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This is the moment you’ve been waiting for! On our podcast we announced our picks for the 2023 Bonvoyed Awards, but now it’s your turn. Who do you think deserves the nod for the 2023 Bonvoyed awards? In the poll below, we’ve added a few previously forgotten nominees AND you now have a chance to weigh in yourself for the readers-choice winner. Read through the nominees and then vote for the loyalty program that you think was the #1 most disloyal to its loyal customers, the one that loyalty Scrooged us most, the one who out-Bonvoyed Marriott, the loyalty Grinch of the year…
2023 Dis-Loyalty Nominees…
- Bonvoy Bonvoys free night extensions. Marriott has mastered the art of Bonvoying its loyal customers left and right, but until now their program had one big advantage over the competition: with just the right phone call (or three), free night certificates could be extended for a full year. Not anymore. Marriott seems to hate the idea of its loyalty program being loyal to its customers.
- Hyatt & MGM’s marriage goes bust: The partnership, while it lived, was great. For years we were able to elite-match back and forth between Hyatt and MGM in order to keep Hyatt Explorist and MGM Gold status seemingly forever. Even better, MGM Gold offered waived resort fees and free or nearly free nights and so it was an amazingly cheap way to rack up Hyatt elite night credits towards Globalist status. No more.
- Wyndham vacates high value Vacasa bookings: You can still book Vacasa vacation rentals with Wyndham points for 15,000 points per bedroom per night. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is that you used to be able to book properties that cost up to $500 per bedroom per night, but now that cap has been lowered to $350. Ouch. While this is still a valuable use of Wyndham points, the lower cap removes many great options including the amazing oceanside condo I previously booked in Hawaii.
- Delta dumps their devastation: In their bid to win this year’s Frequent Miler Bonvoyed Awards, Delta drastically increased requirements for earning elite status and severely limited Sky Club access. It seemed that Delta’s bid for Bonvoyed of the Year was assured. Surprisingly, though, most of Delta’s customers did not support Delta’s quest for infamy and complained loud, clear, and often. Delta heard them and made the painful choice to back off their plans (Delta revises SkyMiles changes: more SkyClub visits, lower elite thresholds, better 1-time rollovers, vastly improved lifetime status) and to potentially lose the Bonvoyed awards again (note that they lost last year too, despite being nominated three times).
- Chase guts Pay yourself back: Chase’s Pay Yourself Back feature used to be a great way to cash out points at full travel value. For example, you used to be able to use your Sapphire Reserve to pay for things like dining or groceries and then use points to erase those charges for a value of 1.5 cents per point. Sadly, with the Sapphire Reserve, the value dropped to 1.25 cents per point for everything but select charitable donations. And for the Sapphire Preferred, they dropped all useful categories except for charitable donations.
- Aeroplan’s Etihad alliance goes astray: When Aeroplan added Etihad as a partner, it seemed like Aeroplan awards were the best thing going. I mean, you could book an amazing award combining any Star Alliance carrier with any of Aeroplan’s non-alliance partners, including Etihad (which has an excellent flight network and terrific business and first class). Then, Etihad brought back their First Class Apartments, and many people booked those flights with their Aeroplan miles. And then those awards were canceled. And Aeroplan promised to reinstate them. But then the awards were canceled again. And Aeroplan made lots of impressive promises for making it right. But, according to many readers, things are not right at all. Consider it a developing story. I believe that Aeroplan intends to make things right for those affected, but the execution has been deeply flawed. Meanwhile it seems that the Aeroplan / Etihad alliance is rocky, at best. While you can still book economy awards on Etihad with your Aeroplan miles, you cannot currently book business or first class awards.
- Hotels.com becomes 5x less rewarding: Remember Hotels.com’s Stay 10, Get 1 Free rewards program? You used to get 10% back in rewards based on the pre-tax room rate of your stays, with the ability to redeem those rewards after 10 night. Well, that’s gone. In it’s place is One Key. And now, hotel rewards are 5 times less rewarding (from 10% to 2%). With One Key, when booking eligible hotels, vacation rentals, activities, packages, car rentals, and cruises with Expedia, Hotels.com and VRBO, you’ll earn 2% back in OneKeyCash for every dollar spent. For flights booked with Expedia, you’ll earn 0.2% back in OneKeyCash for every dollar spent. It’s nice that the new program works across multiple booking platforms, but the award rates are so low that, to me, it’s not worth the hassle of booking through these program vs. booking direct (or booking through a credit card portal which may offer much higher rewards… For example with the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Capital One Venture X, you’ll earn 10x rewards for hotel bookings made through their portals).
