First Glimpse of New Marriott/SPG Reward Redemption Schedule
All the news seem to come out at once. We started this morning with the American Express Canada Press Release, which had a lot of confusion on whether the new earning ratios are in fact a devaluation. Now Marriott issued their own Press Release explaining some of the changes to their reward redemption schedule.
Below is a list of key changes.
Category changes
- 52% of hotels will move to a lower redemption rate
- 31% will go higher
- 17% remain the same
This means that 6,300 hotels will be under 35,000 points per night. This is important for American Express cardholders who will be receiving the Free Award Night.
There will be a new Category 8 that will cost 25,000 more points per night, starting in early 2019. So you may want to redeem Category 7 hotels now to lock in the cheaper rate.
PointSavers
There will be a PointSavers Chart that will give members up to 20% savings on reward redemption at select properties.
Additional Earning Opportunies
Starting in August 2018, members will be able to earn points on all purchase (i.e. room, F&B, spa) made at all brands. This is an amazing change as it gives members more ways to earn points.
Additional Redemption Options
All members can instantly redeem points for meals, cocktails, spa treatments or anything else that can be charged to the room. For this redemption, 250 points is worth $1.
Points Advance
Points advance allows you to book a stay even before you have enough points for the reward redemption. The condition is that the balance of the points will need to be earned or purchased at least 14 days prior to check-in. This is helpful if you want to lock in a reward redemption when you were given warning that the redemption schedule will go up in the near future.
Travel Packages
Travel Packages now include all SPG properties, instead of just SPG categories 3 & 4. Starting in August 2019, Marriott Rewards and SPG members can redeem points for airline miles and hotel stays at any of the 6,500 participating hotels.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, if this is going to be the final changes, I will need to re-track my thumbs up on the American Express SPG changes.
Either way, glad to at least see the majority of the hotels going down in categories.
Thx for this update. Related question: is the current conversion rate of Amex MR to Spg 2:1 or 3:1? And are there any news if that will change in August?
At the moment it is 2:1 for Canadians and 3:1 for Americans. Who knows what it will be in August though…
It’s safe to assume the SPG 5k bonus on 20k transferred to airlines goes away when things get Marriotted, right?
If that goes away, that might cause me to move my everyday spend away from SPG AmEx and towards Alaska Mastercard, since I mostly use SPG points to convert into Mileage Plan for partner redemptions.
I hope it does not… but there will probably be some changes.
What i’m skeptical about is that even thow they say majority of properties are going down..Are they really? What I see a lot is 1 cat change which means if it’s high season it stays at the same points value as today.What is the % of properties going down 2 cat which means they are going down?
Also I am just silver,which means only 10% more points on stays,etc and have the SPG amex from Canada which is going from 3:1 ratio to 2:1 ratio for Marriott points a 33% reduction.
The only positive is that you have a free night stay at cat.5 which is priced at a cat.7 today but only at low season after jan.1st.but there’s no spend limit.
Don’t be fooled by the reduction of points now because they put the normal season in which for vacationers is not normal especially in Canada.We mostly travel in high season so there’s literally no reduction after jan.1st.
I hope they make some further changes to calibrate accordingly…
Have I misunderstood or is this the time to transfer my large amount of Amex MR to SPG , (and then on to Marriott) as I am only interested in maximizing Marriott points for hotel stays—not airline miles.
I would do what works for you if you have specific upcoming trips in mind. Otherwise if you hedge, there is always a risk that it could go either way!
Hi Hannah,no on august 1st SPG will only exist as a site with points and only useful to up your status.SPG hotels are all going to be under the Marriott Rewards umbrella and after august 1st you will be able(they will)convert all your SPG points to MR points at a 3:1 ratio whe you want to transfer your SPG points…..so if you have 10k SPG it will equal 30kMR…after that SPG points will no longer exist.If you have a SPG credit card it will now give you 2MR points/$ spend if you have the Canadian version of it.
You don’t need to transfer anything but on Jan 1st 2019 the SPG points will automaticly be converted and we will only have a Marriott Rewards account which will include the SPG properties which Marriott now owns.
There’s no way to maximise your points the way you are supposing.The only thing is from august 1st to dec 31st you might have better deals before Marriott adds a cat.9 to the list and there’s no high and low season redemption yet.
https://points-redemption.marriott.com/category-change
Check this site to see if you want to redeem now or wait after august 1st.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!