New Marriott Rewards Property Categories and Travel Package Requirements effective Aug '18

[Steve Fatula]

Yep, lots of difference. The biggest increase is the Domes of Elounda in Greece, +40,000! The San Francisco St Regis ties for the biggest decrease, -30,000. If you sort on that column, there are 35 full pages of decreases, at 100 per page. There are 21 full pages of increases. The rest remain the same.

 

[NboroGirl]

Can we book a stay before Aug. 1, using the old point charts, for a stay next year (before the points go up?) The place I'm interested in is going up 15,000 points/night.

 

[VacationForever]

Can we book a stay before Aug. 1, using the old point charts, for a stay next year (before the points go up?) The place I'm interested in is going up 15,000 points/night.

YES! I have already used 3 separate 5-night stays, through the travel packages, 2 for Dec 2018 and 1 for May 2019. I checked and all 3 hotels are going up in points requirement.

 

[TXTortoise]

Do you book your stay with points or can I make a reservation for cash and then move points later, though I guess if I want to leverage the current charts I have to commit the points before then.

What happens if you cancel a point reservation, do you can the points back and the FF miles are recovered also?

If cancelled after 1 Aug, I guess you would get back what was used, not whatever the new amount is for a reservation?

 

[mas]

Can resale timeshare owners gain access to the 5 night packages or is this only for developer purchases?

Any word on whether Starwood/Vistana Owners will have access to the 5 night packages after the Aug 1 merger?

I suspect that if your name is listed as owner of the Marriott timeshare you are eligible for the 5 night pkg.

Regarding the Starwood owner access before Aug 1st, my guess is they would not have access to the 5 night deal as they aren't listed as Marriott owners. They would have access to the 7 day deal by converting the Starwood points to Marriott at the 1 to 3 rate and then ordering a 7 day travel pkg.

 

[VacationForever]

Do you book your stay with points or can I make a reservation for cash and then move points later, though I guess if I want to leverage the current charts I have to commit the points before then.

What happens if you cancel a point reservation, do you can the points back and the FF miles are recovered also?

If cancelled after 1 Aug, I guess you would get back what was used, not whatever the new amount is for a reservation?

Do you have enough Marriott Rewards Points now and know where you want to go to? If you do, here are the steps:
1. Decide on the hotel and current category that you want to stay at and make sure they do have rooms that can be booked using rewards.
2. Call to order travel reward package, with the airline loyalty # that you want the miles to go to.
3. Call, you cannot do it online, to book the hotel with rewards and have the agent attach the hotel stay portion of the reward to the reservation.

If you change your mind about the hotel or the dates, you can cancel the hotel reservation and the hotel certificate will return to your account as certificate, not as points. You can change the certificate up or down in categories, and the agent will adjust the points to be returned to you or to take from you, and rebook another hotel and attach the certificate to it.

 

[VacationForever]

Does anyone have thoughts as to whether we should redeem a 5-night travel package for the lowest category, 1-5, or the highest category, 9, or somewhere in-between, as a placeholder now as we adjust to the new points after August for a future To Be Decided stay?

I just redeemed for a Cat 1-5, but now I am wondering if I should have gone for a higher package as I expect more overall inflation, worse for higher when compared to a lower category.

 

[Quilter]

Does anyone have thoughts as to whether we should redeem a 5-night travel package for the lowest category, 1-5, or the highest category, 9, or somewhere in-between, as a placeholder now as we adjust to the new points after August for a future To Be Decided stay?

I just redeemed for a Cat 1-5, but now I am wondering if I should have gone for a higher package as I expect more overall inflation, worse for higher when compared to a lower category.

If you change later they may cancel the first certificate and refund the hotel portion and then charge you the new hotel portion.

 

[tompk]

I was recently told that an existing hotel certificate will be redeemable for a hotel in that same category, so if I am holding a certificate for 7 nights at a category then it will be good for a category 7 in August and beyond. So you can redeem for a cat 7 package right now at the bargain rates and redeem it next year for a cat 7 Ritz Carlton that will be going for 60k points per night.

 

[Superchief]

Yep, lots of difference. The biggest increase is the Domes of Elounda in Greece, +40,000! The San Francisco St Regis ties for the biggest decrease, -30,000. If you sort on that column, there are 35 full pages of decreases, at 100 per page. There are 21 full pages of increases. The rest remain the same.

