Dublin_rfk

Might I say? "Get A Grip!" We are in an unknown and very fluid situation with a very uncertain time line and all some of us can think of is. What will Marriott (International, Inc.) do for me next year?
Marriott needs to be concerned about it’s long term viability and yes profit. Decisions made today can / will have long term consequences and need to be made with as much information as possible. Is there a reason that Marriott can not wait and see where things go and make what they believe to be appropriate changes then? One dramatic fact would be exposed if they did and that would be customer brand loyalty and that would give them another point of reference to modify their customer loyalty program.
For myself there are many factors involved when I choose my accommodations, Location, availability, comfort, cost, customer input, restaurant(s), past stays, and yes customer loyalty programs. And as for myself current events will have only limited effect on my choice(s).

mingzie

Yes, there is. The fact that there is an uncertain time line should be more the reason for companies to make accommodations for it's customers now. What makes Marriott so special that every other company is willing to please it's customers but Marriott gets a pass? Because they're worried about their bottom line? Guess what, every other company is too. They just don't screw their customers like Marriott did to get there. Keep in mind they made promises to a lot of FlyerTalk members then reneged on it so not only did they not extend status, they screwed over people during this period. When this all blows over people will remember how we were treated.

Also, can we please have a break on anything related to the virus and how we shouldn't care about how companies treat us. This is FlyerTalk for God's sake, it's like going to a tennis forum and telling people not to worry about tennis. "Get a grip! All you can worry about is your backhand swing????"

Dublin_rfk

Yes, People do live in different worlds with different priorities.

kaizen7

Try read again the post ... seems like you not only missed the point but you completely don't understand the post.

Anyway, recent email from Marriott specifically said that they still considering the options for 2021.
I guess we will know what they will going to do about the elites later.

As for ideal status qualification, I still believe 1 year extension at current level should suffice.
Unless the issue keep going through 2021.

theOtherHolmes

Agreed, “1 year extension at current level should suffice.”

For those who wish the extension would be based on 2019 status— no dice. Corona virus didn’t affect travel in 2019.

kamaainaflyer

Yes, exactly. Whatever your current status is at this moment that expires beginning of 2021, should extend to 2022, giving us all of 2021 to get all our usual annual number of nights.

ftrichard

I quite like the idea of double or triple nights for whatever remains of 2020 when we get back going again. This would achieve Marriott's shorter-term goals of encouraging people to stay in the current year by giving everyone an achievable goal.

Of course, the practicality of such a scheme is entirely dependent on the un-known at this point in time: namely when the world will functionally get back to normal.

Given that pretty much everyone's in the same boat right now I'm not losing any sleep over qualification criteria for 2021 when it's still only the end of March. They've got plenty of time left this year to devise something that will deliver enough elites for next year and incentivise us to shoot for something to drive their room nights this year. The problem with simply extending everyone's status through 2021 is that it doesn't necessarily drive room nights for them this year which will be a priority when hotels start to open again.

Speaking for myself, if travel in SE Asia becomes practical again by, say, July then I'll be able to use up all my vacation entitlement in the last six months of the year and if I'm suitably incentivised by, say, double nights then requalification without extension will be entirely possible. But that's just me and my leisure travel patterns.

The point is, plenty of time left this year and there's more than one way for them to skin the cat.

MaxFlyer

IMHO I think the best thing to do is to roll over everyone’s status until 2021. Level playing field and should be easy from an IT perspective. It would take pressure off everyone as even if the world starts to get back to normal it may take some places longer than others and who know what the airlines market will look like. It would also buy Marriott goodwill and not lose members to say Hilton who have already set a good precedent.

kaizen7

In my opinion, they could do both.

Extending membership tier for one year to keep loyal members coming in the long run.

And

Do a double/triple night or point promotions to spur 2020 bookings once world return to normal.
(this will be useful if virus issue cleared before 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2020 at the latest)
the downside are there will be glut of SNAs next year and unnatural increase of elites.

freed0m

double/triple elite nights only for status advance. Marriott should provide a way for member to advance as some members are not at levels they desire. At least offer a reasonable path to advance.

SNAs can still require the same number of nights without multiplier.

escapefromphl

No need to worry about an unnatural increase of elites.
2020 not looking good at all, lockdown / distancing restrictions will likely take 6 months probably longer to lift. Domestic/International travel quarantines will likely be in place through 2021.

theOtherHolmes

Also, it’s not like people will start traveling en mass as soon as the government self-isolation order is lifted. Some people need to work more to make up for lost productivity, I know I have cancelled all personal travels this year and unsure about business travel. Some people will be reluctant to travel so soon.

Take business travel as an example: my firm has mandated that there’s no business travel until otherwise notified.

As I said, this year is toast for all kinds of traveling.

MaxFlyer

I absolutely agree. Most firms will need to tighten their belts for quite some time with travel very limited. There may also be a lot of layoffs unfortunately. I also see remote meetings becoming a lot more common.

onobond

Just what I thought an hour ago, browsing through flight and hotel reservations from April , with flights booked into mid-December. Mentally, I'm writing off all travel plans until end of August, but preparing for an extension of the hardships.

TomBrady

I think they will just extend everyone for the year, no one really thinks travel will return to even close to normal levels until 2021. I think this is why they didn't blanket soft land everyone. They didn't want to essentially soft land folks for two years at high levels, since they realize this year will be a wash.