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Be prepared to show proof of AAA membership

Old May 18, 2018, 7:24 am
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Be prepared to show proof of AAA membership

Old Oct 14, 2017, 9:48 pm
  #361  
 
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Can I use Marriott GC on AAA rate?

Can I use Marriott GC on AAA rate? the AAA rate is not a prepaid rate (cancel policy is 48 hours), for this hotel the AAA rate is better than Marriott member prepaid rate.

Thanks!
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Old Oct 14, 2017, 9:55 pm
  #362  
 
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yes..
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Old Oct 15, 2017, 8:07 am
  #363  
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Originally Posted by ecgz88
Can I use Marriott GC on AAA rate? the AAA rate is not a prepaid rate (cancel policy is 48 hours), for this hotel the AAA rate is better than Marriott member prepaid rate.

Thanks!
Yes, any property should accept the Marriott GC for any on-site charges. The only possible exception could be an independent restaurant operating on site. If they allow billing to a room, then the front desk should be able to open a bogus room folio allowing them to charge the room and then you can use the GC to pay the folio.
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Old Dec 1, 2017, 7:04 pm
  #364  
 
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Where did the AAA rates go?

Marriott usually has a large number of hotels with AAA rates, but I have found a large drop in properties with AAA rates since sometime this afternoon. I only see maybe 15 hotels with AAA rates in the LA area where it was more than 60 this morning. I did a second search around the DC area right before Christmas, a known slow period with government workers off and business travel really slow. Again, AAA didnt pull up more than about 12 properties, and I know that is not a period of high demand.

Im inclined to think something went wrong with the Marriott reservation system.
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Old Dec 1, 2017, 9:10 pm
  #365  
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I think that's a more likely explanation than AAA rates going away for 90% of properties.
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 7:58 am
  #366  
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Originally Posted by VA1379
Im inclined to think something went wrong with the Marriott reservation system.
I'm inclined to think AAA has had a waning influence on US hotels for years, and Marriott is slowly abandoning this discount in favor of advance-purchase discounts. @:-)
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 8:12 am
  #367  
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I doubt that in this day and age AAA is much of a business driver. Once upon a time, when long-distance driving was how families traveled, looking in the AAA directory for places to stay made sense and hence the discounts. Not sure that's much of a business model anymore.

Big discounts for large businesses which can throw $.
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 12:04 pm
  #368  
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Originally Posted by VA1379
Marriott usually has a large number of hotels with AAA rates, but I have found a large drop in properties with AAA rates since sometime this afternoon. I only see maybe 15 hotels with AAA rates in the LA area where it was more than 60 this morning. I did a second search around the DC area right before Christmas, a known slow period with government workers off and business travel really slow. Again, AAA didnt pull up more than about 12 properties, and I know that is not a period of high demand.

Im inclined to think something went wrong with the Marriott reservation system.
Did you go through the legacy site? Did you re-run the search today?

David
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 12:30 pm
  #369  
 
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Originally Posted by DenverBrian
I'm inclined to think AAA has had a waning influence on US hotels for years, and Marriott is slowly abandoning this discount in favor of advance-purchase discounts. @:-)
I called Marriott reservations, and they told me there is a systemwide issue with the AAA rate. It is only working sporadically, and Marriott is trying to fix the issue. The reservations rep also told me that the website would be down periodically while they update it to integrate additional features associated with the Starwood merger.

AAA has a large membership and makes much of its money from travel agents selling cruises, guided tours and group travel. I cannot see any major hotel chain deciding to abandon the opportunity to put their hotels in front of those travel agents. It doesnt mean that the AAA rate will even be used for hotel stays associated with cruises or other packages sold by the travel agents, but it is pretty safe to say that a hotel that doesnt participate in AAA at all will be given less priority than one that does by AAA travel agents. I dont cruise or use travel agents, but there are people who fit into both groups.

