On Saturday August 18 Marriott’s new loyalty program launched. While they still maintain separate names for Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest, and Ritz-Carlton Rewards those programs all are now the same. tarwood accounts were moved over and they’re all now on Marriott’s IT platform.
On a scale of travel company IT integrations, things didn’t go nearly as well as the largest one — American Airlines-US Airways — nor nearly as badly as the biggest debacle United-Continental.
While they managed to get functionality up quickly to book reservations, even now 9 days later there are several lingering issues. I spoke with David Flueck, Marriott’s Senior Vice President of Global Loyalty, to get a sense for where things stand — what bugs are still outstanding, and when we can expect those to be resolved.
The good news is that:
- Most functions work, from earning points to redemption
- Nothing is lost they still have all of their data so everything that’s not accurate in a member account right now is recoverable
There Have Been Integration Issues and Marriott Hasn’t Communicated Enough
David Flueck began our call by noting how much of a milestone August 18th was for Marriott, and how complex an undertaking bringing together “more than 4 billion records in the integration” is, and that while they did extensive testing they knew it wouldn’t be perfect. He acknowledges that “over 99.9% success” still means too many erros “given the size of membership base, 110 million members.”
He was talking to me about this because he “acknowledge[s] members are frustrated” and that it’s not unreasonable for them to expect their accounts to be accurate. Fortunately he thinks they’re days away from having “most things in good shape.”
Meanwhile they’re updating the status.marriott.com to give better and more granular updates on where issues stand. Right now it seems to suggest all is well, and that’s frustrated members who see problems with their accounts and worry that they’ve been left behind.
What’s Not Working, and When It’ll Get Fixed
Here’s where the head of Marriott loyalty says issues stand:
- Elite status. Flueck recognizes that “early last week many members’ status was not correct. We cleaned up that data as the week went on. Nearly all members should have status correct.”
- Recent stay posting. He says that they’ve gotten mostly caught up posting stays “in the last 24-48 hours” and that “we think we’ll have all the recent stays [brought] over by tomorrow.” However “some bonus nights members get, the Amex credit card which gives bonus nights, [50 night choice benefits] which can give bonus nights, some of those files haven’t come over perfectly so the team is working on that and we’ll make progress in the next couple of days.”
- Other points posting. Marriott is “catching that up from our card partners” and though I haven’t seen points from either of my Starwood Amex cards post yet this month Flueck says he “believe[s] most of that has now come in. I would wait until tomorrow morning.”
He does say that there have been “a couple of instances where new Amex cardmembers have had a hard time associating with the new Marriott number ” but he’s correct to also say that things like that happen all the time. Right now it’s being blamed on the integration. In fact I’d go a step further and say I had plenty of frustrations with Marriott IT even before the integration…
- Point balances. When some members cancel certain awards (mostly legacy Starwood awards), points haven’t gone straight back into their accounts. “We are diagnosing and will solve that likely in the next couple of days.” He does thing that balances should otherwise be correct at this point however notes that if something is off in an individual case “we still have all of the systems, no matter what members won’t lose points or nights.”
- Points transfer to miles. This has mostly been fixed, it is now possible to transfer Marriott points to miles again. The one outstanding issue is that the cap in place on how many points can be transferred in a day is incorrect. It “[s]hould be 240,000 points, right now it’s at 80,000.” (I actually think this should be capped at below 240,000 since 240,000 would imply 80,000 miles + 20,000 bonus miles for 100,000 total and I don’t believe they post more than 99,999 airline miles in a day.)
- Combining accounts. At first the system was rejecting members who tried to combine accounts where there wasn’t an exact name match. Now the “last name must be exact but a shortened form first name now is allowed” and “junior or roman numerals no longer need to match.”
Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman
What Should You Do If Something Still Isn’t Right
There’s still data coming over, getting added, and getting checked though it sounds like they believe things will be pretty much right within a couple of days, which in IT time hopefully means by the end of the week. If that happens they’ll have things sorted and well-functioning within two weeks.
