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[Marriott Rewards Points Expiration Rules to be Enforced beginning 2/1/16]

Mr. Vker

Mr. Vker

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Mr. Vker said:
https://www.marriott.com/marriott-rewards/terms/expiration.mi

Not too bad though-24 months without activity. I imagine all of that record keeping of dormant accounts was a pain.
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They have always had this written in to the T&Cs but never really enforced it. It shouldn't effect most people here as they have regular MR activity. There are plenty of ways to get some kind of activity in an account once every two years. Though it looks like there are a few exclusions.
 
I agree. Will allow Marriott to write off the expense of those carried points-plus the accounting. Easy to have activity every two years. Heck $12.50 to buy 1000 points as a last resort!
 
Marriott Reward Points

Today, Marriott announced that if your Marriott Reward Account has no activity for two years then you will forfeit ALL of your points.

I'm wondering how many people will be affected by this?




.
 
TheTimeTraveler said:
Today, Marriott announced that if your Marriott Reward Account has no activity for two years then you will forfeit ALL of your points.

I'm wondering how many people will be affected by this?




.
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I agree with Dioxide - probably very few of the timeshare owners because the programs are heavily integrated (most of us incur incidental spends during ownership stays, and many of us use the Marriott VISA.) But I imagine the numbers of non-timeshare owners with MR accounts that have been inactive for two years could be high.
 
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Here's the FAQ posted by communitymanager to the Insiders forum. A couple bullet points:
Q: When will it take effect?

The first date this policy will be enforced is February 1, 2016. At that time, if any member has not had qualifying activity since January 31, 2014 they will forfeit their points. The program will then review member activity of the previous 24 months every month moving forward.

Q: Are any members exempt?

Yes. The point expiration policy does not affect the point balances for the following members: Lifetime Silver, Lifetime Gold and Lifetime Platinum. However, the program does still reserves the right to choose to apply a point expiration policy to Lifetime member accounts in the future.

Q: How does this affect Marriott Vacation Club owners?
  • Exchanging ownership weeks or MVC points for Marriott Rewards points will count toward qualifying activity
  • Staying during an owner’s week and earning Elite night credit will not count as qualifying activity. However, if the owner has incidental spend on their folio during their ownership stay that earns either points or miles, this would be qualifying activity.
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Mr. Vker said:
I agree. Will allow Marriott to write off the expense of those carried points-plus the accounting. Easy to have activity every two years. Heck $12.50 to buy 1000 points as a last resort!
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I think they excluded that as qualifying.

Staying an owned week surely should though....that shouldn't be excluded.
 
GreenTea said:
I think they excluded that as qualifying.

Staying an owned week surely should though....that shouldn't be excluded.
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Purchasing MRP isn't excluded, but gifting or transferring them is.

Ownership stays will still earn Elite Night credits but they won't be qualifiers unless incidental spends accrue. I don't think we've ever had an ownership stay where we didn't incur charges - is that common for any of us?
 
TheTimeTraveler said:
I'm wondering how many people will be affected by this?
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The only party that is effected and cares is Marriott. It will effect all the people that don't care and/or are not aware. This is mostly people who no longer use Marriott but have a small leftover points balance. It will also effect dead people's accounts. It's a way for Marriott to clean up dormant accounts while reversing prior expense and increasing net income.

This might be wishful thinking but I wonder if the program savings will help slow the future devaluation of points.
 
I received the following email from Marriott rewards today:


Dear **,

You're a valued member, so we want you to know about some upcoming changes to the Marriott Rewards® program.

Starting February 1, 2016, members who do not have qualifying activity in the prior 24 months will forfeit all accumulated points. If you have not engaged in qualifying activity since January 31, 2014 you have until January 31, 2016 to do so before the policy is enforced.

Some examples of qualifying activity to maintain active status in the Marriott Rewards program include:
Make a paid (or redemption) stay at any of our 3,800+ participating hotels worldwide
Redeem points
Make a purchase using a Marriott Rewards credit card
Earn points with one of our program partners
Purchase points
Hold a qualifying meeting or event, including earning points through the Rewarding Events Program

The following activities do not count toward maintaining an active status in the Marriott Rewards program:
Gifting or transferring points
Receiving points as a gift or transfer
Earning points through social media programs, such as #MRPoints

For full details and our updated terms, please visit MarriottRewards.com/PointsPolicy.

One additional reminder: 2015 hotel category changes have been announced. You can learn more about the changes at Program News.

Finally, our thanks for being a Marriott Rewards member. It is our privilege to serve you worldwide.

Sincerely,
 
Many many years ago a pretty check out gal at the Chicago Marriott asked me to sign on to their free points program...it was a different name than Marriott Rewards way back then. I liked that hotel and went there on business about 6 times a year. Never ever checked the account because it seemed at the time you had to have a ton of points to exchange for rooms, etc. My sales territory changed and I forgot about it, and only occasionally stayed in Marriotts after that.

Many years later, I was on a vacation at a Sheraton hotel in Virginia Beach mid 90's and read an article in BusinessWeek about an upscale Marriott timeshare in Williamsburg that included free golf. It was only 40 minutes away from where i was holidaying, so decided to go and look at it, met a terrific sales rep (still a retired friend today) who asked me if I was a member of the Marriott Rewards program, and I said it was years ago...so he checked and said I had enough points to stay in any Marriott for a week including air for two. I didn't believe him...and made it a condition of the purchase of 1 platinum week at Manor Club. He said the points NEVER expire!

