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Ideal Bonvoy status qualification for 2021

Ideal Bonvoy status qualification for 2021

Old Mar 23, 2020, 6:07 pm
  #76  
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Programs: Alaska
Posts: 2,180
Originally Posted by FlyingBeanCounter
and that is why they may very well do nothing for those that are at risk for their status. Apparently marriott feels we will stay there no matter what due to this very fact. I tend to think they are correct. Hilton is old and dated and IHG is not exactly on the same level as marriott. There is hyatt, but they do not have the footprint. So for all the wailing and gnashing of teeth here marriott may very well underwhelm people with their approach.

five pages and it comes down to the fact that marriott is ambivalent to us as its largest consumers of its business by room nights.
whether Marriott uses its loyalty program to attract customers, will be pure business decision. It only mean the output of doing it is better than not doing it.
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Old Mar 23, 2020, 11:08 pm
  #77  
 
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I suspect this year is going to end up as quite the mulligan across the board for basically all travel-related companies. If I had to guess, Marriott will play "follow the leader" and act in the vein of what other chains (Hilton, Hyatt, etc.) do.

With that being said, I think there will probably be a bit of pressure across the board to at least pull back on status requirements a bit and/or offer a double-nights promo or something like that. 55 nights for Titanium (75 minus 15 for the CC and 5 from the 50-night award) isn't that hard when the world is functioning normally. Doing so with the world totally borked for 2-3 months starts getting tricky, even for a Marriott-exclusive customer, and if there's a secondary outbreak in the fall (which I think a lot of us are "pricing in" mentally) that calculation goes out the window. Note that IHG has already dialed status requal requirements back by about 25-30%; I think dial-backs in that range (maybe a bit more) are perhaps more likely than just extending status. A double nights promo in the summer is also plausible.

Part of the issue is that while there are cases of folks being able to move big trips/stays, there are plenty of folks for whom trips simply can't be moved (e.g. PTO requests are locked to given dates) or would get cut back.
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 2:53 am
  #78  
 
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Originally Posted by FlyingBeanCounter
...If marriott is going to be handing out goodies, I would hope they would give more to people like me who stayed with them and actually contributed to revenue. That seems reasonable, no? If not, why not?
Not at all. That's a very short term perspective. It's great that you stayed during this time and gave Marriott a few dollars. I suspect what Marriott cares more about is how much money you're going to spend this year, and next year, and the year after that. That you stayed with Marriott for a few days is not an indicator of how much revenue you will produce over time, but merely that you had places to be. For Marriott to believe you're entitled to anything special, Marriott has to believe that you you love Marriott so much that you braved Covid-19 because you wanted to help Marriott survive this time of crisis. Even I couldn't BS that much.

Let me give an example of a transaction that is truly done for a vendor's benefit. There is a local gift card registry. People can buy gift cards for their favorite local eatery. These gift cards sell at face value. They are designed to help generate cash for these small eateries which are shut down and likely cannot stay afloat without this desperately needed cash. There is little benefit to the consumer to purchase a gift card. There is no discount and the restaurant may still fail, depending on how long they have to be shut down. We purchase these gift cards to help alleviate the some of the financial pain to the owners and employees caused by the shutdown.
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 2:22 pm
  #79  
 
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Originally Posted by clarkef
Not at all. That's a very short term perspective. It's great that you stayed during this time and gave Marriott a few dollars. I suspect what Marriott cares more about is how much money you're going to spend this year, and next year, and the year after that. That you stayed with Marriott for a few days is not an indicator of how much revenue you will produce over time, but merely that you had places to be. For Marriott to believe you're entitled to anything special, Marriott has to believe that you you love Marriott so much that you braved Covid-19 because you wanted to help Marriott survive this time of crisis. Even I couldn't BS that much.

