Marriott, IMHO, has been the least-inflationary program of the majors.

The type of hotel I now get for 330,000 points used to (typically) cost 270,000 points - but that 270k point world had lower earnings - slightly fewer points to Plats in general and 2 points per dollar fewer to credit card users. It also had a two-tier availability scheme that often made it tough to find 7 consecutive award nights.

At one point I did the math and came up with 8% net inflation for a Platinum member, assuming the property was hit with category creep one time. In exchange, redemption did get legitimately easier. For Golds, or for a property that jumped two categories, it's more like 15-20% inflation, but I'll still take the trade-off vs. the former, often infuriating redemption process.

I have *other* complaints about MR, but the inflation/redemption side isn't one. I still feel like I get solid value for the points.

Compare to HH, with its massive restructuring of program twice in 5 years PLUS a bunch of big category jumps. Compare to IHG which was so built around the bonuses that the act of taking them away completely changes the program. Compare to SPG which I like as a program, but each single category jump can result in almost double the points required.