I’ve been telling anyone that asks over the last week that they should just hang back and wait this out unless they had immediate travel plans or needed to make a booking right away. Calling in hasn’t really made sense, Flueck acknowledges that with “complicated questions that’s generated long waits” for the agents trained to handle those. He suggests that for folks who don’t have immediate travel needs to submit an email through their website for assistance.
And make sure that your accounts are combined. When I first tried to combine mine I got an error. When it worked successfully I didn’t even realize it, I needed to log out and log back in to see my points total increment despite assurances during the process that the points part was instant.
The key to understand is that folks who had a Starwood account and a Marriott account now really have two Marriott accounts. It has a Marriott 9-digit number and it’s on the Marriott IT platform. And just like if you wound up with two Marriott accounts before the merger, you could have them combined.
- You may have linked your account in the past, that doesn’t combine accounts.
- Going to the Starwood site, logging in there with one account, and then going to the Marriott page may keep you logged in. Or your browser may default to the same account details. Make sure if you think points are missing that you are looking at your separate Marriott and Starwood account number, and that you then combine the two.
The Next Few Days Matter a Great Deal
I asked David what sort of grade he’d give Marriott for this integration and he wasn’t willing to do that, insisting it’s “too early, we all knew this was going to be an incredibly complex process and we had our teams ready to work through the issues as they arose. We, like our members, are incredibly eager to get all the accounts right.”
Ultimately they think they’re close. They know there will be a handful of other issues that affect members and they’re committed to fix those.
Marriott chose the date to do the cutover, they planned the resources they’d need, so they own the extent to which this has dragged on longer than it should have. However if they do get issues sorted in the next few days I think they’ll be able to move past this without too much baggage.
Thank you for the update, Mr. Gary. I have had zero (0) success attempting to transfer points to airline miles throughout the afternoon. Agent told me that it was ‘hit or miss’ and that Wednesday was target to clean this particular issue up.
Gary, appreciate the update. Did you happen to discuss when we can book legacy SPG hotels with points, especially the ones at the cat 7 suites like Maldives, as this still cant be done online or by phone. I Cant imagine what the poor front line associates are going through as well, we need to be nice to them, as they are the ones caught up in the process. I have only received courteous responses , even if its not what i need to hear from every interaction i have had with them.
Hi Gary – is there any update about travel certificate? I called and was told could not book SPG property.
Thank you.
Thanks again for keeping us posted in a professional manner. I agree unless there something right in front of you give it a bit . Gary I am curious now that Marriott has adopted and new top tier do you think there is a chance of them to also add an additional Lifetime Status for those of us that have way too many room nights ?
Travel Packages.
Why have all the blogs gone silent? Taking a page from Marriott? Or credit card referral collusion?
Devaluation, unannounced, along with the blackout
Then the dishonest 2nd hand ‘updates’:
You can get 30k refunded by using ‘contact us’ – false
Blackout is over, you can now book rooms – false
All lies.
#Goldenrule
That should be the first question for David for any true journalist.
1) Why did they screw their most loyal members
2) Why didn’t they not announce it in advance, when they clearly knew it in advance
3) Why do they continue to use unofficial means of communication, which isn’t accurate, and doesn’t reach the majority of the affected parties
4) When are they going to officially communicate the changes
I’d also like all suite properties to finally be points available. At this point I doubt they will be 60k a night, but still.
My SPG points crossed at a 1:1 ratio and my status didn’t jump. I thought everyone got bumped a status until the end of the year? It still shows that I am gold elite.
I definitely would not want to call for at least a few more weeks.
Those poor phone agents. 🙁
I’m still missing nights from 7/18 to 8/20….14 nights to be exact. My 8/24-26 nights posted, so they fixed my issue but still missing a dogload of nights/points.
Frustrating!
After the mess I went through with Continental and UA, I have been dreading this since I heard about it. And now my account shows I’m Platinum Elite, not Lifetime Platinum as it should be. I’ve had 4 stays (I’m at a property right now) and I’m worried that my points won’t be calculated correctly, nor my nights.
