Many of you have pointed out there is an element of point inflation. I can not say that this change will be better for all of you. The fifth night free enhancement was brought on, in part, to mitigate this effect. For Platinum members this effect is further mitigated by the increased elite bonus. You may be spending more, but you will also be earning more.

The primary goal of this change is to make reward redemption more accessible to all Marriott Rewards members.

For those of you, who do not have the luxury of booking redemptions stays significantly in advance, or can not use your points for long stays at a single location, I trust you will find these changes rewarding. Using your points for a spur of the moment weekend trip will be easier, and adding a night to your stay will be simpler because instant redemption will not require anytime rewards.

Ira

well it looks like Marriott is tired of offering reward rooms in NYC, London , Paris and Rome - all of those are Cat 8 with a 35% or so higher redemption. Probably their most popular reward destinations

I guess other European properties are looking better now for me. The plan is simpler but Bill giveth and Bill taketh away.

Bummer

Hello Marriott Concierge,

First thanks so much for soliciting and considering our feedback on what we'd like to see to improve Marriott Rewards.

Now, to be blunt, when I read your announcement I was excited, but now that I see some of the point devaluation details not mentioned in your announcement, I'm not sure if the improvements are worth it. Not that I don't appreciate your efforts to implement some other significant benefits, but I do have to weigh these against the points dilution.

After all, the increase in cost of a 7-night stay is about 50%!! (unless I am reading this wrong?). Now that was the most attractive feature of the current award program, so that hits us pretty hard. Now if I am booking during Christmas week at certain popular locations that 50% increase to get rid of the blackout dates is probably worth it; but it really hurts for non-peak season redemptions.

Now, if I compare the new program with a current standard redemption for a 5-night stay, this is what I get:
Old program: Category 6, 110,0000 points
New: Cat. 6 - 120,000 points
Old: Cat. 7 - 130,000 points
New: Cat. 7 - 140,000 points to 160,000 points (because some or all of these will be changed to a new. cat. 8 as time goes on)

So even for 5 nights there is an increase in the points requirements even with the "free" night. Again, this is only a net benefit if you usually are redeeming during peak periods where it has been hard to redeem a standard award under the current program.

Still working through this, but I know I'd feel better if you can find a way to reduce the impact of the increased point requirements for 7-night awards.

Question: will there still be pointSaver awards, and, if so, how will the point requirements / availability for these be impacted?

Yes these are all very good points, well reasoned. I'd still like, however, a way to get the 7-night points + miles redemptions at a level similar to what they currently are (at least not so much as a 50% increase for the hotel portion). Or at least add an option to add on the miles to a 5-night stay as well as a 7-night stay. Don't know how likely it is that you could tweak the new system in either of these ways, but I'd sure appreciate it if you could.

It was mentioned in the FAQs that pointsavers will still be offered for varying lengths at certain properties. The percentage discount will remain the same since you save one category for these awards. Of course, the biggest percentage in savings will remain going from category 3 to 2, which is a drop of 33 %. Going from category 8 (new) to 7 will only save 12.5 %. IME, it has become a lot harder to get a pointsaver award in the recent 6-9 months. I don't see the availability of pointsavers that existed a few years ago.

There is one place where you can get a pretty good value from the new award schedule: Moscow. The FS properties there are category 4 and 5. A travel package would have a smaller devaluation, and the room rates exceed London, NYC, and Rome in the summertime.

Ouch.

I don't think I've ever redeemed anything other than 7 night awards, typically at higher category properties. This change knocks 40% right off the value of points accumulated over the last 15 years. Adding 15% to my future earnings (15/dollar vs 13/dollar) certainly does not make up for that. Not as bad as USAir devastation of their FF program, but this hurts big time.

Time to book several big trips for next year. Soon.:(

Some math - average increase

By # nights
1 - 0
2 - 7.2%
3 - 12.8%
4 - 20.4%
5 - 0.6%
6 - 12.0%
7 - 22.1%

By Category
1 - 8.5%
2 - 4.7%
3 - 5.7%
4 - 6.0%
5 - 14.8%
6 - 17.6%
7 - 17.8% (actually higher due to Cat 8 movement)

So if you do 5 days at a time at the local FI, you're looking at 0-7% savings. If you do a week at a time at a resort property, 30-40% increase. Hmmm, I wonder where the majority of points are redeemed.

I'd hazard a guess that the weighted average increase here is 15%. And that there will be a lot of 5-night awards in the future.

Impact analysis : http://richs.smugmug.com/gallery/537...165_qjyGM-O-LB

Roll it back!
 

Seriously folks.

How many of us were actually redeeming Stay Anytime awards? I personally never have. Sure most of us would moan about lack of availability for our chosen dates at our chosen property but then for the most part either changed our plans to when the standard award was available, found some discounted rates, used coupons like the BBs and PPs or even the 10% discounted gift cards and used the BOGO EEO (for the Golds and Plats).

