Feb 25, 2022, 8:38 am
Last edit by: goodeats21
*** It seems the Free Night Certificate + Points "top-off" redemption went live on April 29 or 30th 2022 - Discussions here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...on-thread.html ***
Starting March 29, our new flexible point redemption rates will go into effect. That means free nights will align more closely with nightly rates and availability. For stay dates in 2022, you can expect that nearly all of our hotels will have the same minimum and maximum number of points required for redemption — similarly to how they were previously categorized.
All the ways you earn points will not change — you’ll just have more flexibility when you’re ready to redeem.
Plus, starting at the end of April, you can combine your Free Night Award with up to 15,000 points to access more hotels you’ll love.
Our current redemption process will remain in place through March 28. After that, you will not see hotel categories (1–8) or redemption rates classified as Off-Peak, Standard, or Peak. At the same time, as part of our yearly redemption assessment process (similar to our annual category changes in previous years), the minimum point redemption rates will increase for approximately 200 hotels on March 29 — that’s less than 3% of all hotels. You can explore this list of hotels and decide when and where to maximize your free nights.
With our flexible cancellation policy, you can reserve your redemption stay and still modify your reservation if you find a lower rate in the future.
Want to learn more? Check out all our flexible point redemption rates FAQs.
When there is a redemption points rate drop, this info about how to modify award reservations -- on the website, not the app:
If you click to modify the existing reservation, and select to edit payment, it will adjust the points and keep the same reservation
HT to Schnit
Starting March 29, our new flexible point redemption rates will go into effect. That means free nights will align more closely with nightly rates and availability. For stay dates in 2022, you can expect that nearly all of our hotels will have the same minimum and maximum number of points required for redemption — similarly to how they were previously categorized.
All the ways you earn points will not change — you’ll just have more flexibility when you’re ready to redeem.
Plus, starting at the end of April, you can combine your Free Night Award with up to 15,000 points to access more hotels you’ll love.
Our current redemption process will remain in place through March 28. After that, you will not see hotel categories (1–8) or redemption rates classified as Off-Peak, Standard, or Peak. At the same time, as part of our yearly redemption assessment process (similar to our annual category changes in previous years), the minimum point redemption rates will increase for approximately 200 hotels on March 29 — that’s less than 3% of all hotels. You can explore this list of hotels and decide when and where to maximize your free nights.
With our flexible cancellation policy, you can reserve your redemption stay and still modify your reservation if you find a lower rate in the future.
Want to learn more? Check out all our flexible point redemption rates FAQs.
When there is a redemption points rate drop, this info about how to modify award reservations -- on the website, not the app:
If you click to modify the existing reservation, and select to edit payment, it will adjust the points and keep the same reservation
HT to Schnit
29 Mar 2022 : Introduction of Dynamic award pricing and removal of award chart
Mar 12, 2022, 5:10 am
#121
Join Date: Mar 2011
Programs: Delta Skymiles
Posts: 1,982
What's the deal with Marriott properties (low key, like Fairfield Inn and Towneplace) saying "Sold Out--Check-in Not Available" for entire months. Looking at some properties in Florida for next January, 10 months out. Are they subject to repricing after the New Year? Other Marriott properties in the general area do have Calendar dates available then. I'm looking at paying, not using points, etc.
Mar 12, 2022, 10:10 am
#122
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 271
What's the deal with Marriott properties (low key, like Fairfield Inn and Towneplace) saying "Sold Out--Check-in Not Available" for entire months. Looking at some properties in Florida for next January, 10 months out. Are they subject to repricing after the New Year? Other Marriott properties in the general area do have Calendar dates available then. I'm looking at paying, not using points, etc.
Mar 12, 2022, 10:47 am
#123
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: YXU / YUL
Programs: AA LT Gold, Aeroplan, Marriott Titanium (LT Platinum), HH Diamond
Posts: 407
Is there a list available somewhere showing all hotels and their current category level? It would be useful to have a reference to compare to after the changes take effect.
Mar 16, 2022, 10:21 am
#125
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: SoCal; DO-RAGS: Old Gold tagged, PIP, LatPass 1/2, AA 4MM, HH LT Diamond, Marriott Titanium/LT Plat, Omni
Posts: 9,180
Travel, at least non-business travel, is supposed to be fun. Now with dynamic pricing Bonvoy has sucked all the redemption fun out of points leaving their credit cards as nothing but cash-back cards, and so should be evaluated accordingly. And with pricing to redeem at the highest non-AAA/non-senior rates, Bonvoy continues to stack the deck in their favor. All my current paid stays and credit card spending now go to Hilton (who sucked their share of fun by removing elite breakfasts), but I understand that I’m just p!ssing into the wind.
