What program changes affect you most in 2018?
 

With so many miles and points changes, I know many people that are changing their strategy away from legacy airlines to earn with partners or simply become free agents and focus on credit cards. For me, DL/AA earning changes on Alaska sting quite a bit as well as devaluations with Singapore and United's Star Alliance charts. Also, Flying Blue's new revenue-based model will cut into my earnings, but I am quite happy that Delta will give upgrades on transcons (if they're ever available!).

What changes, new benefits, or devaluations will affect you most in the airline and hotel point world? And what are you doing to get around it? Maybe we can all learn from each others' strategies going forward!

Free same-day standby for elites on Southwest Airlines, introduced this year, has been much more useful than I expected, especially combined with priority for standby. About half the time I end up taking an earlier flight than the one I booked.

The loss of ability to use my AA LT Plat status to get free access to exit row seats on Alaska. (I don't care about the earning, since I don't fly enough to earn any status through flying, so I choose to earn AS miles on AS flights and AA miles on AA flights.)

As a tall-ish person, it'll mean I have to factor in the cost of the extra-legroom seats on Alaska flights, and thus my cost for flying Alaska will go up a bit, so I'll consider other airlines more on routes up and down the west coast, since AS won't have the price advantage of "no extras to pay for" anymore for me.

And the growing use of Basic Economy fares, without an easy way on most OTAs to filter out all Basic Economy fares, is making price comparison between airlines trickier.

The biggest changes likely to affect me that might come in 2018 (but haven't been announced yet) are due the merger of Marriott and Starwood, including what happens to the United Silver I'm getting from Marriott Plat and the Delta quasi-status that I'm getting from SPG Plat (which in turn I get from being Marriott Plat). But it's not yet clear if those changes will take place anytime in 2018, or if only the announcement of them will come in 2018 but implementation in 2019..

They've already announced that the programs will remain separate throughout 2018.

Same as others for me with the Alaska and American break up. My flights were split about 50/50 this year, but going into 2018 I'll probably primarily fly Alaska. Really painful after losing Delta too.

Yes, but that's not ruling out changes to each separate program during the year. In fact, at the same they announced that they;re going to remain separate throughout 2018, they announced changes like eliminating rollover nights at Marriott. So more changes within each program are not ruled out during 2018, only the merging of the two (or three*) programs is ruled out in 2018.

* They hinted that not only will Marriott Rewards and SPG merge eventually, but that the separate Ritz program will merge into that too. Thus the confusion over whether it's two or three programs that are merging come 2019.

For me it is Alaska's changes with no more earnings on American domestic and Delta.

The rather abrupt end of Fairmont President's Club. They announeced in late 2017 (after people had already been making bookings for 2018) that it will be merged into Accor in July 2018.
Originally, even if you did enough stays in the first half of 2018 to requalify status for 2019, such stays would have earned nothing, but they have back-tracked a little bit, and will offer some stub-year benefits that will expire in Feb 2019.

- End of the AS-AA partnership. I'm low-tier in both programs, but would have pretty easily been mid-tier in AS in 2018 if I could still post all of my regular domestic AA travel to AS. (I"m a relative newcomer to actually flying AS metal, but I like it so far.)
- Although it happened earlier in 2017, I imagine I'll feel the pinch of the big HH devaluation when I go to redeem my next 5-night award, sometime later this year.
- I won't affect me until Jan 1, 2019, but I'll miss the ability to throw one Marriott Travel Package every 2 years at Southwest and have a perpetual Companion Pass. I don't use the CP as much as hardcore WN fliers do, but my wife and I get a few short weekend trips around the U.S. every year using it. (Maybe 6 to 8 free roundtrips a year to the east and west coasts...) The more difficult part is finding the Marriott we actually want to spend 7 consecutive nights in.
- Losing the AA lounge access with Citi Prestige stings a bit, but I've warmed up enough to Priority Pass (especially in airports with partner restaurants) that I don't miss it too much.

Alaska losing AA & DL is the worst.

Really happy though that Alaska elites now receive upgrades on award tickets.

Losing the IHG first night free on BRG by far the worst hotel change for me. I probably got 20 free nights a year with that :(

Agreed on both! The partnership changes would be easier for me to adjust to if Alaska's AA codeshare prices were competitive, but every route that I have tried (e.g. SEA-BUF, SEA-YUL) is way too expensive.

