donotblink

Just got this e-mail:

An Elevated Ambassador Elite Experience Awaits <donotblink>, thank you for your dedication as an Ambassador Elite member—and for your commitment to staying with us during times of tremendous change.

We know travel has changed, and we recognize that your reasons for travel may have changed, too. Whether you’re making up for missed opportunities to connect with loved ones, maximizing the opportunities to work from anywhere, or turning business trips into weekend getaways, a thoughtful, personalized experience for each type of trip matters more than ever.

Thanks to your feedback, we are excited to share an update in our evolution of the Marriott Bonvoy® Ambassador Program to better serve you no matter where your travels take you.

Starting in mid-2023, personal Ambassadors will once again be assigned and available to help service your travel needs and preferences.


More Exclusivity To ensure we can continue to provide the highest quality of personal service to our most engaged and loyal members, we will be elevating the Ambassador Elite qualifying achievement criteria. Starting January 1, 2023, members will need to earn 100 or more Elite Night Credits and meet the new $23,000 USD qualifying spend each calendar year to maintain their Ambassador Elite status.

CanaryWharf

thank you for your dedication as an Ambassador Elite member—and for your commitment to staying with us during times of tremendous change.

We know travel has changed, and we recognize that your reasons for travel may have changed, too. Whether you’re making up for missed opportunities to connect with loved ones, maximizing the opportunities to work from anywhere, or turning business trips into weekend getaways, a thoughtful, personalized experience for each type of trip matters more than ever.

Thanks to your feedback, we are excited to share an update in our evolution of the Marriott Bonvoy® Ambassador Program to better serve you no matter where your travels take you.

Starting in mid-2023, personal Ambassadors will once again be assigned and available to help service your travel needs and preferences.One-to-One Connection

Your personal Ambassador will work with you, starting in mid‑2023, to learn your preferences and will work across our portfolio of 8,000+ properties and on-site amenities to tailor your travel experiences accordingly

More Exclusivity

To ensure we can continue to provide the highest quality of personal service to our most engaged and loyal members, we will be elevating the Ambassador Elite qualifying achievement criteria. Starting January 1, 2023, members will need to earn 100 or more Elite Night Credits and meet the new $23,000 USD qualifying spend each calendar year to maintain their Ambassador Elite status

Dn10

$23k. Damn. I guess inflation makes that quite similar to what it was before but they’re making it harder and harder. Even though I was $30k or so this year $23k isn’t always easy to hit.

ElevatorEnthusiast

Just posted the same in the overall thread, but here is the photo of the email. I'm sitting at $27K right now and have a bunch more stays coming up. If I backpedal from Hyatt next year, the spend requirement seems like a no-brainer.

UA-NYC

LOLOLOLOL on the spend

Marriott Bonvoy Lurker

We know travel has changed, and we recognize that reasons for travel may have changed, too. A thoughtful, personalized experience for any type of trip — whether it’s business, leisure, solo, or with loved ones — matters more than ever. Thanks to member feedback, we are excited to share an update in our evolution of the Marriott Bonvoy® Ambassador Program to better serve our Ambassador Elite members.

Starting in mid-2023, Ambassador Elite members will once again be assigned a personal Ambassador to help service their travel needs. Here’s what to expect:

*Personal Ambassadors will take time to learn individual preferences and tailor travel experiences accordingly.

*In addition to personal Ambassadors, our round-the-clock Ambassador Service support team will continue to be available for assistance anytime, anywhere.

To ensure we can continue to provide the highest quality of personal service to our highest program tier, we will be elevating the Ambassador Elite qualifying achievement criteria. Starting January 1, 2023, each calendar year, members who earn 100 or more Elite Night Credits and meet the new $23,000 USD annual qualifying spend will achieve Ambassador Elite status.

To learn more, please visit https://help.marriott.com/s/article/Article-34300.

Radiation Station

Does the extra $3,000 go towards paying the personal Ambassador’s salary?

ElevatorEnthusiast

I'm very happy about this change the more that I think about it. Of course, the proof will be in the pudding once we see the effectiveness of the personal Ambassadors, but I'm glad that Marriott is continuing to evolve the status rather than stagnate it or dilute it. This seems like a step in the right direction.

Radiation Station

I don’t know if it’s truly a step in the right direction to provide the same perks as pre-pandemic but charge you 13% more for the service…

ElevatorEnthusiast

Fair, but I feel like exclusivity with Ambassador status is vital. I am of the strong opinion that my negative to mixed experiences recently at Hyatt as a Globalist are due to strongly heightened Globalist numbers due to the lack of exclusivity (corporate challenges, only 60 nights, could be 60 $20 nights at MGM, etc.) - even their concierge service suffers from terrible wait times and mixed service likely due to increased load. As Ambassador is harder to attain, I do think that I've been treated better on property. My hope is that the personal Ambassador service will avoid the pitfalls of MHC with slow responses, zero property experience customization, and mixed helpfulness.

escapefromphl

Why the wait until mid ‘23 for the personal ambassadors?

sfozrhfco

Probably because the previous ones were all let go during COVID. If they are going to have a functional and exclusive service offering, they need to train some people to do the job properly.

1200GS

$23k isn't that much if you're actually staying each night and not getting 100 nights by credit card or your choice benefits. $230/night is fairly average spend these days seems like.

kaizen7

Nice.

So they remove personal ambassador then reintroduce it with higher requirements.

The tier already provide very weak benefit to start with. Then now Marriott want extra spending for those dodgy benefits.

LovetoTravel83

I would've made it 30K-35K or 100 nights.