SHLTP

Some will ask why I spent so much time trying to make a booking - I wanted to use ~500, 000 points to book Luxury Collection Jaffa in Tel Aviv over New Year's. 70, 000 points a night for rooms that sell for over $1000 USD a night is an incredible deal. Marriott at corporate level being fair. Off peak etc who cares. They need to make money too. I don't see major devaluations. No macaroons? Who cares

I wanted to book 5 nights on points to get one free at Jaffa. I could book 3 and 2 but not 5 consecutively. For me $1000 USD savings is enough to make the effort. The app didn't work. None of the reps could make it work. They were apologetic & nice (far more than CS agents from 10 months ago). But nothing could be done. They said IT issues a mess and CS not empowered to fix anything. Ultimately they gave me 20, 000 points as goodwill gesture.

I see Marriott trying to be good. The problem is whoever was in charge of IT and wanting to save IT integration costs was an idiot. And they've hired so many new CS agents who are not experienced. But they hired them to deal with all the problems.

I also wanted to get my balance to as close to 0 as possible (people like me explain why Marriott reported huge point redemptions this year)

Now, I'm now Hyatt Globalist and have ~400, 000+ Hyatt points sitting around. I will be staying at Hyatt if I want a chain for a while. But I'll go back to Marriott when the IT issues are fixed because of footprint and higher end properties. Just not enough Park Hyatts.

The Marriott program itself is fair. We have to give them credit for being fair. I've had to escalate an insane # of times but Marriott has given me eventually points, free nights etc. I don't care much about points (time is more important to me than money but I appreciate the attempt to resolve issues).

One other note. For Marriott people in US, points on credit card essentially went from 1 to 2. For SPG from 3 to 2. That alone must make Marriott loyalists who put business expenses on their cards mucho happy while all SPG credit card users are automatically unhappy.

I cancelled my Amex card and opened a Chase Sapphire. Those points I'm mostly using at Hyatt

UA-NYC

No change in CC earning rates for Marriott loyals BTW. Only the downgrade for SPG CC users.

SHLTP

I think old Marriott credit card earned 1 point per dollar spend, now 2 points on everyday spend if I recall correctly. Anyone can confirm one way or other as I think important data point why Marriott folks are happy? I might be wrong

Right now one gets better earning and discounts using Chase Sapphire at Marriott properties

Ripley62

I’ve had my biggest problems the travel package, hours and hours spent on the phone fixing issues caused by CSR. No need to go into details but my last problem, and what would seem to be the easiest to deal with, none of the CSRs I talked thought it would be a problem but once again I had talk with the Marriott office of corporate affairs- pretty much where the VP’s seen problem that get that far. Thus was the second time I’ve had to do this, this year.

Anyway the person I talked said, to my astonishment at the honesty, my problem was because at the of the merger Marriotts not only took the RC, SPG and Marriott separate CSR and made one pool but also combine the rewards and booking sides of CSR thus basically even the veteran reps were effectively new hires on at least half their jobs. Nothing like doing that while slowly combing two different IT platforms, data bases and completely changing the rules and categories properties. Most of the training only occurred beginning in the final weeks before the August’18 merger. Amazing since they had a year and a half to plan for it.

the women I talked burst out laughing when I said the idiotic thing was renaming the 50 and 75 night status level. Her comment “you won’t believe how much time we’ve spent on “lost benefits”

Dr. HFH

So, with no evidence, you're prepared to call someone a liar. I'm not.

Oh, and if balance is somewhere in the middle, how do you get to "flat out lie"?

Ripley62

The old chase Marriott cards earned 5X for hotel spending and 1x for everything else. Now current chase Bonvoy cards earn 6X on hotel spending and 2x on everything else. So an across the board increase, if you upgraded to the current chase cards.

the AmEx cards, former spg, did reduce earnings on non hotels spending by ⅓ but also an annual free night of 35k was added. The AFN is equivalent to spending over $10k at the old SPG earning rate.

UA-NYC

“Somewhere in the middle” = heavy mix of positive and negative feedback

Does not equal a 90% preference rate. Those types of numbers are mythological data.

Ergo, lie.

KRSW

Live and Let's Fly shows that Marriott Q3 showing profits reduced by 23%, while Hilton and Hyatt remained flat. I have a feeling that 23% isn't due to ex-SPG people jumping for joy over the Bonvoy program.

As others have pointed out, SPG wasn't perfect, but they did seem to give the impression that they actually gave a rat's rectum about the guests. Marriott has shown time & time again that they could care less -- they only care about the hoteliers. WE, the guests, are the product being made merchandise of here.

Isochronous

What an amusing case of push-polling.

Dr. HFH

Not sure how you get to "lie" in the absence of any reliable data, well, any data at all, actually.

myperks

same nonsense on how something is something that’s really nothing. Just fluff and spins on unreliable facts of others, and ironically, probably same as Arne in this case. Good attention grabbing title though. At least not a lot of Hyatt worshipping in this thread.

just like this following thread, good eye catching title but no substance for the claim.
Marriott shoots self in foot re: resort fee disclosure

UA-NYC

The defense here is eternally amusing...quite the captive mindset. Must be nice for Arne to have such defenders of fake data!

JBord

New poll:
1. Would you rather have a) $1 or b) $10?
2. Would you rather receive a) 1x hotel points or b) 2x points on your spend?
3. Would you rather get Lifetime hotel status in a) 5 years or b) 10 years?
4. Would you rather have a)100 properties or b) 500 properties at which to redeem your points?
5. Would you rather have a) more SNA's, b) fewer SNA's, or c) the same number of SNA's?
6. Would you rather eat a a) cheeseburger or b) pizza?

I bet I could interpret 90% out of that. And yes, I realize it's over-simplifying and cherry picking program benefits, but I'm making a point. A survey could be written to compare the old and new programs -- which have nothing at all to do with IT and customer service issues people complain about -- and it's likely people would pick the new benefits.

Assuming #6 is a throw away question, even if 51% of people didn't want the tax burden of an extra $9, you're still likely to get to 80%.

If you want to do a real analysis on this, rather than just calling someone a liar, take a look at the old and new benefits side by side, and ONLY the real program benefits, not things like whether you get upgraded every time or a FDC thanks you for your status at check in, or an IT issue.

JBord

But you offer no data. We are all supposed to believe that your opinion on Marriott's loyalty program trumps all facts and data (although it's un-examined by us, at least Arne offers data). That's amusing to most of us that rely on facts and personal experiences.

myperks

some are just sad that they aren’t taken seriously as a fake ambassador. should just have the guts to say the heck with Marriott and ask Marriott cancel my LT Titanium status...