One small change makes Marriott Bonvoy less sympathetic.
The latest version of the terms and conditions of the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program brought a small change. A change that probably [...]
Marriott
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The latest version of the terms and conditions of the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program brought a small change. A change that will probably impact less than 10% of program members and certainly designed by the hotel chain to limit fraudulent use of Bonvoy points.
What changes
The program had a cap on the number of award nights a user could book for third parties. Previously, a member of the hotel chain's loyalty program could in fact book, using points, a maximum of 20 rooms not for himself.
Now this limitation has been Lowered to a maximum of 5 reservations per year.
As mentioned most members will not often happen to book rooms for friends and relatives. Probably the management of the loyalty program thus thought to put a limit on all the fraudulent uses that are made by exploiting Bonvoy points.
However, there is a need to consider that users who travel a lot and reach the higher levels of the Bonvoy program can easily accumulate hundreds of thousands of points each year, and many of these points can be used to book a stay at one of the many More exclusive hotels such as the St. Regis in Bangkok or some resorts in the Maldives.
However, it is just as easy to think that a user with so many points can Decide to give a vacation to a couple of friends who are getting married, to a friend who is retiring, or to children who want to take a trip. Thus, placing a limit of only 5 reservations is much worse than the current limit of 20 reservations.
It happened to me with Hilton to book hotel nights for a family member of mine who had to move and was Repeatedly in the Milan area for visits. Using points was much more convenient than paying the fare, especially at special times such as Salone del Mobile, Fashion Week...
In conclusion
If Marriott wants to stop those who cunningly exploit the Bonvoy program, it is only fair that they defend themselves, but not at the cost of penalizing users who by doing so are not free to use the points as they see fit.
- 6,000 Mile Registration Bonus
- Collect miles WITH EACH PURCHASE
- Your miles with no expiration*
- No fees for ATM withdrawals and foreign purchases
- Without having to change banks
- Autonomous card activation
- Multi-function mobile application
- Free travel insurance
- Free credit for up to 7 weeks
- Contactless Payment
- Mastercard® SecureCode
- 20€ discount directly in your statement by spending €60 in one or more transactions with Carta on Italotreno.it
- Free fee the 1st year. From the 2nd €5.50 per month
- You can choose to pay in full or in installments
- Premium level of the Italo Più program
- 4 Vouchers per year for access to Italo Club Lounges
- Preferential Access to Italo's Fast Track at the station
- For every 5 purchases of Italo ticketing and/or onboard services made with Italo American Express Credit Card you will receive 1 voucher for room upgrade
- Welcome bonus of 100,000 Volare points upon reaching 6 thousand in spending in the first 3 months after card issuance
- Accumulate 1.5 qualifying Volare points for every euro spent, accumulate an additional 3 non-qualifying Volare points ( for a total of 4.5 Volare points) for every euro spent on ticketing purchases and other services offered by ITA Airways
- Access to the Premium Club of ITA Airways' Volare program.
- ITA Airways Lounge Access
- Free excess baggage
- Points Back