Originally Posted by
GrizShel
After all, the increase in cost of a 7-night stay is about 50%!! (unless I am reading this wrong?). Now that was the most attractive feature of the current award program, so that hits us pretty hard. Now if I am booking during Christmas week at certain popular locations that 50% increase to get rid of the blackout dates is probably worth it; but it really hurts for non-peak season redemptions.
Now, if I compare the new program with a current standard redemption for a 5-night stay, this is what I get:
Old program: Category 6, 110,0000 points
New: Cat. 6 - 120,000 points
Old: Cat. 7 - 130,000 points
New: Cat. 7 - 140,000 points to 160,000 points (because some or all of these will be changed to a new. cat. 8 as time goes on)
So even for 5 nights there is an increase in the points requirements even with the "free" night. Again, this is only a net benefit if you usually are redeeming during peak periods where it has been hard to redeem a standard award under the current program.
Griz you nicely captured the key aspect of the changes - value!
This is a significant game changer for me. My pattern is almost entirely 7 night award stays (as others have mentioned) and now the cost of those is significantly increased. The only half decent redemption remaining is a 5 night award. I can do those, but only in ways that I hadn't planned on and am not really looking forward to.
I regularly debate the relative merits of HH Diamond vs. MR Gold, especially given that they are roughly equally difficult to achieve. IMHO with the megabonus and the "old" redemption schedule, MR just beat HH. With the new schedule the tables are turned and HH is (IMHO) the clear winner for value per $$$ spent at my level of travel.