I particularly resent Bonvoy’s fluff email that they are providing an additional benefit to us, the long-suffering Starwood/Marriott/Bonvoy faithful. I think it was Justice Louis Brandeis who opined that when somebody says that they are doing something for your own good, watch out! I realize that Marriott always had the right to change the terms and I always accepted that there would be redemption and category inflation, but this is a paradigm shift.
I’ve redeemed 750k Bonvoy points and I madly continue to make award reservations to the deadline like a lame-duck president appoints “midnight judges”. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the death of travel-affinity programs has been exaggerated in the past but, while they limp along, this is another nail in the coffin.
I particularly resent Bonvoy’s fluff email that they are providing an additional benefit to us, the long-suffering Starwood/Marriott/Bonvoy faithful. I think it was Justice Louis Brandeis who opined that when somebody says that they are doing something for your own good, watch out! I realize that Marriott always had the right to change the terms and I always accepted that there would be redemption and category inflation, but this is a paradigm shift.
I’ve redeemed 750k Bonvoy points and I madly continue to make award reservations to the deadline like a lame-duck president appoints “midnight judges”. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the death of travel-affinity programs has been exaggerated in the past but, while they limp along, this is another nail in the coffin.
Mar 16, 2022, 7:10 pm
#126
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 332
Once dynamic pricing goes into effect and you can top up your cert with up to 15,000 points, can you use the cert then for multiple nights? For example, I have a 50K cert that's expiring in Sep. Can I top up the cert with 15K and use the total 65K for 3 nights?
Mar 16, 2022, 7:29 pm
#127
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: SFO
Posts: 4,914
the answer to this probably the same as if you can use your 50k cert for 2 nights @ 25k each. Most likely not but with Marriott IT, who knows…
Mar 21, 2022, 6:57 pm
#128
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: LGA
Posts: 5
Pull Membership Rewards/Ultimate Rewards points to lock in before 3/29?
I have a room reserved at the Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch in February 2023 for five night for 400K points. I don't have the points in my account right now though--I need to accumulate them, which I can do (just signed up for Marriott Boundless card). However, until I lock in the room at the 100K per night rate, it can fluctuate.
I could transfer a combination of AmEx Membership Rewards points and Chase Ultimate Rewards points into my Marriott Bonvoy account right now, and have ALMOST enough Marriott points to lock in at this level--I'd have 395K. I guess I would have to buy the other 5K.
Normally I would never do this because I would be converting at 1:1, and the MR and UR points are worth way more than Marriott points--about 2 cents each for MR and UR, versus, I believe, about 0.8 cents for Marriott points.
Is it worth doing in this case, however, to lock in the 400K per night rate before March 29? Basically, my question is how much can we expect the points award rate to increase for this room over the next several months? Could it as much as double (which I think is what would be necessary to make it worthwhile to transfer the MR and UR points)?
Thanks very much for any advice.
I could transfer a combination of AmEx Membership Rewards points and Chase Ultimate Rewards points into my Marriott Bonvoy account right now, and have ALMOST enough Marriott points to lock in at this level--I'd have 395K. I guess I would have to buy the other 5K.
Normally I would never do this because I would be converting at 1:1, and the MR and UR points are worth way more than Marriott points--about 2 cents each for MR and UR, versus, I believe, about 0.8 cents for Marriott points.
Is it worth doing in this case, however, to lock in the 400K per night rate before March 29? Basically, my question is how much can we expect the points award rate to increase for this room over the next several months? Could it as much as double (which I think is what would be necessary to make it worthwhile to transfer the MR and UR points)?
Thanks very much for any advice.
Mar 21, 2022, 7:57 pm
#129
Join Date: May 2009
Location: USA
Programs: Marriott Titanium -> United Silver
Posts: 937
I don't know if you like Hyatts but you could potentially get more than 2 cents per point by converting UR to Hyatt.
