Despite already having an Ambassador, I received this welcome on Sept 14:

And I received this personal welcome from my new Ambassador on Sept 20, again despite already having an Ambassador:

Naturally, this was a mistake, apparently due to one of many system glitches at the time. I emailed back that “new” Ambassador, whom I actually knew a bit from previous exchanges whenever my Ambassador had been away or otherwise indisposed. She replied the same day with a sincere apology, as she already knew my Ambassador well and knew I was already assigned and very well looked after. My real Ambassador followed up with another email a few days later with a similar apology for the glitch.

Wow. I don’t know why these issues keep surprising me.

I know that Legacy Marriott folks insist that Marriott was efficient pre merge but I can’t believe SPG would ever have bungled things this badly.

As I’ve mentioned, the really important thing to me- my hotel experience— is so far not impacted. I’ve been accumulating points at a record pace and scoring some killer redemptions. I have an Ambassador who is doing a great job for me. So I’m willing to be patient with the IT mess for now.

Unfortunately, I don’t hold high hopes that things will be fixed in the near future.

This was back in September; I am confident that much progress has been made since then, even if the IT still isn’t working perfectly. Again, it had no impact on me at all: just a glitch email and glitch assignment that were quickly remedied.

Like you, the IT issues really have had zero impact on my hotel stays. I’ve had just as impresssive Ambassador “VIP” treatment and upgrades at hotels after Aug 18 as I had before Aug 18. Not every hotel has recognized me as an Ambassador guest or specifically mentioned my Ambassador status at the front desk check in, yet almost every single hotel somehow has managed to upgrade me to a suite from an entry award room, to a much nicer suite from a junior suite, or even to a specialty suite from an entry award room. Every single hotel has accorded me a VIP status of sorts—even the 2 Design Hotels at which I stayed. Of course, all but two stays since Aug 18 have been in a legacy SPG luxury segment hotel. But even the Courtyard upgraded me to a king suite. Twice.

As for the other IT issues, I’ve not experienced anything problematic except for an occasional inability to log in or search for hotels—usually late at night or over a weekend. I assume the IT teams are doing updates and maintenance to obviate the issues and that causes some interruptions.

Otherwise, whenever I want to book a hotel using points or cash, I can. Whenever I want to apply an SNA, I can—or I can ask my Ambassador to do so for me (which happened just as often pre-Aug 18). Whenever I want to request a Your24, I simply ask my Ambassador or select the arrival time I hope to get and check a few days later with the hotel if it’s that important. I’ve had about 80% of my early Your24 check ins go through without any issue since Aug 18 (all were early by only a few hours FWIW).

That does demonstrate how differentially the issues are hitting people - whether by account or property. I’ve only done about 10 stays since the merger, but on almost every occasion there has been an issue with at least one and often two or three of booking, pre-arrival communication (incl. SNAs and Your24 which have only worked once), recognition at property (vs bare minimum guaranteed terms) and stays actually posting.

I can only imagine what feedback you’d have for Marriott if you had a fraction of the issues I’ve had since August

What are the 10 properties, if I can ask? I wonder if they may be Marriott properties since you were coming from SPG? Did you merge into your old Marriott number or did you get assigned a new Marriott number?

SNAs went wrong and Your24 didn’t work all the time with legacy SPG systems well before Aug 18, so I worry less about that those issues than you do. I‘m not as convinced as you are that this is actually an IT problem as much as a lack of succes getting SNAs to clear with Marriott properties in the new regime.

I don’t think I look at recognition in the same way you and so many outer do. am not very concerned about front desk recognition. I mentioned that I haven’t been recognized at check in as anything more than Platinum except at the Courtyard—which knew I was Plat Premier because of the Marriott reservations system. The legacy SPG system doesn’t recognize anything different than it did prior to Aug 18, but that’s a check in recognition issue, not a VIP treatment recognition issue IMO. The legacy SPG hotels are starting to get the new reservation system as the brand reservations are updated into the new IT, so that issue for check in recognition will soon be less of an issue.

Either way, I just don’t care as much about the front desk agent knowing I’m Ambassador or Plat Premier or Plat and giving me my keys in the proper emblazoned envelope. It’s nice to be recognized at the front desk, but I dont care much for a platitude. I care much more about getting recognized by virtue of excellent service and better treatment with presumed upgrades and other associated perks. I’ve been getting those upgrades and perks as much post-Aug 18 as I was pre-Aug 18 at legacy SPG properties. I’m not expecting as much at most Marriott properties because I don’t think the service standard is usually as good at most legacy Marriott properties outside Ritz-Carlton. That being said, I was treated extremely well at the two RC properties at which i stayed pre-Aug 18. I have my first post-Aug 18 RC stay this week.

So actually, none of the issues you’re experiencing are what I believe to be endemic problems that aren’t already slated for resolution. Your SNA and Your24 issues aren’t necessarily any different than they were in legacy SPG. And I don’t care about the check in recognition issue that you and so many others here tend to focus so heavily on. They can recognize me as a plumber if they’re still upgrading me and treating me as well as they have been at the hotels at which I’ve stayed. They recognized me as a mere Plat at check in at most of legacy SPG hotel at which I stayed pre-Aug 18, too.

