When I saw the number of posts that came in this morning I kind of wished I had called my boss and told him that my health had been "enhanced" by a flu bug and I would not be able to come in today.
Many of you have taken exception to my use of the word enhancement, because, for many of you, this is not a positive change. I appreciate your candor and I promise I will not use this word again to describe this change. And I will happily Edit the title of my original post. Also my string pullers told me to tell you, “I am not a puppet.”
As I promised I will not try to make you feel better about the changes, I would like to make this more transparent and answer some of the questions that have been raised.
Originally Posted by
megtravels
are the points to airmiles levels changing???? if i missed it, sorry, but i didn't see it......
This change to hotel rewards does not affect any other rewards on the rewards schedule. Points to Miles rewards are the same. Ritz-Carlton hotels are considered a partner reward and are also not changing.
Originally Posted by
maizenblue07
Hotels will only be able to limit the number of rooms available for redemption on a very limited number of nights.
One man's limited is another man's many. The hotel in BTV could still limit the number of rooms available on the night you want to stay.
These nights will all have to be pre-approved by Marriott Corporate. The exact number will vary slightly from one hotel to another, but a rough estimate is about 11 nights a year. On these nights hotels will be required to release as many standard rooms for point redemption as they currently do for non-blackout dates.
Originally Posted by
keeton
For my travel habits, this is really bad news.
With the elimination of the Stay Anytime awards, does that mean fewer rooms will ultimately be available?
The positive aspect to this change is that more standard rooms will be available on more nights. Other than the nights just discussed above standard rewards will be available until the last standard room is booked.
Originally Posted by
tfred
well it looks like Marriott is tired of offering reward rooms in NYC, London , Paris and Rome - all of those are Cat 8 with a 35% or so higher redemption. Probably their most popular reward destinations
We are not tired of offering reward rooms; however, tfred is correct in his assumption that these are the highest redemption properties. The category of a hotel has always been based on past point redemption. Hotels with a large amount of redemption have to be reimbursed at a higher rate, or reward redemption would have a negative impact on their bottom line. If they were going to open more rooms for reward redemption they needed to be paid more per night requiring some point inflation.
Originally Posted by
GrizShel
Question: will there still be pointSaver awards, and, if so, how will the point requirements / availability for these be impacted?
There will still be point savers. I do not have exact point amounts for them yet. Availability will be determined the same way it currently is. Hotels decide when they will offer them. Because they will be reimbursed at a higher rate there may be more availability, but that is just my opinion.
Originally Posted by
CPRich
I'd hazard a guess that the weighted average increase here is 15%.
This is pretty close; it is actually just under 10%.
Originally Posted by
cyberdad
1.) Are popular hotels going to tighten up their poinyd availability inventory prior to January 15 so as to thwart those seeking to "cash out" their points early?
2.) What about the Euro-hopper awards? Are they going to exclude the 8s and/or increase the point requirement? Or will they just drop them entirely?
Hotels are required to follow the same established rules regarding capacity controls you are all already familiar with until January 15th.
Hopper awards will be phased out with this change.
Originally Posted by
mickeypops
I may have missed it, but what is the impact on redemtions into MVC properties?
There really is no impact on MVCI properties. Their rewards are separate from the standard hotel rewards and will continue to be that way. There will be no changes to redemption at MVCI properties.
Originally Posted by
GrizShel
Question for Marriott Concierge:
If I book a hotel+air package under the current system for late next year (2009), what happens if I have to change plans - will I get hit with a ca. 90,000 point bill to rebook a cat. 7-8 hotel, or well I be able to keep what I have, just at a different property for different dates?
As things currently stand, if you rebook it will be with new rate codes and therefore require the new rewards. I will look into seeing what customer service exceptions may be available under these circumstances though.
Ira