I can promise you that what is said here on flyer talk is read at many levels throughout Marriott. It has and continues to be a valuable resource for customer feedback. Over the years I have seen several positive changes occur because of comments made by the flyertalk community.

With that said I do not want to give anybody the impression that we are currently considering repealing these program changes. In looking at last years hotel redemption activity, 57% of hotel redemptions were for a single night, 22% were for two night stays, 10% were for 3 nights stays, adding up to a total 89% of all hotel redemptions occurring for stay that were 3 nights or shorter. Fewer than 3% of hotel redemptions were for seven night stays. In light of this information as well as other indicators we felt that our program needed to be friendlier to members who enjoyed redeeming hotel rewards for the spur of the moment weekend getaway or last minute emergency trips. These were the travelers who had the most trouble with black out dates and capacity controls. To this end the benefit of this program is that inventory will be wide open for reward redemption.

Your comments, positive or negative, on these threads are extremely valuable and ultimately will help create an even better rewards program. I can not promise you 5 night travel packages for non-MVCI owners, or more points for exchanging your timeshare week. I can promise you that these, as well as the many other suggestions voiced on this thread have been heard and are being taken seriously. I encourage all of you to continue expressing you concerns and ideas.

Ira