As we reported last week, Marriott Bonvoy has now officially ended their Hotel+Air package redemption option. The Marriott website has been updated to confirm this however there has not been any notice sent out to members. Those members who have reservations in place through one of these packages will be able to keep them however no changes can be made to them after March 2. Those members who have certificates from the packages in their accounts but haven't made reservations you will have until February 28 to make such reservations. Any certificates remaining after that date will be converted back to Marriott points or if you change your reservation they will refund all points to you and you'll have to re-book.
The good news in all this is the refund in points from Marriott is quite generous. Should you end up not using the certificate from the Hotel+Air package they will refund you the Peak Points rate per night at the Category of hotel your certificate is for. For example if you have a 7 night Category 8 certificate you'll be refunded 700,000 points (7 x 100,000 points Peak pricing) of the total 750,000 you would have redeemed in the first place to receive 7 nights + 100,000 airline miles (110,000 if it is United) . In the end those 100,000 airline miles only end up costing you 50,000 Bonvoy points - that's actually a good deal.
Where the generosity in this deal may end up not being so generous is the future redemption rates in the Marriott Bonvoy program when they move to dynamic pricing in March. True for 2022 they have stated 97% of hotels will remain in their range of Off-Peak to Peak points requirements but once 2022 is done we're just not sure what will happen.
Wrapping it up
Another one of those long standing amazing loyalty program deals has officially ended today. Yes these packages may have been devalued a few years ago but on occasion they still provided some potential outsized value so it is sad to see them go. Let us know if you have any certificates outstanding and what you plan on doing with them. Will you book before the end of February or will you take the points? Let us know in the comments below.
Click here for more details from Marriott on what to do with your certificates