I am using my points to book redemptions for Al Maha and St regis Maldives, my friends who is a long time starwood members told me that now it's a good time because it only takes 85000 Marriott points, but before merger, some limited participating properties such as hotels in Maldives and Al maha do not need to follow SPG cat7 redemption requirement , it takes about 90000 star points to ( which equals to 270,000 now) to book a redemption at those hotels in SPG ear.


I was shocked, who would spend so mush points for a night? I always felt that even before merger , Marriott is always easier for earning points and redemptions, even if you take a tier1~5 Ritz /Edition into considerations.

It's crazy that SPG asking members for that much points for redemptions for top properties. I never feel the whole Marriott take over SPG is that bad, this is the prove. Unless they will change redemption requirement for cat8 in the future.

St Regis Maldives was 90k but Al Maha was only 60k. And for these properties and a few others they almost continuously had a 35% off promo going. I stayed at the Al Maha for 39k and it was phenomenal. At the time that was the best one could do for the Al Maha. Obviously now with Marriott it’s significantly fewer points than with SPG. But there are also a lot of properties that now cost more with Marriott points than they did with SPG points. You win some, you lose some.

I remain reasonably convinced that Marriott only got rid of the SPG “above cat 7” properties by accident.