I’ve BEEN patient. I’ve worried for what, 2 years that this would happen? Then it is announced that we will keep our Lifetime status. But MY Lifetime Platinum Status is missing. I don’t have a Marriott card with numbers to call, or with my “new” number on it. So with whom do I speak in order to get my proper status?
It’d be easier to trust Marriott if the biggest fear of so many SPG members had not come true. I want my status back and a card with the new number and contact numbers for questions. That’s not a lot to ask.
As a former Continental Elite, I lost a lot during the merger. I’d be at Million Miler Status by now. As it stands I should hit it by Spring, possibly December. I’m having a bigger problem with SPG/Marriott. You’d think they’d at least send an email with a contact number. But I’m waiting….
I stayed Le Meridien Mexico City this past weekend after doing a search through the Marriott site. Had the option to book with points but at $74 a night, it made sense to pay the rate. Status was properly recognized with check in gifts and upgrade to a massive suite.
99.9% lol – my nights are still wrong and my wife can’t log in to her SPG to combine accounts. I would say more like 70% at this point!
Thank you for the update. However I am also frustrated with Marriott after the upgrade and now you can’t apply the Marriott credit card free night certificate to the reservation. It show up on the account but there is nothing the agent (via email) can do about it and that ‘communication from Marriott will be coming out soon’ like how soon?!!!!
I don’t get this 99.9% success rate that he put out there when it’s not just number of member that have issues: they are consistent issues. More importantly, it seems like the customer service staff are just as clueless as we are. How is that successfully when your staff has no idea what is happening?!
Gary, you did not mention anything about the travel package issues which @ zozeppelin summed up pretty well.
Will they be honest and give timely status about the Travel Package issues?
Are they working on all issues in parallel or are they prioritizing some bugs above others (I get the sense no one at Marriott cares about Travel Package issues)?
When can we attach travel package certs to SPG reservations?
When will they honor the 30k refunds they promised for OC8 packages. People have used their communicated procedure and were denied.
What happens to all the legacy travel package certificates in our accounts that are still listed with the old categories? If the legacy cert title says Category 6 it is a legacy cat 6 package – does this mean we can attach this to a reservation for a new category 6 hotel now? Are they planning on converting these legacy certs at some point or not? They claim certs are usable now but do they mean only new certs or will attached legacy certs be converted in place (while attached) to new certs?
Very poorly handled conversion. I get the sense Travel Packages are at the bottom of their TODO list which is unfortunate because it is at the top of mine.
If “they planned the resources they’d need” on the customer service side then I must grade that endeavor as an absolute failure . The phone hold times have been abominable for months . Yet , no apology or resolution . The helpful community representatives on FT seem to be deactivated . Emails go unanswered . No answers to legitimate questions . Their customer service response reminds of the proverbial kid on the playground who takes the ball away when he/she doesn’t get his/her way or the commentator who walks off a set when asked a difficult question .
I have multiple stays that have not yet been credited while other stays have been credited
However, none of the stays recently have had my status bonus calculated correctly
I showed up at a hotel last Tuesday and my reservation wasn’t found
When I log on the Marriott website and click on an SPG property, it sends me to the SPG website and I get an error message saying that my Rewards number is invalid….but it won’t let me change the number so I can’t make the reservation.
I have merged my accounts and my point total of 6.6 million has randomly changed since the integration. I haven’t bothered to try to figure out why.
David, I do believe that the grades are in – having these problems at this point in the integration is a colossal failure. These are all independent and unrelated issues – lots of problems, to be sure.
I also don’t understand why basic functionality on the Marriott site is missing. Why is the site broken when the design and features are the same as before the merger? Please tell your IT department that their first obligation was “First, do no harm”.
The grade is surely an F if you survey your customers
Luckily, my Hyatt Globalist account seems to be working just fine. David, you have lost $2,400 of my business and counting from this fiasco.
Good luck to us all because we clearly need it.
Not a single word of the mess of the Travel Package Cert?
All we are being told are LIES AFTER LIES on how Marriott would handle the Travel Package Certificates – from the pre 8/18 to post 8/18.
