Thanks for that. I would have included the link but I was flying SIN-SGN at the time and the wifi kept cutting out.

Wanted to chime in here since I'm in the same boat. I reached 75 nights on December 31st on a throwaway 10k redemption thinking I'll select the 40k free night benefit.
I monitored the website between Jan 1st and 10th (I know where to select it from experience) and was never given the choice. No email was sent to me as a reminder either (I received it when I hit 50 nights).
I received the email on Jan 16th stating that SNAs were automatically selected.

I contacted customer service in late Jan stating that I never was given a choice and that I would like to have it changed to the 40k night award and they have been giving me a run around. After several back and forth asking for escalation, at one point, they said:
"I would like to inform you that I received a response from our team that guest account will balanced before the 02/24/2023 and annual choice benefits will become available then."
This sounded fishy to me that it sounded like this person is referring to the 2023 benefits being available on 2/24, so I sent a confirming email:
"Does that mean I will be able to choose the 2022 annualchoicebenefit of reaching 75 nights?"
to which they replied
"Yes, you will receive an email soon."

2/24 goes by and no emails or option online, so I contacted them again on the same email thread and got the same canned response stating that they can't do it.

As a LT Titanium member, this has been more than frustrating. At the very least, you'd think they'd just credit me back my 10k redemption, which I asked for at one point.

Ah, now that's a legitimate grievance. Reaching 75 nights on December 31st is of course cutting it fine but you say you were monitoring your account on the web site and it didn't offer you the chance to choose your benefit before defaulting to SNAs after the deadline. Your experience reaffirms the inability to change this annual choice benefit once it's selected no matter how mitigating the circumstances.

In the past I've checked out on Jan 1 for a stay where Dec 31 was my 75th night but this was in the SPG days and I had no problems getting my FNA. We have different systems now even if the benefit is the same.

When did you check out from your December 31 stay and when did the stay actually post? The ability to select the annual choice through your account on the web site (irrespective of getting a reminder email) is not immediate but happens shortly afterwards. Your tale should be highlighted on this forum in mid-December 2023 as a warning to everyone to get their ducks in order and even then it may not work out.

Checked out 1/1 and the stay posted 1/3. Perhaps the delay between the stay posting and activating the selection offer didn't meet the 1/7 deadline they have. Which also begs the question.. what if someone had a Dec 31st stay that lasts through the 1/7 selection deadline?

I'm salty that I wasn't offered the chance to CHOOSE my annual CHOICE benefit.

Dear Yoyo378,

If you can send a private message to us with your member number, full name, recorded email address and a past stay details (hotel name and stay date) for account verification purpose, we are pleased to check on it for you.

Best regards,

Carrie L
Specialist Social Media Care
Marriott International
[email protected]

Thank you very much for being understanding and patient. Our loyalty team has contacted us regarding the issue.
However, we are unable to make modifications to annual choice benefit selections due to incorrect selections or deadline passing. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused.

Fatma K.

Hi Marriott Bonvoy Lurker III /Fatma K.,

I appreciate you taking the time to respond, but I'm confused at the reply.

Was this in response to the private message I sent detailing my situation that you requested? Or was this a generic reply based on my original post?

The reason for my confusion is that the response is the same impersonal response as my email correspondents with Marriott CS and does not acknowledge my pm or my unique situation specifically, especially after asking me to provide more information via pm.

Edit: I just realized that this was a different lurker account than the previous responder that I pmed. So it confirms my suspicion that this was the same generic response without understanding proper context. Same thing has been happening with email CS where a different CS agent jumps in and provides a canned response ignoring all context of back and forth.

So, there we have it. We should bookmark this response and repost it late December as a salutary reminder to everyone (notwithstanding Yoyo378's response that this isn't necessarily the end of the matter for them).

Scratching beneath the surface on this issue, I suspect that - rather being an unnecessarily strict policy - this position is related to inflexible IT (surprise!). IIRC, when we make the annual choice we are directed to another Marriott web site that lets us make the choice and eventually (sometimes immediately) credits our account on the main Marriott web site with the goods. This choice web site appears similar to the main Marriott web site but has subtle differences such as the menu on the top right of the screen and how your name is displayed there. It really wouldn't be surprising if this external web site is the only way that the annual choice can be input and that customer service has no interface into your account to be able to add, delete, or modify this benefit. And hence, the formulation of a strict policy that otherwise defies good customer service principles.

The same thing happened with the inability to apply SNAs to pre-paid reservations after Bonvoy launched. The IT didn't allow it (though there was a complex workaround) and after a while it became a policy that SNAs could not be applied to pre-paid reservations which was easier than fixing the IT.

Hi Yoyo378,

We appreciate the frustration you have come across on the annual choice benefit issue.

Please allow me to explain.

After we received your private message, Carrie opened a case to loyalty team to review. The loyalty team updated the case after their review. Thus, Fatma shared the reply from the loyalty team in above response.

We are sorry that the outcome is not what you expected.

Best Regards,

Christina Z
Specialist, Social Media Care
Marriott International

[email protected]

I am Lifetime Titanium. do I get to select this also, even if I don;t stay 50 nights per year?

Thank you for that clarification, Christina. So I guess you're acknowledging there is nothing that can be done even if I was not given a choice. Disappointing, but good to know for future reference.

No

No

The responses are not surprising, but nonetheless absolutely insane. How is there not a person in a supervisor position that realizes MR should just issue a 40K free night certificate in this situation? Even if it means they can't take away the 5 SNAs that person was given without a choice. The cost would be immaterial and the resolution makes perfect sense.

You'd think 18 years of loyalty, LT Titanium, and my CLV would count for something.