Safti

I have a category 6 five night travel package which I would like to attach to a hotel before Aug. 18. Any category 6 hotels that are going up in category which I should book now?

CPRich

How do you define "going up"? There are currently 9 Marriott and 5 RC categories, with some overlap, that are being fit into 8 new categories.

For current Cat 6,
- 10 will be new Cat 3
- 461 will be new Cat 4
- 109 will be new Cat 5
- 1 will be new Cat 6

If you make travel decisions solely based on category, you should travel to Marriott's Club Son Antem in Spain.

Personally, I'd look over the 580+ properties and decide where I want to spend a vacation. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think I'd rather slum in at the Cat 4 Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco Resort in Italy than live it up at the fancy Cat 5 Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti.

hhoope01

I think the OP was really asking if anyone had a list of the current Cat. 6 properties that will be moving up in award costs. Then the OP could look through that list to see if any of those might be at a location the OP would want to visit at some point in the future. Thus if the points are going up for hotels in that location they may want to prioritize visiting there sooner rather than later.

With that in mind, check out https://points-redemption.marriott.com/category-change. You can organize the list by Points Difference and then organize it by Current Points Required. I then jumped to the page showing the Current Points Required at 30K and that have a positive Points increase. Took about 2 minutes and I could see all the Cat. 6's that will be increasing in award costs come Aug. 18th. You can then check to see if any are at locations you want to visit.

Safti

hhoope01

After you connect to that web-link, click the "Point Difference" column title. That should re-organize the list with "Las Alcobas" being the first listed entry and having a -30000 points difference. Next click the "Current Points Required" column header. That should again reorganize the list with "AC Hotel Badajaz" as the top listing costing only 7500 current MR points. But you should notice that within all the "7500" costing hotels, the are still sub-organized by "Point Difference". At the bottom of the table, you should see that you are looking at page 1 of 69. You can move forward through that list until you find the hotels that currently cost 30000 points (i.e. the Cat. 6 hotels.) Since that list is sub-organized by points difference, look for the 30000 current point hotels that have a positive point difference (i.e. they will cost more under the new program). They will all be listed together.

Safti

Thanks hhoope01. I will try that out and let you know. I didn't realize that you could categorize in that way.

Horace

At https://points-redemption.marriott.com/category-change, there are quite a few properties going up 5,000 points from 30,000 points to 35,000 points (new program category 5). Using the instructions from hhoope01, you can find them grouped together. It's easier if you set the table to "300 Results per Page" using the small box at the right edge above the table.

Quite a few of the "30,000 to 35,000" results are for Starwood legacy properties. Before August 18, you can only use your 5-night Marriott Rewards e-certificate for Marriott legacy properties, so you need to ignore those for what you're trying to do.

There are some international Ritz-Carltons that qualify, but also some U.S. domestic Fairfield Inns.

Two excellent hotels going from 30,000 to 35,000 are are the JW Marriott Indianapolis and the Hotel Blackhawk, Autograph Collection (Davenport, Iowa). I've stayed at both. There's a lot to do in and around Indianapolis. It would take more effort in and around the Quad Cities.

Your best choices really depend on what you like to do on vacation.

You may want to consider upgrading your e-certificate to Category 7 (35,000 points per night) if you have enough points. It would open a lot of better possibilities.

VisaW

Having just returned from the Marriott in Ypsilanti, I will say it's quite nice and deserving of the category increase.

zoqfotpik

Have you been to Niagara recently? Some of the full-service hotels in the area are going up in category, including the Sheraton on the Falls - from 30k to 50k.

Horace

E-certificates from Marriott Rewards packages can not be used at Starwood legacy properties before August 18. Then on August 18, they will be in the new category.

There are a bunch of Westins, Sheratons, and other Starwood legacy properties that are currently 10,000 Starpoints per night (equivalent to 30,000 points). Many of them are going to 35,000 points. That's an opportinity for members booking now from their SPG balance (including Rewards points transferred to SPG), but not an option with e-certificates from Marriott packages.

zoqfotpik

You're right I completely forgot about that.

Safti

Worked like a charm! Thanks so much.

Horace

Did you find the perfect Category 6 hotel to book before Aug. 18?

Care to share?

Safti

Well, here's what's interesting. I found a few that will go up in points from 30K to 35K but the category will actually go from a cat 6 to a cat 5. That's an interesting dilemma. So even though they will be more points to book, the cat number is lower. I am looking to use a TP so any Starwood is out automatically. Right now, I have a cat 7 five night TP and I've just attached it to a cat. 7 hotel. As of August 18, that hotel will now be a cat 5. I'm not sure what to do.

hhoope01

My suggestion would be to go with CPRich's suggestion in post #2 . Forget for a moment trying to "maximize" your points usage and what is the "best", most luxurious hotel you might use your points at. Instead, just focus on where you want to go the most and then make a reservation for the best option there. If later you find out that there might have been another hotel on a different continent you could have had a better $/pt award, it won't matter. You will have had a great vacation visiting someplace you really wanted to see. ^