Gary., I am sure you are aware of the Marriott Rewards Insider post on Aug 20th after the public outcry on the new conversion table that essentially took 30K pts from customers who hold the Cat 6, 8 and Tier 1-3 without any justification.
Yet when people submitted their refund requests to the Marriott website being directed to, they were getting ridiculous emails replies telling them there would be no refund and any unattached certs are essentially VOIDED….
Marriott Rewards Insider told us that we can start using the certificates as of Aug 20, immediately – because of the system has successfully passed the “press test” over the weekend….
The reality is, nobody can use the certificates now. The CSRs and their supervisors all claimed we have to wait till Sept 19.
The biggest issue so far is, from the beginning Marriott has chosen to NOT communicate with its customers.
The Status Marriott website is the biggest LIE when it tells us everything is up and running just fine. Yet, many, including myself, got 404 error trying to log in Marriott site. Or, the SPG site did not even have a log in button…
Not to mention people who have canceled their SPG bookings but not getting their points back to their account. One poster said he had 610K pts disappeared…
Yet, there is not a single word from David Flueck about the above. And he is the head of the loyalty program, supposedly should be aware, or being made aware of these serious issues affecting people’s ability to use their rewards that they have earned, and paid for.
We have gone thru a few major mergers, none has come so bad as this.
Instead of saying All Together Now, it should be called All Together Down.
David’s interview is the best example of “whistling past the graveyard” that I have seen in a long time, presumably because his job security is tenuous at best given this disaster.
The first rule of how to handle these situations is to apologize profusely for the problems to show that you are more unhappy and anxious than are your customers.
The second rule is to make amends.
Instead, we get a bogus “99.9%” assertion and no amends.
Marriott has decided not to communicate directly with customers, not to update or make comprehensive their terms and conditions, to not honor statements made directly by high level executives, to say different later proven false to different pet bloggers, to call many important but mundane things proprietary so that members do not know where they stand, so that members can not govern themselves accordingly.
I consider myself to be a stakeholder, I have spent tens of thousands of dollars at both chains, and have over ten thousand dollars in unredeemed points. My elite years are opaque. My year to date nights are wrong. I don’t fully understand if I can get an elite qualifying year in each program in 2018 as there have been no direct statements by Marriott. My packages, booked long ago and not out of recent blogger induced greed, cancelled due to hospitalization, are tied up, rules unclear. Also not clear about various current credit card free nights. Missing recent points transfers from my credit cards. Many, perhaps most of these things are not IT issues.
Where is Marriott? How does one communicate with them? Can anyone there provide answers? Or is the only alternative to write a to be ignored comment on a blog?
Can’t follow how my colleagues w no earned stays (w United partner status) have same Platinim Elite status that I have / & I’ve stayed 67 nights ytd -?? No difference. Why should I stay w Marriott over Hilton or Hyatt?
I’m with the people above. This merger has been botched on a variety of levels and Marriott is doing little besides spewing words we cannot trust to indicate that they care.
Total cluster. Mr. Flueck is deluded with his 99.9%. They were doing well with the merger until Aug, then everything has gone to s#*t. They were not ready on 8/18 and should have delayed until they were. The service recovery since then has been appalling.
Bloggers have given them a pass.
I think we need to have more patience with the Customer Service reps. I have dealt with a few of these folksy folks over the past weeks.
It appears that after a couple of weeks leading up the the merger, Marriott replaced scores (many) of the dedicated, knowledgeable and efficient SPG Platinum and Platinum Concierge and SPG Ambassadors, with their new frontline Marriott Plantinium(TM) reps.
We should be patient as it’s obvious that many of these sister-wives and daughter-sisters are getting their webbed fingers wet with their first jobs after leaving their compounds. Of course, for the few with six digits on some hands, it does slow down their typing speed; aka pecking.
Fortunately, many calls are escalated to supervisors that might also be mother-sisters and mother-daughters. This allows the reps to chatter in a pigeon Mo language to expedite a call. Sadly, there remains confusion between the “red” disconnect button, and, the “green” transfer button.
