Email: A Note About our Transition into One Program
Dec 19, 2018, 2:39 am
#61
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
That would be a waste of paper and eat into the cost savings initiatives that the rushed loyalty program integration was to deliver to the company.
Dec 19, 2018, 2:46 am
#62
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
It’s also not something that every $1,000,000+/year spender on Amex will be invited to buy into. Most aren’t.
Dec 19, 2018, 7:02 am
#63
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,718
Of course -- all programs of this nature undergo predictable, inevitable devaluation owing to inflationary pressure and dumb money-supply management (e.g. too many points in the "economy."). This is a universal force. I'm surprised at the howls of pain on FT whenever another program is diluted. It's as natural and expected as the sunrise.
Dec 19, 2018, 7:15 am
#64
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: ORD
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Platinum/LT Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 5,594
I suppose on the customization point, there's probably a 50/50 split. Some people feel their status needs to be acknowledged at every opportunity. I don't personally feel the need to have my status stated back to me in a letter, or at check-in, or really in most situations. In fact, in situations where I'm with a coworker, I actually prefer they wouldn't -- It's just personal preference though.
Dec 19, 2018, 7:17 am
#65
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
Lawyers wrote this. They cannot admit fault. They cannot crack open any liability risk. They cannot allude to / promise anything tangible. They can barely say anything. That is how business communications work today.
Of course -- all programs of this nature undergo predictable, inevitable devaluation owing to inflationary pressure and dumb money-supply management (e.g. too many points in the "economy."). This is a universal force. I'm surprised at the howls of pain on FT whenever another program is diluted. It's as natural and expected as the sunrise.
Of course -- all programs of this nature undergo predictable, inevitable devaluation owing to inflationary pressure and dumb money-supply management (e.g. too many points in the "economy."). This is a universal force. I'm surprised at the howls of pain on FT whenever another program is diluted. It's as natural and expected as the sunrise.
But the issue here is also that not only is Marriott hell-bent to rush into devaluing the program, they are also willing to make it worse and more painful for customers than it needed to be by rushing the so-called program integration. There is no good reason for Marriott loyalty customers to keep a stiff upper lip in the face of being punched by Marriott just because some hits were to be expected by some substantial minority of the program customers.
The lawyer review of the communication seems to have not stopped Marriott from at least acknowledging that some of its customers have been annoyed by the program integration hassles — probably because most of those customers most deeply messed up by Marriott in this regard are those with some of the most business given to Marriott hotels as by measure of points accumulation history of such members’ accounts.
Dec 19, 2018, 7:35 am
#66
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: DAY
Programs: Rapid Rewards, Skymiles, Hilton HHonors, SPG/Marriott Rewards
Posts: 4,941
Dec 19, 2018, 8:24 am
#67
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: Delta Diamond, Marriott Ambassador & Lifetime Titanium, Hertz President's Circle, United Silver
Posts: 6,334
I'm not sure I follow. Paying for postage would have made it "much better"? Is that because you or some others would have felt better about the print and postage serving as some type of penalty for Marriott? A printed letter is just waste that ends up in my garbage can, and I think most people don't feel a need to punish Marriott (nor do they really care about the overall issues being fixed), they just want their own issues fixed because they are annoying to them. I'm not particularly "green" but I don't see a point in wasting paper when an email will do.
I suppose on the customization point, there's probably a 50/50 split. Some people feel their status needs to be acknowledged at every opportunity. I don't personally feel the need to have my status stated back to me in a letter, or at check-in, or really in most situations. In fact, in situations where I'm with a coworker, I actually prefer they wouldn't -- It's just personal preference though.
I suppose on the customization point, there's probably a 50/50 split. Some people feel their status needs to be acknowledged at every opportunity. I don't personally feel the need to have my status stated back to me in a letter, or at check-in, or really in most situations. In fact, in situations where I'm with a coworker, I actually prefer they wouldn't -- It's just personal preference though.
There are ways you can customize the email through the bulk-mail lists that would have made this look more personalized and less like a copy-and-paste form letter.
