rbw5t

Titanium to Gold here too. Really wise time to drive away customers. What the heck are they thinking?

freed0m

I would categorize soft landing as heresay. Marriott has not promised soft landing in any written TnCs. What the lurkers can advise are pure conjecture at that time.

based on what the posters described, he has no loyalty to Marriott(he shifted his last stays away from Marriott on purpose) and he should not expect loyalty as return.

how do you even make a plea? "I was told by the lurkers that I would be soft landed to platinum so I shift away my stay from Marriott. Now please give back my Platinum." yeah, Marriott will reward your disloyalty with Platinum.

mingzie

Uhuh - the sole company representative that works for Marriott who is repeatedly stating something throughout the year then taking it away is 'heresay'. You should just fire the lurker in that case, since they can provide nothing of use but lies and 'pure conjecture'.

Based on what the poster described, he stayed 75 nights at Marriott previously and just because he decided to stay elsewhere because it was more convenient for him doesn't mean anything. It's a MARKETING loyalty program that is meant to elicit more business for the company not a day one gang trial #ridetilwedie . Nowhere did the OP state that he promised he would stay at Marriott only. Marriott DID however, through their sole company representative, tell us that we would be dropped only one level from Titanium to Platinum as part of their marketing program. Now the poster, and many others such as me, are at a disadvantage because they were given incorrect details due to a lie. No ifs or buts or 'WHERE IS YOUR LOYALTY BRO'. The only way you can twist this is by attacking the poster themselves, which is exactly what you are doing.

mingzie

By the way, this is not a 'once off' lie. Look in this thread and the Marriott Lurker posted SEVERAL times, with not a 'maybe' or 'possibly' but a solid 'YES - THAT WILL HAPPEN'.

It was even confirmed by one of our members from Marriott in EMAIL that it would be a one level soft landing.

freed0m

First, you so conviently ignore the other benefits the lurkers provide. Many were helped by the lurkers with various stay/night/point issues.

How did I attack the poster? Is he loyal to Marriott? Apparently not. He shifted away stays from Marriott to Hilton on purpose because he thought he would still be Platinum without those stays. A loyal member would continue to stay with Marriott because Marriott may reward him with Platinum with fewer nights or he can make a plea at least.

mingzie

Another strawman - you completely ignored my core argument and went straight to - "lurkers provide other benefits!". How does that answer the lie that was fed to us throughout the entire year? When you change the subject, that's a logical fallacy. Do you understand that?

Ad hominem and attacking a poster's staying habits has nothing to do with what we were repeatedly told by a very high up representative of the company. It's best to leave the personal attacks out of this - please. Talking about a person's staying patterns or habits is completely low level garbage (especially since there are 10,000s who have other habits) rather than the true core issue of Marriott being liars

carrotjuice

Sure it will. It�s a staycation while I renovate my home, so we�re not travelling anywhere. Unless Hilton also shutters its hotels.

freed0m

I don't care what the lurkers said or not. That's not what I responded.

I responded to ONE poster. That poster has no loyalty to Marriott and should not expect loyalty as return.

Why you took it on yourself, I have no idea.

mingzie

Because you're being a Marriott apologist and attacking someone who is bringing up a very legitimate issue - that is, Marriott lying to us about a one level soft landing. This is FlyerTalk, a forum dedicated to having in depth information about loyalty programs and finding the truth. What the heck one poster staying at x brand rather than y brand has to do with Marriott not honouring what they promised (regardless if it wasn't in the holy T&C) MULTIPLE, MULTIPLE times throughout the year should not warrant an attack to their 'loyalty'. Such posts let Marriott ignore the issue and the way they've treated us

There is nothing stopping them from making all hotels Category 17 and cost 1million points a night either, doesn't mean we can't be angry if they do it. Just like we can be angry if they lie to us after stating something multiple times multiple months apart during the year.

clarkef

You are 110% correct. Unfortunately, the hospitality industry has brainwashed frequent travelers with the moniker loyalty program. Loyalty implies more than a simple transactional relationship, but rather a closer, intimate relationship. This is the big lie!!! As you correctly stated, these are marketing programs designed to incentivize travelers to spend their travel dollars at one travel provider instead of another. As incentive, the travel provider increases the ROI (i.e. give you freebies) on your travel dollars commensurate with your value to Marriott. . As your worth changes, Marriott will accordingly change your benefits, and your ROI on your travel dollars will likely change as well. Any discussion of loyalty is misguided

Hint: If you are described as a customer, your relationship is likely transactional. Closer business relationships often are described as client, patient, partner, associate, shareholder, etc.

X-ON

I wonder why it took IT so long to finalize LT rollover year, LT status and new annual status ... My guess is that they have very few degrees of freedom if they would like implement ad-hoc solutions and still being able to know what the outcome would be ....so we were pushing towards April so they just "forget about soft landing lets just give accounts the earned status"

miloworld

Plat > Silver this morning, great timing Marriott!

joakgarp

So much for soft landing haha.

Marriott wth are you doing?

X-ON

I still hope MAR will roll-out LTT qualification window, but who knows maybe IT cannot support such a scheme any longe r

danger

I'm as miffed as anyone about this, but I don't see anything in this thread that confirms soft landings. What I do see at post 57 is reference to a lurker responding to a query from one member that says "When your current status expires it should only drop to Platinum" [emphasis added]. There is also post 76 where another lurker responds to a member's query about soft landing and confirms that in that member's circumstances (Ambassador, 38 nights, $5K spend) he or she would drop to Platinum.

Nowhere can I find a statement from a lurker that says 'If a member does not requalify for his or her existing tier in 2019, he or she will drop one tier in 2020' or similar.

Again, I'm not at all happy about the non-soft landing but I equally don't see anywhere where a soft landing was confirmed as policy. Assertions to the contrary and statements that 'The lurker confirmed soft landings' seem to be inaccurate.