What is the deal with the apparent devaluation of Marriott points?... I was converting 12.5:5 to United miles in the last few months, and now it has changed to 14:5 ... additionally, the promotion this summer (Unexpected Bonus) only yielded 45,000 bonus points instead of the typical 50,000 ... I know complaining about this may be nit-picky, but is this becoming a trend with other programs as well?

The way you are doing it is terrible. You can convert 1:1 using Travel Packages. Soon to be 1 to 1.1 (10% bonus).

And why did you post this under Hotel Deals instead of Marriott Rewards?

Just wondering how to do this...? Is this directly thru Marriott's website?

The unexpected bonus wasnt the same for everyone. I got 55k points out of it.

Travel Packages

Yeah, assuming that you want to spend 7 nights at a marriott/RC somewhere at one time, it's a great way to get a good ratio on the MR:airline conversion.

However, I've found that the devil is in the details on those 7 night redemptions. There are frequently promotions at the hotels I want to go to that dilute the value of using a 7-night reward.

I agree....

I usually spend 2 weeks in a hotel each summer. I end up booking 4 (2 rooms X 2 weeks) travel packages...when it makes sense.

Case study:
Prague-300K gets me 7 nights in a room, 120K ua (132K UA in a few weeks)
Daily rate at Prague Marriott - $373.00USD, Prague Boscolo $109.00USD....we wanted the Marriott..so it made sense.

Warsaw-rate was $92/night, would NOT make sense.

But...I also have a bazillion MR points, and not as many UA points...so to each his own!

That's assuming you ever need 7-night stays. I have never yet needed one ever. Once I needed a 6-night stay, and a few times a 5-night stay (mostly in places with no Marriott, like Igauzu Falls). Everything else has been 4 days or shorter.

So is it still a good value if you have to "throw away" a night or two or three, because of the 7-day requirement???

Even if I'm flying into someplace for 2 weeks, I'm never staying in one location for that whole time. I'm always out and about, exploring. The one time I did a 6-night stay, that was an airport hotel in the Madrid area, chosen because near the freeways and I was daytripping in a different direction each day. Same thing with 5 nights at a suburban Budapest hotel for my visit to Hungary (once I was done seeing the city proper on an even shorter in-city stay). But there's very few places in the world where the very same location would make the most sense for 7 nights/6 days of daytripping. (And how likely that these few places have a Marriott property, and that's it's a good value compared to the alternatives? Because, btw, I rarely tend to stay at top-tier properties. But does a Travel Package that's 7 days at a Residence Inn make sense???

Today 140K MR to 50K UA, or 280K to 100K UA, right ? Direct conversion.

Travel package:
270K MR to 120 UA plus 7 nights at cat 1-5

So, even throwing away the cat 1-5 7 nigh certificate, you get more from your MR points.

And in the past I was able to get a few MR points back when I asked to cancel the certificate

And under new MR-UA rules (if I read them properly)
280K to 120K UA direct (+20% miles)
vs
270K to 132K UA travel package (+10% miles)

I've bailed a day early on a Travel Package a couple times before...it's still the best award in the MR program, even taking a conservative valuation on the hotel portion.

The stealth devaluation to me is in the category creep...not so much the airline miles conversions that were always bad to begin with.

Underlining mine.

1. For some people yes; depends on circumstances (and if they need mileage in addition to hotel).

2. That's your travel pattern. Others do stay in one location or use it as a base.

3. There are many places where 7 days of daytripping would be handy, especially in larger metropolitan areas with higher-level brands (or lower brands that happen to be high due to location - including RIs ).

It's a to each their own. If you don't find a travel package to be of value, then don't redeem one. But don't make the assumption that because you don't find it of value that it has no value. Many FTers have redeemed it because they do find it of value.

As the first quote above said, use it when it makes sense & to each their own @:-)

Cheers.

Do you remember how many points did you get back? Did you just booked a vacation package and then call to cancel the nights?

The points you get back from the hotel part of a TP award is dependent on the number of airline points transferred. Check out the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...l-package.html thread.

Thanks for the link, hhoope01! Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Indeed I recognize it's a common travel pattern for others. For example, my sister's family does lots of 7-days stays (though many of them based near National Parks or stuff like that, where Marriott is not necessarily the brand you're likely to find there). She can't understand why I'm always moving around and I can't understand why they are able to stay so long in one place. But of course, we do different things on these trips.

I've never said it's not a good value for anyone. I've not even said it's not necessarily a good value for me, I just haven't yet found how to get good value for it for myself on any trip. But I have many years in which to keep looking for such an opportunity!

I do wish, though, that the 5-day option was available to Marriott Elite members, not just to vacation owners or whatever. I do get annoyed when sometimes people say it can be done with 5 days (rather than 7) without mentioning that the 5-day version is not available to "mere mortals".