michiganradioflyer

Any reactions from the Marriott/SPG family road warriors on today's column in the Wall Street Journal (behind subscription paywall)? I don't stay all that often, and my account looks fine, although I'm Gold Elite and don't appear to have any bonuses credited from my stays over the past few months.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-...nce-1543416010

scubadu

Haven't heard a peep from anyone in these forums...

Regards

naumank

I saw the article this morning but have been checking this forum to see if there's any discussion. Just curious why people on this board are not interested. Some have been complaining about the lack of media coverage of Marriott's IT merge fiasco. Now it's in the Wall Street Journal.

CCIE_Flyer

It looks tantalizing, although not worth the subscription for me. I would've went out and bought a hard copy had I know, though!

Antarius

I noticed (and commented on another thread) that my elite night credits and points from the credit card posted last week after no activity for months.

I am not in the boat where the handful of nights posted make a difference to my status level, so it hasnt been a big deal.

Kagehitokiri

good to have actual negative coverage (how rare is that today?)

naumank

I believe that Marriott (and its CEO in particular) owes its customers a proper apology, which has not been given. Many people call to fix a "minor" issue, like missing credits, and be on hold for a long time - the sheer experience of being on hold is bad customer service. But the cause of the hold is the missing credits.

I think Marriott is content due to the fact that it is the biggest hotel chain in the world and most travelers cannot easily avoid it. Even so, its business will likely suffer thanks to its bad customer service. (The jury is still out there. The WSJ article mentions that "Marriott’s third-quarter revenue fell below expectations, with weaker-than-expected demand for rooms in North America....though analysts said they hadn’t seen that weakness across all chains.")

chipmaster

I saw enough complaints and such here, funny now it gets major press time, karma so deserving.

craigthemif

Completely undermined by the fact that the Marriott regular they quoted said "I'm staying with Marriott regardless".

Which is essentially why Marriott don't care and most certainly won't be apologising.

Kacee

You can read the article via Scott McCartney's twitter feed. twitter.com/middleseat

Kudos to Scott for tackling this issue and doing his homework. It's a solid piece.
Undermined? Huh? The guy has 3k lifetime nights and is thus LT PPE. Exactly like many on this forum who are basically following the same path based on lack of a better alternative. Scott's conclusion captures perfectly the dilemma many of us face: We're not at all happy with what Marriott has done, but don't see a better alternative.

MSPeconomist

I still see the firewall when I click on his top two tweets (from yesterday) which seem to have the same link.

craigthemif

Undermined because why should Marriott change anything if people are lifetime committed no matter what Marriott does? It's just another moan that is easily ignored. To have an impact, the guy would have to say "Despite 3,000 nights I'm never coming back because it's gotten so bad..."

The subject has been covered extensively on Flyertalk. The truly curious thing for those of us with higher expectations (Hyatt, SPG pre-Marriott, etc.) is how Marriott fans (and IHG FWIW) are willing to embrace mediocrity yet convince themselves that "they don't see a better alternative". But as with politics and a thousand other things in today's society, there's really no prospect of changing minds here.

lost_in_translation

As much as I've liked to complain about Marriott since the merger, the comparison to IHG Rewards is I think unfair.

Marriott still sits somewhere between Hyatt and the old SPG on one side and the likes of IHG, Wyndham and Accor on the other. IHG has a model that basically provides zero benefits to status outside of Asia other than the additional points earning, which isn't the case with Marriott even though it's no SPG. Since the merger I'm still something like 5/6 for (admittedly mostly relatively small) upgrades in Europe at Marriott vs. 0/3 for upgrades at IHG despite being Spire (and these were not ICs either). In Asia Marriott continues to provide great upgrades, too.

MSPeconomist

I would disagree about Asia. On my most recent trip, I had a lovely upgrade at a GH to a genuine one bedroom suite in the corner on the top floor. It also had a very nice bathroom and dressing room. It was preassigned for me, although I can't tell when this was done.

OTOH, I tried to use expiring SNAs at a legacy property but the SNAs were declined. Despite being a repeat guest at the property, I could only get a regular room the first night and then move to a junior suite (one somewhat larger room with the advantage of having a separate shower stall) the second day. It seemed to have oddly mismatched furniture, including some fake wood IKEA type desk that wasn't nearly as elegant or graceful as the desk in the regular room. The same was true of the cheap-looking chrome and glass coffee table, which clashed with the end table (probably cherry wood and of a classic style). However, all higher suite categories, including a slightly fancier junior suite of exactly the same size, were showing as available for my entire stay. Previously I've been upgraded to the genuine one bedroom suite here.

Oxon Flyer

FT protocols are that articles behind paywalls can be summarised (but not just copied) in a post, so that everyone can understand the context of the discussion.

Is anyone able to do this for us ?