Originally Posted by
Flying for Fun
Thank you for an excellent post.
On the conversion date:
All floater certificates will be converted to a 150K Point Certificate ie New Category 1-4
All New floater certificates must be attached within 3 months. No exceptions!
Expiry date will be 12 months from Conversion date. No extensions!
If you have an upgraded Certificate the upgrade points are refunded and your certificate is converted to a 150K Point Certificate.
Once attached, they cannot be detached other than to attach to another reservation or cancel. ie no floaters, all attached/cancelled after 3 months.
Cancelled certificates have a 45K residual value
If not attached within 3 months, cancelled at 45K residual value.
Upgrades and downgrades as per New Program.
New Cat 5 +60K, New Cat 6 +180K New Cat 7 +240K
Existing attached certificates can be handled in the same way. A date change would not trigger a conversion of the underling certificate but a change in the property would. This would ensure that all existing certificates attached or unattached will be through the system within 12 months. It would be an equitable way to allow for booking dates not currently available and to determine if you are better keeping your existing reservation or cancelling it in favor of a conversion.
In my case, it would be advantageous to convert my current attached Cat 8 certificate. I would get a New Cat 1-4 and 90K points. The New Category of the property is 5. An upgrade to a New Cat 5 would be +60K leaving me with a net 30K in my account. It would also allow me to book any other Cat 5 property, including former SPG properties.In other cases, it may be better to just leave the old certificate attached.
Just some of my thoughts,
James
I have been working through conversions in my head for the past week, and I came to the same conclusion, James. Trying to match current categories to future ones won't work: it's either far too costly to hotels or probably a PR nightmare if your Cat 9 is suddenly getting you a Fairfield in Des Moines. But the one category map that we already have is current Cat 5 to new Cat 4; refunding extra points and allowing buy-ups at the new rate makes perfect business sense.
Marriott keeps its word about "equivalent". Or close enough.
The program's new "use any cert + points" booking strategy remains intact.
The new values allow all certs to be consistent with any other type of award.
It saves millions in labor and IT costs trying to match all the old categories to new ones.
My earlier comments were that I expected new certs for old, as we've seen that with the 1-night Category 1-5s. This outcome would be essentially the same but smoother and easier to both digest and explain. And I think the screaming from customers would be pretty muted.