Originally Posted by
Marriott Rewards Insider
Members,
For members with
existing Travel Packages (booked prior to today and not yet attached to a reservation), today we are able to share how they will convert within the newly unified program. Please see the full chart below.
No existing Travel Package certificate is losing value in terms of points and, with the new Free Night Award Chart that goes live today, 70% of our hotels either stayed at the same redemption rate threshold or moved down. As we structured the conversion chart, we considered the introduction of peak and off-peak redemption rates, which will be introduced in early 2019. This means that if you have an existing Category 9 certificate, which converts to Category 6 starting today, holders will still be able to attach the certificate to a stay when redemption rates within that category are at their highest.
Please let us know if you have any questions and we’ll do our best to answer.
Marriott Rewards Insider
I can certainly understand why folks on this forum are upset with this conversion chart. I'm baffled by how the Marriott folks who came up with this chart and approved it would think that members would be happy with it.
I'm holding an old Category 7 (35,000 points per night) certificate from a package that I ordered in July. I expected it to be worth 35,000 points per night after August 18. The fact that the conversion shows "40K points" would only be of value if I wait until 2019 and I book for a peak period. Still, I'm okay with the point value. It's still worth 35,000 points per night as far as I'm concerned.
I want to use it in September 2019, so I was unable to make my reservation and attach the certificate before August 18.
When I ordered the package, I was told I would be able to able to extend the hotel certificate another 12 month beyond its expiration date and to add more points if I needed to. That's how it's long been with Marriott, and Marriott did not announce that anything would change. Let's hope that a recent post to the contrary from a Lurker is mistaken — or that Marriott will reconsider such a member-hostile policy change.
I did better than some. Like many here, I wish I had ordered old Category 9 (45,000 points per night). But I didn't.
However, I'd be really upset if I had ordered old Category 6 or old Category 8. I'd feel I had been robbed by Marriott.