Marriott has announced what hotels are changing categories for 2020. The new pricing will go into effect on March 4th, 2020. Almost one third of properties are changing category this year (29%) with some increasing in price and others decreasing in price. Last year we saw 5% of properties change price, but that was somewhat misleading as they also introduced peak and off peak pricing last year as well. The break down is as follows:
- 1687 will increase in price
- 507 will decrease in price
When Marriott announced they would be taking over SPG, I always said that actions would speak louder than words and Marriott’s actions show the program losing value and losing value fast. It was just announced that more properties would have access to capacity controls that allow them to black out dates, despite having a no blackout date policy. It’s also important to remember that Marriott doesn’t automatically refund you if you’ve booked a property that decreases in price so you’ll need to manually request a refund. For properties that increase in price as long as you book before the March 4th, 2020 you’ll secure the current pricing.
Hilton or IHG, please give a promo where you’ll match Marriott nights towards lifetime elite status, and I will never stay at a Marriott again.
Ugh, just went back to check when my AMEX free night was deposited back in 2019 (I pay my fee in January). And the answer is….
March 4. Do they bulk load everyone’s cert once a month? Looks like this category change is timed so I can’t take advantage of one last cert at places that are going up.
Don’t assume. Check the ACTUAL hotels which you’re interested in. Where I’m planning a trip this summer in Guam, I was going to use several 35k certs for multiple days, and was worried that the 35k (cat 5) properties might be “peak” before I have all the certs in place (because dates near my stay date are already “peak”). Well, the particular two properties in Guam which I was considering are both changing from cat 5 to cat 4, which will mean peak will be 30k, so it means I will be CERTAIN to be able to use all my 35k certs there. (And my remaining points for one or two nights will go down too.)
And a couple of the “non-fancy” hotels in the USA that I stay at sometimes have also gone down.
So it depends whether you use Marriott only for “aspirational” stays where everyone else wants to stay, or if you stay at places relatively few people redeem, as to whether you’re likely to find more that you might use going up or more that might use going down.
So don’t look at the total numbers, look at the individual hotels, to decide whether this is good or bad news for you. Too many people just look at the headline and jump to conclusions based on that.
And where I’m considering a trip in 2021 (that I might book hotels in late 2020) in the Middle East, there the hotels have gone down too (4 to 3 in that case).
Bye Bye Marriott! Bonvoyed (F!@#$%^) by Marriott!
Does anyone want to guess what happened to the Sheraon Wuhan?? It went up a category… oh Bonvoy!
*Sheraton Wuhan (China)
The Points Guy tomorrow – “We value Bonvoy points at 5 cents/point*
*by splitting your room with 10 people”
they already put out a helpful but at times laughable euphemistic article… one idiotic line was that the average increase was “1,381 points per night only, an effective increase of $11.05 per night “… the imbecile writer divided the increase by ALL 6000+ Marriott properties!
The Spin Guy
Feeling too bonvoyed a few days back, I called to cancel my Amex Bonvoy card & was told that I won’t receive any prorated fee. When did this change take place?
The card agreement states, “For cancellations
after this 30 day period, the Annual Membership fee is non-refundable”
Been that way for a while now. An AMEX policy though, not a Marriott one.
AMEX prorates the annual fee if you downgrade (A good way to double dip on the AMEX Plat, Hilton Aspire, etc). There was some speculation that one could downgrade to the regular AMEX Bonvoy card (the one that doesn’t officially exist for new applications anymore but has the funky artwork where everyone with the old regular SPG card was grandfathered in).
Curious if anyone has been able to downgrade to it? Haven’t seen any data points.
There is no card below plain Amex Bonvoy, perhaps it might be possible to downgrade a Brilliant to plain Bonvoy. Personally, I still think the annual certificates are worth the fees and I get a lot of good offers on my Biz Marriott Amex. I am keeping both a Brilliant and Biz versions. But yeah, the devaluation blows. I will probably have to decide on my next trip with 30 mins, and the virus thing is still out there.
I’m still good with FNC’s after these changes… for now…
They’re making Hilton look golden (Nevermind Hyatt)
I think Amex and Chase will also get Bonvoyed by this eventually. They must have signed expensive contracts with Marriott and now their card terms are so much less attractive.
The AF is just not worthwhile any more on most of the card line up. The FNA cannot be supplemented with points and the points value itself has now effectively been devalued 40-50% in most cases compared to 2018 with the category change, dynamic pricing and straightforward increases. These are not sleight of hands anymore. I’m voting with a phone call and my scissors on each of my 4 Marriott cards as the card anniversary comes around!
Yeah, I think while negotiating the contract, Amex & Chase should’ve put in terms & conditions like an FNC should be redeemable for stays at at least x% of Marriott hotels, and that the point value of an FNC should change with that percentage being below a certain number.
Maybe Amex & Chase execs won’t be golf-buddies with Marriott execs anymore.