Jun 28, 2018, 12:52 pm
Last edit by: Oxon Flyer
Official announcement from Starwood Lurker V :
Maximize your points as our programs become one this August.
As you may already know, SPG®, Marriott Rewards® and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards® will become one program this August. You’ll be able to redeem for free nights and unforgettable experiences at over 6,500 participating hotels across 29 brands.
Our Free Night Award Chart will be updated and give you more power to redeem your points. Even better: More hotels are moving down in redemption rates than up – so chances are that you’ll be able to redeem fewer points for free nights at the hotels you love.
Here are our top eight tips to help you maximize your points:
• Plan ahead. Explore the full list of hotel category changes and decide if you want to plan your trip before or after the updates take effect. Here are just a few examples of hotels that are moving to a lower category in August:
- REDEEM FREE NIGHTS FOR 10,000 FEWER POINTS
Hotel Talisa in Vail, Le Méridien Barcelona, W Punta de Mita, The Westin Maui Resort & Spa, Ka'anapali, The Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, and Le Méridien San Francisco
- REDEEM FREE NIGHTS FOR 5,000 FEWER POINTS
The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, Renaissance Paris Republique Hotel, The St. Regis Princeville Resort, Courtyard New York Manhattan/Midtown East, Autograph Collection’s Hotel Punta Islita, and Las Alcobas, a Luxury Collection Hotel in Napa Valley
See the complete new award chart here.
• Take advantage of future Category 8 hotels. Future Category 8 hotels will be available at Category 7 rates from August until 2019. Redeem now to save up to 20% and guarantee your rate even if the stay occurs after new rates take effect. Explore future category 8 hotels.
• Use Cash + Points. Stay for as little as $55 and 3,500 points at more hotels than ever. Your next vacation may be closer than you think. See the Cash + Points Chart.
• Stay five nights, pay for four. Get a complimentary night when you redeem four consecutive nights.
• Save more with PointSavers. Enjoy up to 20% off when you redeem points at top destinations. All 29 brands participate, all you have to do is enter the city, state or country along with your dates to find participating hotels. See the PointSavers Chart.
• Upgrade your stay. Use points to upgrade your room (think suite or a room with a picture-perfect view) during your stay.
• Enjoy Travel Packages. Travel Packages now include all SPG hotels. Until now, SPG Nights & Flights applied only to SPG Category 3 and 4 hotels. Starting in August, Marriott Rewards and SPG members can redeem points for airline miles and hotel stays at any of the 6,500 participating hotels. This offer continues to be one of the richest offers among travel loyalty programs.
• Get instant gratification. Instantly redeem points for cocktails, meals, spa treatments or anything else you can charge to your room at participating hotels. Each US$1 is valued at 250 points, so if you would like a spa treatment worth US$50, you would redeem 12,500 points.
Explore all the changes happening in August and read FAQs now by visiting members.marriott.com. In the meantime, please feel free to share your feedback and we’ll do our best to answer your questions.
Maximize your points as our programs become one this August.
As you may already know, SPG®, Marriott Rewards® and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards® will become one program this August. You’ll be able to redeem for free nights and unforgettable experiences at over 6,500 participating hotels across 29 brands.
Our Free Night Award Chart will be updated and give you more power to redeem your points. Even better: More hotels are moving down in redemption rates than up – so chances are that you’ll be able to redeem fewer points for free nights at the hotels you love.
Here are our top eight tips to help you maximize your points:
• Plan ahead. Explore the full list of hotel category changes and decide if you want to plan your trip before or after the updates take effect. Here are just a few examples of hotels that are moving to a lower category in August:
- REDEEM FREE NIGHTS FOR 10,000 FEWER POINTS
Hotel Talisa in Vail, Le Méridien Barcelona, W Punta de Mita, The Westin Maui Resort & Spa, Ka'anapali, The Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, and Le Méridien San Francisco
- REDEEM FREE NIGHTS FOR 5,000 FEWER POINTS
The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, Renaissance Paris Republique Hotel, The St. Regis Princeville Resort, Courtyard New York Manhattan/Midtown East, Autograph Collection’s Hotel Punta Islita, and Las Alcobas, a Luxury Collection Hotel in Napa Valley
See the complete new award chart here.