Try not to interrupt them as they slowly read through the the pre-printed scripts that it’s a big merger, and, a lots of works, and, check back in a few days or weeks. In their lingo, that could also mean celestial years.
SPG Lifetime Platinum with 1500+ nights. Never had a MR account. Here’s my experiences to date with the conversion:
Was told that SPG’ers would get an e-mail from Marriott indicating new Loyalty Program number.
Nope – Never got that e-mail. I logged on to SPG.com ,myself and “found out” my new number.
Having lived through the UA/CO conversion – I took screen shots of my SPG account the day before conversion showing my YTD SPG nights, stays, upcoming reservations, and Suite Night Awards (I had 5 plus 9 pending on a future reservation). YTD the day before conversion was 74.
The days after conversion I had 64 YTD nights ??? Also the website shows that I only have 1 Suite Night Award and NO PENDING upgrades for any future reservations (and yes all my future reservations are showing in “My Trips”). Odd.
Furthermore…if I go to spg.com and log in – my profile name and the dashboard is in print form. If I go to Marriott.com – my profile name is in cursive …weird.
Lastly, we were blessed with booking reservations at spg.com. We could search for multiple discount rates at once by selecting up to 4 types of rates (Lowest, cash & points, free nights, AAA, Senior, etc) Now you can only select one discount rate for each search – how is this streamlining the process?? Ugh.
The new Marriot rewards treat us SPG Lifetime Gold like dirt, its time to move to Hilton
Mr. Flueck is living in an alternative universe. I can assure him that my status HAS NOT been fixed. And that I am STILL MISSING four SPG nights which disappeared when I merged accounts.
And what about everyone with points in limbo from cancelled bookings or mileage transfers that didn’t transfer?
I give Marriott an F. It would be a D, but the delusional “everything is fine” messaging drops that grade to a complete and utter FAIL.
David Flueck describing the integration as “over 99.9% success” is FAKE NEWS!
The lack of communication with members about ongoing issues is inexcusable.
Grade: F
I find it thoroughly troubling how the boardingarea blogs lack any kind of serious criticism given the massive chaos, constant lies and lack of communication. Do they all get a bunch of free nights at coming category 8 properties if they treat them nicely?
What does Flueck say about the upgrade terms he had lied about? How about consistent breakfast everywhere? How about all the massive glitches in this merger and the total mess when you call? How about the travel packages? How about not being able to apply SNAs to legacy Marriott brands? How about not being able to modify spg reservations that have the pre-merger # on file because you cannot
log in with this # anymore and the system does not take the new number…?
@puckjeff
+1 absolutely right. 99.9% success is a joke. It’s been 10 days since the merge. My nights and status are wrong, I can’t get through on a phone line in under a half hour and when I do, nobody knows how to add 2 numbers together or has the authority to count and override the mistake numbers. This Flueck guy is a complete spin meister. “We know our members love our travel packages, so we’re going to keep them!”
The relative silence from the major miles and points bloggers, perhaps hoping to get Marriot-related credit card sale revenue, on matters such as the unethical Marriott handling of travel package-redeeming customers is a point of interest for me.
As a UA 1k and CO Platinum at the time of the CO-UA merger who flew on the loyalty program merger day and many other days around that time, the CO-UA program merger worked out smoother for me that year than this Marriott Rewards “merger” and its related shenanigans, IT and otherwise.
Why have so many of the major commercial bloggers given Marriott a pass on its greed and incompetence? I wonder if the answer provided may be akin to a prostitute telling an audience that the money for sex is a bonus because the prostitute is in it just for the love of sex rather than in it for just the love of money.
@GUWonder – I don’t think I’ve been silent, in fact you’re commenting on a post detailing problems with the IT integration. I never recommended booking old travel packages pre-August 18 because when a loyalty program doesn’t tell you what to expect you know it will be bad. How on earth old travel packages that are no longer available are relevant to credit card signups I don’t follow, I’ve argued that new travel packages are poor value for points.
The notion that UA-CO was better than Marriott-Starwood is bizarre. Many members had reservations missing segments. People had too many miles or too few. Problems persisted for weeks. And they hadn’t really thought through policies and systems well, there were silvers being upgraded ahead of global services members. Perhaps it’s just been enough time and memories are short.
