Originally Posted by
yoonny
I am going to redeem Cat 9 travel package in the near future and I would think I should able to use on the new Cat 7 hotels from 8/1-12/31 chart. Perhaps if they are going to the points value based, it will be reduced to 5 nights. Still I think it will be great opportunity to stay at SPG's top properties for at least 5 nights. I wouldn't wait until 8/1 to redeem as I am sure Marriott will put some restrictions before then.
I wish this were the case, but I highly doubt that the Cat 9 cert that lets you book 45,000/night hotels will become valid for 60,000/night hotels under the new chart. Category 6 would already be 50,000/night hotels and that's probably where it will sit. There's obviously a lot of gray area here, but Tier 1-3 certs can be used for hotels up to 50,000 pts/night currently. It's hard to imagine those can be used for Cat 7 properties Aug-Dec but I think those would be the most likely to get bumped to be Cat 7 certs under the new chart and could represent an opportunity to level up there. If Cat 9 converted to Cat 7 then you'd presumably have Cat 9, plus all Ritz packages moving into Cat 7 packages and that doesn't make sense.