Perhaps they have decided that if they increase Plat benefits, more Golds will strive to attain Plat.

Actually I think this change is a good move from both the Plat's perspective and from Marriott's perspective. Many of us have posted many times to inquires on Gold vs. Plat that there is not much different between these levels. Both get lounge access, upgrades when available, and Plats recieved 10% more bonus points which along with the Plat gift, Plat override and Plat phone line was hardly a good reason to go the extra mile to attain Plat. This was the advice many of us have given to folks all along. Now with 50% bonus, 30% more than Gold this is a significant difference and changes the comparison picture especially with the higher redemption levels.

Benefit to Plats is that they are less impacted by the point inflation.

Benefit to Marriott is that hopefully many more people will go the extra mile to reach Plat status than previously.


Regarding these changes. They are not surprsing at all. Both SPG and Hilton recently increased their redemption levels, it only makes sense that Marriott would do the same. That is why I have been burning more points recently. I have to get my reward cert for Paris CE before Jan and I will be good to go. I just cashed in a TP last week which puts me 40000 miles away from AA Plat so I am good to go in that regard. No more TPs for me. Instead of doing 1-3 award weeks, I will have to do 5, 10, 15, or 20 night stays instead. One must be flexible.

The good news (if you can look at it that way), with the economy and all of these folks fleeing to SPG (where reward redemptions values are still worse) and Hilton where they are marginally better, I anticipate seeing a double points/nights promotion this coming year as Marriott will be having a plethora of empty rooms and many Plats and Golds may have difficulty renewing status with the recession and the associated personal/company cost cutting measures.