My guess is this letter was reviewed by 20 different people from investor relations, public relations and media affairs, the loyalty division, general counsel, and likely the chief executive officer before it was sent. It probably took a week to draft.
Dec 19, 2018, 9:07 am
#69
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: ORD
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Platinum/LT Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 5,594
There's another perspective too, that many customers would probably be angry if they received paper. There would likely be a thread on here complaining about how they wasted paper rather than sending an email. There's a thread somewhere about people who are upset about the plastic shampoo bottles in rooms, because they aren't eco-friendly. To be clear, that's not my issue -- I just don't see the point of paper here unless it's coming in an envelope with some type of redeemable certificate (and even that could just be placed in my online account).
Dec 19, 2018, 10:10 am
#70
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: COS
Programs: UA Gold/1.5MM (several years running now!), Marriott LTTE, Hertz Prez
Posts: 1,899
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.)
Dec 19, 2018, 10:25 am
#71
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: 42.1% in PDX , 49.9% in PVG & 8% in the air somewhere
Programs: Marriott Ambassador Elite, UA 1K, AS MVP GLD 75K, DL Pt
Posts: 1,086
I read and wondered in this day of useless email, spam and such not what was the purpose?
Probably on a check list of informing the consumer, just like the security breach email too.
I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, probably won't come in an email but read it on some other site.
Probably on a check list of informing the consumer, just like the security breach email too.
I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, probably won't come in an email but read it on some other site.
Dec 19, 2018, 10:42 am
#72
Join Date: Feb 2018
Programs: Bonvoy :Ambassador , ALL :Diamond, Skywards :Silver, Krisflyer :Silver
Posts: 2,804
I receive the email as well.
While I understand some people who badly affected with the issue will not be satisfied, but I can guess majority of members are have no or very minor issues with MR
Yes, the points and nights credis was slowly post on August-October. but on my November stays everything post as usual.
Dec 19, 2018, 12:16 pm
#73
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: COS
Programs: UA Gold/1.5MM (several years running now!), Marriott LTTE, Hertz Prez
Posts: 1,899
Just last week I had 85 points post for a multi-night stay - ambassador had to fix. Right now I cannot book an award stay as a Christmas gift to my wife at a property that literally lists 14 different room categories for cash. I have not had one single interaction with Marriott that's gone off without a hitch since 8/18 (come to think of it the combining of my accounts was uneventful - but that is the lone exception), and I'm theoretically one of the company's most valuable customers. And my story is by no means unique around here, nor is it remotely the worst.
Dec 19, 2018, 11:36 pm
#74
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Somewhere in Florida
Posts: 2,616
1) Have a website which works:
It's 2018, not 1998. Is it too much to ask for a website which actually works? I'm talking the basics -- to search for hotel rooms, BY PRICE, and be able to successfully book a room! Just last week I tried, twice, to book rooms for this week using Marriott.com and both times, the website crashed and became unavailable. I moved those stays over to Hilton where I was able to successfully do this task in under 2 minutes for both bookings.
Let's remember that the original MARSHA was created in ~1972, so Marriott's had 46 years to play with technology. Marriott.com's woes began a bit over a year ago when they re-platformed their operations from MARSHA to "The Cloud!" Rather than fix the underlying issues, marketing got their way and the website's look changed multiple times in the past year. Then add in a merger on top of that mess. Down the road in business schools, do expect to see chapters on how NOT to perform a corporate merger, especially systems merger, to discuss this case.
Let's remember that the original MARSHA was created in ~1972, so Marriott's had 46 years to play with technology. Marriott.com's woes began a bit over a year ago when they re-platformed their operations from MARSHA to "The Cloud!" Rather than fix the underlying issues, marketing got their way and the website's look changed multiple times in the past year. Then add in a merger on top of that mess. Down the road in business schools, do expect to see chapters on how NOT to perform a corporate merger, especially systems merger, to discuss this case.
