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Happy Sep 9, 2018 8:00 pm


Originally Posted by margarita girl (Post 30186202)
I'm beginning to think I almost bought a hotel package for 45K points today! After I called to attach a Cat 1-5 cert to a reservation yesterday, the cert stayed in my account but Marriott took 45K pts from my account and this is what was listed in the activity:

However, after I called this morning to complain about the unauthorized 45K point deduction, I see that a cert was removed from my account and 45K points was posted as follows:

Not familiar enough with TPs, but maybe someone who is can interpret for me what happened.

You received the surrender value of the OC1-5. Then the value of the refunded pts is used to "order" (convert) the NC4.

This is the step 1 and 2 outlined upthread. The step 3 is to attach the NC4 to a reservation.

Happy Sep 9, 2018 8:04 pm


Originally Posted by Slickw (Post 30186520)
Pretty sure it's manual. Here's what shows in my account activity for a 45 minute call to convert an OC6 to NC4

08/27/2018

Rewards
7 Night Travel Package Category 6 Hotels

08/27/2018, Cancelled 75,000 Rewards
+75,000 Points



08/27/2018

Rewards
Partial Package - 7 Nights Category 1-4

08/27/2018, Ordered -45,000 Rewards
-45,000 Points



08/27/2018

Rewards
Partial Package - 7 Nights Category 1-4

08/27/2018, Cancelled 0 Rewards
+0 Points





So did you keep the NC4 at 45K pts (i.e. received 30K overcharge from the OC6) or you ended up not wanting the NC4 after all?

It looks to me you eventually also canceled the NC4, because the last entry shows a cancelled reward related to NC4?

Happy Sep 9, 2018 8:13 pm

I had an OC6 converted to an NC4 with 75K Value on Aug 19.

Then I canceled the NC4 with 75K Value on Aug 25, with original intention to reorder the NC4 with 45K value but the phone disconnected when the rep went to research it. I did not bother to call back as I still have 2 OC5 in place. The OC6 was ordered during the last days with reluctance anyway. We dont normally stay at same location for 7 nights, even the 5th night free is not easy to use. So the full refund better suits our needs.

Here are the 2 related activities in my account - I do not see any points going in and out of the account but they are reflected in the account balance. As you can see, there is not even an entry of the reorder of the NC4 of 75K but I do receive an email confirmation of it and learn the code is QP80 versus the 45K is QP83.

08/25/2018

Rewards
Partial Package - 7 Nights Category 1-4

08/25/2018, Cancelled 0 Rewards
+0 Points

08/19/2018

Rewards
7 Night Partial Package Category 6 Hotels

08/19/2018, Cancelled 0 Rewards
+0 Points

I am going to empty out the current account balance to prevent additional deduction of another 45K from my account when I need to convert the OC5 to NC4 to attach to an existing hotel reservation.


RedSun Sep 9, 2018 9:55 pm


Originally Posted by Happy (Post 30186569)
I had an OC6 converted to an NC4 with 75K Value on Aug 19.
....

If you do not get any activities with those TPs in the next two months, can't you just sit tight to see what is to happen? You know you are forcing the rep's hands within the stated 1-month system shut-down period. We still get half of that to go. I know things may not work really well, but definitely better than now.

Happy Sep 10, 2018 12:16 am


Originally Posted by RedSun (Post 30186803)
If you do not get any activities with those TPs in the next two months, can't you just sit tight to see what is to happen? You know you are forcing the rep's hands within the stated 1-month system shut-down period. We still get half of that to go. I know things may not work really well, but definitely better than now.

I want to get the points back so I can use them to make reservations for several Oct stays. The bulk of my points are in the SPG account but I dont want to combine the accounts just yet, so need some points back to the Marriott account.

We also did not know if we could get back 30K refund on the OC6 and 8 until much later.

Already have waited too long that SOTP is not available for most days I need to book except 1. Marriott only has upgraded rooms in most days. I also find out some peculiar thing - that is, booking one day at a time, I can see standard room on more days than if I book multiple days together, even each day individually has standard room - when it is booked with several days together, suddenly the standard room disappears!

Besides, whether one chose to wait or chose to call, it is strictly one's own business. There is no such thing of forcing the rep's hands - they either are willing / know how to do it or not. You can tell from the first 3 min of the human interaction. The bad part is you have to wait long time before you can get a human and determine whether it is a competent human. That is what Speaker Phone on landline is for. :D

I also need to use at least one TP cert by end of Sept the latest just in case things still not working as hoped for. (long give up on the word "expected" lol)

RedSun Sep 10, 2018 6:58 am


Originally Posted by Happy (Post 30187022)
I want to get the points back so I can use them to make reservations for several Oct stays. The bulk of my points are in the SPG account but I dont want to combine the accounts just yet, so need some points back to the Marriott account.