• Take advantage of future Category 8 hotels. Future Category 8 hotels will be available at Category 7 rates from August until 2019. Redeem now to save up to 20% and guarantee your rate even if the stay occurs after new rates take effect. Explore future category 8 hotels.
• Use Cash + Points. Stay for as little as $55 and 3,500 points at more hotels than ever. Your next vacation may be closer than you think. See the Cash + Points Chart.
• Stay five nights, pay for four. Get a complimentary night when you redeem four consecutive nights.
• Save more with PointSavers. Enjoy up to 20% off when you redeem points at top destinations. All 29 brands participate, all you have to do is enter the city, state or country along with your dates to find participating hotels. See the PointSavers Chart.
• Upgrade your stay. Use points to upgrade your room (think suite or a room with a picture-perfect view) during your stay.
• Enjoy Travel Packages. Travel Packages now include all SPG hotels. Until now, SPG Nights & Flights applied only to SPG Category 3 and 4 hotels. Starting in August, Marriott Rewards and SPG members can redeem points for airline miles and hotel stays at any of the 6,500 participating hotels. This offer continues to be one of the richest offers among travel loyalty programs.
• Get instant gratification. Instantly redeem points for cocktails, meals, spa treatments or anything else you can charge to your room at participating hotels. Each US$1 is valued at 250 points, so if you would like a spa treatment worth US$50, you would redeem 12,500 points.
Explore all the changes happening in August and read FAQs now by visiting members.marriott.com. In the meantime, please feel free to share your feedback and we’ll do our best to answer your questions.
New Marriott Awards chart for SPG properties, published 28 June 2018
Jun 28, 2018, 7:14 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: FL, USA
Programs: AA Plat, Hyatt Explorist, Hilton Diamond, IHG Plat, Marriot Gold
Posts: 1,666
New Marriott Awards chart for SPG properties, published 28 June 2018
https://points-redemption.marriott.com/category-change
Let's just say I am NOT happy. We typically stay near Disney for 3k SPG points a night. Technically its Cat 2 so it would really be 4k during the week so under current terms it would be 12k Marriott points. Well as of August, Marriott now wants to charge 25k points for that same hotel. The other one by Universal same thing.
Guess I won't be staying there after the merge after all. My plan is to empty my account and book a few stays now for after August and kill my SPG points that way.
Let's just say I am NOT happy. We typically stay near Disney for 3k SPG points a night. Technically its Cat 2 so it would really be 4k during the week so under current terms it would be 12k Marriott points. Well as of August, Marriott now wants to charge 25k points for that same hotel. The other one by Universal same thing.
Guess I won't be staying there after the merge after all. My plan is to empty my account and book a few stays now for after August and kill my SPG points that way.
Jun 28, 2018, 7:25 am
#2
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: CLT
Programs: Marriott Plat, AA Gold
Posts: 1,076
How did SPG previously determine award levels? It seems like this may be due to the MR method of award levels being based on the number of awards redeemed for that property. i.e., everyone redeems points at Disney hotels, so those cost a lot of points.
Jun 28, 2018, 7:35 am
#3
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Miami, FL
Programs: UA 1MM, AA Plat, Marriott LT Titanium, Hyatt Glob, IHG ♢ Amb, Hilton ♢, Hertz Pres
Posts: 6,015
Quick perusal in New Orleans shows Starwood properties (Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien) going up ~16.67% in required points (from 30k to 35k) but Marriott properties coming down (e.g., JW Marriott from 40k to 35k). Makes sense - now the properties all cost the same. And all can be redeemed using the free cc night offered by the cards (since they redeem at a 35k level).
In New York - the Sheraton Times Sq (one of the most redeemed properties in the chain) went way up to 50k. But the Westins came down a bit to 50k and many properties are at 35k (allowing for the free cc night to work). And of course the higher end properties are redeemable at the 50k level on the Amex luxury card.
