Originally Posted by
frisbeeace
This is an outrageous devaluation much more explicit than last year's when 535 properties were upgraded in category.
A 7 night stay at a cat 6 hotel requires 62% more points, 63% at a cat 7 and 87% if the hotel is now a cat. 8. Thatīs a major hit for us.
Whatīs worse is that Marriott timeshare owners like me keep getting the same fixed amount of points despite of the increasing rates of their nights. So, the trade-for-points option has become almost useless now, which is their main selling tool for many overseas properties. Marriott rents my nights at higher prices each year, refuses to acknoledge that by adjusting my income in terms of points and puts the carrot further away devaluating my points. No time now to sell my properties but will do asap and will not refer any more friends to them. What a scam!
Why doesn't someone file suit against all these programs? I am sick and tired of having points/miles devalued. My logic: vendors either sell product (rooms, plane seats) or miles (via ccard affinity programs). In the first instance, they promise consumers heavenly rewards for using their brands. Consumer relies on promise, spends money, gets nominal reward (points/miles), but the reward is retroactively devalued. In the second instance, airlines collect hundreds of millions of $ from likes of AMEX by selling FF miles. Airlines grab the cash and recognize a future liability based on redemption value of the sold miles. Except that they never "pay" out the redemption value -- they devalue the miles! When will we, the oppressed, band together and file a class action suit to stop this? Courts have ruled in divorce proceedings that miles/points are property rights. Given that airlines are administrators of this property, they probably have some type of fiduciary duty to protect the property (kind of like your bank has a duty to protect your money). Just think, your bank rewards you for keeping money in their institution by accruing interest in your account. What if they say, "Gee, we've gotten the benefit of the bargain, so we're going to give you a haircut: The 50 bucks in interest accrued in your account is now going to be called 50 cents." Well, clearly that would be fraud, unfair & deceptive business practice, theft by failing to make required disposition of property, etc etc. But in the airline business and now in the hotel business, it seems like business as usual.
I know they have a bunch of disclaimers about program changes, but these have to apply prospectively, not retroactively. How can they take 300,000 of my points and with a wave of the wand make them 30,000 equivalent? Make future point accruals dilutive, but not existing points. I don't even think this is necessarily the best place for this post, but this has just hit a raw nerve with me. My wife has been traveling this year overseas every month and one of the things that makes her absences tolerable is the rewards we redeem as a family. Well all that just gets blown away with wholesale devaluations like this and time has come for someone to seek redress. Any class action lawyers out there -- I will volunteer to be a lead plaintiff!