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Tag Archives for marriott.

Marriott Demonstrates That China Rules All of Us

by Gary Leff

temple
Jan 13 2018

When Austin tried to impose its own regulations on Uber, they learned that they were too small a market to matter. California and New York may be able to influence a company’s behavior, but Austin cannot. As regulation is increasingly global, the most important markets set the rules.

China is the next big thing. That was true 15 years ago, and it will be true 15 years from now. But for companies making a big bet in the country, Beijing is able to exercise global sway.

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Travel Companies are Running Scared of What’s on Their Websites Because China

by Gary Leff

wall of china
Jan 13 2018

IHG Rewards Club has issued an update to its terms and conditions. And there’s only one change, repeated a few times in a few different ways. They want to make very sure you know that Taiwan is part of ‘Greater China’.

China’s civil aviation authority demanded a public apology from Delta and changes to its website for listing Tibet and Taiwan as countries.

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Better Marriott Visa Bonuses

by Gary Leff

marriott hotel
Nov 21 2007

Again via Free Frequent Flyer Miles, Chase now has its offer of 20,000 points for signing up for a Marriott Visa (a href=”http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webcgi/webserve.cgi?pdn=marriott_s20k&page=cont&mkid=65DF” target=_blank>personal and/or small business cards).Free the first year, the personal card comes with Marriott Silver status, and yes you can obtain both cards and even churn them.

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Starwood’s Not the Only One…

by Gary Leff

marriott hotel
Mar 08 2007

Starwood’s significant devaluation got plenty of attention, but Marriott quietly made significant adjustments to its own hotel categories to much less fanfare. It’s been discovered, and is being discussed on Flyertalk. The summary:Changes in MR redemption were effective March 2, 2007. 14 hotels went down one category level, 535 went up one category level. And one member’s calculation of the impact of the change:Some quick calculations….approximately 20% of Marriott Rewards properties were impacted and the change is reported to be a 1 category increase. On a 1 night stay, that is an increase of about 33% across the categories. So it appears to be an overall devaluation of about 6-7% (33% x 20%). I can live with this as it is in-line with overall inflation in hotel room rates, unlike the ridiculous almost 20% devaluation…

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Marriott is ramping up their airline checkin stations quickly

by Gary Leff

marriott hotel
Jun 27 2006

Marriott is ramping up their checkin kiosks from 32 properties now to 150 within two weeks. All Marriott and Renaissance properties are targeted to have the machines by the end of September. The kiosks will have the functionality to print airline boarding passes, a nice feature indeed. Marriott is actually a bit behind the curve on this one, Hilton announced the capability of their kiosks to print boarding passes back in April, but Marriott looks like it will jump ahead of its competitors with the ubiquity of the feature across two of its brands within a few months. This is one of the easy no-brainers of the hotel industry. If done right the cost to set up the machines with internet connectivity and a printer should be low, and it’s a major convenience. But in…

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30% Bonus on Transfers from Marriott to British Airways

by Gary Leff

marriott hotel
May 31 2006

British Airways is offering a 30% bonus on miles when transferring points from Marriott Rewards by July 20. For those who aren’t already British Airways Executive Club members — and membership normally requires booking a full fare coach ticket or more — BA is offering accounts via this promotion as well (apparently without any requirement to transfer points from Marriott, so anyone wanting a BA account this is a good opportunity to get one).(Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)

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Marriott to Display “All-In” Pricing

by Gary Leff

marriott hotel
Mar 21 2006

Hotel Hotsheet reports that Marriott will roll out “Total Trip Pricing” — a commitment to show “all in” costs for their hotel rooms on their website. In other words, taxes, surcharges, and resort fees will be fully disclosed. Small steps towards a better world…

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