San Francisco did as I'd expect - mirroring NY with cc redemptions as described above. Although the Westin St Francis took a huge leap upward following in the footsteps of the Sheraton Times Sq.
London got crushed with most properties going way up - except the out of the way lower end ones most of us would prefer not to stay at. And the 60k redemption level for most the center area properties pushes them beyond cc free nights. Ugh.
Paris didn't do as poorly as London - but it sure isn't pretty there either. No cc redemptions for center area properties (they all moved or stayed at 60k).
Bangkok did quite well. Except for the very popular Sheraton Grande all properties went down.
Barcelona did surprisingly well with the perfectly located Le Meridien coming down and now being available for free cc redemption via the luxury card at 50k points. The Renaissance also came down. Surely this city did better than London and Paris.
In New York - the Sheraton Times Sq (one of the most redeemed properties in the chain) went way up to 50k. But the Westins came down a bit to 50k and many properties are at 35k (allowing for the free cc night to work). And of course the higher end properties are redeemable at the 50k level on the Amex luxury card.
San Francisco did as I'd expect - mirroring NY with cc redemptions as described above. Although the Westin St Francis took a huge leap upward following in the footsteps of the Sheraton Times Sq.
London got crushed with most properties going way up - except the out of the way lower end ones most of us would prefer not to stay at. And the 60k redemption level for most the center area properties pushes them beyond cc free nights. Ugh.
Paris didn't do as poorly as London - but it sure isn't pretty there either. No cc redemptions for center area properties (they all moved or stayed at 60k).
Bangkok did quite well. Except for the very popular Sheraton Grande all properties went down.
Barcelona did surprisingly well with the perfectly located Le Meridien coming down and now being available for free cc redemption via the luxury card at 50k points. The Renaissance also came down. Surely this city did better than London and Paris.
Jun 28, 2018, 7:36 am
#4
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: CT/ Germany - Ich spreche deutsch
Programs: UA 1K, Bonvoy LTTE, HH Dia, HY Expl
Posts: 4,652
Blue Palace going from 60k to 85k is ridiculous! We stayed there 3 years ago and it's not worth it. Probably priced that way since the Domes of Elounda (which we just got back from and was nicer than the BP) also got increased from 40k to 85k. Oh well...at least we got to visit Crete 2 times in the last couple of years as these new rates won't have us going back.
Jun 28, 2018, 7:39 am
#5
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: GVA
Programs: BA Silver (OW Sapphire), A3 Gold (*G), Bonvoy LTTE, HHonors Diamond, LeClubAccor Silver, UA Silver
Posts: 1,777
No surprises here: anything pedestrian has gone down, while any remotely desirable/aspirational properties have gone up.
So technically the mantra of "more properties went down than up" will be true.
So technically the mantra of "more properties went down than up" will be true.
Jun 28, 2018, 7:50 am
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
Programs: MR/SPG LT Titanium, AA LT PLT, UA SLV, Avis PreferredPlus
Posts: 30,987
Cost to redeem a night at every property - until 2019: 4.0% less than current levels
Cost to redeem a night at every property after 2019: 3.1% less than current levels
Let the "But, but...it's a devaluation travesty" claims begin anyway.....
(further analysis coming)
Cost to redeem a night at every property after 2019: 3.1% less than current levels
Let the "But, but...it's a devaluation travesty" claims begin anyway.....
(further analysis coming)
Jun 28, 2018, 7:58 am
#7
Join Date: Jul 2010
Programs: Marriott Titanium, DL DM
Posts: 298
Overall looks reasonable with some really bad moves. E.g. People complained about park tower BA at the current rate and it went up considerably.
Jun 28, 2018, 8:37 am
#8
Join Date: Nov 2008
Programs: SPG-Plat, Hilton-Diamond, Club Carlson-Silver, Cathay-Diamond, Virgin-Gold
Posts: 2,183
Some amazing deals to be head short term however on some Spg properties I have to say! I am right in thinking 5th night is still free right?
