margarita girl

yule_boy

I can also add that I've done this successfully in the past. Good luck!

tamachan

Greetings. Finally decided that I should create an account so that I could share my recent first hand experience and possibly help others after spending that past 5+ years just reading the wealth of information.
To follow up on this particular issue.
It is true that with the combined LNF they have similar terms with the previous BRG in that they will consider member rates when comparing to the competitor prices. I do not believe this is spelled out clearly in the LNF Terms and Conditions and in my mind had disagreed with the freely available members' rates being used.
First of all, the LNF T&C has a section on Members Rates outside of all the collapsible details on the LNF, so it confused me as whether it is part of the T&Cs or not. But the main thing that led me to conclude that Member's rates should not be considered is the following:
1)Certain rates do not apply to this guarantee. For example, a Comparison Rate does not qualify if it is not publicly available. Member rates are not publicly available as you have to be a member. So when I looked on competitors websites, like Priceline, I have never taken into account any member exclusive rates either. The argument for member rates may be that it's free to sign up...(which in life, there's very little things free, spam mail...your contact info getting shopped around, etc.). Well so is Priceline (and which actually I could have booked at 19% discount), Expedia membership. After talking to an SPG BRG supervisor, they told me they do honor member exclusive rates on competitor websites too as long as you can sign up for free. They should document this as I think most people would not think this to be true based on the statement it has to be publicly available!
2)The second piece is where I think really brought me to my conclusion member rates should be excluded. In the section on Member Rates, it states the following:
The rate (discount of at least two percent on weekdays and up to five percent on weekends) is applied to the hotel's lowest applicable available public rates for non-premium rooms. So how does this relate to lowest possible rates? Well if you read closely, it states that member rates are discounts on the LOWEST PUBLIC (available) rate. So it is acknowledging that the lowest possible rates available to the public is not the Member Rate...but the regular prepaid rate, therefore the member rate should be excluded in comparison.
In any case, hopefully this sheds some light, and can help others in my predicament when attempting to book a prepaid reservation in hopes of getting a LNF approved
This could have been avoided I think if they actually integrated the two programs completely (24 hour free cancellation for prepaid rate along with the requirement to book the same rate type). Marriott unfortunately only took the worst of the two. I found out that LNG team is operating separately from the BRG team currently too and you'll need to go to the correct one based on your hotel.

If anyone has any advice on how to get the refund on the prepaid rate, I'd be happy to hear. I had talked to the SPG associates and BRG supervisor prior to my credit card being charged (within 24 hours of booking) and they said they'd reach out to the hotel, but I have yet to hear back. And I checked again today, and they called the hotel but the hotel said that they already charged the credit card so they cannot cancel without penalty
Still working to get this rectified. Hopefully there is an SPG/Marriott Lurker here that can assist, I would hate to have to go to my credit card to dispute the transaction.

Melimelo88

lincoln boy

How are people doing LNF with flex vs flex rates? Whenever I submit flex rate LNF, they say the lowest available rate which includes non-refundable rate on Marriott.

cfischer

just did one today. Got approved within an hour. I put it into the comment field, always. I give them details that the comparison rate is refundable and I am thus comparing to the lowest refundable rate (these days the member rate) on Marriott.com. No issues w/ that, just had 4 approved in the past week.

cfischer

The legacy Marriott rule has been that it must be the same or similar room type ... it doesn't have to be exactly the same name, but it can't be a discernible difference such as 'high floor, view, corner etc.'. So family suite vs. delux won't fly in the Marriott world and it looks like they kept that. Too bad they didn't keep some of the other Marriott rules that you could e.g. compare against Marriott itself with hidden rates and stuff like that ... worked so well ... no longer
Still a pretty good system with very high approval rates if you know how it works.

estnet

So just curious - are benefits and points worth paying more than double? Esp for 6 nights!

Keyser

i have an approved brg for an upcoming stay at a spg legacy property next month....i made the reservation before the merger & i could see the changed lower rate on my reservation a few days after my brg was approved....then last week i noticed that this reservation was replaced by a new reservation number & the higher rate was back....i tried to find my confirmation email with the new reservation number but had no record of it....i finally wrote to the brg/lnf team for clarification & this morning i got an email from the lnf team confirming that the new reservation number has replaced the old one in their system & they have now adjusted the rate to display the lower rate....

has anyone else noticed something like this????

estnet

Yes, not a brg rate but I started a thread about problems with the app and website showing res I didn't make (added a 2nd res to one already made, res cancelled per app but not per hotel, etc)
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...dn-t-make.html

AFAICT the systems aren't co ordinated and are creating ?ghost reservations, showing incorrect cancellation policies and failing to cancel even tho they generate a cancel number (but the hotel can't see it) My problems have all been with Sheraton. It sounds like your problem is another variant of a failed IT integration!

Dlougach

No, it definitely isn't worth paying twice more, especially considering that I am traveling there alone. But in old SPG world you could get such BRG off and keep the original booked room category in the end (if it was the lowest category available on spg.com).

In the end I managed to score LNF in Renaissance Brussels for 100 EUR per night for the same dates, so I can't complain much.

danger

I'm having issues with the ". . . you must reserve the lowest rate for that room type to be eligible for the guarantee". Can I confirm that there is no requirement in the T&Cs to book the rock bottom publicly available rate (which is obviously often non-refundable)? If so, how are people getting this message through to rogue agents?

pogonation

Just trying to get some advice before I go ahead and book. Since the Marriott rate for RC KL is non-refundable it seems like a big risk that I have to book it in advance before submitting the BRG.
The competing rate has a better cancellation policy (cancel 7 days before vs non-refundable through marriott)
The competing rate offers breakfast (the marriott rate is room only)
Marriott rate specifies city view (although whether city or pool view it makes no difference to the price) but the competing rate doesn't specify view.

Would it be an issue that the competing rate is different (albeit better)? ALso as well as matching the competing rate, will they match the offer of breakfast?

margarita girl

I would call CS and see if they can find you a flexible rate that includes breakfast. If yes, submit your BRG with that. The cancellation policy doesn't have to match exactly.

pogonation

Thanks for your reply. Just one more question. Since people keep saying that the marriott rate being compared must be the cheapest available rate, does this include the member rates or can I just book the cheapest available to non-members?