Marriott's program sucks even more when you read about the SPG category changes and elimination of most peak season awards. More hotels were downgraded than upgraded.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...es-2009-a.html

http://www.spgpromos.com/categorychanges/index.cfm?

This data was compiled by soitgoes.

How our resident Marriott "loyalist" are spinning this?

Oh ye of little faith. All you need do is check out Marriott's http://www.marriott.com/marriott.mi?...tRoomAvailable page.

I think it is painfully obvious what has happened. Now that Marriott has no blackout dates, 5th night free awards, and a 20% increase in bonus points for Plats, SPG got really scared that everyone was going to jump ship and head to Marriott. This is nothing more than SPG's attempt to try and match all the great changes Marriott has made to their program. :p

No different from SPG. This is inevitable when you have devaluations, and devaluations are inevitable as programs print more points (and room rates rise, recession notwithstanding). Whenever I have attended a timeshare presentation I always ask the salesperson if they will guarantee the point values for hotels or agree to increase my points to match any devaluation. You know the answer.

Umm not quite. Normally SPG raises its rates - this has happened pretty much every year for the last few years. But given the recession and precipitous fall in occupancy, SPG probably decided it was a good year to throw members a bone. Smart move! (Not to worry, devaluation will be back as soon as the economy recovers).

I agree they are throwing bones out, but I suspect it is mostly due to the rates falling over the last 6-12 months (especially the last few months) rather than them raising rates.

And once rates start going up again, you are correct, the category levels will start moving up as well.

Note that while my previous comment was more tongue-in-cheek than not, the principle is that SPG's approach to category levels may give them a bit of a natural advantage over Marriott. SPG's category levels are dropping as the rates drop. Marriott's might actually go up given that members may have more than normal award stays this year, thus driving UP their Cat. levels.

I would equate Starwood eliminating the Peak Season to Ritz Carlton offering pointsavers. Granted this is only for the first quarter, but I would expect to see deals for top tier hotels during the current business cycle.

http://www.marriott.com/rewards/ritz...PointSavers.mi

I can tell you that SPG has changed my mind. I am earning my 50K megabonus, then bamm-o...back to SPG. I will take EVERY stay that is not "incentivized" to SPG for 2009. See where it goes from there.

The ONLY plus that is keeping me at MR at all is free breakfast. I spend 3+wks/yr with the family on vacation. This adds up to ~$1100/yr (21 days X 3 People X ~$18/each -I DID keep track of it 2 years ago)!!! If (when?) SPG offers this...MR will get nothing.

I've been very happy with SPG and I'll make Plat with them again this year; I'm splitting my time between SPG and MR. SPG is my place of choice in Asia, but I'm so close to lifetime plat with MR, I can't stop yet ;)

I got a 150,000 point certificate that I must earn by the end of October for an award reservation. After my award stays this fall, I will be chasing for lifetime gold and platinum (I'm almost halfway for lifetime platinum). 2014 is the first year I can get either one.

After that, I'll probably scale back Marriott stays and spend more time with Hyatt.

I reserved a reward stay before the devaluation and ordered the cert. about a week ago. When I checked my on-line account at that time, everything was in order. It said that the e-cert was sent to the hotel and all the other standard language.

Today, I check my account and it says: "The certificates attached to this reservation may not match the number of days, room type, or other features of your stay." Below, it lists the post-devaluation # of points needed to stay.

This ought to be interesting.

I literally just dealt with this situation before I read your post. What appears to be happening is that if the property tinkers with the reservation in any way, the system seems to treat it as if it was being rebooked.

In my case, this happened when I asked the property to block two reservations , (one on a cert using points, and another using a promotional cert) so as to be assigned the same room for the duration of the stay. When they did this (and upgraded me in the process), this message appeared. I just called though and , despite the same e-mail, guest services shows the e-certificate as having been already "delivered". (The property also confirmed to me that everything was in order before they combined the certs.) So ,yeah, its a bit unnerving, but I can see why it might have happened.