Jun 28, 2018, 8:38 am
#9
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 23
I love the "reduced" comment - they knocked a bunch of hotels like westins and Le meridiens down by 1k points from their 36k starting point. A whopping 2.7% reduction, which I am convinced is just the skew the messaging.
And any idea what qualifies as PEAK? or will be like airlines and everything not a Tue/Wed in the middle of dead season is deemed peak?
And any idea what qualifies as PEAK? or will be like airlines and everything not a Tue/Wed in the middle of dead season is deemed peak?
Jun 28, 2018, 8:42 am
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2001
Programs: DL 1 million, AA 1 mil, HH lapsed Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 28,190
Jun 28, 2018, 8:55 am
#11
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: CT/ Germany - Ich spreche deutsch
Programs: UA 1K, Bonvoy LTTE, HH Dia, HY Expl
Posts: 4,652
Overall it might be a reduction but we all know YMMV since the properties I might be looking at redeeming at could have all went up substantially vs yours might have gone down. That is why you might essentially get the "devaluation travesty" claims. For example, I want to redeem at the Domes of Elounda again and it is going from 45k per night to 80k which is a travesty!
Jun 28, 2018, 8:56 am
#12
Suspended
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 301
apparently the special rates for all-suites properties will end after august
Jun 28, 2018, 8:59 am
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
Programs: MR/SPG LT Titanium, AA LT PLT, UA SLV, Avis PreferredPlus
Posts: 30,987
More detail, by brand and category. Net change to average points required.
Bargains to be had at the high end in 2018, for SPG and RC. These charts appear to have used the SPG Standard rates, not the Peak rates, so data was not skewed by using the "worse" before values - Standard vs. Standard.
Contract to Chicken Little claims, it's actually the "properties in the middle of nowhere, where no one wants to stay" lower categories that went up and the mid-to-upper categories that went down.
Unless you're a regular purveyor of the 1.5% of properties in Marriott Cat 9 and RC Tier 5 - those take a significant (14-16%) hit in 2019. Or a fan of current Cat 2's.
(all analysis subject to user error....)
Bargains to be had at the high end in 2018, for SPG and RC. These charts appear to have used the SPG Standard rates, not the Peak rates, so data was not skewed by using the "worse" before values - Standard vs. Standard.
Contract to Chicken Little claims, it's actually the "properties in the middle of nowhere, where no one wants to stay" lower categories that went up and the mid-to-upper categories that went down.
Unless you're a regular purveyor of the 1.5% of properties in Marriott Cat 9 and RC Tier 5 - those take a significant (14-16%) hit in 2019. Or a fan of current Cat 2's.
(all analysis subject to user error....)
Last edited by CPRich; Jun 28, 2018 at 11:14 am
Jun 28, 2018, 8:59 am
#14
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Toronto, ON, CANADA
Programs: AC SE100K, Marriott Bonvoy LTE
Posts: 1,881
When do these new rates start? August 1? August 15? I'm only seeing 'In August', unless I'm missing something. Would save me a great deal of points if i can rebook one of my stays beginning August 1.
Jun 28, 2018, 9:00 am
#15
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: BDU
Programs: DL:MM, Marriott:LTT
Posts: 8,779
The Aloft was by far the least expensive points redemption in BKK. It is also usually the least expensive Marriott option for cash. It is now a higher redemption, obviously because so many people did the cheap redemption and not because of the cash price. The CY is now a lower redemption despite usually being more expensive. In the past, there was not much of a points difference between the CY and the Marqis/FS/LM that most people would pay a little more in points for a nicer hotel. People do not redeem and the redemption rate falls. It is clear when looking at Bangkok that they are following the old Marriott model and not basing redemption on cash rates.
BTW, the awesome Soi 57 FS is now a bargain at level three redemption. Great rooms and bathrooms, fantastic staff, very good CL, near the BTS. It is as good as the Marquis, Ren, JW or LM but much lower points redemption!