system and suite upgrade benefit. I probably also need more data points though.

UA-NYC

I would kill for some "Starwoodization" right about now...I might still be paying for Marriott stays

allset2travel

Yeap, this is the new reality, especially impacting us (125-150 nighters). Grrrr!

SLC 4217

Personally, I think this is good news. I only use my SNA's when an upgrade is very. important to me (Vacation, with wife, Birthday,...) so I. am. happy to hear the SNA (which are limited) are being given. higher priority over other upgrades. So. often people. are complaining that their SNA's are being denied.

UA-NYC

Agreed - no difference than airlines giving extra priority to mileage or upgrade instruments over the complimentary upgrade types

Difference is, only Plats and up will have SNAs, vs. joe schmoe traveler using miles.

C17PSGR

except ... I dont think any airline does that. Is there any situation where United upgrades a gold or plat using an instrument before upgrading a 1K? American doesn't.

UA-NYC

United definitely does. Has been that way since CO took over.

cozysuite

Agreed. As an SPG AMB, I had been offered several 'not so necessary' voluntarily upgrades to Suite and wished if I could substitute for other occasions. I wonder how much do other frequent guests really appreciate Suite upgrade, only for sleeping alone.... So the idea of SNA should be good.

However their implementation of SNA had been so Bonvoyed and not work as expected... In order to avoid frustration, pure complementary system could be better though

bergamini

This is possible/probable. But I also have found that properties aren't disclosing that there are open suites. I have been told no suites available and gone on app and saw 3 different standard suite type rooms available. But hopefully this property was being honest.

C17PSGR

This property is very good ... I'm probably 99 percent on suite upgrades there so I believe they were really full on the suites.

Well ... since I'm in hotels 30-40 percent of the year, I appreciate the room, even if its just me.

Got it. I don't understand the UA system. In the AA system, CK, get upgraded first, then EXP, the Plat Pro, etc. The instrument only determines priority within status level.


But taking your airline analogy to run with it ....


If David Flueck and the other former SPG loyalty team ran an airline …

It would have two levels – gold and platinum. It wouldn’t take much to be platinum and all the platinums would be treated equally. They would have A320’s serving major cities and a couple of A380’s. The two A380’s would have a giant piano bar, Etihad style apartments, and people would aspire to fly on both of them. On some A320’s, Plats would be promptly upgraded to seat 30A and told this is a standard suite while rows 1-6 would be empty. On other 320’s, Plats would be upgraded to row 4. And it may be that the Plat who flew twice a month got the upgrade while the Plat who flew three times a week sat in row 28. On some A320’s, they were served eggs, meat, and fruit for breakfast while on other A320’s, they would receive a muffin. They would never know what type of breakfast or how the gate agent interpreted the upgrade. And David didn’t care, because there were those two A380’s with the giant bar that people talked about ….

If the two old guys in the painting ran an airline,

They would have three published levels and one of the old guys cared enough to identify some of their best guests and give them special recognition that some, but not all, of the gate agents understood. They weren’t much on the A380’s but they did want to make sure the A320’s went to every city anyone could every want to go to even though first was only rows 1-3. After all, more people actually go to Boise compared to Bora Bora. And, they’d randomly fly on planes without notice, bring checklists to make sure things were consistent, and talk to the passengers. If there was an empty seat in the front of the plane, they’d ask why and check to see if they could move some one up. If the breakfast didn’t meet minimum requirements or if something on the checklist wasn’t right, someone would get a call from this guy named Bill. And Bill was big on giving out his phone number to passengers. You always felt Bill knew what was happening on the planes.

If a guy named Arne ran an airline …

He’d dump the checklists. No need to randomly fly on planes when you drive a Prius and give Ted talks. He’d make sure the planes flew everywhere so it made sense to fly on his airline even if you weren’t sure what kind of seat you’d get. He’d publish a great frequent flyer program but some of the benefits were vague and since there weren’t checklists or random visits, some of the flight attendants didn’t really care whether they followed the program. Some of the planes had the front of the plane full because their flight attendants were engaged and smiling, some kept them empty because it took more time to clean, some tried to sell them, and others put up a door so you couldn’t tell if they were full or not. He picked up some more A380’s too and people talked about that. Then Arne went to a Ted talk and heard people want experiences, so he decided to see if he could make some extra money for the airline selling hop on/hop off bus tickets. And … then you could focus on developing the IT structure to sell hop on/hop off tickets. In the meantime, he could let David and those people who came over from another airline worry about their best customers. Plus, the practical issue was that because the planes flew everywhere, people kept flying the airplane even though the checklists were gone, you never knew what you’d get anymore, the IT didn't work write because of all the focus on figuring out how to sell hop on/hop off tickets, and David’s people didn’t really care whether anyone actually followed the frequent flyer program.

hockeyinsider

Quite possible because I think Mr. Marriott went to every hotel as it opened. I think he still racks up a couple hundred nights. The issue, however, is most of the hotels are no longer managed by Marriott. So there's only so much he or corporate Marriott can do if the owner and the owner's management company is obeying to the letter of the franchise/license agreement.

C17PSGR

But ... if they're giving a muffin or not upgrading people or playing games with select or standard, they're not obeying the agreement. And, no question in my mind that if Bill went to one of these properties, he'd be just fine with calling the CEO of the management company and saying ... Rich, this is Bill Marriott. I wanted to give you a heads up that I visited the X last night and was speaking was some guests while in the check in line, and learned .......,

orville nmn wright

I'm sure that this probably sounds like a dumb question, but I'm .... asking for a friend. If my friend is LT, when he checks in will he automatically be given any available upgrade, or does he have to specifically request it? I-- I mean my friend-- called customer support and asked. The response: "oh, we'll note it in your record that you'd like an upgrade." Why would it have to be noted? Apparently based on recent stays it's not automatic.