Tag Archives for marriott.
It shouldn’t be surprising that even as Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson announced that he would stop taking his salary through the end of the year, in light of the hotel giant furloughing tens of thousands of workers and the majority of corporate staff amidst the cratering of their business during the coronavirus crisis, he’s actually being given a raise. It must be all of those resort fees they pocketed, which Sorenson said are good for us.
A reader who has lifetime Marriott Gold lost his Platinum status in 2020. He asked Marriott for Platinum status, and the simply gave it to him. Now current Platinums are having that status extended for all of 2021.
Marriott is extending current elite status through February 2022. And while they had already paused expiration of points through August they have extended that out to February 2021.
Marriott has updated its coronavirus policy, granting flexibility on cancellations through June 30th as well, though with no new information on what to expect from the Bonvoy program.
There’s a bunch of fine print to this. They’re warning that refunds may take 90 days; Design Hotels and Homes & Villas by Marriott are excluded; and this doesn’t apply to group boookings.
After disclosing one of the biggest data breaches in history at the end of 2018, Marriott is sharing another data breach – as if just to show that bad publicity, degraded customer trust, and massive fines alone can’t put Marriott and Bonvoy on the straight and narrow
Marriott has laid off several members of their Ambassador customer service team, and will no longer provided dedicated agents to their best customers until “returning to business as usual.” Instead, Marriott tells me, the remaining group of their best customer service agents will be “dedicated to Ambassador Elites.”
After furloughing tens of thousands of hotel employees Marriott is set to furlough two thirds of its corporate staff both from among its 4000 employees at corporate headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland and abroad.
Hotels that are empty don’t need so many people at the front desk or servicing rooms. Restaurants that aren’t allowed to serve guests except on a to-go basis don’t need as many servers, even if they had guests. And so Marriott has furloughed ‘tens of thousands’ of employees who will not be paid, but will continue to receive health benefits. Many hotels will also be closing.
Against my own interests, and without concern for angering the people I know at the programs, I’m willing to call out the good, bad and ugly to come up with a conclusion of what’s actually best.
Add this to the list of changes Marriott has made to the brand new program since launch, that is negative for affected members and that members weren’t notified about.
Now when Marriott Bonvoy Silvers and Golds call, it seems, they are no longer elite.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