AAA rates are capacity controlled so they wont be offered during periods of high demand. They are also used to offer greater discounts during slower periods without reducing the BAR as much. Marriotts LNF guarantee doesnt apply to AAA rates, and this type of discounting gives the hotel greater opportunity to sell rooms that might normally be offered to third party sites like Priceline. I would call such discounting semi-opaque, and I am sure hotels do it with other groups that are eligible for discounts.

Marriott has also been offering prepaid discounts that are greater if you are a Marriott Rewards or AAA member. I see this as one more way of trying to slice up the potential customer market by maximizing revenue through various price points and packages.
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 2:51 pm
  #370  
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Originally Posted by VA1379
I called Marriott reservations, and they told me there is a systemwide issue with the AAA rate. It is only working sporadically, and Marriott is trying to fix the issue.
Thanks for the update (much more useful than the speculative misinformation posted by others). I'd guess that at least 50% of my Marriott bookings use the AAA rate.
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 3:31 pm
  #371  
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Was coming to post the same thing that I was finding in the Midwest. Glad to see it was a glitch. As a leisure traveler the aaa rates are the bar w/o advance purchase/ non refundable rates
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 6:58 pm
  #372  
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Originally Posted by Often1
I doubt that in this day and age AAA is much of a business driver. Once upon a time, when long-distance driving was how families traveled, looking in the AAA directory for places to stay made sense and hence the discounts. Not sure that's much of a business model anymore.

Big discounts for large businesses which can throw $.
Some of the hotels which are not showing AAA rates for me today are ones which never have a AAA discount (from my standpoint of qualifying for member rates, anyway), but always had AAA rates. But it was convenient to have them all up come in a single search even if they didn't have AAA savings.

While this glitch is going on, I have to two searches, one with AAA and one without, just to my best rates for all hotels .

If this weren't a glitch, I'd suggest they'd change to like IHG has, where you can do a search on multiple rates simultaneously, and that doesn't require every hotel to have every rate to come up on the search, just to have one of the rates you selected. (Except at IHG, you can't deselect the "normal" rate, which is almost always an advance purchase rate for members, which then distorts the hotel results list if you're not interested in advance purchase.)

And as noted above, sometimes AAA rates are 2-day-cancel when the only member rate that matches the AAA rate is advance purchase. I'd rather have cancellable even if there's no discount, given that I am a AAA member.

Last edited by sdsearch; Dec 2, 2017 at 7:05 pm
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 7:12 pm
  #373  
 
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Originally Posted by VA1379
Marriott usually has a large number of hotels with AAA rates, but I have found a large drop in properties with AAA rates since sometime this afternoon. I only see maybe 15 hotels with AAA rates in the LA area where it was more than 60 this morning. I did a second search around the DC area right before Christmas, a known slow period with government workers off and business travel really slow. Again, AAA didnt pull up more than about 12 properties, and I know that is not a period of high demand.

Im inclined to think something went wrong with the Marriott reservation system.
I just booked a five night stay at the Marquis in NYC, for May '18 using the listed AAA rate. It represented a saving of 15% over the rack rate.
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 8:24 pm
  #374  
 
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Originally Posted by DenverBrian
I'm inclined to think AAA has had a waning influence on US hotels for years, and Marriott is slowly abandoning this discount in favor of advance-purchase discounts. @:-)
Originally Posted by Often1
I doubt that in this day and age AAA is much of a business driver. Once upon a time, when long-distance driving was how families traveled, looking in the AAA directory for places to stay made sense and hence the discounts. Not sure that's much of a business model anymore.

Big discounts for large businesses which can throw $.
In addition to the points made by VA1379, it's important to understand that AAA operates a bit like Costco. You pay your membership fee and in exchange you get access to discounted stuff -- not just hotel rates, but car rentals, movie tickets, and road side assistance for your bicycles. Collectively, AAA members throw enough $ to warrant a highly visible setting on Marriott (and other) booking sites.
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 8:51 pm
  #375  
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Twenty years ago, it was common for AAA to be set at a 10% discount from BAR; these days, you're lucky to see it at 3-4% off BAR.

My own experience is that it is far easier to secure a AAA rate at IHG and Hilton properties vs. Marriott properties.
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