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More devaluation press
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Are View Upgrades possible?
Hello - we are traveling to Hawaii in June 2013. I exchanged my two MVC weeks for one week at Maui OC Towers. Wanting to do two weeks in Hawaii, I was able to also use MRPs for a 2 bd villa at the MVC Ko Olina property (was excited to see that it was offered) but it only offered an Island View unit. Paying 280k points seems like a lot but maybe not? It is a 2 bd villa for a full week stay. Question - do I even try to ask to be upgraded to a suite with a better view? I think in general MVC properties in Hawaii during the summer months are in high demand that I just feel lucky to have gotten a room using MRPs.
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exchang
doe's anyone know if this enroll for points for your mvc week or weeks really worth it?
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Do I win Marriot Reward Points when I use my timeshare weeks? I have stayed at Marriot Grande Vista (Orlando, Florida) and Cypress Harbour (Orlando, Florida).Regards
Do I win Marriot Reward Points when I use my timeshare weeks? I have stayed at Marriot Grande Vista (Orlando, Florida) and Cypress Harbour (Orlando, Florida). Regards
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Tipping points?
Well, it's final four weekend but that's not what I was thinking about. Rather, I was pondering the tipping point, the point at which a brand no longer maintains a grip on your travel preferences.
For me, this tipping happened first with major airlines--after being a loyal United Airlines frequent flyer for years I was unable to maintain my status as an elite flyer and the airline dropped me quicker than a hot biscuit out of the oven! So, in this case the tipping point was the lack of legacy points, the who needs you attitude, and of course the United motto (we are bankrupt but we know you'll use us anyway!). Now, as revenge, I use them never! My current flyer friends tell me that they airline is getting better, but can't give me a specific way in which that is happening.
Now onto lodging chains: Marriott, to which I have been loyal for nearly three decades, is nearing that same tipping point. First it was the devaluation of points, the restriction on award use, and the treatment of loyal guests at check-in that got my attention. Now it continues with what I perceive is decreased customer service on the phone. I am not there yet and do not want to be, but it's getting harder to be loyal when the loyalty is only one way--from me to them.
I don't have an answer, but I am sure one is out there. I hope Marriott can see that for many of us, it's coming, and do something about it.
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What about Rewards Category Increases
As long time Rewards members, it seems only fair to alert us which properties will have a higher reward category beginning sometime this year. Is there such as list available?
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It's back! MegaBonus returns!
Greetings, Insiders.
I am happy to announce to the community that our award winning MegaBonus promotion has returned!
Registration is required by October 31st. Earning dates are between September 15, 2009 and January 15, 2010.
Reminder – payment must be made using your Visa Card.
Visit www.marriottrewards.com/megabonus today to view the offer created exclusively for you. Offers start at 2,500 MegaBonus points every paid stay, starting with your second stay - up to a maximum of 25,000 points!
Remember to register by October 31, 2009! Go to MarriottRewards.com/MegaBonus or call 888-MARRIOTT.
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FlyerTalk Award Winners 2013 - Marriott not on the list - Will Freddies have the same result???
The Complete List of FlyerTalk Award Winners | The Gate
STARWOOD AND HILTON SEEMS TO BE THE HOTEL CATEGORY WINNERS - MARRIOTT NOT ON THE WINNERS LIST!!!
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Is this new Lifetime content understandable?
Greetings, All! You have been so helpful in terms of giving us insight into how to describe the program benefits more clearly, we'd love to get your opinion on the first-ever description of our amended criteria to achieve Lifetime status (below). Please bear in mind that we have never published the criteria, so it would not be appropriate for us to point out anything around changes.
What do you think?
Copy in Brochure:
Earn Elite lifetime Status
Achieve a status milestone over the course of your membership
and you’ll enjoy Elite status for a lifetime. You’ll still be able to
reach a higher status—but you’ll never go below your Lifetime
- level. You’ll have the Elite experience, always.
Lifetime Milestones
• Platinum Elite: 750 nights + 2 million points
• Gold Elite: 500 nights + 1.6 million points
• Silver Elite: 250 nights + 1.2 million points
For more details, visit MarriottRewards.com/Lifetime.
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Platinum Premier - why?
Welcome to 2013. Another year of week in and out stays in a hotel room. Another year of being a MR Platinum Premier member.