- The Sky Falls on United MileagePlus: While United had previously raised award prices, they remained competitive with other Star Alliance programs that also do not pass along surcharges on award tickets. Until mid-2023. This year, United jacked up award prices around the globe. Today, you would be hard pressed to find many routes where United’s award pricing is within range of the competition. That’s really disappointing. I used to be willing to pay a little bit more for the convenience of booking with United (especially thanks to their free award changes and cancellations), but that has become much harder to justify today. This nominee was not discussed in the Bonvoyed Awards podcast. Thanks goes to Albert for the reminder!
- Amex family rules limit access to the points parade: Amex offers a huge selection of rewards cards, and frequently offers the best of the best welcome offers. In the recent past it was possible to become a points-millionaire simply by cycling through all of these cards to earn welcome bonuses with each one. Now, Amex has made that much harder with their family rules. In many, many cases now, you may not be eligible for a welcome bonus if you’ve had related cards before. For example, if you’ve had the consumer Platinum card before, you may not be eligible for the Schwab or Morgan Stanley Platinum card bonuses. Or if you’ve had a Delta Reserve card before you may not be eligible for bonuses on the Delta Platinum or Gold cards. Yes, the term “may not be eligible” leaves the points parade door slightly ajar, but you’ll have to catch the parade bouncer on a good day. This nominee was not discussed in the Bonvoyed Awards podcast. Thanks goes to Kevin and Eric for the reminder!
- Pathward/Blackhawk blocks the money order path: Until this year, a common path towards nearly unlimited rewards was to buy Visa/Mastercard gift cards with rewards credit cards, then use the gift cards as debit cards at local stores (often grocery stores) to buy money orders. The money orders then were deposited to bank accounts and the accounts were used to pay off the credit card bills. It was great. Until it wasn’t. Early this year Pathward (formerly Metabank) / Blackhawk Network started blocking the money order path (details here). This nominee was not discussed in the Bonvoyed Awards podcast. Thanks to our own Stephen Pepper for reminding us of this one.
Reader Dis-Loyalty Picks…
Drumroll please… The 2023 dis-loyalty Bonvoyed award goes to… Please pick your choice below. This poll will remain open until early morning New Years day.
Who deserves to win the 2023 Bonvoyed Awards?
- Amex family rules limit access to the points parade (29%, 193 Votes)
- Delta dumps their devastation (16%, 111 Votes)
- The Sky Falls on United MileagePlus (15%, 101 Votes)
- Hotels.com becomes 5x less rewarding (10%, 67 Votes)
- Hyatt & MGM’s marriage goes bust (8%, 57 Votes)
- Wyndham vacates high value Vacasa bookings (7%, 45 Votes)
- Bonvoy Bonvoys free night extensions (6%, 38 Votes)
- Chase guts Pay Yourself Back (4%, 24 Votes)
- Pathward/Blackhawk blocks the money order path (4%, 24 Votes)
- Aeroplan’s Etihad alliance goes astray (2%, 15 Votes)
Total Voters: 675
Loading ...Greg & Nick’s Picks
On the 2023 Bonvoyed Awards Podcast, the winners were as follows:
Nick’s pick: Aeroplan’s Etihad alliance goes astray
I think that Nick feels especially bad about this one because he’s been our go-to conduit between readers who lost their first class award bookings and our Aeroplan contacts who keep promising to resolve these issues. Each time we think that Aeroplan has made things right for its members, we learn from readers that things are NOT yet right in Etihadtown.
Greg’s pick: Hotels.com becomes 5x less rewarding
In recent years Hotels.com had become my go-to for booking non-chain hotel stays. I would triple-dip by going through the best available portal, booking on Hotels.com, and paying with a card that earns 3x rewards for travel (like the Sapphire Reserve). Now the equation has changed and I’d prefer to book these hotels through Chase for 10x rewards with my Sapphire Reserve card.
If we had remembered the United devaluation in time for the podcast, though, I may have picked that as my 2023 Bonvoyed choice.