Bull Sheiz Flueky.
I’ll admit it started stong with promises in interviews, and ability to transfer points.
Marriott/SPG = Disaster zone, lies, and gambling with how far the upper echelon can take it with travel package debauchery toward loyalists.
It represents a cautionary tale and a sad commedy of errors.
This is exactly what I feared when Anbang lost the deal and Marriott won. In the end they probably paid too much for SPG. They’ll create a good program but it won’t be what SPG was in terms of uniquely caring about the loyal guests. At first I was pissed because all Marriott’s hotels are the same bland hotels. Kind of like the bland meal option on a flight…who wants that!? SPG was awash with unique hotels that had distinct style. So I was mad knowing that slowly over 10 years the hotels and the plan would shift to Marriotts abysmal standard. No I know it’s much worst and happening much faster.
Those who are smart will shift their spend to Hilton or IHG. Maybe Hyatt, but the footprint is small. Teach Marriott a lesson, thus it will teach other programs a lesson in how not to dilute good loyalty programs or treat longtime guests. Withholding information for the wrong reasons (hotel certificates) was a direct shot at us, trying to figure out how much they can gamble with. There will be more to come. It’s Marriott people, what do you expect?
It’s counter-productive to pimp credit card referrals while simultaneously being rightfully critical of an unannounced devaluation of said loyalty program.
Be the ‘thought leader’ in travel and ask the right questions to David and don’t let him off the hook for the unprofessional communication, or any official communication, regarding travel packages.
Why did they continue to sell packages up to the night before merger, devalue them overnight and not let anyone know in advance? #goldenrule
And good for you for not pouring gasoline on the speculation. You’re in the best position to call out both the bloggers who did, and the corporation who hasn’t acted in good faith with its customers. That would be very appreciated by your readers, who are all but helpless, as they have been misguided, ripped off, lied to, and largely been ignored (see the “Packages and Deals” topic has been removed from “Contact us”?). Let their voice be heard.
I have been a Starwood Gold elite member for awhile. When the merge was announced Marriott they said that from Aug until December you would be promoted to the next level up. For me that would have been platinum. However, I didn’t get platinum and I’m still gold elite. What happened to the promised upgrades from Aug-Dec.?
Still missing points. For a month now the hold time on the Platinum line has been > 30 minutes. If you knew it was going to be complicated, you should have planned better.
What a Flueck up! He should be fired.
I’m unable to apply suite upgrades to any of my reservations. It redirects me to the old SPG website, where I’m unable to login (since that account was migrated to a new Marriott number).
@Gary
I agree that you are the only major blogger who has not hyped up the Travel Package redemption pre merger.
Now it is the time for you to step up the plate and be a true “thought leader” to address the fiasco of the Travel Package, use your contacts and make the higher ups in Marriott to acknowledge the issues and to provide real remedies versus lies after lies.
You did write up about the 30K point refund and the ability to use the certs before the blocked out period was lifted, no doubt being told by Marriott officials.
Yet, NONE of the information listed in your article has ever come true.
So just for that alone, you should ask David Flueck about the handling of the Travel Package certs.
A dead silence on that front IS VERY SUSPICIOUS and really put you in the same bad spot light as other bloggers who hyped the packaged.
I’m appreciative of the information presented. I’m also trying to be patient. The enormity of this is not to be under estimated.
That said, I can’t apply an sna on the new site. I get bounced to a login page and can’t get logged in with any credentials. A phone call took 20 minutes with every mistake possible repeating my res name number multiple times only to be told to be patient.
More dialog outbound by Marriott would be welcomed. Meaning what’s working what’s not and when it will be or when the next update will come.
Much ado about nothing. Plenty of advance notice was given to members so that they could plan accordingly in anticipation of a potential outage. Integration largely finished over a weekend when business bookings are low. Yes, there have been some glitches but nothing even remotely close to what we’ve seen with airline integrations.
