When will Marriott inform their employees of the latest policy?

This is another post on the same canned answer the poster received -
I got the same email back similiar to a few posts above: Any certificates that were not attached to reservations prior to August 17, 2018 will not be honored. There will be no adjustment of points for the category changes, and you will need to book at the points rate for the new category. There will be a month long black out period ending mid September, where you will be unable to access your certificates. Once access to use them are restored, guests will have the ability to book reservations through http://www.marriott.com”

I also called in August 15/16 and the CSR after reaching multiple supervisors advised me not to attach my certificate as the hotel that I had a reservation for is going down in the number of points so he said the safest thing is not to attach. So now I’m stuck with a Category 8 certificate (which I paid 40k points per night for) and my reservation shows I only needed 35k per night.
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I dont know how anyone can still advocate for Marriott about giving them more time to do the right thing, blah blah blah.

Marriott has 2 + year to map its strategy on how to perform the final merger. It has almost 5 months to prefer the final merger. Now all we have is huge debacle with nobody at the front line knows what to do other than the previous company lines fed to them.

Assuming the customer wanted to upgrade, this transaction would have been attractive vs. current options. The poster ended up in the same position as someone who had purchased a Cat 9 under the legacy program. Old Cat 8 + 30K = Old Cat 7 + 60K = Old Cat 9 = New Cat 6.

Based on the way the new travel packages are priced, the difference in peak prices is the difference in cost. To go from a 40K/night Peak Cat 5 to a 60K/night Peak Cat 6 would cost an additional 120K.

My guess is it will end up costing 60K to go from a 30K/night Peak Cat 4 to a 40K/night Peak Cat 5 if upgrades are allowed.

Even if different supervisors weren't giving different answers about the current policy, the answer might change between the time I started writing this post and the time the next person comments on travel package upgrades. :confused:

This is what I just tried (My goal is to cancel my legacy cert)

- Called into 866-576-5696 (Marriott Platinum line)
- Told the system twice "Something else". Waited 10 mins and got an agent. I'd rate this agent much better than other agents if you call the general Marriott Reward/Reservation line.
- Told her that I wanted to cancel my legacy Cat 8 TP cert. She wasn't sure if it's possible so put me on hold.
- She came back that there was an email sent before the merger to customers, advising that we should attach the 7N cert before Aug 18, or otherwise will be frozen for one month.
- I told her to check the latest updates on https://insiders.marriottrewards.com...exclusive-news, and look for "Travel Packages Update" posted yesterday. Apparently she has no idea at all about this site, and any news released by their social media rep.
- She put me on hold for longer, but came back to me that the support team need to verify if the URL is legit or not..... She also opened up a case and said someone will reach out to me in 3-5 days.

She also mentioned these things during our conversation:
- All the agent were specifically told to NOT touch these TP cert after the merger, because they weren't sure what will happen if you de-attach, or upgrade/downgrade. The points or certs might get lost if they do this.
- She also mentioned her computer got audited when browsing https://insiders.marriottrewards.com...exclusive-news, so she asked me to spell the URL again when creating the case.


Again, Marriott is truly experiencing communication disaster, especially within the reward department.

WOW.
So it is apparent that what Marriott Insider's post and the communication to the bloggers, is just Smoke and Mirror to put out fires temporary.
In all reality and all practicality, the people who actually perform the job is kept in total darkness with the latest "company lines" the corporate wants us to believe.

I wonder how much future revenues would be lost from this stupidity to try to save the cost on the unexpectedly high number of TP redeemed.

Went through multiple agents and supervisors, and stonewalled. What is the partial package number for your new cat 6? The last sup I was speaking to said they didn't exist.

Put simply

If there is justification for allowing Cat 6, 8 etc users to downgrade as a one-off and get points back there is NO difference in allowing them to upgrade and spend points. None, Zero Nil !!

However downgrade only creates 'breakage' - i.e. useless certs which cannot be used.

So the only justification for the current stance is, we (Marriott) would like to advantage ourselves and disadavantge our best customers.

Now I'm as big a realist as the next guy and I understand how the 'Real World' works - but I also understand that one is not allowed (in a corporate sense) to say so - no-one from Marriott is ever going to come out and day 'we are taking your points and know that making a refund offering will only be utilised by a fraction of people so we are happy to offer this' but that is the reality of the analysis.

The pressure which needs to be applied is to seek ANY rationale whatsoever from Marriott as to why downgrades are fine but upgrades are out of the question? and to keep asking and banging that drum until someone at MPG realises that they cannot keep defending a nonsensical position and rolls back.

This looks like a complete screw-up. In an effort to conceal its strategy from its customers prior to 8/18, Marriott kept its own CSRs in the dark (and many of them are still in the dark). That failure to properly inform and train its own agents will infuriate its customers and costly to Marriott in the long run. It's all due to its poor decision to be purposely opaque and disingenuous with its customers.

Are you seeking a Partial NC6?

My Partial OC6 to Partial NC1-4 was smoothly done on Sunday by a supervisor.

Partial OC6 was P870, Partial NC1-4 that has 75K is QP80, if that helps. I dont know if the Partial NC1-4 from OC5 has the same code or not, but the supervisor mentioned a few times that "I am putting back 75K in for the new cert."

No, I'm looking for the partial new 4, as that's what my old 5 is eligible for.

Just wondering if there was a pattern to the coding. Might try again tomorrow, got tired of the stonewalling today. The worst part is I was already speaking to someone who self identified as a supervisor yet still got nowhere

In this case you should give the QP80 which is the Partial NC 1-4 but from OC6. and see what they say,

That makes sense b/c the new travel package chart is 60k difference between 1-4 and 5 and 120k difference between 5 and 6
https://i.imgur.com/LUheuBF.png

Marriott Only hotel basis adjusted values:
OC5 25k -> 22.2k
OC6 30k -> 27k
OC7 35k -> 33.4k
OC8 40k -> 39.7k
OC9 45k -> 52.2k
T3 50k -> 51.8k
T5 70k -> 79k

NC4 30k -> 25k
NC5 35.8k -> 35k
NC6 42.4k -> 50k
NC7 51.9k -> 60k
NC8 67.7k -> 85k

I think the theme there is standard hotels became cheaper and aspirational hotels became more expensive.

EDIT: My apologies crimsona, I misread your comment. Apparently I didn't have it correct.

I just want to make sure I have this correct. You believe your Old Cat 5 certificate should eligible for a New Category 5? Yes?

If an old Category 8 @ 40K per night is now a new Category 5 @ 35K per night how do you account for your Old Cat 1-5 with value of 150K @ 25K per night being sufficient for that redemption?

An unattached certificate was a gamble. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Luckily everyone got more value than a cancelled certificate for points. You got your Cake, but now want to eat it too.

Would you be happy if everything mapped to a New Cat 7 and then when all the available rooms were booked you had a certificate that could not be used?

James

James,

Can you read before you jump on others?

See the bolded part that I changed the color in Red so it should be easier for you to Read...

And you have it ALL WRONG then you go on to give totally irrelevant nonsense.

The poster you replied to with this nonsense, said he was looking for a new Partial Cat 1-4 and that is what his old Cat 5 is eligible for.

So what is wrong with him that you are balking at? or rather, what is wrong with YOU who never has contributed any useful posts on this thread other than jumping on others, often wrongly, like in this reply?

Next time before you post to criticize others, please read others posts and understand the contents first.