mahWYO

In my experience, it is becoming increasingly difficult to use bonvoy points for Marriott branded hotel rooms. For example, I recently tried to book a 5 night stay using points. Of the 8 hotels with available rooms, only 2 of the lower tier hotels were offering rooms for points. I am finding this situation becoming increasingly common.

Can anyone offer advice how to get around this problem? Or…..are our Bonvoy points eventually going to become useless?

ElevatorEnthusiast

Can you provide your destination and dates?

The reason is likely that standard rooms aren't available on those days, but I would like to see this for myself.

myperks

book earlier or have more points for upgraded room types?

Kacee

Travel demand is quite high right now. It's not at all uncommon for properties to sell out award rooms, particularly in popular locations.
There is no requirement that Marriott properties offer available standard rooms for awards. They are expressly allowed to capacity control.

craigthemif

Instead of collecting hotel points, collect cashback / hotels.com credit. That way you can always pay for a hotel room...

ElevatorEnthusiast

Agreed, though, in practice, I usually see points options if cash options for standard rooms are available, at least in the US. Not always, though.

My assumption is that OP is trying to go to a high-demand area during a peak time. 8 options doesn't seem like many - perhaps a smaller city during an event or a national park area if we're talking about the US.

Hopefully, OP will provide more details.

Centurion

You could fire/terminate Amex and get a JP Morgan Chase product like Saphire and just book anything and get a instant 25% discount from the cash price. Quick easy and painless. Amex needs to Wake UP!

cfischer

I have no issues whatsoever booking with points, at least when I am booking a couple months in advance. Not seeing anything unusual w/ Marriott right now.

Centurion

I see a noticeable change the OP describes. Things have definitely changed for the worse. I was familiar with told Starwood games where a resort would make it impossible to book five nites to ge fifth nite free. Now properties are taking basic rooms out of inventory. At best some allow points plus cash. It’s getting comical.


QUOTE=cfischer;34307545]I have no issues whatsoever booking with points, at least when I am booking a couple months in advance. Not seeing anything unusual w/ Marriott right now.[/QUOTE]

LAX

What does Amex have to do with the lack of room availability at Marriott family of hotels via points?

LAX

storewanderer

Suggest diversifying your points programs.

Start to accumulate points in other programs (IHG, Hyatt, Hilton) so you can shop around.

Go with a Chase card that earns Ultimate Rewards Points that you can transfer to travel partners like Hyatt and Marriott so that way if one chain is overpriced or unavailable you have options.

I assume you are US based and say this from a US mindset. You'll realize at this point in time whatever status and whatever benefits you get that you think are a good reason to tie you to a single chain/program in the US, have gone downhill so significantly in the past two years, that the value of the benefits no longer justifies overpaying or inconveniencing yourself to be tied to a single chain. If you are traveling in Asia or somewhere that the hotels still do a good job recognizing status then ignore this post entirely.

Centurion

The OP has Bonvoy Brilliant which is Amex product. JP Morgan Chase has multiple cards that let you book with ease online and get an immediate 25% or more discount when you use their associate booking portal and book with cash or points. NO BLACK OUT DATES, etc. The east of use is incredible.

ElevatorEnthusiast

At this point, OP's thread has brought out some weird responses. Without any additional information from OP, we can't really give any real answers. I'm not convinced OP was looking for suggestions of which programs to switch to - especially OTA programs which come with a whole host of considerations and issues.

LAX

You must have gotten that info from a different thread as I don't see it mentioned in the OP on this thread. Amex has cards that earn MR, which can be used to book travel with some discount/bonus, too. I am not trying to start a Chase vs. Amex debate now, but I don't think Amex is at fault here.

LAX

Retiredlife

Just as a counterpoint to the OP’s experience, I have had excellent experiences using my points this year, both on trips booked many months in advance and trips booked only a month or so in advance. Booking in late March for an early May trip to Arizona, I was able to use 35-point and 50 point credit card//promo free night awards at two different vacation-oriented properties, getting excellent value for each - far above the normal cost of hotels in those categories. I was also able to not only book a third resort on points (itself a bargain in terms of room cost vs. points category) but booked a prime-view room by adding some cash to my points. This was among the best values I have ever gotten for my points. I have also booked a five night points stay at a prime-location, luxury property in Florence for September, where I was also able to use either cash or more points to book an upgraded room, and my husband has booked two other hotels on our trip with points (all booked many months in advance.). While I had found points a bit harder to use in recent years on anything but the lowest room category, I have been pleased to see increased availability to book upgraded rooms as well.