Category Archives for Hotels.
When Marriott acquired Starwood, Marriott Rewards leadership expected to adopt Starwood’s SPG IT platform. They weren’t happy with what Marriott had and were looking into new solutions. Why not just take Starwood’s, after all SPG was viewed as the better loyalty program?
Once they got into things they learned the limitations of the Starwood system. The transition from Starwood to Marriott didn’t go smoothly however.
Earlier today Hilton shared that they are updating the CRM platform they use to run the Honors loyalty program. They’re going to take systems offline October 30 and into October 31 (“depending on your time zone”). This surprises me, loyalty programs almost always make these transitions over a weekend.
Hilton assures that “existing reservations will not be impacted.” Let’s hope everything goes as quickly as Honors expects. But get all of your Hilton business done before October 30 and assume it could take longer than a day before you have access to your account back.
Five years ago most Wyndham properties could be booked for a maximum of 16,000 points. They jacked up award prices to as much as 40,000 points (after pricing some properties as high as 45,000 and 50,000 points).
And then they introduced a new flat redemption rate of 15,000 points per night in 2015. This was hailed as a big decrease in pricing for their best properties, when really is was reverting to what pricing had been just two years earlier — and a big increase in prices for lower-end hotels.
Twelve years ago the most you could spend to stay at a Hyatt was 15,000 points. There was nothing higher than category 4. Yesterday the category drop down on Hyatt’s website began displaying a greyed-out category 8, 40,000 points per night.
Yesterday Hyatt confirmed that new premium suite award nights and upgrades become available November 1 at the same time they’re making changes to cash and points awards.
When yesterday’s announcement was made several questions were unanswered.
Hyatt is running a promotion that gives bonus points for progressively more stays through November 30. They are also giving American Airlines points for Hyatt Place and Hyatt House stays through January 31.
And for Hyatt House properties specifically stays of four or more consecutive nights between November 1 and December 31 earn 2000 bonus points.
Last week I wrote that week that Hyatt was expected to make big changes to cash and points awards and introduce premium suite awards. Hyatt has now done so. There are more details to these changes — and more changes — than had been previously reported.
Historically the payout was less than 2%, so this is an amazing deal that probably won’t last. It’s worth it to make any Marriott (including Starwood) bookings through the site, and to make as many as you may need quickly. Indeed, making cancellable bookings that you may need can make good sense.
Since you’re sent from Ebates to Marriott’s own website you will of course earn elite credit and have elite status recognized, as well as earning Marriott points for your stay and availing yourself of their member rates.
On Friday I wrote about a report that Hyatt would be gutting cash and points awards November 1 as well as introducing new premium suite redemption options.
The claim about cash and points was that instead of redeeming points and a fixed cash price, you would redeem points for half off a hotel’s paid rate. That report now has been verified by a hotel which has received information about the change.
Members are going to have different views of these reported changes, which have not been confirmed by Hyatt.
My own view is that while I like the value cash and points offers now at the category 2-6 level, now that full points redemptions earn elite night credit cash and points is no longer as crucial a part of my arsenal.
Meanwhile premium suites is huge — the major constraint on my travel is time rather than points. Since I’m not working hard to stretch each point I’d rather use them for the best experience possible.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
