Keyser

Why is it humorous? Only someone who has experienced the service will be in the best position to comment if its worth it or not.

Most, if not all, are saying that now that they have the service, they are not striving to re-qualify for it, thereby taking their business elsewhere.

Radiation Station

Exactly this. I made Ambassador for the first time last year and I won�t be making the same mistake again. I wouldn�t know if it was worth it if I hadn�t experienced it, and I achieved it organically last year.

Radiation Station

I can see the point about the value of your time. I feel similarly in that regard, generally. But if you have multiple issues with Marriott that require emailing or phoning, maybe you should save money and time by not staying with them? I also think you have gotten lucky, cos I�ve often had to send far more than one email to the Ambassador service to resolve an issue - the agents vary wildly in competence and English skills, in my experience.

Radiation Station

Regarding the phone call, I needed to call rather than email, as it was an acute issue with the hotel I had just checked in to, and I was getting nowhere with the front desk. Their response time to email is very variable, so calling was the most expedient option. It would have been helpful to have something in writing, I agree, but it wasn�t exactly impressive that the Ambassador team then refused to pay me the promised points after taking more than a week to post them, attempting to argue post hoc that the hotel had already given me some points, so they didn�t need to honour their word.

This is not to mention the fact that they had failed to challenge the hotel�s bad behaviour at all. I would consider Ambassador worth the money, perhaps, if they actually had the teeth or balls to handle the occasional issues I have with hotels - but they don�t stand up for you at all in such disputes and just try to fob you off with points. And I often find my initial email doesn�t solve the issue, unless it�s very simple, so I can waste far more than two minutes emailing the service. I�ve found that Marriott Bonvoy Twitter is just as efficient at solving the simple issues, sometimes more so. So why would I pay a massive premium for a service that doesn�t provide CS above the average? I cannot think of an occasion where the Ambassador service has managed something for me that I couldn�t easily do myself or outsource to another convenient, free Bonvoy service. The status should come with both hard and soft benefits above Titanium and it fails on both fronts.

clarkef

Perhaps you misunderstand the issue, which is the 20k Ambassador spend requirement. The stay requirement was trivially made, especially this year with Marriott providing free nights credit to its members. I anticipate ending the year with between 150 and 175 nights. The year in which I first achieved Ambassador, I organically spent 18K. As that was reasonably close to 20k, I treated myself to a 2k Christmas vacation (much more fun that hiring a secretary). Your "solution" of purchasing points when they are on sale fails for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that purchasing points regardless of how many points are purchased and how much is paid will have no impact on your Ambassador spend requirement. Per Marriott's language:

"Marriott Bonvoy� Ambassador Elite Status is earned when a Member has both 100 Qualifying Nights annually and $20,000 USD in annual qualified spending [...]Qualifying Charges for Participating Properties include Qualifying Rates for Stays, Food and Beverage, and in-room phone/movies/video games. They do not include on-property charges earned without a hotel Stay, Marriott Bonvoy� Events, Cobrand credit card spend, and other Non-Qualifying Charges."

Out of curiosity, why the $2,000 = 100k points question. And the answer is no. Not even close. For me, the value of points is purely a function of the redemption value based on my travel habits. As a reference point, I spend last Thanksgiving in Paris at the Marriott Champs-Elysees. The room rate was 350�, the points was 50k/night. The value of 100K points would be capped at 700� or roughly $700. Actually far less as Marriott Points are owned by Marriott, can be canceled, devalued, lost, etc.

Off-point, but to answer your question, for consumer transactions a cost/benefit analysis is largely influenced by emotion. As I'm sure you remember from high school economics, the fair market value means the price at which property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or sell and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts. It's emotional is because the willing buyer determines what the property (or any goods or service) is worth to him or her, which is purely subjective, not capable of objective determination. Why stay at a $500 St. Regis, if the $200 Westin will satisfy your needs (location, space requirements, etc.) just as well? Ultimately, in this hypothetical, it's almost certainly because the St. Regis satisfies some subjective desire, e.g. prestige,
obsequious, fanning service, etc. all of which are emotional). Once you determine roughly what something is worth to you, the cost benefit analysis is (usually) fairly simple. In my case, since I hate inefficiency, I am willing to pay to avoid it. If I didn't, if waiting on hold with Marriott was less annoying to me, a different decision would be made. The cost/benefit was easy. I can go on vacation, to an area which I love and get Ambassador status to boot. I booked the vacation that very day.

