How dare you be so pragmatic! And since you started this trend....

While I know this thread has been ripe with emotional posts, I am going to go out on a limb here and attempt to interject a bit of rationalism. Before I do, I wish to say that I also find the changes disappointing, but not unexpected. I actually was expecting similar changes to the point redemption levels sometime last year. As a result over the past couple years I have been redeeming more points. Hotel nightly rates have gone from sub $100 to $200+ over the past 7 years, and nightly rates at resorts have gone from low $100s to $500+ during the same period so it only makes sense that award redemption levels increase.

Instead of comparing the new redemption levels to previous redemption levels, I thought it would be good to compare the new redemption levels to that of the other top two programs.

The following assumes top tier elite status in each program, with annual spending of $20000 top earning hotels (those earning 10 pt/$). The figures below do not take into account extra point earning promotions (Megabonus, SPG Double Starpoints, etc) and arrival gifts bonus points Marriott (500), Hilton (1000), etc.

Marriott Plat – 10 pts/$, 50% bonus points, and 5 points/$ for using Marriott Premier Visa for a total of 20 pts per dollar spent yielding 400,000 points for the $20000 annual spend or a point cost of 5¢/Pt. Using a 5th night free award at a category 7 property costs 140000 points for 5 nights which translates to 28000 points per night or per night dollar cost of $1400.

SPG Plat – 2 pts/$, 50% bonus points, and 2 points/$ for using SPG AMEX for a total of 5 pts per dollar spent yielding 100,000 points for the $20000 annual spend or a point cost of 20¢/Pt. Using a 5th night free award at a category 6 property costs 10000 points for a 5 night stay during peak season which translates to 20000 points per night or per night dollar cost of $4000. For non-peak 5th night free award at category 6 it is 80000 points which translates to 16000 points per night or per night dollar cost of $3200. Using a 5th night free award at a category 5 property costs 64000 points for a 5 night stay during peak season which translates to 12800 points per night or per night dollar cost of $2560. For non-peak 5th night free award at category 5 it is 48000 points which translates to 9600 points per night or per night dollar cost of $1920. While I love the Westin and St. Regis brands, and stay there occasionally, the SPG redemption earn/burn ratios are horrible in comparison to Marriott or Hilton IMO.

Hilton Diamond – 10 pts/$, 50% bonus points, 5 pts/$ for double dip hotel points and 5 points/$ for using Hilton HHonors AMEX for a total of 25 pts per dollar spent yielding 500,000 points for the $20000 annual spend or a point cost of 4¢/Pt. Using a 6 night GLONP2 award at a category 6 property costs 175000 points for 6 nights which translates to 29167 points per night or per night dollar cost of $1166.67. From a earn and burn perspective HHonors is a bit better than Marriott, but only by a small margin. My personal experience with Hilton is that the hotels where have stayed, once every few years, have been a bit worn. I am staying at a Hilton again in Cairns this December so we will see what that yields.

As Marriott Platinum with 3+ million LT points I intend on continuing at Marriott, and will burn my final points on 2 weeks at Vail, help my boss with points toward his 10 days at Vail, and get my certificate for my 7 nights in Paris next summer. I should have less than 50K points left. I am about a year away from LT Gold and about 3-4 years from LT Plat (need more stays for both), so I intend on staying with Marriott as the difference in earn/burn between Marriott and Hilton is not compelling enough for me to switch. FWIW, I don’t use points for anything less than the best ROI (helping with boss’s reward being the exception) so for those that might use points for 2-3 night stays, your earn and burn ratio might be different. So my strategy going forward is to do 5, 10, 15, 20 nights award stays instead of 7, 14, and 21 night stays of the past. I just cashed out a 7 night travel package about a week before this announcement which puts me within 20000 miles of AA LT Plat so I have no need for TP in the future since the only reason I was doing it was to hasten reaching AA LT Plat.

Now with all that said, I still don’t like the idea of having to cash out more points than I did in the past for award stays, but that’s life. No doubt it will happen again in another 7-15 years at all of the Hotel and Airline programs so start preparing yourself.

For those of your wishing to change programs, hopefully this gives you some insight as to what is offered by the other programs.

If anyone wants to add an analysis of Hyatt or Priority Awards feel free to do so. I did not, as they are not hotels I consider when booking a stay. Hyatt has too few hotels and IC is the only Priority rewards brand I would consider, so I don’t because they are too few and far between. Actually that is one of the problems with SPG with 860 hotels compared to Hilton and Marriott who have 2800-3000 each.

If anyone sees mistakes in the figures, please let me know so I can make corrections.

Thanks - Bob