The point of this thread is to say that this is a change from how Marriott did the category changes in the past - it was timed in February/March and pre-announced,

Now there is a stealth devaluation of the point required. Sadly this is not new, I've pointed it out several months ago when I've seen it happened in other hotels I was looking for (see the old thread).

The bottom line is that Marriott is failing on customer service, removed the points advance, and not change hotel categories without any announcements. It seems that corporate had just given up on the loyalty scheme altogether.