It not the end ot the World
 

Not sure why everyone is so upset.
Yes there was an increase but for the most part it was a < 10% increase on points. I know that some complain about the devaluation of the 713, but I never thought it was that big a deal. Everytime I reach it, I have so many stinking airline miles I can't imaging I would need any more, I rather save the points for hotel stays.
And from what I have seen here, most people just used the 713 to get the miles with no intention of actually using it as intended (To allow you to travel to the same place as your hotel is)
And with the latest promotions that Marriott has put out (The Weekend elite, AT&T and the new 25K) I don't think I will even notice the increase.
Not that I am happy that points were raised and this had better not be any more increases in the next couple of years, but I don't see the increase as having much effect on me except I now can get in places that had capacity control.

Just my .02 (or I guess .03 under the new plans)

Its not just the 713. I'd rather use my hotel points for hotel stays too, but they have been devalued too. I looked at the ones I've used in the past and they are up 25% to 33%.

And remember a few years ago the Hertz bonus was eliminated. And the airline bonus was also eliminated.

rthib: Disagree that the airline award is "intended" to go to the hotel. Years ago (lots of years ago) the top award in the program was four tickets anywhere in the world (I took 2 on CO and 2 on TWA), 3 separate 7 day hotel stays (good for suite) *and* a cruise (Greek Islands) for 2 people for a week (plus some free car rentals). Obviously, there was no "intent" that they be used together.

Not that it matters, but the title for the 713 was I believe "Choice Getaway" not "Free airline miles".

As for Hotel Inflation, last time I bought a 7 night to JW in Hawaii it was 125K now it is 130K.
An increase but not the end of the world.

Same for the week I just bought for Aruba, 125 to 130.

By the way, this is the kind of non-sense that may have changed the way the 713 type plan works now:

"I am going to look on United & American web sites and check where they fly the furtherest like AUstralia or Japan call Marriott and order the certs and tell them to deposit points for one in United and the other in AMerican for the furthest distance possible. THen I am going to turn the hotel certs back in since I have no particular trips in mind at this point.

By ordering a 714 for 425k and redepositing the two 10-day certs, then ordering a 713 and redepositing the 7 day cert, you will get 360k miles, plus 62,500 points left over."

Not that I mind people exploiting a system flaw, but this is what we can expect.

FWIW, I'm with PG here as well, since I too see a somewhat larger increase in my case and also bemoan the loss of the Pointsaver awards which was my most frequent award! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Sorry you don't like my posting, however the 713 award was the most popular one offered by Marriott under the old system. Under the old plan it took 200,000 points to get the R/T air for 2 (coach class) anywhere in the world and the 7 night hotel certificate. Under the new points system most of the nice hotels are a minimum of a category five and a max of category 7 hotels. If you take the middle (category 6) that same award for 7 nights hotel and r/t air for 2 (max of 120,000 FF miles) that same award will now cost me 250,000 points. That adds up to a over 20% increase for the same reward. I earned my points under the "Old system" and I feel perfectly entitled to figure out how to get the max use out of them before Marriott devalues them. Marriott gave us this out by giving us until 7/30 to claim the old awards and I intend to take the max advantage before Marriott lowers the boom.

KathyP:

Your math is correct--the old 200,000 point award (good, I might add, until 7/31!) now takes 250,000 points for the same benefits! Thats inflation!

Yes, if your goal was to see how many FF points you could get, this is a loss.
But for where I have gone:
Hawaii - 7 Nights + 2 AA tickets = 200K
Aruba - 7 Nights + 2 AA tickets = 200K

Like I said, not the end of the world.

Nobody said it was the end of the world. A snip a couple of years ago, another cut now, maybe some more in the future ....

rthib...

Your formula certainly worked for Hawaii and Aruba...but Europe, Asia and South America all stink under the new system.

As I have been stating, this is not the correct time to be taking things away from your best customers. Heck, if you like the new system, use it...personally, after 16 years of Marriott getting my hundreds of thousands of dollars of business and my company's business, if this is how they are going to thank me, well, I am on my way to Starwood!

Personally speaking...it is a very big deal to me and Marriott aint seen nothing yet if there is a recession. Gas prices have hit $2 again and airfares will be going up with the higher fuel prices. People will not be travelling much and hotel capacities will increase due to empty rooms...now is it time to tick off your best customers?

I think not!

If you went to buy groceries and saw that all the items that used to cost $1 now cost $1.25 - $1.33 and in some cases $1.50 or more, with perhaps one or two items priced at $1.05 - $1.10, what would you do?

If the grocery store had a special, where they would supply all the items your family needed for a week for $200, but they decided to raise the price to $250, what would you think? It wasn't raised because of an increase in the CPI.

Is it the end of the world? No it isn't. Is it a devaluation of the currency? You bet! Overall it means less awards for the same amount of travel, nights, MVCI point exchanges or transfers into the program.

Are the new awards any good? Of course they are. However, they are not nearly as good as the existing awards and schedules.

This is just an example of a unilateral devaluation of your existing and future currency. It's painful when it occurs. Look what happened to AA when they devalued their currency years ago.

You can't expect people to like it, and those that dislike it the most are the loyal few.

Are the new no-capacity awards any good? Of course they are, at least as an option to those that want to use their points that way. Does it give Marriott incentive to reduce the availability of cap-control rooms? I don't know, but since the cheaper properties have been added to the program, there are now potentially more points chasing the same number rooms.

-David

While the changes are not great, I also don't think they are that bad. Even at 250,000 points, you get a 2 to 1 points to miles conversion and 7 nights. This is still far better than anything the competitor's offer.

Going back to the 1980's for 100,000 points I recall you could get two system-wide plane tickets on partner airlines, 7 nights stay at any Marriott hotel, one week FREE rental car, and a half price cruise coupon. Also you could get lots of bonus points for staying at specific properties -- not just a handful of hotels as it is now. You also got bonus -- 25 percent I belife for flying a partner airline, 20 percent for a partenr rental car, and 10 percent for being a "Club Marquis" member. All that was replaced with Marriott Reward member PM bonus of 30 percent. So here we have some 25 years or so later more than double the points needed to claim a similar reward -- minus the FREE rental car, no cruise discount coupon, and less bonus points. But we do have a 100-minute ATT calling card worth about $5 or so. No, it's not the end of the world. But the Marriott Rewards program is far less than what it was. Seems to me like Marriott could have protected its best customer base by maintaining the current awards levels and creating the new rewards program on August 1 -- in effect having two tiers. Marriott Rewards members could then be given the option of redeeming "old" points or "new" points. Delta did this some years ago replacing its frequent flyer program with SkyMiles. Delta frequent flyers have the choice of using their old frequent flyer miles under the old program (much more generous, of course) or using their new SkyMiles rewards.

One other not about the increase in points. The price of rooms have increased so the number of points you earn per night also increases (5 Night @ 100 = 5000 vs 5 Nights @ 200 = 10000 point).
Yes you are spending more money, but also earning more (the whole inflation thing) so compairing point values 20 years ago to today is somewhat flawed.