2) Have call centers which work:
Call center wait times skyrocketed on the Marriott side well before the August cutover. Further, specialist teams (elite agents, Marriott Rewards agents, reservations agents) were all stripped of their titles/positions and thrown into a general phone queue. A jack of all trades is a master of none. As a result, phone wait times grew to unreasonable (waiting 45-90 minutes on hold) wait times as representatives were now working with things they were unfamiliar with. I don't know what Marriott has done with staffing their call centers, but the overall gist on FlyerTalk seems to indicate the current CSRs aren't well-trained, nor are they always pleasant.
I came to this party as a Marriott loyalist and from MY perspective, the call centers are well below the standards we had about a year ago. There was some hope that the dust would settle after the systems integration happened in August, BUT just like the broken website, calling the Marriott 800# feels more like calling 1-800-COMCAST.
I came to this party as a Marriott loyalist and from MY perspective, the call centers are well below the standards we had about a year ago. There was some hope that the dust would settle after the systems integration happened in August, BUT just like the broken website, calling the Marriott 800# feels more like calling 1-800-COMCAST.
3) Communicate to stakeholders:
It's not just us chickens getting the shaft here -- the hoteliers are also being treated about the same. Like I posted in another thread earlier in the year, it's like Marriott hired the Iraqi Information Minister to do their PR. "Nothing wrong here! Just some noise on the fringe. Everything's fine! Ignore that when you go to Marriott.com, the website doesn't load. Or that hotels can't access the reservation systems. Everything's fine!!!!"
I think a lot of us (including the hoteliers) would feel more confident in Marriott's abilities if they came out early and said, "Obviously, things aren't going as well as expected. Please be patient, we are working on it. We've hired outside consultants and teams to help us expedite the fixes" Instead, we're given a 29 Ways to Fail promotion, which couldn't even work because of how bad their IT systems are.
This could have been (mostly) prevented. For the IT systems merger, someone, somewhere should have been screaming "STOP!" and management should have listened. It had to be obvious to someone in the organization that the new Marriott.com platform wasn't ready for prime time. Until it was ready, it made no sense to continue pushing the integration forward.
For items 2 & 3, look how Kroll has handled the Starwood IT security breach compared to how Marriott has handled their merger. First, they immediately come out and say that they screwed up. They then gave a relatively detailed account of what happened. Last, they say what they're doing to fix it and what steps customers can take. They even established a special call center with agents dedicated & trained specifically on how to handle this issue. Everything on this, so far, has been by the book on how you should handle a situation like this.
As I type this, I'm working on a merger in the transportation sector. Due to the intricacies of the case, we are being forced to merge much faster than we wanted to. BUT, we've wisely decided to leave things status quo as much as possible. Other than payroll & insurances which are being combined due to logistical factors, everything else is being left separate. Both sides of the merger are having regular meetings and trying to take the best of both companies to be the plans for the future.
I think a lot of us (including the hoteliers) would feel more confident in Marriott's abilities if they came out early and said, "Obviously, things aren't going as well as expected. Please be patient, we are working on it. We've hired outside consultants and teams to help us expedite the fixes" Instead, we're given a 29 Ways to Fail promotion, which couldn't even work because of how bad their IT systems are.
This could have been (mostly) prevented. For the IT systems merger, someone, somewhere should have been screaming "STOP!" and management should have listened. It had to be obvious to someone in the organization that the new Marriott.com platform wasn't ready for prime time. Until it was ready, it made no sense to continue pushing the integration forward.
For items 2 & 3, look how Kroll has handled the Starwood IT security breach compared to how Marriott has handled their merger. First, they immediately come out and say that they screwed up. They then gave a relatively detailed account of what happened. Last, they say what they're doing to fix it and what steps customers can take. They even established a special call center with agents dedicated & trained specifically on how to handle this issue. Everything on this, so far, has been by the book on how you should handle a situation like this.
As I type this, I'm working on a merger in the transportation sector. Due to the intricacies of the case, we are being forced to merge much faster than we wanted to. BUT, we've wisely decided to leave things status quo as much as possible. Other than payroll & insurances which are being combined due to logistical factors, everything else is being left separate. Both sides of the merger are having regular meetings and trying to take the best of both companies to be the plans for the future.