Marriott FB post, August 1, 2012
 

Speculation? Replacement for BOGO? Cash + Points?

It is the replacement for the BOGO benefit. Trust me when I say that it is nothing like the BOGO benefit they took away last year. Also, they may be announcing some of the other "enhancements," that will be implemented March 1, 2013, must of which aren't going to make elites very happy. For example, I heard they will be offering Gold & Plats the option of taking breakfast in the restaurant at check-in (still Mon thru Fri only). However, the guaranteed lounge access benefit will no longer be available to Gold Elites!

My guess is the over selling of the new non-benefit of points and cash.

A few comments.

1-I NEVER used a BOGO-wouldnt know how to/where to find them. When people used to post "go here...there" etc...on the website, all I found was 14BILLION "stay a weekend night in beautiful ski country in JUNE and get 75 bonus points"....:rolleyes:

2-I will get flamed for this...but....I think GOLD should not get lounge access. Plat/Lifetime plat is EASY to reach (ESPECIALLY W/rollover). Lounges are already slammed. BUT...that said...they SHOULD give a definative "yes/no" and not a "if available" blah blah blah! Or how about lounge certs of 10 nights/yr for Gold???

3-If they take away bfast for family, it will be a HUGE devaluation. I am affraid one day we will lose that.

How about earning status based on points?

I am currently at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina. The lounge has been packed morning and night. I counted at least three families (mom, dad & 2 - 3 kids 10yo and under) in the lounge this evening making the offerings their dinner. There was also one extended family of at least 10 (grandparents, parents, kids) in the lounge last night. I am sure this is not what MR intended when this benefit was first conceived.

I can really see that MR & MI need to do something, because the overcrowding is getting out of hand.

Wonder what other enhancements may be coming?

Regards,

RIP...

they could start with limiting the lounge access, WITHOUT additional payment as HH does (or in the case of the Conrad SQ says NO ENTRY to the youngins), to the MR plat guest and his/her partner who is also a checked in guest.............

at the SD Marina you've got 2 towers of guests all being "dumped" into a single lounge............ no wonder it's over-flowing!!!!!!!

If they take away lounge access, what is the benefit of becoming Gold then??

I am not a business traveler. It was difficult for me to become Gold. If Golds lose lounge access, I am done with Marriotts. I have often stayed at a Marriott when it was less convenient, etc. so that I could get enough days. I also changed my credit card from a Disney rewards card to the Marriott rewards card to help with the number of days. I will be cancelling my Marriott card too.

DH recently applied for (and received) the Ritz Carlton rewards card. Part of the benefit of the card is the automatic Gold status with Marriott (provided you spend the $$$ on the card over the course of the year). No way will the benefits of the card be worth the annual fee if they take away the lounge access for Gold. I might have to cancel that one too just on principle.


Maggie

Found the post after a search. It's not on the Marriott Facebook page, it's on the Marriott Rewards page (which I didn't know about yet).

+1 Especially for us who based in Europe AND not travel on business. We don't have people paying for our hotel nights. We earned our Gold with our own $ and we can't even get a credit card to give us elite nights.

I will be done with Marriott if I don't get my Gold benefits. I'll move my stays to IHG because even as a Plat I got lounge access even on 5k PB nights. It's also much easier to be a IHG Plat than Marriott Plat.

hope Marriott hears ya as lately they've been kinda deaf to the traveling public..............

No way. They even started off the new Cash+Points thread with "You've been asking for". :p

So they know exactly what we've been asking for.*

*Marriott might not be above playing word games though.:eek:

I can't believe they would be so stupid. Gold at Marriott takes a lot of nights and people would just move their business elsewhere very quickly.

Moved mine last year with the loss of EEOs.
says the dude hwo easily achieved SPG and Hyatt top tier status :D

maybe that's why they were "recuiting" newbees with their give away by the truck-load of plats, via plat challenges........