Keep in mind that current points levels are always the same, while the new rewards are likely to often require peak level requirements. One of my favorites went down 2500 points for standard, but would be at the same level for 'peak'. It will be interesting to see the proportion of available dates for each level. I expect some of the more popular destinations will frequently require peak points.

 

[NboroGirl]

Does anyone have thoughts as to whether we should redeem a 5-night travel package for the lowest category, 1-5, or the highest category, 9, or somewhere in-between, as a placeholder now as we adjust to the new points after August for a future To Be Decided stay?

I just redeemed for a Cat 1-5, but now I am wondering if I should have gone for a higher package as I expect more overall inflation, worse for higher when compared to a lower category.

I'm in the same quandary. I want to spend my points on a travel package before the price goes up, but I don't yet know where I would want to use the hotel certificates, so I don't know which category to select. I'm limited by my points - I only have about 264,000 and I would like to maximize my miles so I won't be picking the top category. It will be 1-5, 6, or 7.

 

[VacationForever]

I'm in the same quandary. I want to spend my points on a travel package before the price goes up, but I don't yet know where I would want to use the hotel certificates, so I don't know which category to select. I'm limited by my points - I only have about 264,000 and I would like to maximize my miles so I won't be picking the top category. It will be 1-5, 6, or 7.

I already know that we want to use the nights in Sydney for our 2020 trip. My travel is already full in 2018 and 2019 which includes 3 5-night hotel stays. I guess I need to decide on which hotel in Sydney and go from there. I will call back tomorrow to change the category to take more points, and then hopefully a year out, they will let me change the expiration out a year.

 

[Steve A]

There appears to be a huge increase in the number of points required in the travel packages for the current level 9 London hotels like Park Lane. Currently it costs 390,000 points for seven nights and 120,00ff miles. Under the new plan it will require 570,000 points and you only get 100,000ff miles. Please correct me if I’m mistaken. Also it’s harder to get the points since we will be loosing the three points transfer from the SPG AMEX to MR.

 

[NboroGirl]

Question: Let's say I choose category 5 for my reward certificates. The new category list shows Grande Vista as category 5, but it doesn't say what size villa - I assume it's for a guest room. What if down the road I need a 1 or 2 BR, can I use more points on top of my hotel certificates to get a larger unit? Or are the larger units a different category?

Can you upgrade on the fly? If I have five category 5 certificates, would I be able to use any towards a higher category hotel if I have enough points to upgrade at the time I want to stay there?.

 

[VacationForever]

Question: Let's say I choose category 5 for my reward certificates. The new category list shows Grande Vista as category 5, but it doesn't say what size villa - I assume it's for a guest room. What if down the road I need a 1 or 2 BR, can I use more points on top of my hotel certificates to get a larger unit? Or are the larger units a different category?

Can you upgrade on the fly? If I have five category 5 certificates, would I be able to use any towards a higher category hotel if I have enough points to upgrade at the time I want to stay there?.

To go up 1 size bedroom, the current points requirement is 5K per night, so to go from a standard studio size to 2BR, you are looking at 10K per night, for 5 nights, it will cost another 50K. We do not know how that point requirement for size upgrade will be post August 2018.

 

[mjm1]

I already know that we want to use the nights in Sydney for our 2020 trip. My travel is already full in 2018 and 2019 which includes 3 5-night hotel stays. I guess I need to decide on which hotel in Sydney and go from there. I will call back tomorrow to change the category to take more points, and then hopefully a year out, they will let me change the expiration out a year.

We used a 5 night certificate a few years ago for Marriott on Circular Quay and really enjoyed the hotel as well as the central location. We were able to walk to all of the sites we wanted to see in Sydney from there. And I just redeemed points for another 5 night stay there with the intent of using it next year. It is a category 8 hotel. With 120,000 miles it cost 300,000 MRP's. Highly recommend it.

Best regards.

Mike

 

[dansimms]

When will the chart come out that says when Peak and Non Peak periods?

 

[WBP]

There appears to be a huge increase in the number of points required in the travel packages for the current level 9 London hotels like Park Lane. Currently it costs 390,000 points for seven nights and 120,00ff miles. Under the new plan it will require 570,000 points and you only get 100,000ff miles. Please correct me if I’m mistaken. Also it’s harder to get the points since we will be loosing the three points transfer from the SPG AMEX to MR.