2022 Winners
In case you’re wondering, here were the winners in 2022 (we didn’t do a readers choice last year)…
- Nick’s pick: AA for not releasing saver award space (web special awards not bookable w/ partners)
- Greg’s pick: Marriott Bonvoy for ditching award charts
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Choice’s acquisition of Radisson America should have been included. Radisson points, which were at least twice as valuable as Choice points, were force converted to half the number of Choice points. For example, the Radisson hotel I regularly stayed at for 10,000 points per night is now 22,000 Choice points.
Not sure why you say go through the Chase Portal.
Literally looking at a hotel in Taiwan I spent 15 nights at this year. Doing a price check for next year:
Same dates, same room type, taxes/fees included, same cancellation rules:
Chase Travel Portal: $732
Booking: $400, w/o my Genius level 3 discount – $450 or so.
No amount of extra 7x UR will make the Chase portal more attractive.
Results like this make me never use the Chase travel portal -I checked a couple times in the recent past. Maybe you’ve found some sweet-spot? Not I. Let me try some more.
…just looked for an awesome B&B place I stayed at outside Hobart, Tasmania – doesn’t even show up on the Chase travel portal.
…just looked for the place where I stayed on the outskirts of Sydney. Awesome stay, awesome price from Booking, slightly less with Agoda (Better then direct or other portals). Doesn’t show up on Chase portal either.
3rd try: Searched for a Holiday Park in SE Australia I stayed at for 2N. City doesn’t even show up on Chase portal.
Chase portal is a waste of my time. I think I search rental cars before – always a negative experience.
Maybe Chase portal is competitive with major hotel chains? But for those I usually always use points or points & cash or certs.
You have a write up on when Chase (or Cap1 portal) is actually advantageous?
That is your experience. And, for your needs, the Chase portal is not the best solution. That’s fine. I’m in a hotel room 120 to 150 nights per year. I’m looking at direct bookings as well as a range of portals. In my experience, each stay is its own search. It’s a bit of work but that’s the nature of the beast. Sometimes the Chase portal is the winner and other times it is the loser. With one particular hotel that comes to mind, the Chase portal consistently has a 20 percent lower price than other portals or direct.
Very nice.
Not worth my time I think. But maybe in select limited instances – but I doubt I’d remember.
Sure…maybe I’d miss out on some savings…but at some point interface (Booking is MANY TIMES better then these very simple looking portals – I’m reminded of Rocketmiles) and choices is more important then saving a few dollars. With choices – I would be saving (I did save), rather then locked into a limited universe.
Booking has elements of AirBnB, I like that.
I was just 3 months+ on the road straight (Not to mention earlier travels this year)…so your “in a hotel room” doesn’t necessarily impress me.
But…if you tend to stay in the same place for longer stretches – then it’s worth your time to check a portal (And/or more places).
For me…..in Australia for 1.5 months or so… I didn’t stay in the same place for longer then 2 nights, except for Perth Hyatt – and that was 1 night then 2 nights later – separate stays. So I have to repeat “a search process” more frequent then you perhaps. Heavy camping as well — so my search style is going to be very different. As finding a great campsite is different then a hotel/motel of course.
Anyway — “tool efficiency” is more important for more frequent searching. I find Trivago helpful. Of course, many of the websites it shows seem to be owned by Expedia these days. Hahah.
Any idea what the “maintenance issue” is that has the Houston Centurion Lounge closed?
The Amex change is effectively them partially cancelling a sale. It hurts, but we weren’t bonvoyed. Amex does not owe us an unlimited fountain of points.
Chase and Marriott were curtailing pandemic era benefits or policies. Not good, but not unexpected.
Wyndham/vacasa was unsustainable and many of us were quietly relieved to see it capped instead of killed.
Hotels.com was a horrible devaluation rate, but I’d argue few people would have lost more than 80% of one hotel night because the nature of the program is that you use credit as soon as it is available.
Hyatt was brutal, removing a long standing qualitative benefit for the current and following year *after* people had earned it. Worse, it was arguably the single best benefit of Explorist and given Explorist, the clearest path to Globalist. This is to say it was a critical factor for people when deciding, six months earlier, whether to go for Globalist. Also, coming mid year, the announcement hit almost the day after many people (myself included) requalified for Explorist.
