Part of this is cross-posted in the Marriott forum

So as we all knew for a while the days would come when SPG evaporated and became part of yet another all-controlling psuedo-monopoly, the shock still hit me much in the same way one might feel when the occupying army really does march through your town.

Like many, I scrambled to make future reservations using any SPG points and went and earned a boat load when the 3:1 rate existed. I currently have well over 1.2 mil Marriott points and Platinum status good at least til Dec. I am likely to attain it for next year as well with all the nights we have booked already. I even made cash reservations assuming one could later convert them to points res if and where doable. And that's my biggest beef, which I already knew and which many knew, but many Marriott people did not know or care about or realize --until now:

Here's an example... It's like mid June. Wife says, hey, next April school vacation let's use some of them points you have and do a trip! (April school vacation for us happens pretty much from Thursday, Aoril 11 to monday, April 22 2019 (so we are very flexibale as to when we do stays in that time period).

Now we have done this many times before... this past year I used SPG points to book Maui for 6 nights. The year before we did Cayman Islands--and had been there a bunch of times prior (we stopped going when their awful resort fees went up to like $65 a night because that hotel is a franchised property which do those things more aggressively than others).

With SPG, if a room was available, you could pretty much get it with points. With Marriott that aint so true.

• They have peak seasons (which will be relative to where you are going and activities in that region)
• They have many black outs
• They have capacity controls
• And they are huge and rich so they don't have to release sh*t!

So back in mid June when I tried to book ANYTHING in ANY Greek Isle, which I had been to before using SPG points in other years, there was NOTHING available at all! Nothing!
SPG (and Marriott) let you book 1 year in advance minus 2 weeks. Ok so we were a couple months in, but come on. Nothing? Really?

We did book some cash reservations... oh yeah like I said you can totally do that! But nothing was available with points.

And I called and checked and called and checked... and did this up to and on August 18 when everything really did switch to Marriott for real, and even in the past week when their two systems ironed out more kinks, and even this morning. Nothing, zip, nada.
Only in cash. Not with points.

So yeah... Marriott blows!
These million points I have are crapola!

Did I expect this, know this, plan for this and be prepared for this? Yah, kinda. But like I said, what a load of BULL that we cannot just book rooms anymore using points!
I tried Bora Bora and Thailand too btw. Some have points reservations but they want about 3/4 of a mil for a few nights. That whole chart thing that blogs posted about where August to Dec will allow cat 7s to be bookable at 60k points per night (equiv to the old SPG 20k per night) is not applicable at ANY of the cat 7s world wide that I tried. And believe me, we called about em all!

1. And we all know they now consider the SPG to Marriott valuation to be 2:1 for anything moved over from CC spend.
2. And soon that will likely go away
3. and their rates per night will go up
4. and so further on, having Marriott points will be totally useless to you... as if it isn't already.

Forget MS. This post isnt even about that. Imagine if you stay at their properties for business and amass a ton of points. Now try using them for a vaca spot you actually want to take your family to! Aint happening.

And soooo... what to do? What's the best transfer rates to airlines and such? I have been reading up on it... and while I did book a mid week one night stay at a Sheraton using 50k points (equiv to the old rate of about 16k spg a night at 3:1 but now 25k spg a night at 2:1 which is wayyy too high for the room I got), the whole system they have is badddd..

And ya know what? We all let it happen, thinking that the combining of all these big airlines and hotel programs is a good thing and that they will "enhance" their systems to "make it all easier" for us!

Yah.
The word Enhance means: We made it better for us. You lose!

So that's my rant. Thanks for reading and likely many here will agree with me.

On another other front...

I have been to Munich Oktoberfest 6 times and to Munich and the overall region 9 times. I went to Oktoberfest the last five years in a row and have links and pics and info for all kinds of stuff people should do while there, much of which has been mentioned in this thread l. I do one day want to meet Oliver the FT MOD and buy him some beers but right now I am sad to say I cannot attend this year as much as I want to, but that may be a benefit to all of you and here is how!

I have currently on reserve 3 rooms at the Le Meridien Munich, where I had stayed with friends and family many times and it is a great hotel for all your needs. Located near the train station and a 10 min walk to the fest itself, this is a perfect spot for the scene. My nights on reserve are Sept 24-29 and I have Platinum status FWIW.

I will cancel my points reservations by deadline Sept 9 but.... If someone here wants em, PM me and let's make it happen! Heck, I will get the stay credits for your taking the res over!

I booked these as a SPG Platinum member using points a while ago. They will NOT be available again with points and especially not at the rates I got when SPG was SPG. Now it's Marriott and so the reservations carry over (and if I cancel on time I get my points back and that's that) but if you try to book this place going forward, they will have jacked up the rates, probably made it a peak season and you probably cant book with points anyway cuz well, Marriott stinks like that. So I have em now and if someone wants em, this is your chance! Let's chat in private! Marriott will allow one to book any room and add/make someone else the person who is on the reservation as the person checking in. All that takes is a simple phone call by me to them to make that happen.

Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany 2018 will begin at 6:00 AM on Saturday, September 22 and ends on Sunday, October 7. Here is the official site and some other stuff, and they have a great APP too!

I told my wife I should go this year if only to get one last use out of the greatness that was SPG because we will never get to do it like that again. My Platinum status had allowed for one room with its occupants to get brekky there and they have a good one. It is not yet clear if the brekky benefit for Platinum members will carry over in the same way for us now. That you would have to find out when you got there, but if it does, you get that too!

So someone PM me and take it over so someone can enjoy this place because what am I gonna do with more Marriott points? lol

To me there’s almost enough proof to show that marriott is a scam and should be called out on it


If a ton of people tweeted and touted about their points hold outs, which are so blatant now with the merger from spg which did allow their use, then maybe we could affext change!

But we all have to act fast amd aggressively

MM

Damn, wish I could take over that reservation!! My one Okotberfest experience was made possible with SPG points - a jr. suite for 4 for something like 8,500 points per night at a Sheraton that was about 20-30 minutes away on public transit from the Oktoberfest grounds. It was an amazing weekend, and I remember even then looking at Marriott, Hilton, and IHG and finding zip for awards. Only SPG stuck to the "any standard room" spirit of their program.

The Marriott merger has some pros and cons for me, but I agree with this one. Marriott lets its properties game the system and use all sorts of "special event" exceptions (including things far, far smaller than Oktoberfest), whereas Starwood typically had awards available even for high demand periods.