The Marriott Rewards program is Marriott's
“frequent sleeper” program -- the hotel equivalent to the airline frequent flyer
programs.The Marriott logos, Marriott Vacation Club and the pictures used
to link to the Marriott websites are Marriott Corporation trademarks
|
Marriott
completely revamped the Marriott Reward Program I am still looking
through the material to see This is a status
report
|
A few years ago, my
wife and I stayed at |
The Marriott Rewards program is Marriott's
“frequent sleeper” program -- the hotel equivalent to the airline frequent flyer
programs.
The typical customer can earn 10 points for each dollar spent at the hotel while staying at any of the family of Marriott hotels, motels, and their other properties.
You can redeem these Marriott Reward points for a variety of travel certificates.
You earn points for:
Like other timeshare owners, we can stay at our home resort, exchange for other resorts which are part of our system (over 20 different resorts in the Marriott Vacation Club system with several more opening this year), or exchange for other properties from timeshare consortiums (Interval International in our case).
The Marriott Reward option offers a new dimension to timeshare ownership -- turning in the week in return for Marriott Reward points.
Like many Marriott Vacation Club owners, we can turn back our week to Marriott for Marriott Reward points. My wife and I own at the Marriott Sunset Pointe and the Barony Beach resorts on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina and Marbella Beach in Spain. In our case, we can turn back each week every other year for 75,000 Marriott Reward points.
This is not like the Disney Vacation Club, Fairfield and a growing number of other timeshare companies where the owner buys a certain number of points and trades them each year for different vacations. Indeed, it is the opposite, in Marriott system you have your week at your resort and can trade it in for points. The use of points is ancillary to the ownership experience.
Marriott Timeshare owners can use their Marriott Reward points
for a wide variety of travel benefits. Until the year 2000, the major
feature of the Marrriott Reward system, particularly for timeshare
owners was Award #713, the Worldwide Choice Award Package, which cost
200,000 points.
This award consisted of :
In the spring of 2000, they eliminated the free car and added a 25% discount on Hertz list prices and a 100-minute ATT phone card.
In April, 2001 there was a major change in the system. The cost of the award is now more closely related to the value of the travel.
Hotel: There used to be only two classes of Marriott -- Select and Choice. And for the 713 award, the hotel certificate could be used at virtually any Marriott, worldwide. There are now seven classes of hotels with different point costs. Under the old, system, for example, it took the same certificate to stay at either the Gaithersburg, MD Marriott or the Marriott Grosvenor Square in London. The upshot, of course, is that it did not make sense to use the certificates for a stay at a "regular" Marriott.
Under the new system, the Gaithersburg Marriott is a Category 3 hotel and the Marriott Grosvenor Square is a Category 7 hotel. A certificate for one night in a Category 3 hotel is 15,000 points while one night in a Category 7 hotel is 35,000.
"Stay Anytime" -- A new feature is the "stay anytime" premium. For a 50% premium in points, there is a "stay anytime" feature which has no blackout dates or other capacity limitations.
I had been aware of the blackout dates but I was not aware that there were capacity limitations on using Marriott Hotel certificates. I hope that the availability of the "stay anytime" feature does not make it more difficult to use the standard award. I will report here if I learn that Marriott timeshare owners begin to have problems making reservations using the "standard" award or if the number of blackout dates expands noticeably in order to make it almost mandatory to use the "stay anytime" feature.
Airline: For the most part, under the old system, you received a voucher good for two roundtrip tickets on most or all of the partner airline systems. A couple of years ago, instead of issuing a voucher, Marriott would ask where you were going and they would issue you sufficient frequent flyer points in that airline's program. This led to strategic gaming where Marriott owners would think about going to Asia, get that number of frequent flyer points and then use the points for a shorter trip.
For example, it takes 120,000 miles for 2 round-trip coach tickets to Asia. With that 120,000 points you could also get two Business Class tickets to Hawaii or two First Class tickets for a domestic flight .
If you had said you were going to Hawaii, you would have been given only 70,000 points; if you had said you were taking a domestic flight, you would have gotten 50,000 points.
