Marriott has announced that it will soon be ending members’ ability to make award reservations without having the required amount of points in their accounts (Points Advance). As of March 28th, 2023, new Points Advance bookings will no longer be possible, although existing reservations will be continue to be honored.
March 28th will also be one year (to the day) that Bonvoy moved to a dynamic pricing chart, but with band “guardrails” that kept 97% of its properties within a certain range of the old award chart pricing. Those price bands are widely expected to be removed completely at the end of March, moving Bonvoy to completely dynamic award pricing that fluctuates according to cash prices. Undoubtedly, that’s part of the reason that Marriott is doing away with Points Advance bookings now.
What’s Changing?
Marriott Bonvoy has long had the Points Advance feature, allowing members to make award reservations at properties without having the points required for the full stay. As long as the necessary points are in the account 14 days before check-in, the reservation is honored. If the points aren’t there 14 days before check-in, the reservation is cancelled.
This benefit was originally unlimited, meaning that members could book as many Points Advance reservations as they’d like as far out as the booking window for the property would allow. This was extremely useful, especially before award chart changes, as you could book cancellable reservations using almost all of your points balance, then make as many speculative bookings as you’d like at the current redemption rate. After making the bookings, you could then cancel the original reservations that your points were attached to and have the benefit of your full balance…with a fistful of speculative bookings to boot.
Bonvoy eventually pulled in the reins on Points Advance bookings, adding limits on how far in advance you could make one (60 days), not gauranteeing the final rate until the points are deposited and limiting each member to a maximum of three at any given time. Now, the program is going away completely, starting March 28th, 2023.
Quick Thoughts
Given the way that Marriott has been gradually chipping away at the Points Advance program, I’m not terribly surprised to see it go. When the first restrictions were added a couple of years ago, Marriott told us that the amount of speculative bookings had gotten out of hand and were occupying 25-50% of the available award space at some properties.
Many of these bookings would then be cancelled close-in, creating potential issues for properties, who may not be able to sell the room. From Marriott’s point of view, it also took award space away from members who intended to use their points and fulfill the reservation.
I suppose there’s two ways to look at this change. On the one hand, it could mean that there’s more award space out there for folks looking to actually make bookings that they intend to use with points that they already have. On the other hand, even outside of a speculative booking, it could be very useful to be able to pull the trigger on an in-demand resort, knowing you’d have the needed points by the time the stay arrived. I think, on balance, most of us will be sorry to see it go.
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Post also appears off as to the terms of Points Advance (you oversimplify the timing of reservations/cancellations) and the reason(s) for the elimination (for what it’s worth, Marriott cites low interest; and dynamic pricing is of course not new except for any still-unknown upcoming changes to 3% of properties). Also, without knowing the % of Points Advance reservations cancelled (as opposed to merely put on hold) or whether cancelled reservations were re-opened for award booking, meaningful speculation as to the upside and downside of the elimination seems almost impossible.
Props to you for mentioning the abuse that was likely at least partially the cause of this policy change. I’m no fan of Marriott’s movement towards hating engaged members but this policy just left too much room for abuse.
One of the premises of the post is not correct. Since the last change to points advance bookings, you could not lock in the rate with a points advance booking. The points advance bookings for at least a year and I think two years have fluctuated with whatever the going rate is for those dates.
You’re right. If you made Points Advance reservations now for after everything goes fully dynamic, there’s nothing that gaurantees that they would honor the old “price bands” anyway.