This week, two main loyalty packages made updates that weren’t favorable for patrons. On Tuesday, Marriott Bonvoy up to date its phrases and situations to point that members will earn factors at a diminished charge and earn no elite evening credit at StudioRes properties. Then, on Wednesday, Southwest Fast Rewards drastically diminished factors earnings for choose fares.
As I thought of these updates, I thought of how they might have an effect on my interactions with these packages. I already take incomes charges for factors and elite evening credit under consideration when reserving accommodations, but it surely’s a foul signal that Marriott Bonvoy now has a model that awards no elite bonus factors or elite evening credit on stays. And though I hardly ever guide paid Southwest Airways flights, I will now be even much less probably to take action.
Loyalty packages exist to incentivize engagement and spending with a program. So, one straightforward method to protest destructive loyalty program updates is together with your pockets. Listed below are some methods I will shield myself from these destructive updates and how one can, too.
Keep away from affected lodge manufacturers
For years, a number of main lodge loyalty packages have singled out some manufacturers as incomes at decrease charges. However Marriott Bonvoy has by far the best variety of manufacturers with decrease incomes charges. Marriott Bonvoy can also be the one main lodge loyalty program that does not give an elite evening credit score per evening stayed in any respect its manufacturers.
You may earn 10 Marriott base factors per greenback spent on qualifying costs at most manufacturers. Nonetheless, you will solely earn 5 base factors per greenback spent at 9 Marriott Bonvoy manufacturers, 4 factors per greenback spent at StudioRes and a pair of.5 factors per greenback spent at Marriott Government Flats. So as to add insult to damage, you will solely earn one elite evening credit score per two nights stayed at Protea Inns, Metropolis Categorical and 4 Factors Flex by Sheraton, one elite evening credit score per three nights stayed at Marriott Government Flats and no elite evening credit score for stays of any size at StudioRes.
Because of this, I keep away from reserving paid charges at Marriott manufacturers that earn lower than 10 base factors per greenback. I additionally keep away from staying at Protea Inns, Metropolis Categorical, 4 Factors Flex by Sheraton and Marriott Government Flats — and now StudioRes — since stays at these manufacturers earn fewer factors and elite evening credit. My husband and I attempt to take care of lodge elite standing with a number of packages, so each evening counts. Plus, out of precept, I do not wish to frequent these manufacturers if Marriott Bonvoy will give me fewer earnings for doing so.
On a current journey to Turkey, the 4 Factors Flex by Sheraton Istanbul Taksim Sq. seemed interesting due to its location and worth. However then I remembered I would earn factors and elite evening credit at a diminished charge, so I stayed at a equally priced Vacation Inn as a substitute. Even when I would needed to remain at a Marriott Bonvoy property in Istanbul, I may have booked the equally handy DeCamondo Galata, a Tribute Portfolio Resort for the same price and higher earnings.
Likewise, though I loved staying at a number of Protea Inns properties in South Africa once I bought full elite evening credit and factors earnings for these stays, I now keep away from Protea Inns. As an alternative, I now select Hyatt or IHG properties in Cape City and Johannesburg. You may’t go mistaken with these cities’ nice Class 1 Hyatt properties.
As a traveler, it is annoying that $1,000 in qualifying costs on a six-night keep at a 4 Factors Flex would get me 5,000 base factors and three elite nights whereas the identical costs at a 4 Factors would earn me 10,000 base factors and 6 elite nights. However it could be actually irritating for this to occur to a member who did not learn about it — particularly in the event that they’re relying on a keep to succeed in the following standing qualification threshold.
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It is price noting that Marriott Bonvoy is much from the one lodge loyalty program with manufacturers that earn factors and elite nights at decrease charges. For instance, you will earn World of Hyatt factors at a decrease charge when staying at Hyatt Studios and IHG One Rewards factors at a decrease charge when staying at IHG Military Inns, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites and Residences. In the meantime, Selection Privileges has a model — WoodSpring Suites — that does not take part in its loyalty program in any respect.