As I stated, for me, the main value of Ambassador is the ability to avoid the inefficiency of having to call Marriott. I value having my issues (which are rarely time sensitive) resolved with a single email. That value is somewhere between 2k and 6K.

clarkef

That would make sense if the issues were either large issues or issues which I believed were Marriott specific. My issues tend to be more of the points/nights not posting. Or, if I'm going to a hotel, seeing if the Ambassador can arrange for a pre-arrival suite upgrade. Pre-pandemic, my Ambassador was routinely able to get properties to agree to pre-arrival upgrades to specialty suites which were not part of the upgrade pool.

Sure, I get that. We each have our own experiences. For me, when I travel internationally, I generally have the Ambassadors reach out to potential hotels to determine the firmness of the bed as I have major back issues from an injury. This has proved invaluable as I've canceled several hotel reservations upon learning that the bed was soft. One e-mail to the Ambassadors nets e-mail from each hotel. I know of any other division within Marriott that would replicate that ease. The one complex issue I had with a hotel, the Ambassadors sorted it out with the hotel and I received 100K for the error. Again, we each have our own experiences.

s0ssos

That is the thing, particularly dealing with people. And Marriott, whose IT capabilities is only superior to Flyertalk's.
It depends on where you stay. In US property points not posting is a hassle. When I stayed in a property in Asia I notified the hotel about the points not being posted properly and guess who did the followup with Marriott? The hotel. They were persistent and kept apologizing and giving me updates.

An ambassador is just a concierge, and while I don't have personal experience with one I do have experience with Hyatt. The value totally depends on who you get. I had one that was marvelous, then another one that was useless, and now one that has a semblance of utility (but not really).
The one that was great retired. So, did Hyatt deliver what they promised?

I find the question of points posting a Flyertalk thing. Some of my friends don't bother to check their receipts when taking out food, don't bother looking at their credit card bills to check for errors. It definitely adds up to more than 2k a year, probably more than 6k. But they view it as a hassle.
And I want to say most travellers don't care much about points in general, especiallly after they try to book for their specific dates and find no availability at the particular hotel they want.
​​​​​

t5campbell

I completely agree with RobOnLi. It is not worth going for. I have been an Ambassador for several years and the difference between Ambassador and Titanium is not worth it.

omegadeal

I know its a low effort post to say "I agree", but as someone who has shifted between Ambassador and Titanium several times I don't think its worth it. (Currently Ambassador, but won't push to get it and am using AMEX FHR more often when a more convenient property exists).

Kacee

Exactly. Who better than those who have experienced the hollow promise of Ambassador to warn others off from making any effort to achieve a status that used to have some value, but no longer does.

ElevatorEnthusiast

I think you'll find a noticeable difference in sentiment between those who were Ambassadors pre-Bonvoy or pre-pandemic with the personal Ambassadors and those who became Ambassadors post-2020. I have no doubt that the program used to be better (though, my brother who was a SPG Ambassador during the early years of the tier found Ambassador Service to be rather useless) but I also think it's important to move on and make decisions not based on anger for what used to be but on the current state of things. For me, my experience as an Ambassador member has been far better than my experience as a Titanium (much easier and better upgrades, lots of nice welcome gifts). Also, IMO, Hyatt's concierge service is not much better than the current state of the Ambassador Service (at least in recent months).

Is Ambassador over Titanium worth $4K? No.
Is Ambassador over Titanium worth a nice vacation that also costs $4K? Perhaps.

Kacee

Only if Marriott offers the best choice of property, which I find is rarely the case these days.

More and more of my spend is going to independent or smaller luxury chain properties. I'm just not finding the major program benefits worth staying at a subpar property.

porciuscato

As a former ambassador member (for 3 years), I can't imagine why anyone would ever try for ambassador status. Actually, I don't even get "titanium" status. What a waste! If you ever forego a stay at a nice hotel to achieve either of these, you're severely misguided.

kaizen7

I believe the point people try to make is :

If you can reach the tier (titaniums/ambassadors) naturally then go for it.
But if you have to spend money unnecessarily to reach the said tier then it might not worth the extra effort.

willliamjia

Deleted