As I reflect on my status, only given to the top 3% of Platinum members, I ask myself why. Why would Marriott send me a bathroom tote as a gift? Surely someone at Marriott must realize that I already have the travel accessories category figured out, given that I stayed over 160 nights at their hotel chain last year. I appreciate the sentiment of a gift, but the gift itself doesn't seem to fit. I suppose it might make more sense than a solar-powered USB charger. Gosh, was that two years ago? Oh yeah, last year there was an online subscription to the WSJ.
Why am I writing all this? Am I just another ungrateful traveler and rewards snob? Maybe I am, but maybe there's a point to this rant.
Marriott needs to put something, anything in writing that guarantees Platinum Premier members something more than everyone else. Sure, PP gets folks to the front of the line for upgrades (if they're available), but where is the REAL bonus? Why not offer some innovative features like what Starwood's tiered SPG program created? Platinum level is 50 nights, but you keep earning more GUARANTEED benefits by achieving 75 nights and 100 nights.
Dare I say it, why even have a PP tier when members who achieve that level of status may or may not actually benefit? Hilton Honors doesn't have any problem only offering 3 tiers and still has loyalty a plenty. When Delta implemented Diamond status three years ago, they also rewarded members with some tangible benefits (arguably diminished over time, but we're not talking about bathroom totes made in China).
C'mon Marriott Rewards. Reward me as a Platinum Premier. Quit toying with my fierce loyalty. This year I only plan to stay the minimum nights required to hit all the promotions (what's that, 75 nights?). Wouldn't you rather entice me to keep staying 160 a year? Maybe not.
Sincerely,
Steve
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FREE NIGHTS | Redeeming Marriott Rewards Points
This is in response to several questions about the number of Marriott Rewards points requred to redeem a free night.
- As shown below, the number of Marriott Rewards points required is determined by Hotel Category.
- The point values redeem 1 night in a standard room.
- Use additional points to upgrade to a suite or villa.
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"Loyalty, we hardly knew ye," he cried in anguish, over lunch.
Check out this conversation a fellow had over lunch.
"Loyalty programs have taken over our wallets, our key rings and now our smartphones, but how loyal do all these loyalty cards make consumers? The bulk of my loyalty has nothing to do with loyalty cards. I shop most often at the closest grocery store. I go to the ice cream shop with the best ice cream. I take the flights that best fit my schedule and have the best price, and I take a similar approach with hotels."
Sounds very familiar. Like the carrier pigeon, perhaps we have seen the beginning of the end of loyalty programs as we know and knew them, who can say?
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Inconsistent posting of bonus points after check-in, how to follow-up?
So I've been staying at the Burbank Airport Marriott property pretty regularly this year - typically every other week. Every 2nd or 3rd stay the check-in clerk tells me that I've been picked as Guest of the Day and hands me a welcome envelope from the location manager and tells me that 5,000 points will be deposited in my account.
Maybe I'm just an impatient guy, but each time that I've been awarded this, I've never seen the points post within 5 days of completing my stay and each time I've had to reach out to Marriott via Twitter to figure out how to get them to post.
So should I be waiting longer? Following-up at check-in? Is there a better way to get these to reliably post? I stayed there last Wed-Fri and was given the same Guest of the Day packet - yet no bonus points have yet posted.
I feel so new to all of this, just not sure where to go - but those 5,000 points are worth something to me and I don't want to just ignore them.
Brendan
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Adding Rewards number to a reservation
I have a reservation in the system which I can look up by confirmation number, but I wasn't signed in when I made it. Is there an online way to associate a reservation with my Rewards number or do I have to call the Plat desk?
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Exchange between points and miles - How Marriott could actually profit from it
Currently, one can exchange points into miles but not the other way around. When one exchange points for miles, Marriott would have to actually buy miles from the airline. What if Marriott also allows members to exchange miles for points, but at a lower exchange ratio, say 1 for 1? I think many members will take advantage of this offer so that Marriott no longer has to spend money to buy miles from the airline. And they don't have issue new points for those miles either because whenever someone exchange points for miles, the exchange ratio is more like 3 to 1 and they make 200% profit between those 2-way exchanges. Why haven't they thought about this?
Examples:
member 1: 75000 points -> 25000 miles
member 2: 25000 miles -> 25000 points
Net for Marriott: 0 miles, 50000 points in profit.
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Redeeming Rewards/Exec Lounge Pointless !
I was recently at London County Hall and was told that my 2 kids could not go into the exec lounge on their own as they were under 18 (i get that...and it's fine).
