MePlatPremier

supatight80

with your mouth?

nacho

Totally agreed. It's ridiculous that I have to get around this by booking with another person's account - I think it has to be someone with different last name - they actually checked and denied my claim because it's violating the spirit of BRG. I can understand if it's a cash stay, but for point stay it's crazy.

Oh yes the night by night thing was something that wasn't there a few years ago, back then they only look at the total price. As a consumer I don't care which night cost what but the total sum.

Temedar

36 hours since submitting my LNF claim and counting.. are we going the late SPG way where you waited for a week for certain languages other than English?
UPD: 48 hours and counting
UPD2: 66 hours, no reply. Cancelled reservation as better options are available if LNF isn't approved

noeatbutgo

I haven't done LNF for a while but I got a denial like below- wow do they now reject a claim if the room names are not identical? (Standard Room at the 3rd party matches to Lagoon View 2 double room).

This totally BS... I feel it was a right choice to give up maintaining Plat status...

I am unable to approve your claim as the room type confirmed does not match what was found on the comparison site. You compared these room types:

You are comparing to Standard Room and you have reserved Lagoon View 2 double room.

Temedar

Hotel Name: Sthala, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel
Arrival Date: 5 March 2019
Departure Date: 9 March 2019
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Guests: 1
Room Type: Deluxe Pool View w/Balcony
Marriott Brand Website Rate: IDR 1,550,000+tax/night (refundable)
Competing Rate: $88+tax/night
Competing Web Site: Orbitz (no tricks - desktop, US version)
Actual Approved Rate: IDR 888,741+tax/night ($63.34 if Google's FX rate is correct)
Comments: Hotel is overpriced, but usually easy-to-BRG. Approved in 16 hours - what a difference to my previous LNF claim described above

cfischer

If Lagoon View 2 double is the lowest room type offered (check w/ hotel listing) then just reply and point it out. Often standard rooms are still on sale on 3rd party sites when they are no longer on Marriott.com In that case ... no LNF possible.

funkbandit

LNF would still be possible. Just the room types would have to match (i.e. the room names would need to be somewhat similar).

margarita girl

I think what I hate the most about Marriott's LNF is the lack of consistency. Here are two recent examples:

1) Submitted a LNF for myself and one for my friend (using his account). Both approved, one at $99, the other at $90. Exact same BRG, nothing has changed at the OTA.
2) Submitted a LNF for myself which was approved and then another for my friend 24 hrs later (using his account). His was denied even though absolutely nothing has changed in the OTA rate. Reason given: "The rate available on the comparison site did not have the same booking requirements as what you have booked with Marriott".

Usually I don't even bother arguing with them because they just DENY everything without further explanation. There was one that I decided to take them to task on. In my comments I had specifically described which listing to look at (OTA has multiple listings for same hotel). I had specified in the notes "look at the listing with a photograph of the exterior of the hotel at dusk". It was denied and I could see the rate they found on a different listing. I wrote back and said "You looked at the listing of the hotel with photo of lounge/bar instead of photo of exterior of hotel at dusk per my notes" and then it was approved, no apology, no explanation.

Also, have you ever noticed how Marriott agents love to use the word DENY as part of their script? Trust me, I get a ton of those! I find that word so confrontational. SPG agents never use the word deny. They always say "I am unable to approve your claim". So much nicer!

TerryK

+1. Different corporate culture.

cfischer

absolutely not the case. Sorry. Somewhat similar is not enough. If the Marriott room type is clearly not the standard room type so e.g. the offer Standard and Standard with a view ... you can't compare to one that is just called standard ... just doesn't work that way.

cfischer

so what ... you cancel and re-submit or you write back and see if they take it. Big deal. I am still at > 90% approvals and just had 4 this week saving a combined $3k. If you know what to compare to and how to frame the claim, in my experience 80% go right through and 10% you argue or re-submit. 10% might be a lost cause ... oh well ... nothing is perfect I guess.

shevboyz

Is there a phone number for the lnf team?
Email reply on my request for missing lnf points had been ridiculously slow. And when they did reply, they didn't even go through what I have wrote.
So now I reply back to the email again, and it's been weeks and still I am waiting.
It's really frustrating to keep chasing after points.
Missing points does happen I can understand but at the very least they should reply to the email promptly and properly.

margarita girl

800-771-5665

GalaxyChris

So many claims denied for wrong reason or ... not deducting the VAT or service charge, wrong calculation, pretending price is without taxes with some TA, not seeing the rates (and not following your comments to find it).

Just call lnf and ask supervisor to review the claim, solve 80% of the wrong denied claims.