Since then I'm a Lifetime Platinum, spent almost 7 million MR points and have taken more than i can count business class air trips to week long stays in London, Paris, Rome, etc. All because the points didn't expire.

So I'm disappointed that they have made this change even though it probably won't affect me. I was also a big user of Hilton too, and when they cancelled my points through non-use I have never again stayed at a Hilton.
 
I got a similar email. LTP is not impacted???

Starting February 1, 2016, members who do not have qualifying activity in the prior 24 months will forfeit all accumulated points. If you have not engaged in qualifying activity since January 31, 2014 you have until January 31, 2016 to do so before the policy is enforced. As a Platinum Lifetime member of Marriott Rewards, this change will not impact your points. Though your point balance will not be affected, we wanted to make you aware of this change.
 
Mr. Vker said:
I got a similar email. LTP is not impacted???

Starting February 1, 2016, members who do not have qualifying activity in the prior 24 months will forfeit all accumulated points. If you have not engaged in qualifying activity since January 31, 2014 you have until January 31, 2016 to do so before the policy is enforced. As a Platinum Lifetime member of Marriott Rewards, this change will not impact your points. Though your point balance will not be affected, we wanted to make you aware of this change.
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Lifetime Gold and Silver are not affected either at this stage.
MR reserve the right to change these too in future though.
 
SueDonJ said:
Me too. Mr. Vker, I hope you don't mind the thread title edit. :)
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Not at all.


C'mon--keeps everyone's blood pumping. :) Didn't mean to cause any heart attacks. :D
 
SueDonJ said:
Ownership stays will still earn Elite Night credits but they won't be qualifiers unless incidental spends accrue. I don't think we've ever had an ownership stay where we didn't incur charges - is that common for any of us?
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It is very common for us to not incur charges. Outside of Hawaii, where we always have something on our folio, we seldom have a balance when we check out of a timeshare. In our five weeks at Hilton Head, we spent less than $50 at one of the resorts and nothing at the other seven.

By the way, there is some thinking on TUG that if you do not incur a charge you may not see your elite nights posted. I can assure you that this has never happened to us.
 
BocaBoy said:
It is very common for us to not incur charges. Outside of Hawaii, where we always have something on our folio, we seldom have a balance when we check out of a timeshare. In our five weeks at Hilton Head, we spent less than $50 at one of the resorts and nothing at the other seven.

By the way, there is some thinking on TUG that if you do not incur a charge you may not see your elite nights posted. I can assure you that this has never happened to us.
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Do I read this correctly that incidental spend needs to be charged to a Marriott credit card to qualify? We usually do, but have not always done so in the past.
"Staying during an owner’s week and earning Elite night credit will not count as qualifying activity. However, if the owner has incidental spend on their folio during their ownership stay that earns either points or miles, this would be qualifying activity"

As for potential issues getting Elite nights posted, some resorts/hotels in some parts of the world are worse than others for this and don't always automatically post.
I do now always incur some charge wherever I stay, if only to make it easier if and when I do need to phone MR to get Elite nights posted manually after the stay.
 
Mercy, of course you folks were right on buying points counting for keeping Thea count alive. I shouldn't rely on reading phone I the car with a limited data plan.

We did however arrive at Grande Ocean by the end of the day. Enjoying watching and listening to the ocean as I say my apology for misreading the link yesterday.
 
bazzap said:
Do I read this correctly that incidental spend needs to be charged to a Marriott credit card to qualify? We usually do, but have not always done so in the past.
"Staying during an owner’s week and earning Elite night credit will not count as qualifying activity. However, if the owner has incidental spend on their folio during their ownership stay that earns either points or miles, this would be qualifying activity"

As for potential issues getting Elite nights posted, some resorts/hotels in some parts of the world are worse than others for this and don't always automatically post.
I do now always incur some charge wherever I stay, if only to make it easier if and when I do need to phone MR to get Elite nights posted manually after the stay.
Click to expand...

Correct, just earning an Elite night credit will not extend the expiration of the MR points in your account. You must have point earning spend to qualify. So a MVC stay that only earns Elite night credit won't work. You don't have to charge the spend to a Marriott Rewards credit card to qualify, just incidental spend that will post to your MR account.

We have never had an issue with Elite nights not posting on MVCI stays, of course we almost always have at least a few dollars spend at the Marketplace. Though we have had other times with no spend and still got the Elite nights.
 
The easiest way to stay active may be to use points, which qualifies.

I think for many of us who have a lot of activity this is irrelevant.
 
I'll tell you who this affects - those of us with a relatively small point balance >$7,000 who don't have the Marriott cc and who are married to someone with a large point balance. I know that it's just a few thousand points but it is the principle of the thing :) I've been trying to use these points since 2009! They will only a transfer between spouses in the of a shortfall on the other account when making a reservation. That's not going to happen with us. It looks like these points are going to go away because it's not worth it for me to spend money to keep the account alive.

I think this part of the program is dumb but hey, it's their sandbox and I just get to play in it.
 
Why don't you book a reward in your name and let your spouse transfer the points needed for the reward to your account and then it will close out the points in your account?
 
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