Let me give an example of a transaction that is truly done for a vendor's benefit. There is a local gift card registry. People can buy gift cards for their favorite local eatery. These gift cards sell at face value. They are designed to help generate cash for these small eateries which are shut down and likely cannot stay afloat without this desperately needed cash. There is little benefit to the consumer to purchase a gift card. There is no discount and the restaurant may still fail, depending on how long they have to be shut down. We purchase these gift cards to help alleviate the some of the financial pain to the owners and employees caused by the shutdown.
The logic for a one time status extension is this:
If persons who stay at marriott frequently enough to be at a very high status (amb, TI, maybe plat), you don't want them to go back to being "regular members" because of something outside of their control, like stopping travelling to save money or switching to Hyatt or whatever. If these people are back at square one, they may explore non-marriott options. It costs Marriott very little to extend status, so the loses could be greater than the cost of extending.
I agree that appeals to "loyalty" or something won;t do anything, only money talks, but I bet if they extend Marriott will claim it is out of loyalty.
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 6:02 pm
  #80  
 
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Originally Posted by nmpls
The logic for a one time status extension is this:
If persons who stay at marriott frequently enough to be at a very high status (amb, TI, maybe plat), you don't want them to go back to being "regular members" because of something outside of their control, like stopping travelling to save money or switching to Hyatt or whatever. If these people are back at square one, they may explore non-marriott options. It costs Marriott very little to extend status, so the loses could be greater than the cost of extending.
I agree that appeals to "loyalty" or something won;t do anything, only money talks, but I bet if they extend Marriott will claim it is out of loyalty.
And the "free agent" risk is a real one across the board. If someone gets jammed down from Titanium to Silver due to an extended travel shutdown (not at all inconceivable), that person no longer has "loyalty lock-in" and, if Hyatt (or Hilton or IHG) fits their travel profile better they basically have a "free pass" on switching. That is NOT something any of the big chains really want to risk, and I think given Marriott's year or two of fumbles it is entirely fair to suspect that they might be wary of defections.
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 6:32 pm
  #81  
 
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Elites are expensive.

My guess is they will reign in elite benefits and focus on margins. That has been what they have done so far. Maybe things will change, but I think they will try to reign in costs - keep in mind many of the benefits they offered elites were remnants of SPG, not anything Marriott ever wanted to do.
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 8:04 pm
  #82  
 
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Originally Posted by cfabar1
Elites are expensive.

My guess is they will reign in elite benefits and focus on margins. That has been what they have done so far. Maybe things will change, but I think they will try to reign in costs - keep in mind many of the benefits they offered elites were remnants of SPG, not anything Marriott ever wanted to do.
Elites are cheap, since they are the ones who will keep booking at your hotels, and even indulge in the strange pastime of mattress runs, just to remain elite.

An elite waiver in 2020 costs nothing, since 2020 is already a write-off for practically all of us. But being able to use the same elite status in 2021, might give us a reason to come back.

Europe is already far worse than China, and the US is not far behind. If waivers have already been given for China and environs, then why not the rest of us? Instead we got hard downgrades.

Goodwill costs nothing; the absence of it can be very expensive. Someone should tell Arne Sorenson this.
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 8:11 pm
  #83  
 
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if all major hotel chains do not offer status extension, will you guys not stay in any chain?

i am dying to see that day. Let all major hotel chains bankrupt!
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 8:30 pm
  #84  
 
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Originally Posted by freed0m
if all major hotel chains do not offer status extension, will you guys not stay in any chain?

i am dying to see that day. Let all major hotel chains bankrupt!
Since many hotel chains have already offered that, I fear this discussion is over your head.

But do go on asking empty rhetorical questions. That's so important.
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 8:45 pm
  #85  
 
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Originally Posted by yurtripper
Since many hotel chains have already offered that, I fear this discussion is over your head.

But do go on asking empty rhetorical questions. That's so important.
which major chain offered?

not Hilton, not Hyatt, not Marriott, not IHG.
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 8:56 pm
  #86  
 
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Shangri-La, Radisson, Taj, All chains(for APAC). IHG are basically giving it to you for Ambassador or a credit card (or 25% less).

I'm going out on a limb here but I think Hilton won't apply hard downgrades on April 1. Of course, if this happens, feel free to call me out on this and I will duly eat crow.
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 9:03 pm
  #87  
 
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Originally Posted by yurtripper
Shangri-La, Radisson, Taj, All chains(for APAC). IHG are basically giving it to you for Ambassador or a credit card (or 25% less).