But to get kicked out later (embarrassed as it was full of ppl !) it makes the rewards benefit of an exec lounge access pointless. Rewards, for me at least, is for my 'off-work' opportunity to get the family away as a "reward"....thats the point for me. It was Easter btw, so a hotel should expect ppl like me to be on a break with the family !
Quote "the kids are not welcome in the lounge" is a poor way to impart a message. So we all left.....suffice to say that i wont be staying at County Hall again. Have already stayed at Park Plaza Riverbank down the road who are happy for the kids to be in the exec lounge.
Is it me ?
Spud (plat elite)
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TIMESHARE AND REWARD POINTS
I POSTED THIS MESSAGE THE OTHER DAY AND IT RATHER SURPRISINGLY DIDN'T APPEAR TO GENERATE MUCH INTEREST. HOWEVER I FEAR THAT IT JUST MIGHT HAVE BEEN LOST BY THE VOLUME OF MAIL THAT FOLLOWED IT. IF I MAY JUST RE-PRINT IT, AND ASK THE QUESTION, " IS THERE ANY ACCOUNTANT OR TIMESHARE SALESPERSON/ TIMESHARE DIVISION ASSOCIATE WHO WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT ON MY FIGURES?
Original posted on Jan 13, 2010 8:19 PM
TJC, Thanks for that. I have seen a copy of those awards previously. Please let me explain further - I know that you will already know this - but it might be of interest to other readers. A travel package at 310,000 points will give a member 7 nights in a cat 6 hotel for 210,000 points NO EXTRA BONUS NIGHT) and 100,000 points to purchase two seats for a transatlantic journey or similar. That award used to be 200,000 points, and before that 140,000 points So what is the value of that award today? Two flights will cost before tax - a member has to pay cash for the tax on the flight ..............£700 7 nights in an hotel. Say the World Centre in Orlando. Feb 12 2010 £1165 TOTAL VALUE £1865 Now how much does all that cost? Three weeks of timeshare traded at 110,000 per week = 330,000 points The administration charge for this exchange is £213. The rental value of timeshare, Cypress on Feb 12 at £1127 x 3 weeks £3381 Total £ 4081 So a value of £1865 is gained at a cost of £4081 That is why I no longer exchange my timeshare for points. In my opinion Marriott should inflation proof the points given for timeshare exchange by a figure of 2.85 - the same rate used for the increase in the maintenace fee. I believe with this situation being allowed to rise Marriott has gouged a lot of it's owners. It should now do the right thing for owners and increase the points. However Rewards was never part of the timeshare contract so Marriot could if they wished quite legally withdraw the points connexion. However this would most likely 1. Start a big exodus sale. 2. Ensure that 400,000 members never made a paid stay at a Marriott hotel for the rest of their lives. 3 It would see MVCI quickly failing, and 4. It would invite a bad press. So all I can say to fellow MVCI owners is look very carefully at the value that you are obtaining when you exchange your time for reward points. Leslie P |
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Missing Stays
Does anyone else have issues with missing stays? I continually have to go in and check my account to make sure I get credit. The bill will show my rewards number, but the stay does not show up on my account. Very frustrating!
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Help--need a copy of hotel bill
I am trying to get a detailed copy of my hotel bill from a recent stay at the Gaylord Palms. I was able to get my folio from my rewards, but it didn't have any actual detail--just categories of what was billed. I'm getting a little anxious to turn in my expense report as it was an eight-day stay. I tried emailing mbs.folio@marriott.com but no response. What can I do?
Thanks!
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Marriott Rewards Premier Visa - Unable to Upgrade?
Hey Everyone,
I have been with Chase for over 10 years and a Marriott member for over five, never missed a payment on any cards, never overdraft, hold many accounts with them and have a high FICO score, yet when I called to upgrade my regular Marriott Rewards Visa to the Premier version, they declined me. I have tried two times, (neither representative said they had to run my credit) and both said "The system doesn't tell us why you are being declined"
Both rep's said that I would receive a reason letter in the mail, which I did, but only said "Sorry, but we are unable to upgrade you now" (Or something similar)
My question is, has anyone else expierenced this problem trying to upgrade their card to the premier version?
I will be doing quite a bit of international travel in the coming months and would like to upgrade for both the EMV compatibility as well as the no forex fees.
I realize that I can always submit an application for the Premier card, but much rather not.
I have had this card for about seven months, so maybe it's time related? (Need be an account holder for XX months/years before you can upgrade?)
Thanks!
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