Mar 21, 2022, 10:57 pm
#130
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 625
With my spreadsheet now updated, I can see that this year's moves are just the typical yearly category changes dressed up with the point increases. But there is now an addition of a new category 9 and this year's changes have no hotels decreasing in category. 5K increases are category 1 & 2 hotels moving to 2 & 3 respectively. 10K increases are 3, 4 & 6 going to 4, 5 & 7. 20K increases are category 5 & 8 moving to 6 & the new 9 respectively. 30K increases are hotels moving from category 7 to 8. No doubt this all changes next year, but for the rest of 2022, things are mostly the same.
Category 3 is 15 / 17.5 / 20 for the ranges, and the 10K increase would make it 25 / 27.5 / 30, but I believe these will have the category 4 range of 20 / 25 / 30.
Category 5 is 30 / 35 / 40, and with the 20K increase would make it 50 / 55 / 60, so this would be category 6 of 40 / 50 / 60.
Category 9 should now be 90 / 105 / 120 based on the shift from category 8.
With that stated, here are the category change numbers:
Cat 1 to 2: 11
Cat 2 to 3: 26
Cat 3 to 4: 23
Cat 4 to 5: 12
Cat 5 to 6: 39
Cat 6 to 7: 23
Cat 7 to 8: 42 (10 ex-SPG)
Cat 8 to 9: 40 (24 ex-SPG)
Some of the hotels increasing 20K points are actually the ones that will be higher than the 100K max we currently see:
A few amusing facts to me with my ~10 years of category change info:
French Leave Resort is the hotel with the highest and fastest point gain that I have on record, starting as a category 9 Marriott in 2016 (45K points), and increasing to 120K peak since August, 2018. A few Ritz-Carlton hotels were as low as 50K (Ritz-Carlton Maui Kapalua in 2013, Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah, Al Hamra Beach in 2018, and Ritz-Carlton Naples in 2013.)
There remains 44 former peak category 7 SPG hotels from the merger (30K Starpoints - 90K Marriott Equivalent Points). 22 are the new category 9, 17 are category 8, and 5 are category 7.
The Bodrum Edition will have jumped from 30K points in early 2018 to 100K peak this year for the highest and fastest jump to category 8.
Category 3 is 15 / 17.5 / 20 for the ranges, and the 10K increase would make it 25 / 27.5 / 30, but I believe these will have the category 4 range of 20 / 25 / 30.
Category 5 is 30 / 35 / 40, and with the 20K increase would make it 50 / 55 / 60, so this would be category 6 of 40 / 50 / 60.
Category 9 should now be 90 / 105 / 120 based on the shift from category 8.
With that stated, here are the category change numbers:
Cat 1 to 2: 11
Cat 2 to 3: 26
Cat 3 to 4: 23
Cat 4 to 5: 12
Cat 5 to 6: 39
Cat 6 to 7: 23
Cat 7 to 8: 42 (10 ex-SPG)
Cat 8 to 9: 40 (24 ex-SPG)
Some of the hotels increasing 20K points are actually the ones that will be higher than the 100K max we currently see:
Spoiler
A few amusing facts to me with my ~10 years of category change info:
French Leave Resort is the hotel with the highest and fastest point gain that I have on record, starting as a category 9 Marriott in 2016 (45K points), and increasing to 120K peak since August, 2018. A few Ritz-Carlton hotels were as low as 50K (Ritz-Carlton Maui Kapalua in 2013, Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah, Al Hamra Beach in 2018, and Ritz-Carlton Naples in 2013.)
There remains 44 former peak category 7 SPG hotels from the merger (30K Starpoints - 90K Marriott Equivalent Points). 22 are the new category 9, 17 are category 8, and 5 are category 7.
The Bodrum Edition will have jumped from 30K points in early 2018 to 100K peak this year for the highest and fastest jump to category 8.
Mar 24, 2022, 4:10 am
#131
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Miami, FL
Programs: UA 1MM, AA Plat, Marriott LT Titanium, Hyatt Glob, IHG ♢ Amb, Hilton ♢, Hertz Pres
Posts: 6,016
I spent all my points over the past few months and was beginning to wonder if I should've saved some. Not sure if this is just poor timing or dynamic pricing, but mostly I'm seeing about 1.5 cents per redemption nowadays (up to just under 2 cents per). Worse than the 2.5-3 cents I usually saw. Wonder if this is dynamic pricing starting to creep in... or just category creep for hotels. Still, devaluation is clearly here. At 1.5 cents per, many other spend/stay options become in play.