Associated: Adore it or go away it: My airline and lodge elite standing plans for 2025
Redeem rewards
For Southwest Fast Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy, you possibly can keep away from the decrease incomes charges led to by this week’s adjustments by redeeming factors. Sadly, redeeming factors nonetheless will not offer you elite evening credit on stays at StudioRes properties. But when your main concern is the slashed incomes charge, redeeming factors is an effective resolution.
I really like a great extended-stay lodge with a kitchen, however these properties typically earn factors at decrease charges. So, I often redeem factors for these stays and save my money for stays that earn at a better charge. Better of all, I typically get a fourth or fifth evening free when redeeming factors with choose lodge loyalty packages.
For instance, I typically redeem IHG One Rewards factors for stays at Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites, which earn at a decreased charge of 5 factors per greenback as a substitute of the usual 10 factors per greenback. If I redeem factors for a four-night or longer keep, I can benefit from the IHG fourth-night-free reward profit, a perk of my IHG One Rewards Premier Credit score Card.
Within the case of Southwest, I’ve already been redeeming factors for flights once I resolve a Southwest flight is my most suitable choice. In spite of everything, Southwest may lower the redemption worth of its factors at any time — resembling the way it decreased the worth of Southwest factors at first of 2024 — whereas journey funds do not expire and may keep their face worth.
My husband and I usually alternate incomes a Southwest Companion Go each different yr, and we often accrue a large steadiness of Southwest factors by means of bank card welcome provides whereas doing so. Then, we use these factors to guide as a lot of our Southwest flights as doable. We aren’t planning to earn a Companion Go this yr, however I nonetheless have loads of Southwest factors in my account from once I earned a Companion Go in 2021, so I will use these as wanted to guide Southwest flights.
Associated: Methods to earn and use the Southwest Companion Go
Use a distinct program
Lastly, it is price contemplating whether or not destructive loyalty program adjustments are sufficient to alter your loyalty or encourage you to make use of a distinct program. After all, even when you resolve you are accomplished with Southwest Fast Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy or one other program, switching will take time as you end touring on present reservations and dissipate your remaining factors. Or, chances are you’ll not wish to fully break with this system however as a substitute proceed utilizing it when it is smart.
For instance, I am not flying Southwest a lot this yr since my husband and I haven’t got a Companion Go. But when Southwest has a modestly priced nonstop flight on a route I must fly, I will probably redeem Southwest factors to guide the flight.
It is simple to maintain utilizing the packages you have all the time used. You know the way they work, and also you may need elite standing (and even lifetime standing). I will admit that the Marriott lifetime elite standing program compels me to maintain incomes no less than Platinum Elite standing. In spite of everything, I at the moment have lifetime Marriott Gold Elite standing, and — assuming Marriott would not change its program — will earn lifetime Platinum Elite standing after incomes Platinum Elite standing (and the required elite evening credit for this standing) for 4 extra years.
However, particularly with standing matches and the power to routinely obtain or earn elite standing by means of choose bank cards, just like the Marriott Bonvoy Good® American Categorical® Card, it might be comparatively painless to begin utilizing a new-to-you loyalty program.
Associated: How and why you must maximize your lodge stays by utilizing a number of loyalty packages
Backside line
Loyalty ought to be a two-way road. So, when you aren’t joyful together with your loyalty packages, it might be time to turn out to be a free agent or extra concerned with one other loyalty program. I love sure elite standing advantages, resembling assured 4 p.m. late checkout, confirmed suite improve awards and Oneworld Emerald standing, so I concentrate on packages that present these advantages.
I am nonetheless giving Marriott Bonvoy some nights every year, as I am solely 4 years away from incomes lifetime Platinum Elite standing. Nonetheless, I’ve grown pissed off with the loyalty program’s many exclusions and the way its advantages and incomes charges typically fluctuate by model. Plus, now that Marriott Bonvoy has began providing no elite evening credit or elite bonus earnings at one model, I anticipate extra manufacturers will comply with.
