Bad system — annoying

Photo by Chris Ried on Unsplash

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here! 

The Marriott redemption system is so annoying…

I mean it has been my favorite reward system since day 1. I accumulated status and points on the platform.

However, when I tried to redeem the points, the system was driving me crazy.

First of all, trying to log in was a pain. I was asked to update my password which I did. I received and put in the online verification code and, to my surprise, I was directed back to the password update screen again. This time, I would just be looping on the same screen forever. In the end, I had to reset my password to log-in, even though I knew exactly what my password was.

Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash

Secondly, they had “.com”, “.cn”, “.uk” sites and I was directed randomly among them with no logic that made sense to me. And I had to log in again every time I was directed to one of these sites and these sites did not seem to accept the same login. One time, I was even directed to the “.uk” site after I selected the merchandize and clicked “check-out” on the “.com” site. I was asked to log in, the login did not work and I had to start all over again.

Thirdly, the redemption screen was anything but intuitive. They apparently had preferred brands that they wanted their members to redeem points with. As a result, I only saw those 4 brands when I was at the redemption site, which made me think only those 4 brands were available. Only after I clicked in and explored the sites, did I realize many more brands were available. Isn’t this misleading? At least put a “More” or “See all” button beside those brands…

Photo by Arnold Francisca on Unsplash

Lastly, the system reflected the updates really slowly. I updated my personal particulars, closed and re-opened the merchandize site and browsed for another 5 minutes before I tried to check-out again. And I still saw my old address reflected on the order. [Follow-up: it still showed old address when I tried again after 3 hours!!!]

As a result, I spent 1 hour plus in the early morning fighting the system but was not able to redeem 1 single point. So all my points are still left there risking expiration.

Come on, Marriott. Fix this and stay as the favorite option for travelers. Do not neglect this only because this does not directly generate membership or revenue/profit.

Till next time!