What Was Marriott Thinking & Trust Left?

Not sure what to think of this drama surrounding Marriott Rewards Travel Package certificates? How Marriott Rewards leadership is so tuned out that they (or he) didn’t see the membership revolting like what happened with the Platinum Premier for life membership option that wasn’t first available for SPG members. Should have been clear for anyone.

I cannot count the number of times (too many) that I was in touch with our contacts at Marriott and requested the conversion chart so that the members could make informed decision when redeeming for Travel Packages. The answer, however, always was no.

Why sit on this chart rather than making it public?

I still don’t understand this. Why try to obfuscate things and make them more complicate down the road rather than clearing them up once and let members decide what they will do?

Why trying to shortchange elites?

Let’s face it. Only elite members have enough points to redeem for these Travel Packages. Why intentionally try to cheat them by suddenly using MAXIMUM values for conversion purposes?

Why wouldn’t you side with the caution and make sure that your members are happy? They could have surprised members and bump up the certs. That certainly would have been nice and unexpected surprise!

Here are some of the “best” from the past:

• Marriott discontinued Elite Executive Offers (EEOs). You basically got second weekend night free in the US properties (might have included Canada too). They promised to introduce something shortly to replace this offer. Nothing came out of that promise!
• Few years ago Marriott had great devaluation one day after the voting for the Freddie’s had ended. Perfect timing!
• And I always remember the Points + Cash awards that Marriott introduced (everyone else already had them). Theirs had nothing to do with award type that others had. It merely meant that you could have award nights and best flexible rate nights in the same reservation. Marriott later introduced real Points + Cash awards

Conclusion

Marriott Rewards should be very careful here as they are playing with fire. Once they have lost the trust and confidence of the program members it is very difficult to win them back.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

They have already done two foolish decisions that they had to backpedal due to program members voicing their displeasure. The Lifetime Platinum Premier status that first wasn’t available for SPG members and now this Travel Package mapping issue.

I hope that we won’t see more lapses in judgement.