Well put. I think the negative reaction to this email by many of us is both predictable and understandable. It's just one miscue, stealth devaluation, and missed opportunity after another.

I'm still waiting for the email apologizing for Marriott's backtracking on the previously touted "no blackout date" benefit ;)

I'm still waiting for the Marriott mass email with the following subject line:

Bonvoy!!!!!

Two things stand out to me.

First:

I thought the takeaway from everything was that Marriott understood legacy SPG customers cared as much or more about recognition than rewards. Yet, ever since April they've talked about how members get more points. August onwards has shown that Marriott still can't get the recognition component right. Ambassador is a perfect example. Between hundreds of ambassadors not getting contacted and properties not delivering it's been a bad four months in terms of recognition.

Really? What kind of valediction is that? Moreover, how many people know what SVP stands for? Talk about impersonal. This was written like an email to colleagues in his department thanking them for their work this year.

This email would have been much better if they had ate the cost of sending a printed letter via the postal service to each customer or at least used software to customize the email and thank you for your given status.

I'm sure this Marriott–Ritz-Carlton–SPG loyalty program merger will be a case study in what not to do for a loyalty marketing class at Cornell or wherever.

Supposedly we now have until March 2019 to make award-redemption bookings at the current levels as opposed to January 1, 2019, when most or all of us assumed the new variable pricing would be in effect.

I think it would be funny if someone sent a lump of coal over to Flueck at Marriott's headquarters.

Anyone interested in splitting the costs? Private message me.

Ordering and resending a lump of coal via Priority Mail would be about $20. Only $12.62 if you sent it directly as a gift. Does that rise to the "splitting the costs" threshold?

Your Status wasn't acknowledged probably because they don't know what it is.

That is what causing the delay of the new Program lauch. "Bonvoy" has been scrapped.

Nor did I.

On (1): I have no idea if this is the worst loyalty program merger ever, what I do know is that if the IT aspect of the merger, i.e.migration of account balance, static account information, temporal information etc., would have been executed like this in the financial industry head would have rolled by now ... but I guess different industries have different benchmark what constitute success ... and in honesty different IT budgets ...
On (2): Just want to mention that for us located outside the US any such pathway to Hilton Diamond (or the 20 nights to Hyatt Glob) is not possibility so for us challenges still have a meaning... I would hope that MAR continues their property expansion outside NA by also amending the loyalty program to also cater to non-US residents. I count going from points tenor to year tenor in the LT program such a step ...

While I agree that Marriott and all chains could and should do a better job of catering to people in all countries, I will note that Amex Centurion members in every country they issue in get Hilton Diamond comped each year. So it's not impossible!

I've told this story before on various FlyerTalk fora. One of my hospitality jobs was as a Night Manager during a soft-opening of a hotel. The owners were running out of money for the renovation, so they opened the hotel to generate income. We opened about 6-8 weeks too soon. My job essentially was to listen to legitimate complaints each and every night.

I quickly learned that there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all compensation plan. Different people react very differently to the same offer of compensation. One person would view a discounted/comped room very favorably. Someone else would that offer as offensive because she or he views it as an attempt to ignore the problem. Those people want problems fixed and they care little about tokens.

Had Marriott offered points to everyone, it's clear that you'd be happy. Other people would undoubtedly see the offer as offensive because the underlying problems haven't been fixed.

Finally, don't forget that while many people have had major challenges, many others have not had any issues. Giving points to everyone to compensate for problems that only a portion of members experienced is not something any company would do. Respectfully, I think your expectations are not in line with that reality. (Note: I'm not saying you personally aren't due compensation. I'm merely saying a blanket gesture to everyone isn't the way to address the problems some members have had.)

I stand corrected, however spending 250K-450K USD a year (vs. paying 450 USD) in annual fee) as substitute of a Hilton Diamond challenge ... it is not impossible but hardly a substitute