AI is taking over upgrade assignments for Marriott, Crypto.com just launched a credit card, and we’ve finally finished organizing our team’s Million Mile Madness highlight reel footage so you can watch (or re-watch) each contestant’s trip journey as individual recap videos.
Starting July 14, Marriott’s AI Alone Will Assign Your Room And Decide If You Deserve An Upgrade
July 14, AI will take over upgrade assignment decisions at Marriott hotels. In a OMAAT article we featured in a previous Saturday Selection, we learned (according to an employee who’d posted about it on reddit) that Marriott staff have already been using an algorithm to create a priority list for these upgrade decisions, so is this all that different? Perhaps a little. Now the computer will make the list and make the decision, leaving front desk attendants off the hook, though humans will still be in charge of determining which rooms are eligible for upgrade. What do you think – is this a non-consequential change for guests or not?
Tuesday Diversion: That Other Credit Card Bonus
While many of us were busy paying attention to the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers, Crypto.com launched a credit card with very niche nuances. I’ll do my best to explain, but these terms are even more foreign to me than the usual miles and points concepts. “Spend in dollars. Earn in crypto” they say on a sleek looking landing page with oh-so-smooth-looking AI models posing with the different card tiers available. Matt at Miles Earn and Burn explains that the tiers are based on the amount of crypto you’re “staking”, which is I guess a crypto term for loaning. So you loan a certain amount of crypto to others for at least a year (which locks you out from trading) and then you get a higher bonus and earning rate for higher amounts of “staking”. Matt does a much better job of describing why this requires careful consideration, but I think the landing page slogan gets a bit of the point across too. “Spend in dollars. Earn in crypto.” Matt warns that the currency you earn back from your spend, “CRO”, is “very volatile”. They use the term “cash back” on their landing page but again, as Matt points out, you’re not getting “cash” back – you’re getting “CRO” back. Further more, to get higher rewards, you are required to tie-up this volatile currency for a whole year, which has some opportunity cost. Go check out Matt’s post if you’re even remotely considering this card.
Million Mile Madness Highlight Reels!
At the end of last year, Greg, Nick, and Stephen all participated in a sort of challenge within a challenge, each attempting to satisfy the SAS Eurobonus Millionaire Challenge with the most speed, affordability, and style. (You can read more about our history of Annual Team Challenges here.)
Traditionally, we’ve leaned heavily on Instagram to help us broadcast the realtime play by plays of these travel challenge journeys, but that doesn’t easily accommodate rewatching after the fact. We’re working on ways to improve this aspect of the challenges. For example my sister (who specializes in social media content creation, among other things) has helped us consolidate the Instagram reels for each contestant into a single YouTube video. That means you can now rewatch each person’s individual journey in a simple sequential video. Take a look below.
Stephen’s 2024 Million Mile Madness Highlight Reel
Nick’s 2024 Million Mile Madness Highlight Reel
Greg’s 2024 Million Mile Madness Highlight Reel
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As someone from Marriott does monitor the blogs, this is for you. I had been an Ambassador for years. How you ultimately lost me was the properties with multiple upgrade-eligible suites (for the entire duration of my stay) that matter-of-fact expressly stated “we’re not going to simply give you a suite.” Even after referring to the benefit, they refused. One manager said that it wasn’t their policy to grant such upgrades. Not that it was an availability issue but a policy issue. I’m the end, you’ll do absolutely fine without me. And, I’m now in a happier position.
Marriott has not confirmed that rooms will be assigned by AI. But even if it’s true it’s only going to happen at the 30% of Marriott properties managed by Marriott. The remaining 70% of Marriott hotels, across all brands worldwide, are franchised or licensed. Marriott corporate can’t control the operations, for better or worse, of the franchisees or the third-party management companies hired by franchisees to operate properties on a daily basis. Marriott can’t even get properties to use Marriott dot com email addresses!