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Marriott Bonvoy massive unannounced devaluation

cubigbird

cubigbird

Tug Review Crew Veteran
TUG Member
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Messages
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Location
Western US
Resorts Owned
Westin Lagunamar, Westin Kierland X2, Westin St John-Sunset Bay X2, Westin Desert Willow, Westin Aventuras
Well, after Hilton did it with the HHonors, I am not surprised Marriott followed along. That said, the Marriott version of the FNC still seems shitty in comparison, maybe even worse now?
 
The 35K FNC with the basic AMEX may now not even cover 1 night at some Fairfield and Residence Inns. The benefit is going to have to be updated otherwise AMEX will lose cardholders. It now makes the MVC timeshare conversion to Bonvoy points even more worthless.
 
It seems devaluation is now an annual ritual at this time of year.

Will need to assess whether the FNCs will be worth anything and whether to keep the Bonvoy cards. We've been using our devalued IHG FNCs for airport transfers. Earn and burn is the best approach and we don't chase aspirational stays anymore because it entails risk. Perhaps AMEX and Chase will see the loss in everyday spend and will put pressure on Marriott.

We recently had a great Chase offer that finally was worth something that an AMEX offer would provide. 10% off Westin stays. With cards x2 we saved almost $120 on a week of food and amenities at the Westin Cabo. OTOH We don't typically spend this much at resorts. These offers previously worked on MF payments but no more. Without any other benefit such as FNC or lucrative offers this just about pays for half the AF on 2 cards. :-(
 
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It would be interesting to see the change in cash prices vs the increase in point redemptions.
 
On the one hand, I compare to if you were getting cash back and saving that up, well that cash is worth less every year also. On the other hand, if the way these programs are implied to work is true - where it's mainly empty inventory that has no or incredibly small reimbursement to the property - then I think there's lots of upside and little downside to not devaluing the points. Good rewards programs keep people loyal. You make them not worth it and people will change to one that is worth it or else just use one of the search sites and go where ever is cheapest in the location and category.
 
I don't think it is quite as dramatic as they make it seem. I have 4 different stays booked with points in June-October. Most I booked about 300 days in advance. About 3 days ago they did all go up 10-11% more points than what I have them reserved for but I check most days and if they drop at all I am getting those points back. All of my reservations went down since I booked probably on the average of about 6% most in the last 3 months. So it really is a 4-5% increase over what it was 4-6 months ago. Still significant. And overall cash prices and award prices with Marriott have me looking and booking alternatives.
 
Curious, Marriot IMO is saying the value of the rooms has changed. Did Marriot also adjust (increase) the points awarded to reflect this change?
 
AJCts411 said:
Curious, Marriot IMO is saying the value of the rooms has changed. Did Marriot also adjust (increase) the points awarded to reflect this change?
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The points awarded for a room go up as the cash price increases.
 
vacation dreaming said:
Overall cash rates seem high to me. Is this a points devaluation or adjustment due to increased cash rates? I agree the certificates are becoming useless.
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The FNC, Abound Bonvoy point conversion and the 300,000 point developer purchase certificates are all now worth less value. MVC also does not update timeshare points conversions and purchase certificates to reflect and keep up devaluations, eroding owner value.
 
cubigbird said:
The FNC, Abound Bonvoy point conversion and the 300,000 point developer purchase certificates are all now worth less value. MVC also does not update timeshare points conversions and purchase certificates to reflect and keep up devaluations, eroding owner value.
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MVC did increase the Bonvoy point conversion of select weeks late last year. Though not enough to keep up with devaluations.
 
cubigbird said:
The FNC, Abound Bonvoy point conversion and the 300,000 point developer purchase certificates are all now worth less value. MVC also does not update timeshare points conversions and purchase certificates to reflect and keep up devaluations, eroding owner value.
Click to expand...
Yes, those certificates were a big selling point at Westin Maui last year. The closer guy told me he would show the value of those and said we could buy up to 6 of them. I wasn't interested. I usually have over 400,000 points. So glad we didn't do that.
 
dioxide45 said:
MVC did increase the Bonvoy point conversion of select weeks late last year. Though not enough to keep up with devaluations.
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Not aware of any increases at Westins or Sheratons.
 
cubigbird said:
Not aware of any increases at Westins or Sheratons.
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Yeah, I don't think any of the Westins had increases, but several owners reported increases at Marriott resorts. Vistana resorts always had higher Bonvoy point valuations than most of the Marriott resorts of the same level.
 
Marriott’s does increase the weekly timeshare point value thru II for non Marriott’s, Sheraton, and Westins owners.
 
This pretty much puts the nail in the coffin for my Bonvoy Brilliant card. The fee was paid in December ‘24 and I’m just waiting on the FNC.

I’ve got an upcoming European stay and was going to use it to add an extra night after a conference. Last week the night would have been just over $800 USD or 83,000 points. I just checked and the nightly rate is still $800 but it is now 90,000 points for the night - so I’ll have to bought up and extra 5k points on top of the cert. Still makes the AF worthwhile for this year.
 
jabberwocky said:
This pretty much puts the nail in the coffin for my Bonvoy Brilliant card. The fee was paid in December ‘24 and I’m just waiting on the FNC.

I’ve got an upcoming European stay and was going to use it to add an extra night after a conference. Last week the night would have been just over $800 USD or 83,000 points. I just checked and the nightly rate is still $800 but it is now 90,000 points for the night - so I’ll have to bought up and extra 5k points on top of the cert. Still makes the AF worthwhile for this year.
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and keep repricing to see if it comes down to 85k.
 
tschwa2 said:
I don't think it is quite as dramatic as they make it seem. I have 4 different stays booked with points in June-October. Most I booked about 300 days in advance. About 3 days ago they did all go up 10-11% more points than what I have them reserved for but I check most days and if they drop at all I am getting those points back. All of my reservations went down since I booked probably on the average of about 6% most in the last 3 months. So it really is a 4-5% increase over what it was 4-6 months ago. Still significant. And overall cash prices and award prices with Marriott have me looking and booking alternatives.
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I agree, but, in my experience, the points fluctuations can be much more than that! One year out, I booked the Cotton House Hotel in Barcelona for 5 nights for 368,000 Bonvoy points. After a few weeks, it started to go down in points almost daily, ultimately bottoming out at 289,000 Bonvoy points. I just kept rebooking each time that it dropped. That's a 22% decrease from the original booking. Similar experience with the Marriott Amsterdam Hotel, from a high of 368,000 to 314,000 (15%). So, if you are proactive, you may be able to get a much better deal with your Bonvoy points than your original booking.
 
tschwa2 said:
and keep repricing to see if it comes down to 85k.
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I feel we are all dreaming because right now there is a high demand by traveling consumers to go on a vacation.
IMHO.
 
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frequentmiler.com

Marriott's secret award chart (Updated with the latest devaluation numbers)

In 2022, Marriott abandoned award charts. Previously, if you knew a hotel’s category, you also knew how many points it would require for a free night, at least within a range from off-peak to peak pricing. That was helpful for planning for future stays and it meant that when cash prices were...
frequentmiler.com frequentmiler.com
 
viewfromthewing.com

The Marriott Devaluation Is Even Worse Than We Thought—Here’s The Data - View from the Wing

While Marriott eliminated its award charts, that doesn’t mean the Bonvoy program can’t give members advance notice that they’ll be making major changes to the points price of a free night at its hotels, or at least communicate with members at all about their decision to gut the value of points...
viewfromthewing.com viewfromthewing.com

This seems to make the MVC->Bonvoy point conversion even more of an expensive option.
 
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