In August, Marriott will multiply everyone’s Starpoint balance by 3 to create a unified program. The unified program will have Marriott and Starwood hotels in a single award chart with 7 award categories. This interim period from August 2018 through January 2018 may be a great time to book Starwood hotels at a big discount, so start racking up the Starpoints now before your earnings drop by 33% in August.
In February 2019 a new unified award chart will launch with 8 award categories, along with 3 tiers of pricing within each category.
The good news is that 5th night free awards and cash and points awards are here to stay.
It’s tough to compare the current award charts because the current Marriott program has categories and tiers and the current Starwood program has points worth 3 times what Marriott points are worth.
I can’t make the comparison for Marriott hotels any easier to understand due to the complexity of their current award chart and it’s hard to say how good or bad this is as we don’t yet know which hotels will be in which categories.
We also don’t know what will happen with SPG hotels that haven’t been bookable with standard rates, such as the W or S. Regis Maldives.
For this comparison chart I have tripled the Starwood award chart to help make things a little easier to compare:
| Previous Starwood Chart | Previous Previous Marriott Chart | August 2018 Combined Chart | February 2019 Combined Chart | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category 1 | 6,000 (Weekends) 9,000 (Weekdays) | 7,500 | 7,500 | 5,000 off-peak 7,500 standard 10,000 peak |
| Category 2 | 9,000 (Weekends) 12,000 (Weekdays) | 10,000 | 12,500 | 10,000 off-peak 12,500 standard 15,000 peak |
| Category 3 | 21,000 | 15,000 | 17,500 | 15,000 off-peak 17,500 standard 20,000 peak |
| Category 4 | 30,000 | 20,000 | 25,000 | 20,000 off-peak 25,000 standard 30,000 peak |
| Category 5 | 36,000 off-peak 48,000 peak | 25,000 | 35,000 | 30,000 off-peak 35,000 standard 40,000 peak |
| Category 6 | 60,000 off-peak 75,000 peak | 30,000 | 50,000 | 40,000 off-peak 50,000 standard 60,000 peak |
| Category 7 | 90,000 off-peak 105,000 peak | 35,000 | 60,000 | 50,000 off-peak 60,000 standard 70,000 peak |
| Category 8 | - | 40,000 | - | 70,000 off-peak 85,000 standard 100,000 peak |
| Category 9 | - | 45,000 | - | - |
| Ritz Tier 1 | - | 30,000 | - | - |
| Ritz Tier 2 | - | 40,000 | - | - |
| Ritz Tier 3 | - | 50,000 | - | - |
| Ritz Tier 4 | - | 60,000 | - | - |
| Ritz Tier 5 | - | 70,000 | - | - |
At least from the Starwood side, that chart looks like things should be pretty good. What are your thoughts on the new award chart?
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18 Comments On "Comparison Chart: How Marriott’s August 2018 And February 2019 Award Chart Compares With The Current SPG And Marriott Award Charts"
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What do you think will happen to the 7 night certificates? I upgraded 3 of mine to category 8 hoping they will be good at any hotel when it goes into effect
Hey Bobby, how do you upgrade a certificate?
When is the best time to book a 5 night stay at a cat 4 spg hotel for next year (40k spg, 10k x 4) ?
Now? In August? Or next year?
Or makes no difference?
Thanks
“The good news is that 5th night free awards and cash and points awards are here to stay.”
Source on the 5th night free?
Looks to me that this is very bad for Marriott hotels. Presumably, for the most part, they will keep their hotels in their current categories (many of which they raised a few months ago) which are all being raised after the merge (except cat 1).
Between these two devaluations almost all the hotels I stayed at will now be costing double, all within a year or two.
Kudos to Marriott for pulling this off without much attention. Good for them.
The August chart will have 7 categories, down from 15.
How would they all stay in their current categories??
Ritz was a parallel track… Yes they will be merged into the top few categories, but I assume there wont be much movement in the 1-5 levels.
Hopefully you right.
think you need to read the chart properly mate… current cat 1-5 will be remapped to cat 1-4 almost certainly.. current cat 7 will be new cat 5 most certainly again.. those are the likely remaps of categories from current to new.
There is nothing that says a Cat 4 SPG will stay Cat 4 in the new program. I wouldn’t be surprised to see many SPG properties slot in at a higher category.
It is insane to think or believe that Marriott would be so dumb to have a 40K/nt hotel now cost 70 to 100K. That means a total 100% devaluation of my points.
For those of Plat. Elites, we probably have alot of points, I do. This is going to be very ugly and alot of people upset.
No kidding. And it’s a good bet that finding “off-peak” rates will be like hunting for “economy” flights using frequent flyer points.
would love to know if the W / SR in Maldives, BoraBora etc… will be bookable with points starting Aug 1, and at what rates?
In the long time the actually raised the prices since its much harder to accumulate points!!!
This is ridiculous chart. It implies that all Marriott properties will keep the same category. Do you think Marriott Cat 8, 9 and Ritz Tiers 1-5 will just no longer participate in the program on August 1?? I guarantee not every Marriott Cat 7 today (slightly above midpoint among their 14 categories, which have some overlap) will suddenly become the most expensive property in the world.
When will we be able to book spg hotels under the new chart? 8/1 or later? Also when do they predict having an answer re: nights and flights certs?
I am a tad confused, if I upgrade my certificates with 30-60,000 Marriott points now, rather than August 1st, I will save because it will cost more points after August 1?
Also, if it is likely that after August 1 the 132,000 United miles that come with 270,000 Marriott points plus one week certificate will be rather less, might it make more sense to use the Marriott points to accumulate the lower level categories and get 132,000 miles now before it becomes say only 100,000 miles?
What happens to a reservation made today for a Cat 9 Marriott for 45,000/night date of stay 5/19?
Also will the buy back be available for Current Plat Elite members that will not make the 50 nights by DEC 2018?
Hi it’s allways saying the new tiers for August wheat actual date in August. Thank you