Thoughts/changes?
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/theres-one-reason-marriott-concealing-travel-package-conversion-chart-wanted-fleece-loyalty-members/
Really good post and I hope that it gains traction! That being said, I'm not sure that I agree with every criticism, specifically:
1. Not allowing old top-tier 4-5 certificates work on new top-tier category 8 hotels starting in February-- To be fair, SPG has some properties which are superior to any Marriott property, so this is not entirely unfair.
2. Not allowing upgrades and downgrades on certificates, despite most certificates being sold with the promise that they would be upgraded and downgraded. This problem was exacerbated by members not knowing how the old categories would map to new categories-- Marriott gave advance warning that this would be the case, and gave the certificate holders time to upgrade/downgrade as they saw fit.
3. Freezing travel package certificates from use until 9/18-- Marriott gave advance warning, so certificate holders had the opportunity to book in advance.
The points which I find to be the most poignant are:
1. Lumping together multiple certificates to the same level without offering a refund-- this is completely unfair and tantamount to theft. I think that there would be outrage if Marriott were to have downgraded all certificates to the new category 1-4, and the fact that they essentially did that for only some categories is no different. But do we know for certain that they will not be offering a refund)?
2.Not publishing the how the categories would map over, despite knowing exactly how it would happen before it was published on the day of the program merger-- there is no clearer proof of bad-faith and unfair dealing than this.
Good luck Dan! We're counting on you to make this right as you have done so many times before!!