So many contenders – I think that the Amex has the broadest implications for the Points game for the largest group. But the Hotel.com is a bummer.
We have hit Amex pretty hard for past 4-5 years (for the branded cards and the Charge/Credit cards including the various flav of Plats except GS and MB- so only a few interesting/desirable SUBs for us). So we are outliers.
Will likely add a Surpass, while I can still get the SUB as we want to add another Aspire to adjust to the new split resort credit – its been great for weekend getaways 3d/2n with a pair of Aspires cards – the Resort credit was great for covering expensive resort F&B or Massage packages at AI properties. I think now it will be more ideal to hold 3-4 cards and use for a 3d/2n resort property stay twice a year.
Hotels . com was a great alternative (despite being Bonvoy Plat/HH Diamond/IHG Plat and having multiple FNC 35K-85K and 4 Plats for FHR). So we have no shortage of decent options where Branded footprints are good – Hotels was a great option for Boutique or off the beaten path – also in many developing countries – many properties are single properties, have basic websites and no real CC infrastructure. The discounted Hotel GC deals were great ( the 10-15% plus earning credits for nights stayed were great – CS was superior pre-Pandemic We will lose our Silver status – its less valuable and we will only use it as a portal to book when options are limited.
I think if the economy remains on a similar trajectory and discretionary income and travel remains on a downward direction we will see more Bovoy moments in 2024.
Between the 1/10 nights free, discounted gift cards, portals and price matching, I sometimes was getting upwards of 60% off my hotels. I personally prefer boutique hotels. Hotels.com elimination of the 1/10 + reduced discounts and gift card opportunities makes hotels.com not very interesting. Many times, there prices are higher. It’s not worth fighting for a price match if there aren’t other upsides. Frankly, I find Agoda less expensive.
Thanks for the Chase 10x reminder.
The other bad thing about the new program is you can’t use GC with OneKey rewards.
With thiis the case will likely change Cap1 Shopping portal redemptions to Saks GC instead of Hotels.
We have multiple Amex Plats and typically save our banked Saks credits for BF when Rakuten is 12-16% and Saks runs thier spend $150 get a $75 gc for use in December promo. Especially since you have to spend $99 to get free S&H. We used to buy Allen Brothers Waygu Sliders with our Saks credits as well as Osso bucco and a few other items. But Allen Brothers is no longer selling on the Sak’s platform.
Wow, I did not know that about One Key and GC. Thanks for the heads up.
used Agoda for the first time recently. Worked just fine. I will use them again…but I like Booking.com interface / UI. And that’s worth something to me.
Delta for sure! Everything else was only noticed by those of us in the hobby. Delta’s elite changes made national news!
Agreed. Even though they eventually backpedaled, the extent of the uproar and damage caused should absolutely qualify them for #1 in the 2023 Bonvoyed Awards. The fact is they exposed their long-term plans and continue to lead the way in devaluation land.
I think Delta is the clear winner here. I get that among the FM community, not being able to get multiple Amex cards in multiple loyalty programs has a bigger impact than Delta delivering the coup de gras to SkyMiles, which most here probably gave up on years ago. But the reason it was likely the points/miles story of the year is that they took the last remaining value of SkyMiles (a decent elite program), and thought they could destroy that too. And FINALLY their customers revolted. Had they gotten away with it, we’d be looking at a completely different elite landscape across all programs. I don’t think they should get any credit for walking it back and should be judged on what was in their cold, dark Grinch hearts from the beginning. Especially since they’ve flat out admitted that it’s where they want to go.
I agree with the votes. AMEX family rules impacted me the most, but Delta was definitely the biggest bonvoy moment, even if they reversed it (temporarily).
Of your choices, I’d pick Chase PYB. Restaurants had been 1.5cpp. That was pretty sweet. But, if I could add one to the mix, over the past year, AA’s TATL point prices have followed Delta’s. They’re now 2 to 3 times what they were in prior years.
Have to vote for the one that actually affected me. I cancelled my vanilla Platinum and set up a Charles Schwab account and put in money right before the family language restrictions. Thankfully, I got the Gold right before with the 90K + $200 offer prior to the change, so I wasn’t shut out of two planned SUBs.
But some of these aren’t really examples of being Bonvoyed. We got advance warning, for instance…