Mar 25, 2022, 1:57 pm
#133
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: LGA
Posts: 5
With my spreadsheet now updated, I can see that this year's moves are just the typical yearly category changes dressed up with the point increases. But there is now an addition of a new category 9 and this year's changes have no hotels decreasing in category. 5K increases are category 1 & 2 hotels moving to 2 & 3 respectively. 10K increases are 3, 4 & 6 going to 4, 5 & 7. 20K increases are category 5 & 8 moving to 6 & the new 9 respectively. 30K increases are hotels moving from category 7 to 8. No doubt this all changes next year, but for the rest of 2022, things are mostly the same.
Category 3 is 15 / 17.5 / 20 for the ranges, and the 10K increase would make it 25 / 27.5 / 30, but I believe these will have the category 4 range of 20 / 25 / 30.
Category 5 is 30 / 35 / 40, and with the 20K increase would make it 50 / 55 / 60, so this would be category 6 of 40 / 50 / 60.
Category 9 should now be 90 / 105 / 120 based on the shift from category 8.
With that stated, here are the category change numbers:
Cat 1 to 2: 11
Cat 2 to 3: 26
Cat 3 to 4: 23
Cat 4 to 5: 12
Cat 5 to 6: 39
Cat 6 to 7: 23
Cat 7 to 8: 42 (10 ex-SPG)
Cat 8 to 9: 40 (24 ex-SPG)
Some of the hotels increasing 20K points are actually the ones that will be higher than the 100K max we currently see:
A few amusing facts to me with my ~10 years of category change info:
French Leave Resort is the hotel with the highest and fastest point gain that I have on record, starting as a category 9 Marriott in 2016 (45K points), and increasing to 120K peak since August, 2018. A few Ritz-Carlton hotels were as low as 50K (Ritz-Carlton Maui Kapalua in 2013, Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah, Al Hamra Beach in 2018, and Ritz-Carlton Naples in 2013.)
There remains 44 former peak category 7 SPG hotels from the merger (30K Starpoints - 90K Marriott Equivalent Points). 22 are the new category 9, 17 are category 8, and 5 are category 7.
The Bodrum Edition will have jumped from 30K points in early 2018 to 100K peak this year for the highest and fastest jump to category 8.
Category 3 is 15 / 17.5 / 20 for the ranges, and the 10K increase would make it 25 / 27.5 / 30, but I believe these will have the category 4 range of 20 / 25 / 30.
Category 5 is 30 / 35 / 40, and with the 20K increase would make it 50 / 55 / 60, so this would be category 6 of 40 / 50 / 60.
Category 9 should now be 90 / 105 / 120 based on the shift from category 8.
With that stated, here are the category change numbers:
Cat 1 to 2: 11
Cat 2 to 3: 26
Cat 3 to 4: 23
Cat 4 to 5: 12
Cat 5 to 6: 39
Cat 6 to 7: 23
Cat 7 to 8: 42 (10 ex-SPG)
Cat 8 to 9: 40 (24 ex-SPG)
Some of the hotels increasing 20K points are actually the ones that will be higher than the 100K max we currently see:
Spoiler
A few amusing facts to me with my ~10 years of category change info:
French Leave Resort is the hotel with the highest and fastest point gain that I have on record, starting as a category 9 Marriott in 2016 (45K points), and increasing to 120K peak since August, 2018. A few Ritz-Carlton hotels were as low as 50K (Ritz-Carlton Maui Kapalua in 2013, Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah, Al Hamra Beach in 2018, and Ritz-Carlton Naples in 2013.)
There remains 44 former peak category 7 SPG hotels from the merger (30K Starpoints - 90K Marriott Equivalent Points). 22 are the new category 9, 17 are category 8, and 5 are category 7.
The Bodrum Edition will have jumped from 30K points in early 2018 to 100K peak this year for the highest and fastest jump to category 8.
Mar 25, 2022, 3:59 pm
#134
Join Date: Dec 2018
Programs: $9 Fare Club
Posts: 1,479
Mar 26, 2022, 11:58 am
#135
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 7,903
Since Marriott now has a formula for dynamic award pricing, I wonder if they'll eventually offer a way to use FNA at Homes & Villas. Maybe if they can't equate them to free nights, they could be redeemed as a small price reduction similar to a cash & points copay. With the growing popularity of rentals like vrbo and airbnb, this would be an innovative loyalty perk those competitors don't offer. I can imagine Chase and Amex might like to market this to acquire new card members.