I can't seem to find any AS-AA codeshares ex-MCI. Going east, I'd book one through ORD, CLT, PHL, etc. if there was anything that wasn't too awful, but it simply doesn't exist. I'm shown SEA connections to get to NYC. :p

My only other minor bone to pick with AS: they don't seem to load any competitive fares ex-MCI on things that are actually semi-logical one-stop itins. Obviously nobody is flying MCI-SEA-JFK. I don't expect a good fare on that. But why not on MCI-PHX or MCI-LAX? I might take connection to fly AS if it was priced in the same ballpark as AA/WN...

Not a program change, but an equipment change. We fly MIA-LAX (business class) a few times each year. AA used to operate this route with three widebody aircraft per day, then it dropped to one, and now even the one isn't on the schedule year 'round. (Discussion HERE.) This has caused us to try JetBlue Mint , FLL-LAX. We still collect AA miles for MIA-LHR flights, but this small change dilutes our loyalty.

There was no way AS was going to hold it together with all the hostile changes at AA and DL. I think we knew that.

I used to be a well-oiled machine back in "happier" times, earning about 120K RDMs and burning around that amount as well, with an annual SE Asia trip usually taking around half on the redemptions. Since dropping out on the legacies 2 years ago, though, I've fallen behind on the spend side. Will have to use or lose EY miles soon, and F9 is also piling up well ahead of spending.

If I were 15-20 years younger and having to face the current situation with a long list of desired places and more of a sense of urgency, I s'pose I'd be investing more efforts into manufactured spending or looking at things like fuel dumps. The general principle is the same as it ever was: You need some kind of knowledge or skill "edge" that most people don't have. Being able to put together inefficient MRs via green screens and command lines on easySABRE used to be such an edge back in the 90s, but the tools got easier, more people got into the game and almost by definition the old rewards became hard to sustain. And the airlines merged and got oligopolistic.

Bottom line for me in the past 2-3 years is spending less than ever on airfares but also not getting much in mileage benefit (or perks) for it.

Airline-wise, Flying Blue going revenue based is probably most significant for me. The AS/AA split is a bummer too. Neither of these is a deal breaker, though.

Hotel-wise, IHG has to have overall the most significant devaluation over the last 12 months. No more BRG freebies, pointbreaks totally gutted and thumping points inflation. Although none of these changes alone would be in itself a deal breaker, all three together is making my feet a bit itchy.

Hotel program changes affects me most:
Being Europe base, mostly Europe travel, this is how it lookes for me:

IHG Spire -> will ditch, since the enhancements unless I buy Ambassador and keep it
Hilton Gold (matched earlier to Dia but lost it) -> kept Gold and plan to stay Gold. But the earn-burn ratio is bad for me (I have no sign-ups etc difficult to "max" promos etc)
Carlson Gold -> zero, dumped it due to enhancements and removal of 2-4-1 booking
Scandic 2nd floor -> stays on 2nd floor by stays
Choice (nordic choice) Platinum (by matching) -> Silver, too low footprint to keep me higher
Marriot zero - never considered good for me due to footprint and unclear status&benefits&earnburn-ratio to my liking
Hyatt zero - same as Marriot, but even lower footpring in Europe
SPG zero - crazy expensive luxury for me where I use to stay.

So it looks very bad for me. I don't really know where I should put my butt nowadays. Hotes.com is bad IMO. Booking.com too.

I pretty much agree with FFlash.

IHG has been my primary program for nearly 20 years, but has been hit hard by recent devaluations.

That said, where else do I go? I have the Hilton credit card, which gives me gold (credit card pickings are slim in Europe), so the free breakfast is nice. But Hiltons are expensive.

SPG/Marriott: Too expensive and all non-smoking worldwide. Poor earn/burn rate.

Choice: If I lived in the USA and never travelled abroad, Choice would probably be my #1 program (yes, I'm an incurable cheapskate), but hopeless almost anywhere else in the world.

Club Carlson: Never really tried it. Worth researching?

Hyatt: Too expensive.

I still get decent Accelerate offers from IHG, so I'll still do those. But I don't see myself hitting platinum again this year.

I can see myself spending a fair bit of time in the lower scale Choice properties on a 3 week USA road trip later this year, simply because they allow me to smoke. I think I might give the Choice program another go.

Double-check each hotel individually if you need smoking rooms or smoking areas.

Many Choice hotels these days in the USA are 100% non-smoking.

If you want smoking rooms, another lower-end program to consider is WyndhamRewards. I've seen Super 8 hotels (In WyndhamRewards) with smoking rooms where the Comfort or Quality Inn (in Choice) down the street is 100% non-smoking.

