Marriott also recently made changes to their award redemption chart without advance notice to members, causing a Flyer.Talk.com dialogue from disgruntled members.Like most loyalty programs, Marriott’s Terms and Conditions mentions that changes can be made with or without notice, but it doesn’t stop members from being a bit “miffed” when changes happen without notice. It is Marriott’s policy to re-categorize hotels in the first quarter of every year based on the prior year’s activity, so this is nothing new.

In this instance, about 20 percent of the hotels changed categories; approximately 200 moved from category two to category three and seven hotels moved from category six to category seven. Some hotels moved down a category. Other changes include cruise packages that now require more points, and some requiring fewer points. Rail travel redemption has gone up as well as Disney World packages and some award offerings have been discontinued or revamped. One of the biggest changes to come into effect — and with this one members are getting a fair warning — effective June 1, 2007, Stay Anytime awards will be available at a 100 percent point requirement over Standard Awards, previously, these awards were available at a 50 percent more point requirement.