I personally have done all of the above including jumping hotels, using priceline or <name your own trick here>

This change will force the value for money (or points) dude in me to change my vacation habits to either 5 days at a time (which is fine if you do it domestically but not for international) or move to a new hotel program. I have already started reading SPG and Hyatt boards to see if their program makes more sense for my kind of business travel and redemption patterns.

Marriott Concierge - I'd strongly recommend that MR look at reversing these changes. I brought these changes to the attention of my team today evening and no one was too pleased.

Sigh! Guess the honeymoon's over....

This does not make sense. If the bonus is being increased to 50% for Platinums, that is still peanuts compared to what I will be paying for the 7 night vacation package. Also, all changes go into effect at the same time, which means that I will have to first cough up the extra points for the package before I can earn it via the extra 20% and that too if I become platinum. In the meantime, my current points earnings has been completely devalued.
I vote for making "No changes" to the current program and keeping it as is. I will be 100 times happier with that. If I wanted the changes what Marriott is making, I would go to Starwood. I don't need another Starwood here.
I hate to say, but I have to :td: for this change.

What about partner awards like Ritz Carlton?

Ditto.

Griz you nicely captured the key aspect of the changes - value!

This is a significant game changer for me. My pattern is almost entirely 7 night award stays (as others have mentioned) and now the cost of those is significantly increased. The only half decent redemption remaining is a 5 night award. I can do those, but only in ways that I hadn't planned on and am not really looking forward to.

I regularly debate the relative merits of HH Diamond vs. MR Gold, especially given that they are roughly equally difficult to achieve. IMHO with the megabonus and the "old" redemption schedule, MR just beat HH. With the new schedule the tables are turned and HH is (IMHO) the clear winner for value per $$$ spent at my level of travel.

For me, on balance, the effects will be slightly negative....although still pretty much a wash, considering the new 50% plat bonus.

Since the majority of my points stays are now going to be at "8"s, a few questions come to mind.

1.) Are popular hotels going to tighten up their poinyd availability inventory prior to January 15 so as to thwart those seeking to "cash out" their points early?

2.) What about the Euro-hopper awards? Are they going to exclude the 8s and/or increase the point requirement? Or will they just drop them entirely?

3.) Can we start a pool on how many more properties schlep into the 8 category? Can we start a pool on which'll be the first? My money's on Grosvenor House. You with me on this one, Sharon?

My heart is hurting for the Marriott Concierge
 

To have to be the one to deliver this piece of very bad news is horrible.
To have to have your credibility on this site ruined by some suit that palmed this responsibility off to you is deplorable.
That Marriott International did not have a TITLED and NAMED representitive come forward to make this announcement(Ed French for example)is insulting to all of the participants in this forum.

This move is greed(not suprising-Marriott is nothing if not a greedy company)sugar coated to attempt to cover its bitter core.It is an insult of the highest magnitude to expect your loyal customers in this forum not to see through this charade.

Marriott Rewards and Marriott International are once again cloaked in the shame of greed,placing profits before customer satisfaction,and dishonesty.

Based on my math, I'll earn 15.4% more when getting credit for my stays due to the increase in the PLAT bonus. My CC spend is obviously unchanged, but increasing due to inflation (:)). My favorite travel package redemption is effectively increasing by 13%. My new points are essentially worth 2.4% more under the new system. My old points are devalued by 13%, but I'm can fix that before the end of the year as my balance is <1million for the first time in a long while.

I fail to see how the sky is falling. I'd rather things stayed the same, but between the "wash" on my travel package when considering the increased platinum bonus and the nature of my other redemptions, it isn't as bad as it could be.

At least we know what Marriott has in store for us in 2009 now. Hopefully this will discourage any further "enhancing" of the program until 2010.

Well lets see, next month I'm doing 14 days at cat 7 for 300,000. Next year I'll get 10 days for 280,000...wonderful!!! My plan will be to reserve a couple trips before the change is made to burn through some points. Since I'm already plat through 2/2010, next year I'll just do 35 nights to keep gold with my premier cc. I'll do this just to keep concierge lounge access but will then shift the balance to SPG. Not that SPG is great, but at least at their top tier I might get a shot at a suite once in a while.

I'll be going for the status match tomorrow AM and will be canceling and re-booking about a dozen nights already reserved for the next 6 weeks as soon as it goes through.

Good plan Marriott, it only cost you about 30-40 nights/year from me.

What a year. First NWA pisses me off by not matching any of DL's double EQM offers and now Marriott drops the value of my already earned hotel currency by about 20%. I think I'll go look at my 401K statement and cheer myself up :(