Marriott extends elite status, points and certificates, unveils major changes to its loyalty program for 2022

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The world’s largest resort chain is making some huge modifications to its loyalty program in 2022. On Tuesday, Marriott prolonged the expiration dates on present elite standing, factors and certificates held by its clients, but additionally unveiled modifications to its program as a complete that can have results properly past the brand new 12 months.

The information is each good and unhealthy. However, sadly, the excellent news is for the quick time period, whereas the unhealthy information can have a lot longer-term implications on the Marriott Bonvoy program and the way members can maximize their factors.

The Domes Lodge in Corfu, Greece.

As a part of Tuesday’s announcement, Marriott has confirmed that because of the Covid-19 pandemic and its lasting results by 2021, will probably be extending members’ elite standing as soon as once more.

All Bonvoy members who presently have elite standing can have that standing prolonged by February 2023. This newest extension applies to all Bonvoy members, no matter whether or not their elite standing was beforehand prolonged or newly achieved in 2021.

When the Covid-19 pandemic first shut down the world of journey in March 2020, Marriott prolonged all members’ elite standing by February 2022, which implies with this newest extension, some members can have standing for nearly three years in whole with out having to requalify for it.

The Ritz-Carlton Maldives within the Fari Islands.

All Marriott Bonvoy factors in your account can even get an extension of their very own. This system is extending its pause on factors expiration by Dec. 31, 2022. Usually, in pre-pandemic instances, Marriott factors would expire if there was no account exercise inside a 24-month interval.

Free Night time and Suite Night time Awards additionally prolonged

In one other piece of fine information, the chain is extending the period of time members must use each their Free Night time Awards (FNAs) and Suite Night time Awards (SNAs).

Free Night time Awards, also called free night time certificates, are a advantage of a number of Marriott bank cards and can be utilized for a free night time on stays that may usually value as much as a specified variety of factors. For instance, the next Marriott playing cards supply annual free night time certificates beginning with the second 12 months you will have the cardboard:

If in case you have a free night time certificates that’s presently set to run out between Jan. 3, 2022, and June 29, 2022, it can now be prolonged by June 30, 2022. This extension applies to these certificates which have already been prolonged as properly.

Along with the extension of those certificates, Marriott introduced on Tuesday that in early 2022, members will have the ability to mix their 35,000-point certificates with 15,000 of their very own factors to redeem the certificates at a property that prices as much as 50,000 factors per night time.

Much like FNA certificates, members who’ve Suite Night time Awards can even have extra time to make use of their certificates. SNAs that had been set to run out on Dec. 31, 2021, will probably be prolonged and can now expire on June 30, 2022.

5 SNA certificates can be found to Bonvoy elite members who keep between 50 and 75 nights at Marriott properties every year as a part of Marriott’s Selection Advantages program.

The JW Marriott Monterrey Valle resort.

Sadly, Tuesday’s announcement from Marriott wasn’t all excellent news. The chain additionally introduced that, starting in early 2022, will probably be altering the way in which it categorizes inns. In consequence, members ought to count on to see a a lot better vary in the way in which a resort is priced in the event that they need to use their factors.

Marriott advised CNN Underscored that will probably be transitioning to “Versatile Level Redemption Charges” in March 2022, that means that this system is eliminating the award chart classes it presently makes use of to group properties. As a substitute of assigning properties to classes with set worth factors based mostly on the date of the keep — off-peak, commonplace and peak — level redemptions will now fluctuate based mostly on the prevailing money fee.

Marriott’s present award chart, which will probably be going away in March 2022.

So, if the money fee of a resort keep is excessive, members can count on to pay extra in factors than they’d if the money fee of the resort keep is low. Sadly, that implies that the general worth of Marriott Bonvoy factors is more likely to lower, as members can presently reap the benefits of fixed-point charges even when the money worth of the resort is excessive.

The Marriott award chart will disappear in March 2022. Nevertheless, when the brand new dynamic pricing system is applied at the moment, Marriott says that just about all its inns — greater than 97% — will proceed to be priced within the present vary that members are accustomed to based mostly on the prevailing award classes. Nevertheless, that’s additionally anticipated to vary for stays beginning in 2023, when Marriott plans to align award charges extra carefully with a resort’s money charges.

By eliminating its award charts and shifting to a dynamic pricing mannequin, Marriott is following the lead of Hilton Motels, which made an identical change in 2017 to its Hilton Honors loyalty program.

The W Chengdu, a Marriott property in China.

Finally, this transfer received’t be in style with loyal Marriott members, as award redemption charges will probably be unpredictable. Nevertheless, it’s a change that follows a lot of the journey trade, with each airways and inns aligning their award redemption charges with the money charges on a given flight or night time.

The excellent news is that these modifications don’t take impact till March 2022. Till then, Marriott’s award chart and redemption charges based mostly on set classes will stay in place. So for those who’ve obtained upcoming journey plans and have been saving your Marriott Bonvoy factors, you’ll probably need to redeem them earlier than these modifications come into pressure.

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed listed below are the creator’s alone, not these of any financial institution, bank card issuer, airways or resort chain, and haven’t been reviewed, accredited or in any other case endorsed by any of those entities.

Observe: Whereas the gives talked about above are correct on the time of publication, they’re topic to vary at any time and should have modified, or could now not be accessible.