Vacationers probably fall into 2 groups: those that travel at low demand times, and those that travel at high demand times. For the first group, the new "no blackouts" is no big deal, since they could probably find availability anyway. For the latter (myself included), we're skeptical about the small print, limited dates when rooms will be restricted.

I think it was mentioned up-thread that the average number of nights might be 9/hotel/year, but that's just the average, right? So a property in a place like New Orleans might black out Mardi Gras, Jazzfest, Decadence, Essence Fest, Sugar Bowl, etc etc, even if that totals to 40 nights, because it's averaged with all the airport Marriotts around the country that have no high demand dates. At least, that's our fear, that we still won't be able to redeem for the popular nights; even worse, rule-buster awards are going away, so even if we wanted to pay double, that's no longer an option.

Marriott Concierge - can you alleviate my worries? Can you give some more specifics on what to expect for the limited award nights? Will Marriott publish a list of properties and nights that are limited for 2009, once it's finalized?