“We listened to the travel aspirations of our members and set our sights on unlocking the full potential of our loyalty programs,” said David Flueck, Senior Vice President of Global Loyalty, Marriott International."

 

[TXTortoise]

Do you have enough Marriott Rewards Points now and know where you want to go to? If you do, here are the steps:
1. Decide on the hotel and current category that you want to stay at and make sure they do have rooms that can be booked using rewards.
2. Call to order travel reward package, with the airline loyalty # that you want the miles to go to.
3. Call, you cannot do it online, to book the hotel with rewards and have the agent attach the hotel stay portion of the reward to the reservation.

If you change your mind about the hotel or the dates, you can cancel the hotel reservation and the hotel certificate will return to your account as certificate, not as points. You can change the certificate up or down in categories, and the agent will adjust the points to be returned to you or to take from you, and rebook another hotel and attach the certificate to it.

**********
Thanks VF, if I transfer SPG now I'll have 800K plus in MRs. Future travel is the quandary.

With respect to airline loyalty, we trend to American for our Texas to Hawaii travel, but for international travel I'd look first to non-domestic airlines, preferably business class or premium economy.
If I deposit to United, I assume those miles can be used across their Star Alliance Partners, i.e., they become a holding bucket.

I've mostly been accumulating points for the last two years, so haven't had to master the usage details yet, but 1 August does seem to be critical point at the moment.

Given my unknowns, would it also make sense to book a target hotel as far out as possible or is it a one-year usage window, with hope they would allow me to extend, i.e., thinking late 2019 and 2020.

Considering: Two 7-day or maybe three 5-day Category 7 certificates.

 

[VacationForever]

**********
Thanks VF, if I transfer SPG now I'll have 800K plus in MRs. Future travel is the quandary.

With respect to airline loyalty, we trend to American for our Texas to Hawaii travel, but for international travel I'd look first to non-domestic airlines, preferably business class or premium economy.
If I deposit to United, I assume those miles can be used across their Star Alliance Partners, i.e., they become a holding bucket.

I've mostly been accumulating points for the last two years, so haven't had to master the usage details yet, but 1 August does seem to be critical point at the moment.

Given my unknowns, would it also make sense to book a target hotel as far out as possible or is it a one-year usage window, with hope they would allow me to extend, i.e., thinking late 2019 and 2020.

Considering: Two 7-day or maybe three 5-day Category 7 certificates.

You do not need to book a hotel. The 12-month certificate can just sit in your account and up to this point, the agents have extended the certificates when you call them.

 

[hangloose]

If I have an existing 7 Day Cat 8 hotel certificate, I cannot tell what Category that maps to after August 1st? Does it change? Or does it remain at a Cat 8 in the new combined system?

 

[hangloose]

And note for all those highest 8* properties: "*An eighth category will be added in early 2019. Until then, Category 8 hotels will be available at Category 7 pricing."

Does this mean we should look highest cat 8 properties after Aug 1st, since they will be billed via MR Pts at Cat 7 until early 2019? Basically....a one category upgrade for free?

 

[VacationForever]

If I have an existing 7 Day Cat 8 hotel certificate, I cannot tell what Category that maps to after August 1st? Does it change? Or does it remain at a Cat 8 in the new combined system?

It may or may not remain as whatever its current Category. But I think we may be able to do some analysis here... because the hotels' new redemption values have been published, we can go back to the original announcement of the new categories and map it accordingly. I cannot find the original announcement yet. I am tired tonight so I will look at it tomorrow.

 

[jeepie]

In case you need it here’s the 5 night point chart:

5 Nights + 50k Miles 5 Nights + 70k Miles 5 Nights + 100k Miles 5 Nights + 120k Miles
Category 1-5 165k 185k 215k 235k
Category 6 180k 200k 230k 250k
Category 7 200k 220k 250k 270k
Category 8 230k 250k 280k 300k

Thanks icydog,
Has this been published anywhere yet? Just curious if it’s final. TIA.

 

[dioxide45]

Thanks icydog,
Has this been published anywhere yet? Just curious if it’s final. TIA.

Those are the current five night redemption values. No word on what the new ones will be or if they will even continue to offer them.