Really?? Where in the IHG Plat bennies does it state that you get lounge access? And, well, any elite bennies on rewards stays?? As Plat I get... a free bottle of water. Not exactly heart-stopping...

Any word on the super-secret surprise yet?

That is why there is a thread in the ICH forum specifically on which hotels offer elite benefits for award stays.

And note, PC Plat won't get you squat (i.e. nothing) at an IC. So I would have to scratch my head on someone moving to PC/ICH to get better elite benefits. :confused:

Technically, absolutely true. In practice, the few times I have stayed at ICs, most recently in Chicago, I was treated to a very nice upgrade (although no suite) and had an overall very enjoyable stay. Unfortunately that's better than I've been treated at Marriott as a Gold although lounge access as a Gold is great - when they're open.

A free bottle of water is nearer to IHG plat average bennies than lounge access, that's true. But every hotel program subforum seems to have similar "I get better benefits with program y than with this program x" threads so this is nothing new of course. Some people even seem to participate in several subforums, let's say Marriott and IHG and at Marriott say that IHG is so much better and at IHG say that Marriott is so much better. I don't understand why they do that but enough OT for now.

I'm an IHG Platinum. Everyone gets a free bottle of water at the Tyson's Corner, VA Crowne Plaza I stay at regularly. As a platinum I get the choice of 1 free breakfast buffet for 1 day or two free drinks (only draft beer or house wine). It's not comparable, IMO, to a FS Marriott benefits with lounge access and a welcome amenity. At Marriotts sometimes I get suites. I've never gotten a suite at a Crowne Plaza. Once they told me they got me a suite, but it was a normal room about 5 feet wider than the rest of the building.

I've never used a BOGO, either. Now, I presume when I see "BOGO" that people mean "Buy One Get One free". Having browsed through the list of offers numerous times I've seldom seem an offer that good. Usually it's something on the order of 20% off a weekend stay or bonus points. And, in the few cases where an offer has lined up with my travel plans, my attempt to use the offer has always resulted in "No availability." :mad:

How do you know the family/families didn't pay for a room on the concierge level?

I never get upgrade to a suite in a FS, only at CY 2 times (once had to really ask and once I got hold of the Manager). The typical upgrade I got at FS is to executive level, which has better amentities.

I was staying at Crowne Plaza Copenhagen on PB - 5k per night with lounge access, a fruit plate and a welcome card. The hotel is at very least as good as the Marriotts I stayed in - good bed, good hotel, good staff. Of course an upgrade to a corner room unless they are full (once out of 3 times)

We stayed there 3 times and the service is consitent.

We stayed at a Staybridges in the US on PB and we were upgraded to the biggest 1 bedroom suite.

We also stayed at a Candlewood the US and we got the biggest 1 bedroom suite, and a welcome bag of candies.

All these places welcome us as IHG Plat - we didn't even have to show our card or ask for upgrade.

The 'worst' treatment we had as IHG Plat was at a HIE in Frankfurt at PB - all we got was a drink coupon, but again who cares - it's 5k point per night!

Yes you don't get bennies at IC, but if you really want that you can just buy a RA referral - probably cheaper than trying to score Marriott Plat :D

So, back on topic. Anyone think that the reason the Rewards team hasn't posted their awesome announcement is they lost their FB password? Their failure to understand the whole concept of under-promise and over-deliver seems to be lost on them. Guessing they'll post tonight at 11:59 pm just to say they met their own deadline.

LOL! Not sure where Marriott's Facebook/social media department is, but it could be in Utah which is two hours behind east coast time (so only 9:00 am there). More likely, however, it is in Maryland and they have just dropped the ball (again).

