A man got sick on a free cruise and ended up with a $47K bill, yet another airline has announced a devaluation and – is Marriott allowing hotels to opt out of elite breakfast? All that and more in this week’s Saturday Selection, our weekly round-up of interesting tidbits from around the interwebs (links to the original articles are embedded in the titles).
Is Marriott thinking about nerfing elite breakfast?
Marriott Bonvoy is famous for giving its loyal Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador members free breakfast at all most many some of its thousands of worldwide properties. After all, those loyal members spend their days racking up stays in Marriott hotels around the globe, it only makes sense that Bonvoy would at least take breakfast off their daily mental plates. Unfortunately, “sense” and “Marriott” are not common bedfellows, as evidenced by Bonvoy’s ridiculously complex breakfast benefit chart which was developed by the same folks that brought you hieroglyphics. Even then, some properties will still try to deny elite members their breakfast benefit, which causes the members to complain, after which Marriott usually slaps the offending property’s wrist and says “don’t do that.”
Well, there’s something fishy in Macao, and it’s not the crab paste. View from the Wing reports that the St. Regis Macao has published terms saying that Platinum and above members have a choice of bonus points or a “local amenity,” but no breakfast. If they would like to break their fast at the hotel, they’re offered a 20% discount. When a guest complained, a manager simply said that “it will be a worldwide change, and St. Regis Macao is the first hotel to put it on trial.” Say what?
Marriott denies that it’s a trial for the whole program, only for the St Regis Macao…but is also fully aware of it and allowing it to happen, even though it violates Marriott’s own terms and conditions. If indeed Marriott is knowingly letting hotels do “trials” where they deny breakfast benefits, is that not a program change? Gather ye breakfast buffet while ye may…
Man billed $47K after getting sick on a “free” cruise
“Everybody in the medical ward kept saying ‘Don’t worry, you have $20,000 coverage, you’ll be just fine,’” said Cameron. “… Turn around the day we’re leaving, and get handed a $47,000 bill,” he continued. “I didn’t even know what to do.”
Many of us that are US-based, and who thus live in a constant state of medical-cost PTSD, might look at someone saying “Don’t worry, you have $20K in medical coverage” like they’re crazy. After all, in our neck of the woods, $20K is just the cover charge to get into the ER.
That said, Mike Cameron didn’t think he had anything to worry about when he won a free, week-long Caribbean cruise on the ship Norwegian Encore. Unfortunately, Mike got sick while on board (and he’s not the only one, check out Nick’s most recent cruise experience). What began as a cold ended up with him in the ship’s medical unit for four days with possible pneumonia and a $47,000 hospital bill. Since he only had $20K in insurance, he and his girlfriend had to put $27K on their credit cards in order to leave. Since then, Mike has been on a merry-go-round between Norwegian’s travel insurance company (who doesn’t want to pay until his personal insurance does) and his personal insurance company (who won’t pay because he was abroad). Your Mileage May Vary tells the full, oh-so-cautionary tale.
Lufthansa devalues dynamically
There’s three constants in life: death, taxes and airlines periodically taking a hatchet to the value of their rewards currencies. This last year has been a particularly rough one, and we’ve seemingly seen every Tom, Dick and Avianca make their award prices even more big and wonderful (Avianca thought it was so nice, they did it twice) .
Lufthansa decided to join the party last week, announcing “exciting changes’ to its Miles & More program, which is almost always airline-speak for “we’re about pull out that comfortable rug you’re standing on.” Starting this June, Miles & More will be ditching the award chart for flights on Austrian, Lufthansa and SWISS, instead letting prices float according the cash fare’s whimsy. Partner awards will still be priced according to a fixed chart, but will see increases of between 6-20% (outside a few routes that will be dropping in price). One Miles at a Time breaks down the myriad changes in the linked post.
Avios adds another African airline
How about some good news? Last week, UK-based blog Head for Points broke the news that the Qatar Airways Avios has added a new (and very useful) partner – Airlink. The South Africa-based regional carrier has an incredibly useful route map across Southern Africa, filling in the void left by the defunct, former Avios partner, Comair. Getting to Southern Africa on points from North American isn’t the easiest trick to pull out of the bag, but once you’re there, getting around can sometimes be unexpectedly expensive…having the option to use Avios for flights like these can be terrific value. Although Airlink only partners with Qatar, you can still transfer your Avios easily from BA, Finnair, Aer Lingus and Iberia.
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Given Marriott’s record revenues, it will continue on its path of points devaluation and fewer realizable benefits.. Other programs as well.
The St Regis Chicago has recently eliminated butler service. I ordered a coffee through the butler service and was later charged $40 on my bill. When I raised the issue at checkout I was told “management has eliminated the butler service 7 months ago”, which was especially weird because I wasn’t advised it would be chargeable. I had to leave a voicemail chewing out the manager and file a case with Marriott corporate before I got a refund, and without any acknowledgement that it didn’t conform to brand standards or apology.
Were you in a regular room or suite? I’m asking because when I stayed there a couple of months ago in a suite we were told that those in suites get butler service. And indeed we took full advantage and weren’t charged.
Most Americans don’t realize that they very well could be on a narrow network insurance plan. Plan on traveling out of state? You probably aren’t covered “in network.” If you get really sick, you just
Might be going bankrupt. Oh, and there are no domestic travel health insurance plans so forget that. Stay healthy on those trips!