RedSun

I'm not sure if "Starwood Lurker IV" would be considered Marriott official. This is just clarifications from the higher level.....
But better than all the rumor mills....

AndrewOnTheRoad

Thanks for passing along the info but why has Marriott not contacted me to tell me this information? I know many people are reporting that they received an e-mail from Marriott but I never did and many others have also reported not receiving communication about this.

I have two different cat 1-5, 7-night stay certificates in my account and my e-mail is currently noted accurately in my account but I have still not received any official communication from Marriott about this 7-night stay certificate lock-out period between 18, August and 18 September. I think that is a really poor move on the part of Marriott and is quite disappointing.

Why did Marriott not communicate this information to me directly?

Horace

Alexandra,

Please count me among those who are flabbergasted by this.

First, our existing hotel certificate from a travel package will convert to something that may or may not be compatible with our plans — and there's no way of knowing ahead of time what that will be because Marriott has chosen to keep the actual conversion chart a secret.

And then we're stuck with whatever we get, in any case?

I can only hope that something was lost in the communication from your source, perhaps that "certificates cannot be upgraded or downgraded" between 8/18-9/18, or some other qualification along those lines. Otherwise, somebody at Marriott has made a program decision that's very hostile to members.

CDO

Thanks Lurker.

What happens if one attached a certificate that is currently cat 7 (35,000 points per night) to a property going higher on a points per night basis after the merger to 50,000 and then cancels this reservation post 9/18? What happens to the certificate in that event?

Happy

Cat 6 is 30K, or you mean Cat 7.

By the same token, what happens to if one attach a Cat 6 to a property currently requires 30K/night, but it goes down to 25K/night the new Cat 4 - what happens to the overpaid 30K extra pt over the current Cat 5?

azepine00

interesting too see ppl getting to most logical and fitting explanation but dismissing it... i guess we'll see soon enough...

RedSun

Marriott/SPG should just give you the TP back at the face value. Say for Cat-8, you keep the TP at 40,000 MR/day. It is up to you to decide to book 35,000 or 50,000 properties.... You or we are kept whole. Mapping is bad for everyone.

mk712

This has already been discussed at length in other threads, I'm not sure how many times we have to go over this... your suggestion wouldn't work because some of the old categories don't map to anything in the new chart.

To continue with your example of a Cat 8 becoming "up to 40k points a night", take someone with a Cat 9 certificate (45k points a night). The new chart jumps straight from 40k points a night to 50k points a night, so a certificate for "45k points a night" would not be able to get anything that a certificate for "40k points a night" can't already get. So now the guy who bought the Cat 9 certificate has paid more for something that, in the new program, has absolutely the same purchasing power as the guy who bought the Cat 8 certificate. How is that fair?

RedSun

Why Marriott will care about the new categories? You purchased a 45,000/night certificate. You'll be lucky to get 45,000 MRs back since you paid just 27,500 MRs per night. You are kept whole. I'll be happy to get 45,000 back and making a nice return. I think we may get even worse.

M.dA.R.

tth6133

I'd like to thank the Lurkers too. It's unbelievable that we have to come to the SPG forum for information on a legacy Marriott program. If Marriott is less than very generous post 8/18, the lack of clear communication from Marriott will surely cause a lot of dissatisfaction. Unless Marriott implements some simple and generous solution on 8/18, Marriott CSRs would have a tough time post 8/18 explaining all the changes to angry customers all over the world.

FrustratedinCA

When I purchased my TP certificate, I was assured by the CSR that my certificate would be upgradeable until the expiration date. I've read numerous cases online where others were told the same. Changing that policy so dramatically less than three days before certificates are locked is a terrible thing to do to your customers.

But what is more unfair is that Marriott won't be releasing the category mapping for old TP certs until AFTER August 18th. If we don't know how our legacy TP certificates will map after the merge, how are we supposed to know what categories to upgrade or downgrade them to BEFORE August 18th cutoff? If we were given the category mapping, we'd be able to make an informed decision. We have NOT been given that. By not releasing that information and then locking us into a category without the ability to change if needed, Marriott is treating some of their most loyal SPG and Marriott Rewards members in a wholly unfair manner.

Please pass along our concerns and encourage the Marriott Rewards team to reconsider this policy and either release the category mapping early enough for us to make a change if needed, or at least allow a one-time upgrade or downgrade for legacy TP certs. If this no-upgrade/no-downgrade policy stands, I think you'll have a lot of angry and frustrated customers. I know I will be among them.

kodansha999

They need another month to work on the back end to see how the new mapping is possible. Since it's only one month, I don't think they will put a lot of effort into it.
That's why they keep delaying it.

ctownflyer

I'll echo that it's shocking that Marriott won't tell us how the certificates will map and won't allow upgrades or downgrades after the merger.
This is an incredibly hostile position that keeps their most loyal customers in the dark and unable to fix things.
It also means that we were lied to when Marriott reps said at the point of sale that certificates can be upgraded or downgraded.

M.dA.R.