Changes to Marriott Rewards Program
Marriott sent me an email today saying that they are changing the Marriott Rewards Program. Here's the statment:
"On May 16, 2013, Marriott Rewards® will be changing which hotels are in which categories as part of our regular review of all our hotels' categories. Additionally, there will be a new Category 9, requiring 45,000 points per night for a redemption stay."
I spent almost 30 years building my account to over 900,000 points as of two years ago (there were a few redemptions along the way, including a week in London, but about two years ago the total reached 900,000).
When they changed the system about two years ago (depreciating the points again), I made reservations for a week's stay for January 2012 & 2013 at the Wailea Beach in Maui. 210,000 points covered each week. Well, not exactly. This year they charged us $30 a day for a resort fee (I asked if they would waive the fee if I promised not to use the pool or gym; nope). You would think the points would cover the full stay, and that we wouldn't be gyped by an additional fee that really should be considered part of the cost for the room. [The cost for food also increased over the prior year]. So even though the points required were the same for the last two years, a new $30 fee was added this year that really should have been covered by the points. By the way, the resort fee is shown on the Marriott Websit in tiny print so I suspect many customers don't see it until they get to the hotel.
Now Marriott is probably going to bump the Maui hotel up to a higher level (I've managed to up our points to 600,000, after deducting for the last two trips), and my points lose their value once more. At 45,000 a night a week's stay would be 315,000 points (assuming there isn't a weekly rate). And I'll bet we have to pay a resort fee again next year ($50???)
Now anyone thinking of buying vacation points in the timeshare program, should give some thought to how Marriott keeps devaluing the rewards points. I suspect the same thing will happen to the vacation points. Buyer beware!
I haven't posted here in a long time so you know I'm irritated.