Besides, whether one chose to wait or chose to call, it is strictly one's own business.
I also need to use at least one TP cert by end of Sept the latest just in case things still not working as hoped for. (long give up on the word "expected" lol)

Certainly this is your own business. I clearly see a lot of frustrations with the folks waiting over the phone over the un-attached TPs.

What I see about the TPs is: we rushed to the legacy TPs because they were very good deals and they were going away. We bought one or more TPs without any solid plan to use them. A lot of speculative nature with them. Marriott advised folks to use or attach those TPs since they would get system issues with the transition.

We did not listen since some of us did not get travel plan anyhow. Some folks bought the OC1-5 TPs only for the miles since they never planned to use those TPs. Who would want to spend 7 consecutive days in some mid-level Fairfield Inn somewhere in the middle of the country?

Now still mid-way in the lock-down period, we start to call Marriott rewards. We all know the phone line gets a super long wait time. 30 minutes or longer? And the reps do not even know what to do, or the system does not even work....

I think we get ourselves to blame for the mess, at least partially. For me, I'm not wasting my time to call Marriott now. It gets me nowhere. I do not get urgent needs for that....

Mister P. Sep 10, 2018 8:44 am

Hi,
I have a bit of a newbie question: If I attach a TP to a reservation and then find availability for another hotel in the same city, can I re-attach the TP to the other hotel?

rny321 Sep 10, 2018 9:25 am


Originally Posted by RedSun (Post 30187741)
I think we get ourselves to blame for the mess, at least partially. For me, I'm not wasting my time to call Marriott now. It gets me nowhere. I do not get urgent needs for that....

If MPG had simply communicated its intentions for travel plans directly to customers and employees before 8/18, a lot of the frustration could have been avoided. If the conversions were announced a month in advance of the transition, instead of letting customers speculate about what would happen to existing awards, there would have been less of a need to call now.

FrustratedinCA Sep 10, 2018 10:23 am


Originally Posted by RedSun (Post 30187741)
I think we get ourselves to blame for the mess, at least partially.

Nope. This mess is on Marriott. They've had AMPLE time to prepare for this merger, and they completely bungled it.

A) Marriott didn't communicate in advance of the merge the category mapping or the merge details regarding TPs with customers. They intentionally withheld that information until it was too late for customers to make a change. That's one of the shadiest tactics I've ever seen a company take to force breakage.
B) Marriott's leadership isn't informing their own CSRs about the policies they are setting, so not even their own employees know what is going on with TPs. This is simply ridiculous.
C) IT merge of the two systems/websites has been a disaster. People have lost points and/or elite nights, recent stays were not posting, can't book NC8 properties for NC7 pricing as promised (Al Maha has a points surcharge), extra points being taken for TPs for no apparent reason, can't book SPG properties with TPs until the 18th even though Marriott put out a statement saying that would be possible... Oh and SPG hotels only bookable through the old SPG site--when you try to book on Marriott, it redirects; Marriott hotels only through Marriott's site. This all should have been pressure tested and fixed BEFORE the merge. There are way too many issues that would not have existed had Marriott brought in the right IT people. But clearly, they cut corners and it's a mess.
D) Marriott execs like David Flueck made promises in interviews that have proven to be totally opposite of what the official policies that have been released say.
E) Marriott's PR site claims they live by "the Golden Rule" and yet their merge policies fleeced many of their loyal customers.
F) Marriott allowed their CSRs to literally take people's money ($350+ in one case) to buy points to upgrade to cat 8s...even though Marriott knew that OC8s would equate to the same NC as OC7. That's potentially illegal.

Sorry...NONE of that is our fault. Not even a little bit.

ankomonkey Sep 10, 2018 10:37 am


Originally Posted by margarita girl (Post 30186202)
I'm beginning to think I almost bought a hotel package for 45K points today! After I called to attach a Cat 1-5 cert to a reservation yesterday, the cert stayed in my account but Marriott took 45K pts from my account and this is what was listed in the activity:



However, after I called this morning to complain about the unauthorized 45K point deduction, I see that a cert was removed from my account and 45K points was posted as follows:



Not familiar enough with TPs, but maybe someone who is can interpret for me what happened.

When I booked a few days ago, I had an OC1-5 and wanted to book a NC4 hotel. The rep said she needed to cash in my OC1-5 and order me a NC1-4 which could then be used on the NC4 hotel booking for 7 nights. The OC certs cannot be used anymore. So she cancelled my OC1-5 and credited my account with 45k points (the surrender value if you historically cancelled an OC1-5 cert and asked for a points refund). She then ordered a NC1-4 cert for me and charged me 45k points. So the net points change was 0, I had 1 less OC1-5 cert and a 7 night booking using a NC1-4. This is what I wanted and expected - effectively using an OC1-5 for a 7 night booking in a NC4 hotel, and no difference to my points balance.

