sbrower

An excellent summary of the circumstances.

kaizen7

I guess the difference between how SPG and Marriott reimburse those point stays make it not attractive to the hotel owners to allow point redemption on busy periods.

Keyser

just got reconfirmation from the lurkers....i guess the blackout policy doesn't really mean much....here is what he said:

Keyser

Properties continue to do this & Marriott really doesn't care. Have a 10 day award booking over Christmas & the New Year at a property in London. Was looking to book a second room for the same period however the night of the 31st has no award availability despite the fact that they are selling the exact room type that I have booked using points. Also, the exact room type is available using points on all days before & after the 31st night.

Ollie264

I think there are other (more recent) threads discussing this but it's now much worse, as some hotels don't just limit redemptions on certain dates but indeed do have genuine blackout dates with no redemption rooms available at all...

Kacee

That's not a blackout issue. It's a misunderstanding of the program rules.

Marriott does not guarantee last room award availability (i.e., if we have a base room, it is available on points). Perhaps you are thinking of Hyatt, which does.

sbrower

If you read what they told you, two years ago, in your own message (right above this one), they were telling you that it is NOT THE POLICY anymore. So, like it or not, what you found is NOT a policy violation.

thebackcourse

That's the majority of escalations. I worked in their escalations dept aka elite. The vast majority of escalations are people who can't read the rules or refuse to accept them. That's not to say Marriott doesn't pull some shifty stuff. But the rules are published for all to see, including the line that says they can change anything they want with or without notification at any time. So its not like its a big secret. The rules are long and can be hard to read, but they do in most cases adhere.

thebackcourse

What used to crack me up was the people that thought they were gonna sue over some perceived violation of the rules. No, you are not. First, lawyers wrote the terms and conditions. They have protected themselves forwards backwards and inside out. Second, the cost to sue anyone for anything makes it mostly cost prohibitive for trivial .... like being butthurt over not getting your way. Lastly, the second you start talking lawyers we we're trained to end the call. We will not talk to you if you're talkin like that. Marriott has lots and lots of lawyers, they do the lawyer talking.

Your best bet to get a good result in your favor is just be a human being talking to another human being. I routinely did things for people merely for not being jerks.

We are not paid to tolerate your abusive nonsense. I've never understood the whole trying to get someone to help you by being an ....... to them. Thats not gonna get you anything but hung up on over and over and over. And they'll laugh about it at lunch.. but the folks that are civilized and just gotten jacked around many of us would work their problems for days or weeks to get them sorted out. I had folks that emailed me directly months later to thank me for whatever it was I did for them.

Many of us try to do the right thing by you guys. We are not just "customer wrong company right" mindless drones. Many of us have years of experience under our belts.

That said...Marriott seriously needs to up the accountability because there's lots of craptastic agents that mess things up and as far as we know, nothin happens. Back in the starwood days if you jacked up someone's reservation it was your butt. And might cost your job if the financial impact is over a couple hundred bucks.

Keyser

No misunderstanding. I know its in the rules. I was just venting. It just makes me miss the SPG days even more.

Keyser

I never said it was a policy violation & I'm aware of my own message that I posted 2 years ago. I'm just coming across more hotels that do this & obviously it comes with Marriott's blessings.

Its the rules they have set & unfortunately we are bound by it if we want to participate in the program. Doesn't mean I can't point out it sucks.

Keyser

I'm aware of the rules & nothing in my post leads towards an escalation or even remotely close to that. I'm a lawyer myself & have a number of big airline & hotel brands that are my clients so the T&C of a loyalty program are nothing new to me. But once again that doesn't stop me from showing my disappointment on a public forum for a rule that I don't like or feel is not in the best interest of the loyalty guest.

I agree with the part about being a good human being when dealing with customer service. Just earlier this week I had a situation where an airline changed its flight timing to 50 minutes earlier which is making it difficult for me to reach the airport on time. Their rules say that they won't make any changes without penalty unless the schedule change is more than an hour. I explained my situation politely & requested that I would be grateful if they could make a one time exception for me, even though it is going above their policy. I wasn't expecting any help but the agent was kind enough to discuss with a supervisor & they allowed me to move to a later flight. It always helps to be polite.

sbrower

On this post I agree with you. I do not find the Marriott level of customer service to be anything like what they (and Sheraton and IC and Fairmont) did for me 35 years ago, or what Starwood did for me 20 years ago, or what Omni does for me now.

Kacee

I think we can all agree that the current Marriott program is a mere shadow of what both the SPG and Marriott programs were pre-merger.

Keyser

Couldn’t agree more.