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What to Book Now Before Marriott and Starwood’s New Devaluations

In April, Marriott and Starwood released the news of how both chains’ loyalty programs would be integrated, plus new elite tiers and redemption rate changes. Seven new award categories will be implemented in August (with another category to be added early next year), and the burning question for many program members was which properties would fall in which categories. We now know the answer, and here’s what you need to know of the new award chart.

New Award Categories

All of Starwood and the majority of Marriott properties have been re-categorized to fit the new award chart. The category change announcement lists current points requirements, new points requirements as well as the points difference for each night at each property.

Although Marriott claims that more than half, or about 60 percent, of hotels would require fewer or the same number of points to book an award night, keep in mind the recent hike in redemption rates within the Marriott award chart and take the claim with a grain of salt.

If you haven’t already converted the points yourself, you don’t have to do anything. Your Starpoints will convert to Marriott points at a rate of 1-to-3 automatically come August. When you look at the list of changes, you’ll notice that current SPG hotel rates have tripled, and that’s after the conversion has been taken into account.

Book Category 8 Hotels at Category 7 Rates

In 2019, Marriott will introduce an additional award category—Category 8 that will require 85,000 points per night during standard travel season. Fancy properties like The Ritz-Carlton, The St. Regis Hotels and W Hotels will fall into the highest category staring next year. Until that happens, Category 7 properties will require just 60,000 points per night (or 20,000 old Starpoints), and that’s when you want to make a move and save 25,000 points per night at these desirable hotels.

Additionally, peak and off-peak pricing will apply next year, but specific dates for specific properties have not been determined yet.

Travel Packages to Change Redemption Rates

Although night and flight packages are not going away, they are going up in price. You can redeem points toward a travel package at the following rates:

More than 41 airlines will be available for a travel package transfer. At the moment, different airlines require a different number of points for a Hotel + Air package, but the rates will be the same across all airlines, except United Airlines. Transferring Marriott points for a travel package with United will earn a 10-percent bonus on MileagePlus miles (capped at 12,000 bonus miles).

Overall, travel packages are being devalued significantly. For example, let’s take a Category 4 hotel as an example. Right now, you can book seven nights at a Category 1-5 hotel plus 100,000 airline miles for 250,000 Marriott points as part of Hotel + Air Package 1. Effective August, it’ll cost you 330,000 points for seven nights at a category 1-4 hotel plus 100,000 airline miles.

It’s best to book a travel package before the devaluation hits, but on the other hand we do not know how exactly the old package categories will translate to the new award chart and what will happen to the certificates in hand.

New Cash + Points Chart Introduced

Also, starting in August, new Cash + Points redemption rates will take effect.

For now, just worry about the standard redemption rates, but peak and off-peak dates will be in play when pricing out Cash + Points awards starting in 2019. Again, compared to the old rates, they’re increasing quite a bit. You will need to spend $440 and 42,500 points for a night at the highest Marriott hotel category next year, whereas now the most expensive hotels require $220 and 28,000 miles.

Don’t Forget About Free Night Certificates

Those of you who hold co-branded Marriott and SPG credit cards will earn a free certificate each account anniversary. Your free night is capped at 35,000 points, which gets you a one-night stay at a Category 5 or lower hotel. We do not know yet whether it would be possible to stack free night certificates earned with multiple credit cards, but there are plenty of great options for Category 5 hotels in the new program.

In Conclusion

Marriott seems to have integrated the two award charts gracefully, but unfortunately the travel packages and the Cash + Points took a big hit. With the new award chart available to public, we still have plenty of questions about the future of the join Marriott/SPG loyalty program.

How much time out of the year will be considered peak dates? Will the highest category hotel rooms actually be available for booking at the Category 7 rate before next year? How many free night certificates from co-branded credit cards can we combine? What will happen to the current Hotel + Air certificates? I’m sure we’ll get answers in time, but for now, make sure to check out the new award chart and see which properties that you need to book go up in price in August.

Please share your thoughts on the new Marriott award chart, travel package rates or anything else related to the new loyalty program.

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10 Comments
C
Counsellor July 10, 2018

I would say Travel Packages. Right now you can get up to 132,000 miles for 120,000 Marriott Reward points or fewer; for the most part, it costs one MR point or less to get an airline mile. After the change, the Travel Packages increase in cost, and one mile costs 1.5 MR points. If you're Platinum with Marriott and spend a dollar in most Marriott properties, you can get 10 points, plus a 50% bonus for being Platinum, and another 5 points for charging it to the Marriott Rewards VISA. So that's 20 points for the dollar spend, which can be 20 (or 22 United) airline miles. Where else can you get 20 airline miles for a dollar spend? .

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Ramonmv July 9, 2018

For those who were expecting an answer to the headline, here is my list: I would say anything that is increasing in points required, especially those moving to Category 8. Blue Palace, a Luxury Collection Resort and Spa, Crete is going from 45k to 85k points per night. Several Ritz-Carltons are going from 70k to 85k per night. Blue Palace, a Luxury Collection Resort and Spa, Crete & St Regis Rome are going from 60k to 85k per night. If it's going down, but moving up to Category 8, book it after the change, but before Dec 31, 2018.

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Centurion July 8, 2018

Do you run a bait click contest within flyertalk? Where is the answer to your headline? <>

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NonStopMe July 6, 2018

I have a reservation at the Las Alcobas Nappa in Sept. 2 nights for 75.5k SPG points. The points on that property dropped a lot. What should I do?

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Ramonmv July 5, 2018

@aNYAk - Thank you for clarifying that. It was a little confusing, the way it was written. I was going to say, I hadn't seen any that went up that much.