Points:1,115,654
Level:Platinum Elite
Nights:109 this year
Total points:1,890,654

How many out there cross the 1M mark, what is your plans for using them ?
Do you think Marriott points value well change in the future ?
Usually use points for stay when room price over $500 but in the future my plan to try Travel package for the first time ..

I well cross the 1,300,000 by the end of this year
no Marriott visa but AMEX with SPG

I was at 1.6M at one point; I'm now down to 400k and thankful for it. I've redeemed a couple of travel packages, and had long stays in places like San Diego, Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and more. My advice is to use the points, not hoard them. You don't earn interest on the points and categories go up, not down, meaning the longer you wait, the less the points are worth.

I suppose I keep hoarding mine and am well in excess of 1M. I can afford to travel now and am saving them for when I quit work.

Points are always devalued over time. Saving them for retirement travel is a poor idea unless you travel so much that you cannot spend them or if retirement is within two years. I have earned almost 3 million points with Marriott, and I have less than 50,000 in my account.

What's the upside of saving points to such a degree? It seems like it's time to USE THEM! Enjoy them, travel the world, etc....

I still have just under 3 million in my account... I will use them for travel packages.

haha that depends on how fast you earn them... you may not have time to use them..

I had 1.5 million at the beginning of the year and now down to a little over 200K. Used some for us for stays, gave some to family members, and donated some to charity. Now back to rebuilding my account balance.

Everyone has their own needs/plans for points, but at no point in the future will your existing points be worth as much as they are today. Points always devalue over time.

I've earned about 3-million lifetime, and have about 100k in my account right now. I've been able to use them in Paris, London, and Rome, but with kids now, travel packages are great deals because five airline tickets for every trip will blow through my frequent flier miles.

With 1.5 million points stockpiled, you are somewhat "inflation proof" in that you'll always be able to swing at least a few good vacations out of that number of points, but I don't think I'd be shocked to find that 1.5 million points 10 years from now gets you about what 1.0 million gets you today.

If you’ve a million points in your account then you’re doing this wrong! Hotel points don’t increase in value with passing time, they decrease. Marriott’s last big devaluation was nearly 10 years ago but since then they’ve added an extra category and a lot of category creep. It’s telling that 5 years ago the megabonus Certs were cats 1-4, now they’re 1-5, just to keep up with the category creep.

Marriott has shown that it doesn’t want to offend SPGers and last year added benefits such as late checkouts to bring MR more into line with SPG. But SPGers are used to dreadful earn and burn rates. A Marriott Plat earns 15MR per $ and rates top out at 45k/nt, 70k for Ritz. The equivalent SPG Plat75 earns the equivalent of 12MR per $ and rates top out at the equivalent of 105MR per night. When Marriott announces the combined scheme next year expect it to be as inoffensive to SPGers as possible, Marriott paid billions for them. SPGers are not offended by poor earn and burn rates. Marriott hoarders should take heed and do the math.

I�m not sure if Marriott will reduce earning rates as much as increase the cost of awards. Reducing earning rates tends to make current customers more upset, and it is not conducive to keeping Marriott elites happy. If Marriott increases the cost of awards, it has the benefit of reducing their existing liability, and it is not as offensive on the surface to customers.

1. Points are devalued at the same destinations perhaps. But you may find that you later will travel to destinations where points are a better value because of the destination. (Africa and the Middle East are teeming with low-category hotels which would be high category if in the USA. But if all your travels are in the USA now, "burning" those points because you don't realize you'll travel to whether they're much more valueable in a few years could be counter-productive.

2. Points you can earn easily now, even if devalued, may be more valuable than points you can't earn easily later. You have to look at replenishing cost, not just devaluation. In some cases, replenishing cost goes up way faster than devaluation does, and in that case devaluation is the lesser of two evils.

3. Using up points just to use them up, when you don't have a good use for them, may be "waste" at least as much value as devaluation would, maybe even much more.

If you can afford to easily earn points faster than you can use them now, but you know you'll have a harder time earning points later, does it really makes sense to "throw away" all those points now just because they might devalue??

The thing is, you have do to do math on devaluation, and not just assume it is will make your points "worthless". It will make them worth less by some amount, and the amount matters (in how it compares to current "forced" uses of those points).

+1
I only use my MR for overseas travel, always coming from both points and miles from my travel packages...

I agree with the sentiment of earning and burning, but in fairness the increase in number of points needed for a room is at least in part offset by the increased price of rooms.

Example: Suppose a particular room costs $100 and you need 10,000 points for the room. That's a penny per point. Suppose in 10 years you need 20,000 points, but the room rises to $200. That's still a penny a point. And for most people, it will take less work to earn that penny in 10 years than to earn it now.

While in practice the value will likely dip below a penny per point, it's also highly likely that the decline will be partially offset by higher room prices.

I don�t have the desire to travel to places where Marriott has a high concentration of lower category awards like the Middle East and Africa. Others may like to visit those places, but I am not interested. My primary international travel destinations are Western Europe, Hong Kong, and South Korea. I don�t have any foreign travel planned for now, but I would like to visit Australia, Chile, Japan and Eastern Europe sometime in the future. Those locations have had serious category increases over the years. In addition, I feel the County Hall in London has downgraded their evening offerings in the past year or so based on what other FT travelers have noticed. I am glad I stayed there in 2009 when the service was better.

If you cannot earn a lot of points down the road, you can always pay for the hotel with cash. I�m disinclined to worry about future earnings in a pseudo-currency that is devaluing over time. Since award stays count towards status, you can still use them for rollover elite nights. When I was a more frequent traveler several years ago, award stays did not count toward status. It is more economical to earn lifetime status if you have a few years where you exceed the needed nights for platinum or gold by a decent amount.

The real long term term savings is in getting at least lifetime gold status with Marriott since that gets you the free enhanced internet, the executive lounge access, the chance for room upgrades, and 4 pm late checkout. Having gold or platinum status while staying overseas can help a lot at full service properties in terms of getting room upgrades and better service in general. I�m definitely glad to have lifetime platinum with Marriott since I get to enjoy being a platinum member without getting 75 elite nights a year.