Originally Posted by
christianj
I think this is worth a thread on it's own instead of being buried in the PEAK awards thread since it likely is going to impact a LOT of people.
Everyone needs to be aware that their 35k free night certificates that they get with the various credit cards will be worth much less with the implementation of the PEAK awards! Currently we can book a Cat. 5 hotel standard award with the certificates. Under the new Peak/Non-Peak awards plan being implemented on Sept. 14, members holding these certificates will only be able to book a Cat. 4 hotel with these certificates during PEAK times. During Non-Peak and Standard times, we will continue to be able to book Cat. 5 hotels with the free night certificates.
I agree that this is the biggest pain point of peak pricing going into effect. If you're paying in points, an increase from 35K to 40K is about a 15% increase, about what we might be used to with the inevitable periodic devaluations. Paying with a cert, though, you're 100% SOL.
Before the merger, the Marriott certs were good for a 25K hotel. A decade ago, they were pretty useful, but after years of category creep, they became much harder to use, especially in examples like yours of domestic big city redemptions. Bumping the cert value to 35K largely resolved that, but as peak awards roll out, that solution will be fleeting.