Wait time to talk to an agent are typically > 20 minutes, and then you are most likely to be placed on a lengthy hold again, because many agents are unfamiliar with the nuances of the new program. Transferring points to miles is all but impossible; you get a message “enjoy your flight” and an acknowledgement that your miles had been transferred to an airline, when in fact they were not.
This guy must be married to Mr. Marriott’s daughter. How is he still employed?
Gary.
while at least you’re talking about the problems (unlike all other bloggers), you only did so in a marriott sanctioned interview-ish style where you don’t rip apart the marriott reps obvious bs. it’s a mess. any other time you’d call the rep HARD on the whistling past the graveyard reality challenged response. but you didn’t.
i’ve been saying for a while, that ever since april, the blog world has been suspiciously positive and ignoring things like cat 2 from 10k-12.5k/15 (hint: that’s 25-50%= quite noteworthy… crickets), leading to the peak pricing which is a further massive devaluation (crickets even though it’s MASSIVE %-wise and gameable af)), devaluation 3/7/17, again 8/1/17, again 1/1/18 and surely again 3/2018 (crickets), 5th night free gone if any night is peak (nada, zero, crickets when this is a huge devaluation and gameable af by properties).
the only logical conclusion is that pressure game down from chase/amex/marriott that harsh critique may result in losing affiliate revenue. unlike many, i have zero problem with bloggers getting paid for CC signups (nobody works for free)- but not when EVERYTHING isn’t disclosed up front. you disclose your affiliate revenue*. if your content has restrictions imposed by a card issuer or hotel/airline, then that must be disclosed also. agree?
* bloggers say posts are not approved/screened by companies when i know for a fact that companies will tell bloggers to change things they don’t like. this is well documented by former bloggers.
on a personal note: so much is wrong with both of my accounts that i have refused to stay at marriott/spgdeath properties until by status/nights/points/benefits are fixed. and i’m lifetime PP (or, at least, i was until august 18th)
I agree with fll’s comments 8/28 10:33 am. Very difficult to understand why you did not query D. Flueck about the misinformation provided 8/20 re travel packages; the failure to make a public announcement; and the subsequent failure to perform on the 8/20 representations. Your response that the conversation was limited to IT issues is disingenuous. Although there are many IT issues which one can accept as not intentional, the travel package scenario has been dishonest (failure to give advance notice) and evidence the worst PR for Marriott. I enjoy most of your posts, but your defensive response to the multiple comments re travel packages was ineffective at best.
@fll. Why dont you ge a leader and call Marriott and write them yourself. You step up to the plate and stop trying to have others complain on your behalf.
I’ve been trying to transfer points to miles for over a week now and it still has not worked. Frankly this is getting ridiculous. Has anyone successfully done it?
So they’re updating status.marriott.com ? Just what/where is that? It’s not linked in your article, nor does a search find it, neither does entering that address. So they’re updating a site about the merger but don’t bother to tell members where that site is or how to access it, ie entirely consistent with the ham-fisted, slap-dash, take-it-or-leave-it performance from Marriott in respect of the merger.
VERY small issue, but at least on my combined Rewards account the expiration date on the account is still not displayed.
This whole integration is a fiasco. If I ever did a go live like this, I’d be fired. Someone should have stopped it before the 18th and had the courage to say they weren’t ready.
As it is, I’m a SPG LTP with 750+ nights and more than 100 nights this year, who was told by customer service earlier today they didn’t know when my stays ending August 17th would post correctly that would give me my 75 night Your24 and 100 night Ambassador (it currently says 65 but should be 104), nor did they know when I’d correctly be shown as LTPPE.
Marriott is 11 days after a merge that went flawlessly and when loyalty shouldn’t be tested. When your best customers are calling this a cluster, and have been for days, Marriott should be listening very carefully and thinking about compensating.
I’m just one of many who are very frustrated and every day that passes makes Marriott look worse and demonstrates a lack of customer care… while making Hyatt, Hilton and others look a little more attractive.
Agree with other commenters. I’m very thankful that I didn’t have any stays right before / after the integration.
Thank you for the update! Several issues with my account -neither YTD nights or YTD spend are accurate.