I am both Marriott Rewards Platinum Elite and IHG Platinum Elite. I'd say my experiences in both programs show that one is not better or worse than the other. With IHG, I seem to always receive suite upgrades and I never ask. For example, I received a suite at the Crowne Plaza Phoenix Airport on a Pointbreaks reservation (w/ free breakfast and 2 drink coupons). I received a great Creole Cottages suite upgrade at the Holiday Inn Chateau Lemoyne in New Orleans over Labor Day weekend last year on a split paid/points reservation (all they offered was 2 for 1 drink coupons). But in NYC, at the Staybridge Suites, although I was put on the top floor, all I got was Gummi bears - that they made up themselves in a package - as the welcome amenity. Tacky. As for Marriott, I was upgraded to the club floors at the Renaissance Las Vegas on an LNF BRG reservation and I got a large room with 1000 sq. foot patio at the Camelback Inn last weekend (and no resort fee and I did not ask for it to be waived) on a LNF BRG. Neither was a suite.

If this is true, I really hope they announce it sooner rather than later as it will certainly change the calculus for many of us in terms of status requalification. Some will probably try to make it to Plat, and others (myself included) may decide it's not even worth requalifying for Gold.

Golds having access to the exec lounge was one of the competitive advantages Marriott had over the other chains, & helped to justify the larger # of nights being required to attain Gold vs. other chains.

If they drop that, it would be a step backward in their program & I would at that point encourage folk to look at other chains if they better met their needs.

Thisisit123, you said it's a replacement for the BOGO but not like what they took away. Can you provide more info on what you heard?

Cheers.

That Marriott lounge seems to always be slammed . . . well, the times I've been there at breakfast. Too many people with access for the lounge size.

If you size the lounge proportionately for your property, I think this is much less of an issue.

Most Marriott lounges aren't that bad. They are most hectic in the morning for breakfast, but still, you can find a place for yourself.

I would NOT take Lounge Access from GOLD. 50 nights is a big jump from 10 . . . have to earn something good.

Because this morning as I was going up to the concierge lounge on 24 two families with 8 kids (12 people all together) got on the elevator. One of the 12th floor and one on 18.

This morning I hate the lounge late, at 8:30 and it was packed with numerous extended families getting breakfast before the lounge stopped serving. There was a line all the way back to the entrance.

Regards,

RIP...

Lounges are always going to be more full in the summer & the spring breaks than they are at dif times of the year. It's when all the Golds/Plats take their family on vacation after being road warriors the rest of the year. It's the same every year & nothing new.

FWIW - the lounge attendants look forward to the autumn as much as the road warriors do ;)

Some Marriotts will let a family of "x" in for free, but charge additional for people over x. Although that's not universal. If anything, it would be good for them to check the # of folk in the room against who's being allowed entry. But if a Gold/Plat reserved 2 rooms & the room can handle 4/room, then technically that would be allowed.

Cheers.

I heard the rumor folks they are bringing back bogos. They are only valid on special rates which are as i heard 30 to 50% more than bar. Lnfs are ineligible. Rates can be reserved 30 days prior to arrival and not more than that. Elite bennies do NOT apply on the bogo ressies which includes brekkie so no brekkie on those stays

This sounds worse than not bringing them back at all. The really offensive part you added is that they would take away elite benefits. If this happens, its really going to disillusion me about the Marriott program. Is your contact in a position to know?

I doubt that since elite bennies are even included on PL rate.

This may not be that bad....

They were never supposed to be eligible for non-public rates like AAA and the like, nor did I see the requirement that one would get all the bennies that certain packages conferred, such as breakfast, or parking.

On the other hand, I think there is likely a miscommunication on elite benefits, for as we know, some hotels do provide breakfast on weekends to the guest even though they are not required to do so. So package benefits on the free night are a no, but elite benefits are likely a yes, depending on the hotel

I will have to see what the elevated rates are before I pass any judgment.

What does that mean exactly? That the elites have to give up lounge access in exchange for breakfast?

Cheers.

I refuse to get angry over rumors. I will get angry if the actual announcement stinks.

So what's the announcement? It's "tomorrow" and nothing yet or did I miss it?

Nothing. People are asking over on FB.

They probably realized their big announcement was really lame and that it would just offend us flyertalkers, so they are back to the drawing board! Hold on and wait everyone, this time it will be worth it!