jason99

The difference here is that sometimes people no-show and it's entirely their fault. This was not.

The hotel / Marriott could ask for proof of flight cancellation and would be smart to show a little flexibility here, vs. risking losing customers.

Of course it's "not their problem", however they could have turned the OP into an even more loyal customer vs. turning him off. Missed opportunity.

iahphx

Strong lack of empathy coming from you.

Look, I had a similar situation come up a few years ago with travelling to France. There was a massive strike that basically shut down Paris (including almost all transit) for a couple weeks. It was going to be a huge PITA to drop myself into that situation. I had airline tickets on LEVEL and, for obvious reasons, I wanted to delay my trip as it was going to be either extremely difficult/impossible to visit Paris that week. I tried very hard to get some accomodation, but the airline was unwilling to change my ticket to go a month later. At least my tickets were cheap, only about $225 each for myself and my wife. But the airline should obviously have done better. FWIW, I still doubt I would buy another ticket on LEVEL. To me, this is no different than an airline giving you some travel flexibility when a snow storm will make your travel extremely difficult. It's something any normal human being (or company) would assist with.

hhdl

They sound like the type to complain about not being made CK even though the business they brought to AA was likely unprofitable to the current iteration of AAL (cf. AMR).

EuropeanPete

True, but you have met Parisians before, right?

Out of my Element

That won't necessarily work, and could be considered fraud.

pulokk1

My sympathies.

I've never booked non-refundable hotel stays in the USA as, for one thing, the discounts weren't that good. I did in Spain pre-covid as the savings were quite significant. Had two nights stayed at two different spots, one a pension and the other a large hotel chain. We were unable to travel due to Covid.

Both the pension and the potel offered us future credits. Probably only due to worldwide Covid.

I agree with the posters...research higher-ups @ Marriott (e.g. Elliott.org).

Radiation Station

Not sure what empathy has to do with this.

OP buys non flexible accommodation to save money. The cash saving is offset by increased risk. OP plans travel to a city that basically has mandatory yearly strikes, with the recent strike action being widely publicised. OP does not purchase travel insurance or otherwise offset the risk. OP attempts to shift responsibility for their poor decision making to the hotel, who have fulfilled their obligations.

The OP has hopefully learned an important lesson about decision making and risk management. This was all avoidable and largely foreseeable.

azepine00

Marriott is becoming more arrogant and adversarial to guests - it is well documented in this forum. Not everywhere and there are still plenty of good hotels and helpful employees but the trend is clear. Take your business elsewhere - that is the only way to deal with it.

ChrisFlyer66

I have mixed feelings when I read all of this. I am very sympathetic to the OP, and appreciate the OP sharing the story to help others. It seems like Marriott could have compromised and at least offered a partial credit as a one-time goodwill gesture.

That said, I always pay extra (if necessary) to only book refundable (or at least changeable) flights and hotels. It seems rather unfair to people like me if some people just choose to save money and 'risk it', but then expect their money back anyway when something goes wrong and they can't use the reservation.

CDTraveler

Whoa. If the OP owns the company, setting company travel policy is completely within his rights. Expecting that he make policy decisions for his company based on potential employee elite status or family vacation plans? Waaaaay over the top.

IggySD

Actually it’s a sign of a good employer when they care about their employees but that is sadly rare these days. An employer who prevents employee choice over a matter like this would certainly not be one I would work for.

dw

Much of the time if you cancel a flexible rate after the cancellation deadline or are a no show, you’ll just be dinged for the first night’s room rate, whereas with a nonrefundable rate, you end up losing the value of the entire stay

arlflyer

Guess OP should have booked a "full fare" rate with some more flexibility. Humble pie can have a bitter taste.

CDTraveler

When does caring about employees slide into intrusive, and inappropriate, behavior? Should an employer be monitoring how many reward points an employee has earned on company paid travel, check their path to elite status, and then ask about their family vacation plans? Or does the employer's responsibility and right-to-know stop at providing a certain level of accommodation at company expense for the employee when the employee travels on company business? I suspect most companies where travel is a regular part of the job have defined policies on where employees can stay, and do not offer them complete freedom of choice on company paid travel.

If the OP wants to set policy at his company based on this, well, I've heard far worse reasoning on FT.

Jeff767

What no one has mentioned is that the ongoing strikes in France had no impact on flights to CDG on the 9th. I took a quick look at several other airports including JFK/LAX and there were no cancelations. If France was metering flights they would not have canceled 1 of 2 flights from SFO. There were only 3 cancelations total which is normal.
I would demand to know why the flight was canceled and see if United will make you whole. The other interesting thing is that there were many options that day to fly to CDG from SFO via a one stop. Why was no alternative offered?