I echo these sentiments and note that it seems a bit odd that it is claimed that AA is raising the fee to Marriott Rewards for AA miles and at the same time other chains, as noted above, are literally giving their guests a bonanza of AA miles if you are to stay with them in the next couple of months.

Something does not seem truly correct here and it does appear that we may not be receiving the full story from Marriott Rewards.

I did this just last week and it was painless. They booked me 3-3 night awards and I booked them the 7 day.

The obvious:
 

I think it has to be a personal pissing contest between the CEOs of Marriott and American Airlines. Kind of like when Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Baptist Hospitals stopped working with each other about 15 years ago. Why would the biggest health insurer and one of the biggest hospital systems stop working with each other to the detriment of patients? Because almost assuredly, two male executives at the top of each company made it personal and wanted to prove their member was bigger than the other executive's member, beat their chests, took their balls and went home.

It makes perfect sense, and really is the only explanation in my mind that does make sense.

Oh, and one other thing I'll add:

The Marriott Delta promo, viewed by itself, is actually not that bad. For the one-night-stay type of guest, you could even argue that 15k DL is worth more than a Cat 4 Free Night plus your normal Marriott points.

The first problem is that it pales in comparison to what other hotel chains are doing during the same period.

The second problem is that all of this talk should be unrelated to Marriott's decision to drop its long-term relationship with AA.

I don't care if Marriott rolls out 10 juicy promotions: ending the AA relationship is still a bad move. :td:

Yeah, it's a bad move. Perhaps a dumb move. And certainly a loss for consumers.

But regarding the question of which travel vendor to dump. Lemme see here...

Marriott has taken very good care of me for seventeen consecutive years as an MR member.

I'll give AA props for decent free trip award availability and relative ease of redemption. But other than that, they haven't exactly shown me a lot of love in my years as an elite since I got fed up with United in '01. Other than letting me get on the plane relatively early and sit in an exit row every now and then, they treat me just about as badly as the other airlines.

With this it may be time for me to give AA the heave-ho, not Marriott.

Here here - glad that you are notifying their Exec office. Can Mr. Marriott really have thought this was a good idea? It will impact our hotel plans as well.

After initially deciding to dump Marriott and now having a few days to think abou it, I decided that I will stick with Marriott. Marriott has been good to me over the years, as have AA. I live near EWR and AA just is not convenient for me, therefore, I have been flying them a lot less than in the past (no flights so far this year). AA will remain my airline of choice, but convenience and cost (therefore cash back/Schwab is now in play) are now the deciding factors. So with AA LT Plat now out of the question or markedly more difficult to attain, I think I will just stick with Marriott and use Marriott points for weekend getaways with the fam - I know they will appreciate this.

I started rethinking SPG once Amex decide to cut/slash/decimate my CL on my SPG Amex - this after approving me for the Amex Premier Rewards card :td: so for now, no more business to Amex.

Glad you are staying - I was starting to feel lonesome. I also am giving up the AA LT Plat dream, and in my case also, AA is really not the most convenient airline.

From EWR, I presume that Continental (soon to be United) is your most common carrier. If so, in addition to the Schwab 2% card, you might want to consider the United Mileage Plus Select card, which you might still be able to get the 50,000 mile bonus on. It gives you 2 miles per dollar on restaurants, groceries, and home improvements (and 3 on UA spend), which is a better deal than 2% cash back to me for those categories.

bd

I'll ride the Schwab cash back for as long as it lasts...hell, I am still in the TY game with the PPE.

Very hard to believe that it is AA's fault in light of the following promotion:

EARN UP TO 60,000 AMERICAN AIRLINES AADVANTAGE® MILES WITH HYATT

http://goldpassport.com/gp/en/aa/off..._mbr_src=30KAA

Hyatt is signficantly smaller than MI is, they might be willing to pay $$$ to AA because of this

Marriott and American Airlines
 

Am I reading this right?
Marriott doesn't work with American Airlines on their rewards packages?
Tell me this is not true.

That's like saying, "What??! Marriott doesn't have BOGO anymore? Tell me this isn't true!"

Marriott has not had a partnership with AA for some time now.

Thanks for the quick reply. This is news to me.

Unfortunately so many changes in all these programs so often, it's hard to keep up with all of them.;)

I can understand your frustration when you learn of something that says, "oh boy, where have I been?" Thank Goodness for FT.