Originally Posted by
freed0m
did you read from beginning? The original argument is that SPG has fixed peak date and Marriott has dynamic peak date so that it prevents gaming the system.
you certainly can game the system with fixed peak date when you can book a standard award when there is an event which drives the cash price up...
This isn't
gaming the system, this is
maximizing the value of your points/miles.
Gaming the system is doing something which is unscrupulous or wrong or cheating. This is why there is so much of a heated response to these claims.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaming_the_system
Gaming the system would be if you were to book a refundable rate for a suite, and another cheap or points rate, and then cancel it at the last minute to ensure you get upgraded to that suite. Everyone here would agree that it is unscrupulous. That doesn't mean people wouldn't do it. But even they would agree that this is not fair or proper. Dynamic Peak and Off Peak rates do not prevent gaming the system. Reducing the opportunity to only three PA bookings does help prevent people from gaming the system.
Booking a standard award when there is an event which drives the cash prices up is not gaming the system but rather opportunities to maximize the value we are getting for our points. This is why we have discussions about the value of a point. Do we look for opportunities to get .8 cents per point or .5 cents per point or 1.2 cents per point? Otherwise it might as be a straight discount for loyalty members or a cashback program.
What Marriott are doing with dynamic award pricing is reducing the opportunity to get outsized value for our points.
What they are doing by not allowing members to lock in the price when using one of their three price advance bookings is discouraging members like the junior lawyer in
keyser's example from relying on Marriott when planning their vacations as they don't know what the price will be for the award when they have the points saved up.