Wow, soon they'll claim that we've always been at war with Eastasia…

Here's quote from 2010 T&C:

Then the property/properties was/were simply willing to defy the rules of Marriott Rewards, and Marriott Rewards wasn't willing to do anything about it. For my part, and while I've never stayed at Ko Olina, I've never come across a Marriott property that was willing to so boldly, and in writing, state they were violating the rules of Marriott Rewards. Unlike SPG, Marriott doesn't seem to have the stomach to deal with recalcitrant properties.

In any case, this new and significant downgrade to plat/gold benefits is disappointing, to say the least.

Do you have a link to that? I'm never on Facebook, but I'll make an exception to call BS to that.

Elimantion of Bogos (sad but I could live with it).
Neutering of cat 1-4 free night certs - that hurt
Cutting back upgrades to only one category - that's the last straw.

Search for Marriott Rewards and Facebook and read their wall.

at the same time as SPG has upgraded their suites policy.........

Somebody asked MR why the upgrade language was changed. MR first responded that they should share their concerns with Marriott Customer Service. MR then responded, "we shared your concern (sic with our customer service team) and found out some good news. The wording of the benefit has actually not changed but hotels often upgrade to suites if they're available. Hope that helps!"

WOW. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing! The person coordinating social media for MR obviously has not been with MR very long!

Someone also posted the same question on the BOGO discussion on MR Insiders. Michelle responded, "We have not changed the T&Cs in any way - they've always said this. However, properties can upgrade to whatever premium room they wish - including suites - and they regularly do. It is a function of their availability and sell strategy (in other words, if they predict they will be able to sell premium rooms at a premium rate, they may hold a few out for last minute upsell opportunities)...."


I think this shows how little MR values elites. They make a major change to a benefit without notification and then deny it! Wow! Starwood, Hilton, and Hyatt are all making major improvements to their loyalty programs, and MR continues to devalue theirs.

Regards,

RIP...

michelle from MR Insiders this morning

We have not changed the T&Cs in any way - they've always said this. However, properties can upgrade to whatever premium room they wish - including suites - and they regularly do. It is a function of their availability and sell strategy (in other words, if they predict they will be able to sell premium rooms at a premium rate, they may hold a few out for last minute upsell opportunities).


Us regular people are running things - as usual. I promise to own up to anything we change - but this isn't one of 'em...

Now that's a benefit I can get on board with!! :p

Thanks for the morning smile.

Slowly, thank you for your time in researching this. To say that Marriott is screwing us over at every turn seems like a fair assessment these days. And they cover up and backpedal and delay...and think we're stupid.

Marriott, what say you?

How about a link to the new policy? Just under general MR Elite benefit terms, I couldn't find any mention of "next room category" language.

https://www.marriott.com/rewards/member-benefits.mi


¶¶¶ Room Upgrade: At no additional charge, we’ll do our best to upgrade you to our best-available guest room in the next room category level. Suites are excluded. Not available at Marriott Vacation Club.

Member Benefits


Look at the "fine print" at the bottom of the page.

This is a major downgrade to MR Plat benefits. In many hotels, a one category upgrade is almost nothing. Depending on the property, it can be the same room one floor higher or a room of the same size but a different shape, etc. It also limits the required upgrade to cases where the hotel has an empty room exactly one category up and the probability of this can be small if that category contains few rooms.

In fact, one could even envision a hotel redefining room categories to have, for example, many standard rooms but only a handful in the next category, so that they rarely if ever have to give an upgrade.

Please post a link to this, or how to find it. Thanks.