JBord

"Technically" matters a lot with acquisitions though. I still think it would be a more apt analogy had SPG bought Marriott and then put all the Marriott programs in place, to the detriment of their SPG customers.

I understand your point however. On the surface, you can compare a lot of large acquisitions like this. UA-CO was a total and complete disaster that impacted even daily operations and, as you noted, still impacts customers today. For the most part, the Marriott-SPG acquisition has impacted higher level SPG customers who are grumbling about the new loyalty program. Sure, there are some IT issues that affect a few people, and they haven't handled transition customer service well, but those things are temporary. As you know, with UA, the problems were never intended to be temporary, they were "features" and policies of either CO operations or intentional service cuts by the newly combined company.

I'm not a Marriott cheerleader. You can go back and read my posts during the UA-CO merger. If I saw the same thing happening here, I'd post about it...but I don't. My opinion I guess.

Kacee

But in this case it truly is just "technically" based on how Wall Street defines the acquiring party. CO was in a much stronger financial position and dictated the merger terms, including takeover by its management. Recall that UA had tried to merge with US, but that was rejected by DOJ. UA was pretty desperate for a merger partner.

I appreciate your point of view, but don't share it. This new behemoth is customer unfriendly in a way the old Marriott was not. It's like dealing with Verizon or Comcast (both of which I'll no longer do business with).

itisme

Can anyone point me towards the ' marriot challenges' ? I swear I read somewhere about it but cant find it now. I just started to book all through marriot instead of hotels and expect about 70-99 stays this year through the site. If I was right I read that you can request a challenge to get quicker to a certain point. Anyone with good info very welcome!!

rickg523

I tried to say hello to Bon-voy, but the website linked to the email they sent me wouldn't let me. Wouldn't recognize my member number or my password, even after I reset it following their own links.
So I said hello to IHG instead.

Kacee

Where do we start? This new program is nothing but challenges . . . from stays not posting to incorrect account info to properties denying published benefits. Oh, wait, are you asking about a status challenge? That would be here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...thread-11.html

JBord

Your points are correct, but I still think people here are comparing apples and oranges, anyway. CO made decisions that negatively impacted operations (SHARES, for one). They had loads of mechanical issues right after the merger. There was at least a 12 month period where about 50% of the time, something was wrong with my flight. Anything from my seat being randomly moved to losing a reservation -- and that was the experience of most frequent customers. They made changes to the loyalty program, but in fairness, those mostly came later, and reflected the new reality in a condensed industry rather than the merging of two programs.

With Marriott, most of the changes people are griping about are with the loyalty program (or the name of that program, or the names of the metal elite levels). I can still book hotel rooms and know they will be there when I arrive. There's been no change in operations for most people. To me, that's a totally different comparison, but probably taking us way off topic anyway, so I'll stop.

As for customer service, I've had no problems at all. But I can appreciate that others have. The question remains whether it's the new normal or something they'll fix. UA had terrible customer service after the merger, and after a couple years it was almost back to pre-merger levels. Marriott is only 5 months in, so let's see what they do.

itisme

Thanks.. That doesn't sound very promising. I was finally convinced to start booking direct with marriots after years and hundreds of bookings through 3rd party sites. So I got excited thinking I could finally profit from booking direct... Guess i'll be keeping every single receipt.. :/

GoPhils

MSPeconomist

magendim

Yep, I had a couple of friends that worked through the UA/CO merger and they said from the start, CO management pretty much made all the decisions and dumped the UA management....

quinella66

magendim

I disagree also. Were you ever a top tier customer with Starwood? If so, you would have immediately seen the difference in customer service between Marriott and Starwood. I've had Starwood hotel management go out of their way so many times to accommodate me for upgrades, early check in, free happy hours or come out and greet me, leave a welcome gift in the room, invite me to property events, etc. That never happens at Marriott properties, especially in the US where they barely acknowledge your status and seems like you have to pry everthing out of them. Starwood just seemed much more generous with their customers vs Marriott.

And the Marriott website, looks really pretty with a lot of empty space but the functionality is not so good compared to SPG. SPG was so much more functional. It was very quick and easy to look up multiple properties in a city and compare up to four rates at once across all of them including points and cash/points. And that Marriott member rate where you save like $3 over regular rate, what's the point of that?

Fortunately for me, I'll be grandfathered into a the Titanium lifer tier so I no longer have to chase nights every year for status and can give other hotel chains a go..

Eastbay1K

Yes. I had no idea this was even an issue until I had to call recently, probably my first call in well over a year. I did not know I'd be greeted with touch tone hell, my reason for calling not exactly fitting in with the "press this for that" and after a couple of minutes of bovine poopoodoodookaka , I finally reached an agent, who took down the information, and it took quite some time.

(And after a couple of days, I received an unsatisfactory response, requiring divine intervention from a company representative on this board.)

magendim

I haven't need to chat with a CSR in a while but just another Starwood amenity ditched so Marriott can save a few $. I've also noticed that rooms in the new or renovated Marriott branded properties had fairly spartan interiors akin to a Courtyard. Some of my colleagues rooms at a recent Marriott Marquis didn't even have phones. And of course the platinum lounge beers were $10. Marriott seems to be cutting corners wherever they can to pay for the Starwood takeover....

kennycrudup

They could have had mine. For nearly a decade among the first things I do is stick the bedside room phone under the bed so I don't accidentally bump it; it has nearly zero purpose nowadays.