VA1379

Actually it has been more than one quarter since the last quarter was unusually short. Historically, there were no EEOs between mid-January and early to mid March. There is no real guideline when Marriott is going to have EEOs again next year. We are told that they will come back next year sometime, but that is rather vague.

dchen2

I fall in the same camp here, booked a non-refundable flight and two nights at a JW Marriott in November with the budget expectation of using the EEO cert.

The combination of Marriotts recently being $20-40 more a night than SPG hotels at my client sites, having worse quality beds than the sweet sleeper/heavenly beds, inferior frequent stay promos (Free resort nights?), and now this debacle means I'll be shifting all my business to SPG going forward.

Brendan

+1 ! I can understand if they want to limit BOGOs to 1 per Elite member per season, as they were IIRC when they were postally mailed. As of now, one member can print dozens of 'em, hand 'em out to friends & sell some on Ebay!

Gee, do U suppose MR is seeking to stop the Ebay sales ??

living near shamu

This sucks. I already have a non-refundable flight and was counting on BOGO as well!

pinniped

This is incredibly disappointing. I only came to this thread today when I found my EEO's were missing; I was planning on booking a November stay with them.

I've never given them to strangers, sold them on eBay, etc., but let's play it out: say I print 20 of them and convince 20 friends to go spend the weekend at Marriott.

How is this a bad thing? Marriott has already removed pretty much every hotel where there's high weekend demand - places where those 20 people would have been forced to pay high rates somewhere. I don't think I've ever used an EEO in a situation where the non-elite, non-loyal guest couldn't have Pricelined for about the same total cost - if not less.

So I've convinced 20 friends who would have never set foot in a Marriott (unless Priceline sent them there) to spend two nights in one of the hotels. Based on the list of eligible hotels for the EEO's, it's likely an airport hotel or some other hotel in a smaller Midwestern city...but it's a chance for that person to get to know Marriott. Worst case - Marriott isn't losing any money on them. (Empty room vs. a room that's generating even $50-75/nt.? It doesn't cost *that* much in labor, utilities, etc. to have the room occupied?)

Again, it comes back to the fact that Marriott has already protected itself against revenue loss by restricting the certs to the mundane hotels that don't regularly sell out on weekends. It's not like I'm using these things at the top New York, London, Hawaii, etc. hotels.

For me, it's just a less of a few hundred dollars' in value of the elite status. To me, this was the #2 benefit of elite status after the points themselves. (Yes, I rank it higher than lounges given how few lounges are open anymore.) It further cements my 2012 activity at Starwood first, then Marriott as a backup. Frankly, if the EEO's go (or become restricted to higher rates), I'll probably drop MR Gold as my backup and keep HH Gold as my #2 choice.

sophiegirl

Agree completely with pinniped. Very disappointed in this....We too had a trip booked. We are going, but Marriott is not getting the stays. As we are going with several other couples, Marriott lost at least 8 nights by not giving me 1.

jonathansullivan

Just adding my voice to those who consider this one of the biggest de-valuations of my elite benefits in years. This to me personally was probably the number one benefit in terms of my priority.

My Platinum Renewal is already in the bag for this year - but I'm doubtful it will happen next year.

Who gave Marriott the gun, and suggested they shoot themselves in the foot?

ljknecht570

Hello Marriott...Are you listening??? There is a simple fix to this!

SkiAdcock

They're not listening & don't care IMO. They made their decision to pull the BOGO for Q4 while 'revamping' (whatever that means, but we'll find out in 2012) the program for next year. Obviously they could have kept BOGO while revamping behind the scenes, but they chose not to do so. I doubt they're going to change their mind at this point.

Cheers.

travelguy64

I have over 200 nights in the past 18 months at Marriott and this change is the exact reason why I have changed back to Hilton the the past 2 months and have chose to do the remainder of my 40 nights this year at Hilton properties.

Seems like when everyone else if ramping up their programs Marriott is deflating theirs. Why would they stop a promotion to revamp it? Management should have more intelligent people running the show if they can't even keep in touch with their customer base. This was by far one of the best benefits Marriott had that gave it an edge against its competition.

For anyone who cares. Hhonors is running a free night certificate for ever 4 stays or 10 nights. Since Marriott is taking away free nights maybe you should move over to Hilton the rest of the year and find some comfort in that.

RogerD408

Get ready for a worse surprise: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...s-program.html

dukyluky

I dont see the big deal...well of course i dont pay for my stays..so i guess it doesn't really bother me! I'm happy just getting as many points as possible, I'd rather have an extra night worth of points than a not have to pay for a night's stay.

ohmark

Great to know! In the same spirit, if you don't drive a car, please post to the thread demanding free parking and let them know you don't care.

Michigan Czar

I don't know where I have been but obviously not at Flyertalk. I was waiting for the EEOs to show up and I noticed yesterday they weren't in my account so I came here and found out the bad news.

Wow, I cannot believe Marriott pulled them to "enhance 2012". It just doesn't make sense. Another huge disappointment for me. I have been Platinum since 2000, 2.5 million points and 900 nights. The EEOs were probably the biggest benefit I received from being a loyal Marriott Rewards member. The lounge and everything is nice but most of the lounges are only open during the week when I am usually traveling for work.

I'm going to hold out until the end of the year but if the 2012 EEOs are "Marriott Enhanced" similar to their various other enhancements in the last two years, then I am gone.

Newman

Do you think Marriott management has any idea how much their loyal customers cringe when we hear them use the word "enhancements"?

Newman