Chris,

Ditto. Thanks for the follow-up.

Chris...

Add my sincere thanks for your follow-up.

As I said in my post yesterday....I'm an optimist. But the way I operate is to also not be surprised and have a "plan B" ready if the optimistic outcome doesn't materialize. My "preparedness" here being enhanced in light of the way the most recent changes were implemented

That said, I'd like to add that if I had to bet my own money on any future changes from Marriott, my money would be on changes for the better. Or at minimum, a tangible improvement or enhancement of some sort to counterbalance anything that might have the effect of being negative for customers.

When it comes to my preferred hotel vendor....I'll keep my loyalty and my optimism until given a reason not to.

Considering the specific prospective changes related by the GM to the OP, who lists themselves as a Marriott Plat. (and I believe are listing an accurate account of what they heard) have nothing to do with any changes current or future that have been officially released, I'm still skeptical.

A reasonable person would think, IMO, that recent past experience supports that skepticism. YMMV.

At the very least, this GM needs to get some updating/training on true policy, so they don't feel empowered to spread disinformation, regardless of any misunderstandings they might have. Only fair

Pat

Those changes already happened to marriottrewards.com/merchandise - the points for stuff catalog from 2006

An HDTV in the 06 Catalog went from 330,000 points to over 600,000 points -for the same set in 2007. Talk about a devalued point and reward system.

The fact that they are changing the Gold, Plat levels, etc mid-year emphasizes the fact that you're too far in 07 to swap to Hilton or SPG and make a level or the next for this calendar year.

That's the payback for loyalty these days.........

**Effective June 1, 2007, Stay Anytime rewards will have a point-requirement increase to 100% over Standard Rewards. Stay Anytime rewards allow you to override blackout dates and other restrictions. The new pricing will apply to Stay Anytime reservations booked on or after June 1, 2007.

Funny thing is that same TV probably went down in price by 30%. I don't even need a new TV and I'm having trouble keeping myself from buying a new one. 42' plasmas used to go for $2-3K just a year or two ago.

Slightly OT, but.... me too!! Seeing 42-inchers in the $800-900 range - new, including shipping - is tempting.

I try not to grumble too much at the Marriott catalog: it's not targeted at people like us who enjoy traveling and maximizing return for our points. It's targeted at people who have millions of points and don't really want to stay in hotels when they don't have to. To them, redeeming for more travel would effectively make their points worth zero. But redeeming for merchandise - even at very poor rate - is a nice touch that some other programs don't offer at all.

Chris beat me to it.

I'm always amazed at the spin-up over a typical "I talked to a guy who told me he heard from a guy who should know that ..." post, and was willing to bet anyone that this was baloney.

Most properties don't offer "saver awards" now . So MR finally stops misleading us about the availability of "saver awards".

[/QUOTE] He also said the number of nights needed to qualify for elite levels will be changing as well and a new level above platinum will be added. He also said the benefits will be changing as well, but he could not offer details as to what the changes were. [/QUOTE]

No kidding # nites required for elite will be UP; and the benefits will be DOWN. Question is by how much. Effectively its happening as we speak (more push toward stay-anytime awards), so why wait for the announcement.

While it may be true that pointsaver awards are not available, standard awards are fairly easy to get.

I've booked :

two weeks at the phuket JW marriott - standard award for May

one week at the Marriott on Ohau for June - standard award

one week at the JW Marriott on Ohau for July - standard award
one week at the marriott on the big island also for July - standard award

one week at the marriott on Ohau for August - standard award

one week at the JW marriott Ohau for Feb - standard award

just got back from a week at the Kensington Marriott - London - standard award booked only two weeks before travel.

In short - I can find LOTS of availability of standard awards. I might add, almost all of these were the dates and places I wanted to go.

Of course, your mileage (or points) may vary - but this is my experience.

Marriott - keep up the great work! I love your program!

Billy

Sure, standards are reasonably accessible. The OP was about PointSavers. Maybe the Chicago prop in question simply doesn't have any PointSaver dates? From Chris' response, the concept of PointSavers isn't being eliminated.

My observation is actually that there are more of these than ever. Although they typically aren't available for 90-day stretches like they used to be.

As long as there are hotels that chronically have excess inventory from time to time (including on different days of the week), I don't see where it makes any sense for them to ditch the savers.

I must confess that I was a bit concerned, but am very happy to hear that this was merely an uninformed GM

I thought PointSavers had gone the way of the doh-doh bird? I rarely see them or am able to use them. Didn't we have a thread at one point (hum the song where have you gone joe dimaggio here) saying where have all the PointSavers gone or when will they be listed?

Cheers.

Save at the Ritz!

http://marriott.com/rewards/ritzCarltonPointSavers.mi

Pat