You’ve heard the saying, “good news / bad news, which would you like first?” before.
Well, today Marriott Bonvoy just announced what we’re calling, “good news / terrible news”.
Good News / Terrible News: Marriott Bonvoy Announces Future Devaluation
Through a series of 5 tweets, Marriott Bonvoy announced some major upcoming changes to the future of their loyalty program.
Let’s go through them in order (spoiler-alert, Marriott Bonvoy starts with the “good news” first).
Click Here For The Official Marriott Bonvoy Page Regarding These Changes
(1) Elite Status Extension
This is good news.
Whatever status you earned in 2019, you can keep until February 2023.
(2) Suite Night Awards Extension
More good news.
If you have any unused Suite Night Awards or Free Night Awards, they’ll be extended to June 30, 2022.
(3) Points Expiration Extension
Even more good news.
Inactive account points will not expire until December 31, 2022.
(4) Flexible Point Redemption Rates
Now, for the “terrible news”.
Marriott Bonvoy is eliminating their points charts effective March 2022.
This means a major point devaluation is coming in the form of “dynamic pricing” which aligns closer to the cash price of the hotel booking and less with seasonal pricing.
This means that opportunities for points arbitrage and outsized value from point redemptions – like when I used only 50,000 points per night to stay at the $1,107 per night Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, the $936.10 per night Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, or the $698 per night Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage – will soon likely be mostly a thing of the past.
Bonvoy claims only about 3% of its properties will see significant changes to the cost of awards in 2022, and that most “flexible point redemptions rates” will take place in 2023.
Click Here For The Official Marriott Bonvoy Page Regarding Flexible Point Redemption Rates
(5) Free Night Award Top Off
After the above crushing terrible news, let’s end with some more good news.
You’ll soon be able to “top-off” your 35,000 or 50,000 point Free Night Award certificates by adding up to 15,000 points to the redemption.
For example, if you have a 35,000 Free Night Award certificate that you want to use on a 50,000 point redemption, now you can. You can add 15,000 points to the 35,000 point certificate and book that 50,000 point per night stay.
Click Here For The Official Marriott Bonvoy Page Regarding Free Night Award Top Off
Good News / Terrible News: Marriott Bonvoy Announces Future Devaluation
Well, there is some really good news here. Status, Suite Night Awards, Free Award Nights, and Points Expiration extensions are all good news.
The thing that most excites me here is the new ability to “top off” the Free Night Award certificates; this means Bonvoy members should be able to find some great booking opportunities – at least through 2022.
Sadly, all that good news does little to lessen the blow of the major devaluation that is coming soon, namely 2023. “Dynamic pricing” almost never works to the consumer’s benefit overall (which is why travel corporations love it so much).
Still, I’m holding out a little hope for “reasonable” dynamic pricing like you can sometimes find on Hilton, Delta, or even American Airlines. Even so, it’s looking like my plan for 2022 is going to be to redeem as much of my Bonvoy points as I can before the 2023 devaluation hits.
