Happy

I did not even receive the email you got. Mine is telling me to pay it now else after Sept 14 it will be subj to actual cost for the stay period. i.e. the email I got, does NOT have the all important "Call Us" paragraph.

I was about to cancel those bookings before the deadline which was 30 days before arrival, because we no longer planned to take a particular cruise and the PA bookings were at the disembarkation location post cruise. The email I got prompted me to cancel it 2 weeks ago, rather than waiting till Nov 1st. One less thing remains on my To Do calendar.

RedSun

I copied the complete email at the PA thread. But I strongly believe that we are only allowed to carry 3 PA bookings at the standard rates. This peak vs off-peak is even less predictable. So I do not think the 3 PA bookings benefit me any way. Also Marriott will probably tell you to "call us" one week prior to your actual stay. So they can fix the rate for you. But the system won't open for the members to game the PA bookings.

mahasamatman

I very much doubt that, but we shall see what we shall see.

Happy

The limit of 3 PA tales away the flexibility of booking individual nights so to preserve the flexibility on change. This affects us the most rather than randomly PAs to avoid "being left out". I dont normally make bookings without having 80% certainty. Dont like to take the inventory away with pure speculative bookings. But I do prefer to book individual night even for a multi-nights stay to preserve the flexibility on cancellation.

RedSun

This is fine with me since my plan is very uncertain. With all the peak and off-peak and category changes, it is hard to get any value from the popular Marriott properties. Most of the category 8 properties are nice, but I do not know if I want to spend 600,000 points for a week. I'll just same points for overseas properties which may still yield some good value.

bhrubin

Sure, worst case, it’s plausible that the StR New York will always be peak 100K. And even then, that still is slightly less than the equivalent 105K peak rate that SPG charged. So from SPG where such amazing properties originated to Marriott Bonvoy, the equivalent award price at peak still is less than it was.

For the all-suite spectacular properties like StR Bora Bora, StR Maldives, Al Maha, Mystique, etc, again almost all of which came from SPG, their award prices were astronomically higher with SPG—like the equivalent of 450K Marriott points—than they are now with Marriott Bonvoy.

So the worst case scenario isn’t remotely so bad. For anyone coming from SPG, the equivalent award prices are absolutely still less...and for the most aspirational properties they are much, much less. For anyone coming from Marriott or Ritz-Carlton, they never had access to such amazing properties in the first place. Everything with SPG seems more expensive from a former Marriott/Ritz Rewards perspective because of that, too.

So the complaints about peak pricing at the top are superfluous.

Kacee

I don't think that particular scenario is correct, but you should assume that desirable properties in expensive places (NY, London, Tokyo, etc.) will be peak most of the year. That's kind of the whole point of this change, to more closely align price in points with price in dollars, i.e., minimize high value redemptions.

fttc

Which day did you guys receive the email? I have some PA bookings and I can't find any email similar to what you and Happy received.

myperks

Be ready for another round of “it wasn’t September 14th yet” comments

everyone should probably lock in their reservations now (as in today since most of the world is still before Sept 14th) and not wait until the cutover, whenever that is.

rylan

I booked a bunch over the past week to lock in 'standard' rates and will review what goes up. Expecting most of them will be classified as peak.

OssianBlue

FWIW when these e-mails went out I had one Points Advance booking for November (waiting to attach a cert) and did NOT receive an e-mail.

Keyser

i currently have 7 award stays totaling a little over 800 points booked from now till june 2020....most of these were made prior to the announcement of peak/off peak awards & i made a couple since....all are genuine stays that my family & i will be utilizing so its just a good idea to have all these bookings in place before the changes are made....if rates increase or stay the same then i'm not losing out on anything & if rates decrease then i'll re-book at the lower rates before cancelling the current reservations....

UKTraveller4Fun

The scenario I believe is indeed correct from what I have been told by Marriott. The rule that the majority of time standard redemptions apply is applied accross the entire portfolio of Marriott and as such it is quite possible / likely that some properties will always be peak priced, essentially giving us a Cat 9.

I have heard that actually Marriott consider it to be accross standard redemption rooms in the entire company that they wording of mainly standard redemptions will still be the norm which would mean the higher end (generally less standard rooms) would very easily be able to be Peak the entire time but I havent had this verified unlike the above.

Personally I feel it would have been much fairer to make a hotel offset any Peak days with Off Peak days to ensure overall a balance but that would clearly not have made the hotels very happy whereas this way we instantly get a devaluation just over 12 months after Bonvoy launched and they can claim that it was always announced, which to a degree is fair, just not the inner workings of it and how they do not hold any hotel to account by itself!

RedSun

Marriott just does whatever it wants to do to max its revenue. More revenue -> point devaluation. If some properties are peak all season, why just make them Category 9 or 10 at 100,000+ points?

All we want is consistent and reasonable.

But it is always to have another iron on the other hand.

HHonors OUTSIDER

When peak off peak was first announced it was mentioned that any given property could be peak I believe a maximum of 4 months a year which makes sense. This would then require an off peak of 4 months if a property maxed out at 4 months peak. This may have changed since then but I doubt it.