freeflyin

Perfectly stated and this is exactly what I have been doing ,as well as my employees.

kaizen7

With this HH Diamond lounge benefit, does all brands participate? or similar to Marriott, that there are some brands that excluded (and seems like they start removing this lounge benefit for St Regis and Luxury Collection in addition to Ritz-Carlton - non offering)

dcstudent

This. At least among Flyertalkers, I imagine most of us already had HH numbers, we just hardly utilized them. For me, HH was my secondary program and I only used it when it was impractical or impossible to stay at a *wood. This year I only have 6 nights at Marriott and far more at HH. I don't prioritize Marriott like I did *wood.

I 40

Beyond being able to choose your room, AND the Digital Key actually works. And in my short experience with it, it arrives in less than 10 minutes versus the never arriving, please see the front desk, Marriott D Key.

Did not realize award stay resort fees waived like Hyatt. Nothing worse than a points stay where you are still paying $100 + / night parking, fees, etc.

jr1202sr

I have too. And have been comped status with several brands. That or I have saved money going elsewhere and simply purchased what I have normally gotten in a lounge.

The biggest difference so far is the late checkout. Status does matter here. Again, I usually can pay for it with the savings of scoping out the cheapest hotel.

cfabar1

Jaenks

or wait until Hilton announces another level between Gold and Diamond or above the Diamond, which is a MUST, considering the current situation.

jamar

Well, glitch or not, pulling it means one more thing that doesn't stack up compared to Hilton.

vincentharris

That along with losing lounge access at gold level, and the outrageous points redemptions now (Properties that were 10k - 12k a night in points at SPG are now regularly 60k + in Marriott which means the 1:3 transfer was crap) solidified me leaving

On top of that the last few times I HAD to stay (location requirements) at any Marriott property the customer service and stay has been awful. It is one thing to lose elites and others because you botched the merger, but that should mean from the top down customer service on property should be outstanding, and at least in my small sample set it has not been.

I used to be a huge Hyatt fan and then they created adventurers and cave diver levels and botched their program, then I moved my life to SPG and was happy until Marriott gutted and destroyed it.

I am platinum at IHG and Diamond at Hilton and between the two I have been very happy. IHG has good (not great) redemption and Hilton has a global portfolio of hotels I need. At this point I have not staayed at a Hyatt property in over a year and will only stay at Marriott if I am required to (for work as an example)

BaconSF

dll

AFAIK, the only property that is officially excluded is in Washington, DC at the Conrad. Not all Hilton properties have lounges, mind you (especially in "resort" destinations). They had one at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for a number of years in the Rainbow tower. It served a very simple continental breakfast. They closed that in favor of a $10/person nightly credit, up to $20/night, to be used on-site at a restaurant. That does not cover the cost of daily breakfast in the buffet (quite far from it), but I find it works for me.

This policy is still somewhat inconsistent as many Hilton properties do not offer lounges. Hilton Bentley in South Beach does not have a lounge, as one example. There, HHonors Gold get continental breakfast in the restaurant, and Diamond get a full breakfast. Conrad Chicago, another example, does not have a lounge. There Diamonds are offered a breakfast in the restaurant. Depending on occupancy that can be the full buffet or a credit for a la carte items (they don't offer buffet on low occupancy days). But it's far easier to navigate than the labyrinth of Marriott's new policies about breakfast and lounge access.

With Hilton, even at the highest end properties, Diamonds get lounge access if one exists, and in most cases breakfast if a lounge does not exist.

SHLTP

Prince Gallery Luxury Collection Tokyo is now not giving plats/ tits lounge access anymore.

Another reason why I am 100% switching stays away from Marriott even more coming up as the dust settles.

I have decided to switch to Hyatt and smaller like Mandarin Oriental. I have since posting at top of thread cancelled stays at St. Regis Istanbul and JW Marriott Hong Kong and switched to Park Hyatt Istanbul and Grand Hyatt HK.

Reducing benefits at the luxury props reinforces my belief Marriott doesn't get me or care about luxury segment.

Profits probably are better at Residence Inn
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BaconSF

hhoope01

Personally, I think it was thought out, deliberate and unlikely to really cause them any large push back from customers. First, legacy Marriott Rewards didn't have any guaranteed late checkout for any elites. What Marriott has done now is a compromise that gives a previously enjoyed benefit to their "best" legacy SPG members (i.e. Plats), as well as, adding a new guarantee to the legacy Marriott Rewards Gold and higher elites (which equates to the new Bonvoy Plat and above levels.) So they have added a new benefit probably to their larger elite base (Marriott Rewards members) while limiting the likely pushback legacy Marriott hotels had with adding this new benefit (by limiting it to the Bonvoy top 3 elite levels).

I just don't see that as a "mistake" and doubt they will change it to include the new Bonvoy Gold levels as there are too many elites with that level, but I've been wrong before and I'm sure I will be again. So who knows.

I'm not following you on this. The old SPG Gold level never had guaranteed lounge access and the old Marriott Rewards Gold level is now the Bonvoy Plat level. So the same people that had lounge access before have it now. I do guess there was a short period of time where having SPG Gold translated to Marriott Gold, but that was never implied nor intended to be a long-term benefit.

And if you are saying bonvoy to the Marriott Bonvoy program and going with IHG or Hyatt instead, I do hope that works out for you. But IHG now has 50K/night hotels that a few years ago were only 15K points (and there was no 1:3 translations or anything like that in there.) I used to use IHG as my secondary program, but their rate increases while limiting some of their bonus opportunities and all the while providing virtually NO real elite benefits and limiting award room availability, I've had to look elsewhere. And while Hyatt has some nice benefits, good hotel coverage where I tend to travel isn't one of them. So they are a niche player for me.

vincentharris

Both domestic & international locations for me lately have been the ones that are terrible