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What about the people that bought a cat6, 8 or tier 1-3 with the intention of using it for one of those hotels but did not have the dates finalized. How were they to know that the best hotels that they were able to book would go away. How can anyone here defend of justify Marriott doing this huge disservice to their member without announcing it before hand and giving people the opportunity to prepare.
This is nothing like a category change at the beginning of a new year. because then everyone is told what the changes will be and given time to book with the old rules before the changes took effect. As some have pointed out 30K point refund does nothing, I bought a cat 6 package instead of a 1-5 because I wanted to use if for a future cat 5. Had I wanted to use it for a 1-4 I would simply have bought a 1-5. The 30K points does nothing for me as there are basically no cat 1-4 that i would ever want to spend a week at. Marriott knew this, they knew they were going to kill the value of existing travel package yet they kept selling them, while keeping people in the dark about their true value even though they knew full well what was going to happen. I don't think there is much grounds for a class action as they are allowed to basically do what they want according to their T&C but this is simply unacceptable from a customer service standpoint. |
Out of curiosity - has anyone with a floating certificate actually received an email from Marriott detailing the new policy, or are we once again left to find out official Marriott policy on blogs and forums?
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I think if upgrade or downgrade is not possible anymore, at least it can be canceled with partial refund, i.e. Cat 1-5 7N gets 45k pts, Cat 6 7N gets 75k pts.
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I booked a Cat 6 travel package last week and am obviously not happy with the way things worked out, especially Marriott’s lack of transparency. Marriott was able to release info about the new mapping on the day of the merger, so it had obviously made a decision prior to that. The failure to provide this information to loyalty members is very consumer unfriendly and resulted in big losses for some certificate holders. To make matters worse, Marriott’s phone agents were providing a lot of misinformation. Mine assured me that Cat 6 would map to a new Cat 5 and that I would be able to upgrade/downgrade after the merger. The only fair result here is for Marriott to make holders of Cat 6, 8 and Tier 1 certificates whole by allowing those individuals a one-time upgrade/downgrade based on old certificate prices. A downgrade would result in a 30k points refund and an upgrade to the next category would cost 30k points. I plan to voice my displeasure on social media and directly with Marriott. I may also file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and/or the Federal Trade Commission. I encourage others to do the same. I hope Marriott does the right thing here. If not, it’s a costly lesson learned for me. One thing is certain, though. If Marriott does not make this right, I will be booking future stays (at least 30 nights in 2019) with Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG rather than Marriott, and I will be canceling my SPG and Marriott credit cards. |
Originally Posted by OssianBlue
(Post 30100813)
Here's what I suspect happened. They had a number of conversion options on the table--that's part of why we got confusing signals including from Starwood Lurker about points conversion. In the last week, they decided to pull the trigger on the "screw the TP holders" option. That also triggered the "no upgrade, downgrade" requirement because if they are going to allow that they pretty much would have to give the old Cat 6 and Cat 8 holders 30K credit for an upgrade (or give them 30K points for a downgrade I suppose).
Forgive me if I am missing this, but has this chart been published anywhere on the Marriott site, or only through the Starwood Lurker? If it is not on the Marriott site, I also would not be surprised if Marriott changes its mind on this and decides to be more gracious once it receives blow-back. Isn't that what happened with them giving Starwood lifetime plats Marriott LTPP status? As I posted before, I still think that some of these will be handled on a case-by-case basis. |
An interesting question is WHY. The logic went that Marriott would be generous so it was best kept secret to avoid a ‘run’. That is clearly not true. So what was the benefit of not telling people? |
Originally Posted by pantanal
(Post 30100976)
Yeah I can see it. :)) Absolutely Drop Marriott based on this and change to who? You think other Marriott road warriors in the company who are not upset about the .0001% category 6 TP will not object to switching away from Marriott. Or all your husbands friends are also upset.
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Originally Posted by Raffles
(Post 30101488)
An interesting question is WHY. The logic went that Marriott would be generous so it was best kept secret to avoid a ‘run’. That is clearly not true. So what was the benefit of not telling people? |
There is no why. Marriott is just sending a strong message to gamers.
I think they would not budge. As always, stockholders' interests are their main concern. |
Originally Posted by jrey
(Post 30101453)
I think if upgrade or downgrade is not possible anymore, at least it can be canceled with partial refund, i.e. Cat 1-5 7N gets 45k pts, Cat 6 7N gets 75k pts.
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Originally Posted by FrustratedinCA
(Post 30101522)
You're quoting the old certificate reduced rate. Now that these certs have been mapped to new certs, we don't know what the "reduced [cancellation] rate" will be.
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Originally Posted by sinfonia
(Post 30101481)
I believe the same. It is possible that Mr. Marriott's office was just not divulging when I talked to them about these travel packages 2 weeks ago, but I really believe they still had no idea which way they would go. I think they looked at the small number of customers that purchased them and figured it would not be a big problem - my guess is they would have been generous and lenient. But they were caught unprepared for the massive increase in recent purchases and started to realize that travel packages were going to be a larger problem than they had anticipated. There was even confusion within the office itself about the terms of these. I think in the end, they made a last-minute choice based on the large number of folks purchasing these and the fact that they had only prepared to be lenient with a few (as historically it has always been a small number).
Forgive me if I am missing this, but has this chart been published anywhere on the Marriott site, or only through the Starwood Lurker? If it is not on the Marriott site, I also would not be surprised if Marriott changes its mind on this and decides to be more gracious once it receives blow-back. Isn't that what happened with them giving Starwood lifetime plats Marriott LTPP status? As I posted before, I still think that some of these will be handled on a case-by-case basis. That might explain why the Lurkers have released so much conflicting information and/or information that hasn't come to pass throughout this merge. It would also explain why we keep getting our information here and/or through travel bloggers rather than Marriott. |
There's no doubt that the social media folks send stuff up the chain--that's why I have some hope that the no upgrades/downgrades thing might have some flexibility because it was not part of the official announcement.
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Originally Posted by Raffles
(Post 30101488)
An interesting question is WHY. The logic went that Marriott would be generous so it was best kept secret to avoid a ‘run’. That is clearly not true. So what was the benefit of not telling people?
to quote the Roaches' inn - I can check in but I cannot check out! |
I spoke to a few reps who advised after checking with their manager that book now pay later bookings would be honoured at the old rate. My bookings now show the higher rate.
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