I think it’s possible, maybe probable, that the properties I select for the times I choose help me get better results than others. That isn’t an IT fail. That’s my strategy for property selection being smart—and my concomitant expectations being realistic. A perfect example would be my choice for this week to stay at the RC SF rather than my usual favorite StR SF. The StR was $850+ vs the RC being $500, suggesting the StR was at higher occupancy and/or hosting a conference/event. I knew that meant I wouldn’t get the same treatment at the StR, and certainly that the same value add wouldn’t be there. Even the Palace was $700 and the W was $600, suggesting they too would be problematic. So I chose the RC. Turns out the RC is the only one not hosting the events/conferences this week, which is part of the reason the others were more expensive and why they are suffering the strikes. The RC isn’t suffering the strike. I was strategic and it paid off in that I can avoid the strike. That it’s a RC means I am not expecting the same treatment, but I may yet be surprised.

So I’m afraid I wouldn’t be sending lots of negative feedback to Marriott.

My biggest frustration is that my activity has not been viewable for 2 Months now. My nights go up, my point balance increases, but I have no way of viewing myself on the web, mobile site or IOS APPS.

My Ambassador is in the process of manually transcribing every entry into an Excel spreadsheet for me but I find it ridiculous that Marriott can’t fix this issue.

My other frustration is with the Marriott website. I really hate it and if I didn’t have an Ambassador to run interference for me it would be worse.

Just to be clear by “recognition” I mean getting a 4pm checkout when it’s guaranteed and not being left in the worst room in the hotel when all other room types are open, or not being offered free breakfast when i’m in a property where it’s a guaranteed benefit. I also miss the regular things that hotels I used to visit frequently would do over the top of the minimum standards which have now apparently all stopped.

I don’t mean that I want a receptionist to thank me for being Platinum - all I expect is that a loyalty programme delivers on the core minimum of its T&Cs and makes at least a token effort at fixing when it doesn’t. Instead I’m getting repeated shrugs “you just can’t book that room”, “they should have allowed you late checkout”, “they definitely should have seen your account details”, “i’m not sure why SNA’s can’t be applied”, “The hotel is refusing to say whether they accept the Your24 or not”, “I don’t know why the hotel isn’t responding to my email” etc etc.

Hotels have been a mix - 70% former SPG, 30% Marriott with the Luxury Collection making up most of the SPG. I think I merged by old SPG account in but as i’ve had many fewer issues with number of stays, activity visibility, etc than others have reported I don’t think that’s where the issue is.

That is very annoying. I’m so sorry you have to deal with that. Fortunately, your Ambassador is there to keep everything honest until they fix the IT.

I’ve not had that issue at all. But I did pick my Marriott account number, and I believe that helped me—along with my many years of Ambassador status. But who knows what really might be the reason or reasons?

I certainly preferred the SPG website. But the Marriott website and apps work fine for me. They aren’t as informative or as powerful, but I’ve also seen worse.

That wasn’t so much my point: when I stay at luxury Marriott properties I now use ClassicTravel and so reliably get breakfast and an upgrade.

By “above and beyond” I meant that hotels which provide special treatment for their regular and elite guests (e.g. bottles of wine, snacks, letters from the GM etc) have stopped providing me with those things because I apparently often appear as a first time guest with no status. Obviously this is not as bad as not receiving the basic guaranteed elements of a programme, but when you have a substantial repeat business with a hotel it is understandably irritating to be missing out on the full extent of its hospitality.

As you say though, vote with your feet. I’ve moved $10,000 away from Marriott already and expect another $5-10K by the end of the year. I only stay at personal favourites in the system now and when the alternatives in a city are significantly worse. That said, all is forgiven the moment I see signs that the system is working again - on paper the scheme and its hotels are very attractive to me. For the time being we’re very far from that: it took me 50min and two agents to just book a room at the Imperial Hotel today and I couldn’t even get the rate that I was quoted over the phone.

It’s the little things on the Marriott website that drive me crazy- I hate searching for Suiran and getting a hair salon in China or Mystique and getting a beauty supply in Covina. My sons built better search engines on their high school football website they built in the late 1990s.

Applying SNAs used to be super easy. Now I just let my Ambassador do it (but what if I didn’t have one?). And this may be user error but when I view my reservations online I never can easily figure out how to view my room type- I invariably end up looking for my original email confirmation. Nothing on the website or APP feels intuitive to me.

I remember when Marriott originally agreed to pay the big bucks to acquire Starwood, the speculation was that they would switch to Starwood’s superior platform. Why they ultimately decided not to do that shows a tremendous amount of laziness, shortsightedness or inertia and stubborn clinging to the old way.

Yes, they would have had to import more accounts, but it certainly would have been a smoother transition.

I never imagined when I achieved Ambassador status what the real value would be for me. To be honest, without an Ambassador to smooth the way for me Marriott probably would have lost some of my business.

Not only has she been a rockstar making sure I received all of my points refunds from my Category 8 bookings, fixing glitches as they occurred, and assisting me with points redemptions. She has also been great negotiating guaranteed (paid) upgrades on points stays with hotels when I haven’t wanted to leave those to chance. My philosophy these days is to book the minimum room we will be happy in. At some hotels that is the standard room I have booked, at others (like Mystique) with very specialized rooms, especially on important vacations, it’s important to know an upgrade is guaranteed.

One of my biggest losses from the SPG program is Specialty Select redemptions. It definitely is more difficult to book upgraded rooms in the Marriott universe.

(Rant ended)

Nothing like that have I endured. Yikes!
Seeing room type is a definite problem that was simple on the SPG platform and annoying now on the Marriott platform. I’m told this should improve once all properties and brands and reservations to the Marriott platform, but I have my doubts.

SNAs were problematic for me quite often even on the old SPG system. Something to do with my SET and AAA rates, I suspect. So the new issues aren’t so new to me. I asked my Ambassador before, and I do the same often now. I might have fewer issues now because Mariott has largely eliminated most of my SET rates.