I'm going out on a limb here but I think Hilton won't apply hard downgrades on April 1. Of course, if this happens, feel free to call me out on this and I will duly eat crow.
i have received email from Hilton about upcoming downgrades.

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Old Mar 24, 2020, 9:11 pm
  #88  
 
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Originally Posted by nmpls
The logic for a one time status extension is this:
If persons who stay at marriott frequently enough to be at a very high status (amb, TI, maybe plat), you don't want them to go back to being "regular members" because of something outside of their control, like stopping travelling to save money or switching to Hyatt or whatever. If these people are back at square one, they may explore non-marriott options. It costs Marriott very little to extend status, so the loses could be greater than the cost of extending.
I agree that appeals to "loyalty" or something won;t do anything, only money talks, but I bet if they extend Marriott will claim it is out of loyalty.
I think you missed my point or I didn't articulate it well enough. I said nothing about one-time status extensions in that post. Actually, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Personally, I think they should give extend everyone's status due to this pandemic for the reasons you articulated. I mentioned earlier that cherry picking certain members for status extension doesn't make sense. One suggestion was (and I'm paraphrasing), say hotels are closed for 3 months, lower the qualification threshold by 25%. To me that doesn't make sense because not everyone's travel is evenly spaced out, much like a CPA is super busy in April, but less so in May.

My disagreement with another poster was that I didn't see any reason, ethically or from a business perspective, why someone who stayed at Marriotts during the shelter-in-place should receive special consideration from Marriott compared to other members. My observation is that when a frequent traveler uses the word loyalty as the major basis for a position, they have drunk deeply from the Kool-Aid. They think the purpose of these programs is to reward past travel. Of course, not. These so-called loyalty programs are a marketing item to convince travelers to spend , and continue to spend, their travel dollars with them instead of a competitor. To this end, the travel provider increases the return on investment (ROI) on your travel dollars commensurate with your perceived value. Past travel is relevant to the travel provider's decisions only insofar as its a potential indicator of future travel. Staying at Marriott during the lockdown says nothing about what you will do for the rest of the year, or next year, or the year after that.

In the words of the immortal Janet Jackson, Marriott will ask "What have you done for me ... lately"
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 9:25 pm
  #89  
 
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Originally Posted by freed0m
i have received email from Hilton about upcoming downgrades.

Fair enough, I haven't received any such email, but I'll wait and see what happens come April.
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 9:47 pm
  #90  
 
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Originally Posted by nmpls
The logic for a one time status extension is this:

If persons who stay at marriott frequently enough to be at a very high status (amb, TI, maybe plat), you don't want them to go back to being "regular members" because of something outside of their control, like stopping travelling to save money or switching to Hyatt or whatever. If these people are back at square one, they may explore non-marriott options. It costs Marriott very little to extend status, so the loses could be greater than the cost of extending.
I agree that appeals to "loyalty" or something won;t do anything, only money talks, but I bet if they extend Marriott will claim it is out of loyalty.
I think a lot of people are failing to realize is that their 2020 status was earned in 2019 when it was business as usual. There were no extenuating circumstances in 2019 "out of their control." If they failed to execute the requirements for their elite qualification at par or higher than that held then their staus dropped in 2020 as it would in any other year. With the current crisis many believe their 2018 earned status should be extended into 2021.


If and when Marriott choses to extend benefits, shouldn't it be on the merits of their 2020 staus for 2021 since the impediment is now, not last year? What value is there in status right now when so few are traveling and hotels are closing? Lounge offerings and the breakfast benefit are heavily curtailed now anyways. Should things improve by the fall, there is still opportunity to do a Platinum challenge and enjoying the platinum benefits from the get go. If you haven't requested a Platinum Challenge in the last three years you are eligible through 2020. 16 nights over 90 days is attainable for many if the situation improves and that status would carry through to the end of February 2022. Also an option if you just want the Platinum benefits to burn off your balances and wash your hands.

James
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