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Sometimes it feels like the Marriott Travel Package saga will never end, but there has at least been a couple of pieces of welcome news over the last few days.
Category 6, Category 8 and Tier 1-3 Travel Package holders can get 30,000 Points refunded
The biggest issue relating to how Marriott Travel Packages were transferred across to the new programme was undoubtedly for members who held the Cat 6, Cat 8, or Tier 1-3 Packages. As you can see below, this was because those package holders had good cause to feel like they’d been short changed:
Marriott has now realised that creating ill-feeling amongst loyal members probably wasn’t the smartest way to kick-off the new programme and decided to offer a refund of 30,000 Points to those impacted. To get the Points, you need to head to the contact page via this link, select “packages – deals” as your topic and explain your situation.
Travel Package holders (probably) won’t have to wait a month to redeem them
One of the stranger details released by Marriott during the merger process was that after 18th August, unattached Travel Package Certificates weren’t supposed to be redeemable until mid September. According to Marriott spokespeople, they’ve managed to get things sorted sooner than predicted and it should now already be possible to redeem Travel Packages.
That’s the theory anyway – my account is still having fits every time I try to login and my Certificates don’t appear to have been updated to the new categories yet, so I haven’t been able to do a proper test (let me know in the comments if you’ve been successful!).
Bottom line
It’s hard to give Marriott too much credit for these (admittedly welcome) changes in policy – because where we’ve ended up is essentially just how things should have been from the beginning, but with the added joy of a bit of form filling for those who need to claim Points back.
I’m still confused about why Marriott didn’t just release the Travel Package conversion info weeks ago – any ideas?
Hat-tip: OMAAT
Well they’ve royally shafted anyone who did the Platinum Challenge, by deciding to give them only Platinum Elite rather than the Platinum Premier they were promised (as people who were made up to Platinum Elite in the old Marriott scheme, rather than those who got it just by linking via SPG before the switchover).
Maybe you ought to write an article about that!
Ouch – I hadn’t heard that yet. Rest assured, we’ll certainly be covering it 😉
Speaking of Marriott coverage, I’ve got a list of new info that keeps trickling in from readers, so please keep it coming!
Others affected are those whose account page indicates LTPP (Lifetime Platinum Premier) but whose current status just shows Platinum. One guy on FlyerTalk is even claiming that this is correct, because LTPP never implied you would actually receive PP status or benefits in the ongoing – it’s just a meaningless label!
Even for Marriott I think that would be a stretch but it’s 5 days now and those of us who were Plat via status challenge or who qualified as LTPP are still resolutely stuck on Platinum Elite level. It’s starting to look like a trend…