RedSun Sep 10, 2018 11:09 am


Originally Posted by rny321 (Post 30188243)

If MPG had simply communicated its intentions for travel plans directly to customers and employees before 8/18, a lot of the frustration could have been avoided. If the conversions were announced a month in advance of the transition, instead of letting customers speculate about what would happen to existing awards, there would have been less of a need to call now.


Originally Posted by FrustratedinCA (Post 30188456)
Nope. This mess is on Marriott. They've had AMPLE time to prepare for this merger, and they completely bungled it.
.....
Sorry...NONE of that is our fault. Not even a little bit.

You both are correct. But what can you do about it? Spend 20 or 50 hours over the phone with Marriott reps? Get frustrated and want to leave Marriott? I've seen people wanting to stick to old SPG properties and to avoid Marriott hotels. Sure. Then what do you get out of it?

More frustration and anger? I understand it. But....

rny321 Sep 10, 2018 11:21 am


Originally Posted by RedSun (Post 30188617)
You both are correct. But what can you do about it? Spend 20 or 50 hours over the phone with Marriott reps? Get frustrated and want to leave Marriott? I've seen people wanting to stick to old SPG properties and to avoid Marriott hotels. Sure. Then what do you get out of it?

More frustration and anger? I understand it. But....

I haven’t felt the need to contact MPG about travel packages since 8/18 and I don’t plan on departing to another program because of the way the transition was handled. On the other hand, I believe that blaming the customer for the problems created by poor communication and lack of staff training isn’t fair.

Happy Sep 10, 2018 12:19 pm


Originally Posted by RedSun (Post 30188617)
You both are correct. But what can you do about it? Spend 20 or 50 hours over the phone with Marriott reps? Get frustrated and want to leave Marriott? I've seen people wanting to stick to old SPG properties and to avoid Marriott hotels. Sure. Then what do you get out of it?

More frustration and anger? I understand it. But....

There are people who DO need to take care of their business the sooner the better. Your speculation of others dont have travel plans is just speculation. Many of us do have travel plans, and the hotels are at lower pts after 8/18. This makes it either way you are damned whether you attached or not - you still have to call to get back the refund which at first Marriott demonstrated it had NO INTENTION to do so...
Besides, the way to get back the refund is to DETACH the cert and rebook with new instrument. I was told by THREE CSR TWO SUPERVISORS before the D-Day to DETACH my Cat 6 cert from a hotel that would go down to 25K pts after 8/18 - as "it would no doubt be easier to rebook than to get a refund" paraphrasing their words.

Dont forget the initial email responses to people who submitted their requests for refund on OC6 and 8, are essentially telling people ,Tough Luck. Your cert is no longer valid because you have not used it. It is not refundable, blah blah blah...

You think come Sept 18th everything would be going smoothly? Let's keep the eternal hope. Some of us the stays start at Oct - your certs need to be attached 7 to 14 days before your arrival, else your reservation would turn to Pay reservation, depending on the policy of individual hotels.

There is not much time left even if Sept 18 the magic date would mean everything would then run smoothly from that point on. And if things dont work as you expect, then what?

The Fix is there, just a matter of getting a willing and competent rep / supervisor to do it.


Originally Posted by rny321 (Post 30188641)

I haven’t felt the need to contact MPG about travel packages since 8/18 and I don’t plan on departing to another program because of the way the transition was handled. On the other hand, I believe that blaming the customer for the problems created by poor communication and lack of staff training isn’t fair.

Dont see why there is the mentality to blame the victim. We the customers are the victims of Marriott's unethical practice if not downright deceiving. full stop.

Happy Sep 10, 2018 12:21 pm


Originally Posted by ankomonkey (Post 30188510)
When I booked a few days ago, I had an OC1-5 and wanted to book a NC4 hotel. The rep said she needed to cash in my OC1-5 and order me a NC1-4 which could then be used on the NC4 hotel booking for 7 nights. The OC certs cannot be used anymore. So she cancelled my OC1-5 and credited my account with 45k points (the surrender value if you historically cancelled an OC1-5 cert and asked for a points refund). She then ordered a NC1-4 cert for me and charged me 45k points. So the net points change was 0, I had 1 less OC1-5 cert and a 7 night booking using a NC1-4. This is what I wanted and expected - effectively using an OC1-5 for a 7 night booking in a NC4 hotel, and no difference to my points balance.

Correct. That is the way to do it. For those who have immediate needs, call the international call centers instead. Even the Mexico call center reps speak English though you would need to wait thru the Spanish robot spiel first. UK office opens till EST 4pm our time. Asia / Australia (they use Malaysia/Singapore) centers are 12 to 13 hours ahead of EST. Not hard to figure out when to call.

naroowal Sep 10, 2018 2:51 pm

I have a Old Tier 4-5 cert and it is attached to a reservation. I dont intend to use the reservation. If I cancel this travel certificate as per the old rules, you are supposed to get 315K marriott points. Can someone confirm if they have done this and if it is possible to do so. I feel Marriott has not communicated these details explicitly and correctly.


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