That's a good point. I have noticed this recently. Thanks for the tip about Wyndham too - thinking back, I've found smoking rooms in quite a few Days Inns.

I don't actually mind non-smoking rooms if they are motel-style, i.e. with an outside entrance door I can just step out of (or a balcony of course). Tgat's a lot of the reason I lije places like Econo Lodge or Days Inn.

So in other words, you just ignore the no smoking rule?

Not at all. I smoke outside. I prefer motels because I can get straight from the room to the parking lot in 3 seconds, rather than schlepping down in the elevator. That's why I'm beginning to prefer Choice Hotels and may very make it my primary choice, certainly in North America.

It's 3 seconds only if you're on the first floor. Many motels have two floors and no elevator, just stairs here and there, but you may have to walk by a dozen rooms or so before you get to the closest stairs.

And it's not considerate to other (non-smoking) guests if you smoke on the stairs or on the corridor between non-smoking rooms and the stairs.

I have never heard of a non-smoking room that allows smoking on the balcony.

There are loads in Switzerland for example that allow smoking on the balcony.

If you're Europe based, Radisson Rewards (the new name for the program) has a fair number of Park Inns and Park Plazas across Europe that are decent and affordable. Most European Radisson Blu properties are very nice but are just as expensive as Hilton. The rewards program itself is OK. It takes 60 nights or 30 stays for their top level which gives you free breakfast and a room upgrade. Technically silver (9 nights/6 stays) will give you an upgrade but in my albeit limited experience, upgrades to business class rooms only came when I was gold (30 mights or 20 stays). Take a look in the Radisson forum if you're interested in more info.

Starwood becomes useless
 

Using Starwood to accumulate points is no longer a good deal with a 25 percent devaluation for airline miles Card will not be renewed

I'm finally looking at other credit card programs where I had some points built up, as it dawned on me the things might expire or at least I needed to check.

Capital One really underwhelms. Most awards like gift cards convert at 0.5 cents a point. Bleah. After years I'll soon reach a point threshold where if I get some travel expense at just under $150 (can't go over - it's like The Price is Right), then I could redeem for close to a penny a point. Whee.

Membership Rewards on the Blue card isn't quite as bad (more like 0.7 cents on most things), but I might do a mile transfer to Avios (or other programs but would need a specific goal in mind).

I did get to use the Etihad miles...with 4 days before expiration I booked a South America open jaw (since taken) and an Alaska trip on AA that was 25K but also $66 in taxes (much higher tax load than AA, though fewer miles). EY Guest actually requires less miles and has more favorable terms in some cases than AA itself for flights on AA, but you have to book over the phone and availability is sometimes difficult.

My credit union used to have a point = 2 cents award for tickets booked via their agency above a certain threshold ($200, IIRC), where you could pay any difference in cash, but that keeps getting eroded and "enhanced."

I need to shake up the lineup, really, as in every single case the card made sense at the time for some benefit, but things have changed in the interim. Heck, I even still have the card that once earned WorldPerks miles.

Details matter. There are many Blue American Express cards. Unless you have "Blue Business Plus" you cannot transfer to airlines without also holding another card that has the transfer feature. If you do not have a suitable card there are free solutions, just ask in American Express forum.

Now that the details are revealed, the SPG/Marriott merger is by far the biggest impact to me.

The good: under the combined rules, I'll move from Gold in both programs to LT Plat Premier across the combined portfolio. Marriott Gold was okay, but I had no easy path to Starwood Platinum. Now I will have basically that across the whole Starwood universe of hotels, which I've always liked better than Marriott hotels. Increased earnings, recognition of status at resorts and most brands in the portfolio, and (likely) a Star Alliance Silver comp. All of those are great.

The bad: I've historically generated a ton of my points supply from the SPG Amex. That card gets nerfed 33% on August 1, leaving my 2019 general-spend credit card strategy in limbo.

The ugly: Marriott Travel Packages were significantly nerfed - especially if you want to redeem a high-category hotels. And the raw math tips the balance towards more hotel-weeks and fewer airline miles, which is the opposite direction I wanted to see them go. (I already have more than enough ways to get free hotel nights.)

The unknown: the first publication of category conversion showed that most of my past 10 and 5 "likely" future planned redemptions stayed mostly flat in terms of points required. But the Peak vs. Non-Peak designation is a big wild-card, with Marriott ominously suggesting that hotels would be able to designate half of the entire year as "peak", something that is wholly untrue in reality for the vast majority of hotels. Implementation of this could mean that nearly *every* hotel award has been devalued.

Marriott blows IMO
 

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.