bhrubin

I don't even know what is being debated now.

Keyser

because when you book a cash rate then the rate doesn't change from the time you booked till the time you check-in & pay....

with peak awards if you book a points advance rate then you would not have the guarantee that your rate would stay the same....

both are very different....if you knew in advance what days or months would have peak awards then you wouldn't be faced with a situation where a few weeks before your stay you were stuck with paying more points for your stay....

also, even if you don't use points advance then you could still be stuck with a situation where at the last minute you were faced with requiring more points for your stay....this was not true with spg or when marriott initially announced that they would be introducing peak awards sometime in the future....

Keyser

just another normal day at flyertalk....

bhrubin

Ain't that the truth!

And you know no matter how much and how often we seem to disagree, I have much respect.

Now back to the depths of despair...

Keyser

right back at you....

freed0m

bhrubin

Perhaps we can move the discussion about points advance to the more appropriate thread:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...on-thread.html

I think that might aid in the discussions here.

yosithezet

Folks, try to understand that not everyone has a huge stash of points available when they are planning their holiday. Someone may start planning now for a vacation in the spring of 2020. They go to the Marriott site to look at prices. They look at the award prices. They start planning how they will have enough points for the flights and start saving for any shortfall. They know that by December they will have enough points. Previously, with points advance they could lock in both the room and the cost of the room. Now, they can lock in the room, but Marriott may raise the price of the award on them as they get closer. This makes it much more difficult for people to plan. It is easy to say, "Well, they should just assume that the peak price will be in effect." Great, except not everyone will be able to earn enough for the peak pricing and not every city will have a range of properties which are reachable for everyone.

One could say, "Tough Cookies. Let them stay where they can afford." Sure, that is a pretty demoralising stance towards the person planning the vacation and lacks empathy.

The underlying point that some are trying to get across here is that while we all knew that peak/off-peak was coming, the way it is being implemented shows little loyalty by Marriott fo the members of the program. Go ahead and limit the number of Points Advance bookings that can be made, but once made the price shouldn't be impacted by changes to the peak/off-peak dynamic changes.

joeags

I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason for ditching the grandfathered rates when booking is that the changes to the points would happen so frequently that it would be very tricky for the CSR's to track. I would not be surprised if we call in now to apply points to a grandfathered points advance booking and they pull up the pdf with category changes dated March 18th or whatever day. Moving forward, they would need charts for ~350 days at each hotel every time an adjustment is made as the reservation would show the current cost, just as it does today. Do we really think IT would have it programmed to save every rate for every day for every change?!

Keyser

how is one gaming the system in this scenario????you keep saying that but it doesn't make sense....care to give us an example????

freed0m

margarita girl

Huh? And if I book a room for $100 and rates climb to $250, I am gaming the system? I must be a very bad person, as I often lock in rates months in advance (with a flexible rate). And if rates go down, I cancel and rebook. Bad MG!

Keyser

i don't think you understand what 'gaming the system' means....

with your example, you could book a cash rate of $200 a night & then when you get to the property the hotel could tell you its a peak date & they will charge you $300 a night....would you say the guy who booked the $200 rate is gaming the system????

freed0m

Keyser

sure they can....as long as the rate doesn't change....under normal circumstances, once you book, the rate is locked in....then it doesn't matter what the rate changes to....you only pay the rate you have booked....

if the rate changes before you book then you will obviously have to pay the higher rate....

but that's not the case here....what marriott is saying is that even if you booked a points advance rate for 50,000, there is no guarantee that you would get that rate....even if that is the rate available when you book....if they decide to change the rate after you have booked then you will have to pay the higher 60,000 rate....

the reason people book in advance is to lock in a lower rate....i already have a confirmed cash booking for next may....i am traveling for a family wedding & the dates are fixed so i booked 3 rooms for my family & me 9 months in advance because i'm getting a very good rate at that hotel right now....there is a good chance that the closer you get to may, the higher the hotel rate would be....but i won't have to pay the higher rate since i booked in advance....would you call this gaming the system????