The new system eliminates this gaming aspect. Instead, you use the Marriott Reward points to buy the number of frequent flyer miles you need. In the United Airlines example cited above, if you needed 120,000 Frequent Flyer miles you pay 310,000 Marriott Reward Points; for 70,000 Frequent Flyer miles you would pay 195,000 points; and for 50,000 Frequent Flyer miles you would pay 140,000 points.
Once you get the Frequent Flyer miles you can use them however you wish. You can also add them to the Frequent Flyer miles you already have in your account. You can also use them for flights on their code-share flights -- a use that was generally not possible under the old system. (This is my current understanding but I do not have positive affirmation of this.)
When we went to Australia/New Zealand we tried every way we could to supplement our voucher for the flight in order to upgrade to Business Class but the airline would take neither Frequent Flyer points or cash to do that. This should no longer be a problem.
There is also a wider number of airline participants. The current "participating partners" in the Marriott Reward program are:
The following airlines are listed as participating with "conversions." I am still trying to figure out how they work.
This is a considerable increase in choice of airlines over the old system.
Car Rental The major travel awards also give a coupon for 25% off the list price of a Hertz car rental at participating locations in the U.S. and Europe. It is not clear how much value this coupon has. These types of coupons are readily available from AAA, AARP, and II. I have not done an in-depth look at this yet but I am guessing that it's probably possible to do better elsewhere and toss the certificate.
Phone Calling Card: The major travel awards also throw in a 100-minute AT&T phone card which can be used only for domestic calls. The value is probably about $10.00.
I have no idea how to maximize the use of the Marriott Rewards. It is clearly more costly to use Marriott Rewards for interesting travel. On the other hand, there is considerably more flexibility. In this section, I'll outline how we have used our Marriott Rewards. Over time I will report on ways to use the Marriott Rewards efficiently and creatively under the new system.
The section below is based (with one exception) on our use of the old Worldwide Choice Award Package. The Worldwide Choice Award Package (Award Level 713) was actually three separate certificates which you could use for one vacation or split over several vacations. Using these certificates separately helped to maximize your vacation opportunities.
Australia/New Zealand
In 1996, we used our Award Certificates for parts of two vacations:
The Marriott Fisherman's Wharf is a Category 7 hotel. For this hotel and a roundtrip to Australia/New Zealand for two (120,000 Frequent Flyer miles) would require 270,000 Marriott Reward Points (Award #091) and one week car rental would be 50,000 Marriott Reward Points (Award #780) for a total of 320,000 points.
Summary Old System: 200,000 points New System 320,000 points
Alaska
In 1999, we used the Marriott Rewards we earned from our timeshare to pay for a 7 day trip along the Inside Passage from Vancouver, BC to Seward, Alaska.
The Carnival Cruise Line 7-day cruise to Alaska is 300,000 points (Award #776) I believe we had paid 275,000 points for the same trip
Summary Old System: 275,000 points New System 300,000 points
Scotland/Ireland
In 2000, we used the 713 Award for a flight to Scotland and back from North Ireland. In Ireland, we used the car certificate within Ireland. We turned back the hotel certificate and received back 80,000 points.
Two round-trip coach tickets to Europe on British Airways is 120,000 miles which is two Award #566 and two Award #790 and costs a total of 210,000 Marriott Reward Points and one week car rental would be 50,000 Marriott Reward Points (Award #780).
Summary Old System: 120,000 points New System 260,000 points
England/Spain
In 2001, we took a trip to England and Spain where we did the the following:
The Marriott Grosvenor Square is a Category 7 Hotel and British Airways from the U.S. to Europe requires 120,000 Frequent Flyer miles. Seven days at a Category 7 hotel and 120,000 Frequent Flyer miles (Award #091) costs 270,000 Marriott Reward Points and, again, one week car rental would be 50,000 Marriott Reward Points (Award #780).
Summary Old System: 200,000 points New System 320,000 points
Maximizing the Benefit
I am not sure what is the best way to maximize the use of your
Marriott Rewards. Overall, the cost of all the major trips is
significantly higher. Paradoxically, the increased cost seems to
be greater for the hotel portion (more under the control of Marriott)
than it is for the airline portion.
The number of people who have visited us here -=-
since we moved to Geocities
 |
This Timeshare
Webring site is owned by Tom Marchessault |
| Previous
5 Sites | Skip Previous | Previous
| Next
| Skip
Next | Next 5 Sites Random Site | List All | Join this Webring |
