With a TP hotel award means that you will then have a useless hotel award ecert that can't be used. :eek:

Marriott Concierge, I am glad to hear that the Ritz Carlton awards are not changing. Marriott could make this change more agreeable if:
1. Allow us to book travel packages and use them for future reservations. Yes, it is a one time hit for Marriott, but it would lessen the anger over the changes.
2. Let us book a travel package for 5 night stays as well as 7 nights. I think this would be a nice choice, especially for the higher category properties.

Also, we have concerns about bracket creep. I would not be surprised if more properties move up to category 6, 7, and 8 over time. However, you will see a lot of grumpy travelers if Marriott decides to make this happen at the same time with the rest of the changes.

Blackout dates don't hit me in any program as hard as the bigger issue of availability of rooms for sale but not for redemption of points -- elimination of blackout dates doesn't mean many (if any) rooms will necessarily be available for redemption. I see the "standard room" mention, and it gets me thinking what proportion of rooms are "non-standard" on any given night. :eek:

It would be much more welcome if loyalty programs would grandfather points and award charts so that those who already earned points could use them as per how the award charts were advertised when they earned those points.

I am currently looking to what can be done about the travel package question. The points made are certainly valid and something will have to be done one way or the other. I will let you know what will be done to resolve this issue as soon as I have concrete answer.

As a Platinum that only uses points for 7 night standard rewards at resort properties these "enhancements" are a sick joke, only nobody outside of Marriott Corporate is laughing.

I feel like a baseball player that's just taken a Nolan Ryan fastball to the groin and as I'm being carted off to the hospital one of my coaches tells me that at least I "enhanced" my on base percentage. Give me an f'n break.

Marriott Concierge - Please change the thread title to "Huge Points Devaluation - 2009 Program Changes" just to be honest. Nobody likes bad news, but there's nothing to be gained by insulting us in the process.

Not me!

I wrote about the Marriott Rewards 2009 "Enhancements" in my blog post today. I haven't had the time to thoroughly analyze the changes so I basically looked at points redemption changes and made a table showing the 5th night free cost in 2009 compared to 2008 chart.

Marriott Rewards Changes for 2009 “Let Inflation Begin”

Marriott Concierge-

I would be very interested in how these certificates would be handled. I currently have a 7 night certificate (category 1-5) from a travel package. I have a reservation in March 2009, but I might have to change the hotel, or dates of travel. Will my certificate become worthless? Could I use it at another property or on different dates?

Also, what about the purchase of points? Will Marriott still sell those for .0125 per point, maximun 50,000 per year?

Thanks so much for your infomation.

I liked the suggestion given by other members. If you want to devaluate the travel package, then you can do it by reducing the number of nights rather than increasing the number of points.
As someone suggested earlier, I will be quite happy and I am sure many on this forum will be too if you can make the package as 5 nights + 1 to 1 miles instead of the 7 nights + 1 to 1 miles and still charge the same points that you are currently charging.
I am sure Marriott knows that it gets most of its revenue from business people and the 7 night travel package is the best thing at Marriott which keeps me and most other back to the program. I have been a Hilton Diamond, Starwood Plat and PC Plat this year, but I still want to be a Marriott Plat as well and the main reason to stay more nights with the program is the travel package.
Another option that I may suggest would be to allow customers to split the package into 3 + 4 days at 2 different hotels in the same continent (Europe or N America or S America). If this would be allowed, then I might grudgingly still be ok with the current devaluation.

Marriott Concierge-
The following was posted earlier today (post #83), but I think you missed it when you answered questions earlier. I'd appreciate your response to the following:

Marriott Concierge-

I have a few questions about the new program.

If I currently have a reservation (7 nights) for March 2009 and a certificate attached to the reservation from a travel package, what happens if I need to change the hotel or dates after Jan. 15?

Will I be able to use the certificate at another category 5 property or will it require an increase in points for a 7 night stay?

Also, what about Marriott Vacation Club properties? Will they still be available for points and is there an increase in the amount needed for a stay at MVCI?

Last question, is there any change in the amount (.0125 per point) Marriott charges to purchase reward points?

Thanks!

EXCELLENT SUGGESTION BY YOU AND OTHER MEMBERS ^

Will MC pass this on to the man behind the curtain?

Check out post #94. MC states that they are looking into the TB hotel cert issue. (Though at the end of post #90, MC states that as things currently stand, a new award cert will be required.)

MC also answered the MVCI question in post #90 by stating that MVCI awards are different from Standard hotel awards and no redemption changes are currently planned.

A slight aside:

It would seem to me that the sign that corporate is not listening to its customers:

Its using the word "enhancements" to describe this stuff. I think by now the marketing people would pick up on the fact that the truly loyal traveler has much disdain for the use of this term, because it is , in almost every case, a lie.

They need to find a better term.

Ira / MC thanks so much for coming into the Lion's Den :) and responding to our concerns one by one. I earlier suggested that the best way I could see to ease the pain of the travel package devaluation would be to at least reduce the increased point requirements and/ or to make the hotel+miles packages available for five nights as well as the current 7 nights - and it looks like from what others have said that I am not alone in that opinion.

I for one do think that the removal of capacity controls is indeed a real enhancement, and will come in handy in situations where I am looking for something during a high demand period. If I understand you correctly, the exceptions to the "if a room is available for normal booking, you can book award nights" rule will be very limited and can in any case only be implemented for a very few nights by any given property.

Please, keep coming back! (I'll send you some Maalox if you need it. ;) )

Well I think there are some real enhancements in the changes; it's just that these are accompanied by some very significant point devaluations, especially with the travel packages that are favorites for some of us that tend to accumulate a lot of MR points.