It’s not uncommon for loyalty programs — especially those that don’t publish award charts — to change the number of points that nightly awards cost. Sometimes this happens as part of an announced policy change, as we just saw with the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program, and sometimes it happens as a program quietly increases its already-dynamic redemption pricing.
Based on our searches and other reporting, it appears Marriott Bonvoy has hiked award rates across a number of key properties without warning. Some properties, such as the JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge, now cost more than 200,000 points per night. Other examples of affected properties include The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad, which costs as much as 142,000 points per night, and The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, which costs up to 198,000 points.
You can find the full list of properties we’ve checked here.
Just a few years ago, shortly after the 2018 Starwood and Marriott merger, properties were priced at a maximum of 60,000 points per night.
Not only do these higher rates make it more challenging for Bonvoy members to save enough points for a big trip, but they also weigh on other program benefits like free night certificates. As recently as a few years ago, a free night certificate at the 85,000-point level was valuable enough to secure a night at almost any property in the program. Unfortunately, today that selection is much more limited.
Changes like this absolutely sting, but you can still come out ahead with points and miles. For example, we recommend you focus some of your earning on transferable points in 2025 so changes in one program don’t affect the value of all of your points. Points earned in programs like Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards transfer to Marriott but also transfer to a host of other hotel and airline programs, so you have lots of options when it comes time to book your trip.
Read on to get the full story on Marriott Bonvoy’s changes, how to maximize your Marriott points and the transferable currency you might want to focus on next:
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