Marriott Rewards has updated the Terms and Conditions of its loyalty program effective September 4, 2018, although they have not amended the last effective date that still is August 18.
Marriott has cleaned up the few mistakes they had and have updated the upgrade policy for Platinum members among other things.
You can access Marriott’s loyalty program T&Cs here.
READ MORE: Marriott Rewards Rate & Bonus Points And Miles Promotions
Here are the changes:
Marriott has added the following exclusion under the qualifying rate:
i. At participating Design HotelsTM, Members earn Points or Miles on Qualifying Charges only on Stays at a Qualifying Rate. Members do not earn Points or Miles on Stays at a Non-Qualifying Rate at participating Design HotelsTM even if they incur Qualifying Charges such as for incidental spend.
Here is one very important addition:
2.1.f Non-Qualifying Rates. A “Non-Qualifying Rate” is a rate a Member pays for a Stay in a guest room at a Participating Property which does not qualify to earn Points or Miles, as well as membership tier benefits.
Non-qualifying rates are now officially ineligible for tier benefits at Marriott hotels where previously they were.
Transferring points between accounts:
Members can now transfer up to 100,000 between accounts in any calendar year. Previously the limit was 50,000.
There was, however, workaround for this that has now been closed:
Once per calendar year and only at the time of an Award Redemption, a Member may exceed the 50,000 Point maximum into the Loyalty Program account of a friend or family member in order to qualify for a specific Award in accordance with this section. In the instance of transfer exceeding the 50,000 Point maximum only the necessary number of Points needed to redeem the specified Award, rounded to the nearest 1,000 Points, may be transferred – no more, no less.
Marriott has completely deleted the above paragraph from the updated T&Cs:
SPG All Suite Hotels – the following list has been deleted:
Free Night Awards at the following locations require a higher amount of Points either because the Participating Property does not have standard rooms or the standard rooms it offers have a mandatory full board requirement in peak seasons: Vana Belle, a Luxury Collection Resort, Koh Samui, Thailand; The Naka Island, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Phuket, Thailand; Sheraton Steamboat Resort Villas, Steamboat Springs, Colorado; The Westin Golf Resort & Spa, Playa Conchal, Costa Rica; The St. Regis Bora Bora and the Le Meridien Bora Bora, Bora Bora, French Polynesia; Mystique, a Luxury Collection Resort, Santorini, Santorini, Greece; The St. Regis Bali Resort, Nusa Dua, Indonesia; Hotel Cala di Volpe, Hotel Pitrizza, and Hotel Romazzino, Costa Smeralda, Italy; W Maldives; North Ari Atoll, Maldives; W Koh Samui, Surat Thani, Thailand; Al Maha, a Luxury Collection Desert Resort & Spa, Dubai, U.A.E.; St. Regis Residence Club, Aspen, Aspen, CO; and Phoenician Residences, a Luxury Collection Residence Club, Scottsdale, AZ.
But then there is the new part on the free night awards:
Point values are based on a standard room only (does not apply to premium room) and may vary by length of stay and hotel category.
Marriott has added the bolded part. Does this mean that the SPG All Suite hotels that only have premium rooms are not available at the standard room rates?
The following text has been added to the elite benefits:
Elite Members receive one set of benefits according to their membership tier on Stays of one or more consecutive nights as described in 2.1.d, even if they check in and check out of the same Participating Property within 24 hours.
Nothing new here. If you check out and check back in the same day, it is considered continuous stay.
Elite benefits guarantee:
The Elite Benefits Guarantee applies to all Qualifying Stays.
Marriott has added the word qualifying here.
Ambassador qualification:
100 Qualifying Nights and $20,000 U.S. dollars in qualified annual spend based on Qualifying Charges earned on Stays only.
Seems that the Ambassador spend is based on stays only. The bolded part is again what Marriott added.
Platinum member upgrades:
Complimentary Enhanced Room Upgrade for Platinum Elite Members. Platinum Elite Members receive a complimentary upgrade to the best available room subject to availability for the entire length of stay at the time of check-in. Complimentary upgrade includes suites, rooms with desirable views, rooms on high floors, corner rooms, rooms with special amenities or rooms on Executive Floors
Marriott rewrote this paragraph and now includes the word SUITES that was previously missing.
Suite Night Awards Exclusion:
The Ritz-Carlton, The Ritz-Carlton Reserve, The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club, EDITION, Protea Hotels, Aloft, Element, Design Hotels TM HotelsTM, all-Suite Hotels, Marriott Executive Apartments, ExecuStay, Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Grand Residence Club properties and participating Vistana properties.
Marriott added the three brands for ineligible list for SNAs.
Conclusion
SPG benefits were always only honored on eligible rates (not when booked on ineligible OTAs) while Marriott didn’t care. Now this has been standardized.
It is interesting to see what will come out of the SPG All Suite hotels that were now deleted from the T&Cs but are not available for bookings at the advertised rates.
Marriott previously allowed members to consolidate basically unlimited number of points to one account when redeeming for an award. This has now been ended and the yearly maximum is 100,000 points.
The Platinum member upgrade language is still not as tights as with SPG but better than previously with Marriott.
Please clarify: if I pay a room with points or with cash & points this rate is eligible or not eligible to earn membership tier benefits? So, to obtain an elite status, are only the nights paid in full?
Eligible!
Would be interesting to see how Marriott interpret “…transfer up to 100,000 between accounts”. Does that mean I still can pool 1M from 10 different accounts then? Or do the interpret it as someone can max. receive 100k per year.
Grab your ankles boys and girls.
What makes for a “non-qualifying rate” at Design Hotels?
Also, for eligible rates, are you saying that to earn Marriott points now, stays must be booked directly through Marriott’s site or call centre (like it was with SPG)?
At least with SPG, only reservations that were booked on Starwood’s website were considered eligible for points. You couldn’t even book on Design Hotels own website that Marriott now considers their own.
Sorry, I’m still not clear on this. Elligble stays can be booked on the Marriott/SPG site, AND the Design Hotels site? I’m assuming they can’t be booked on other sites.
Also, in the article it said there are “non-qualifying rates” at Design Hotels. What kind of rates are those? And how can we tell the difference between qualifying and non-qualifying?
Thanks!
Just based on some recent stays at SPG and Marriott properties recently, it seems the SPG hotels which previously had been good about upgrading to suites or better rooms is not doing it anymore, perhaps because they can avoid doing it with the Marriott rules.
Found some Marriott properties are terrible about upgrading.
And I’m a Platinum Elite level…
I stayed at the Marriott Miracle Mile in Chicago over the Labor day weekend and got up-graded to a huge suite.
@kbarberdav:disqus -Did they automatically upgrade you or did you have to ask?
This time it was automatic, when I checked in. The front desk clerk said we have a nice suite for you on the 43rd floor facing the lake. But I will ask if a suite is available if the clerk doesn’t mentioned it first. I will also look on the website if the property I am staying at, still shows they have a suite available the day I am checking in. So I know I should be getting an upgrade.
@kbarberdav:disqus – Thanks, reason I ask as it seems to be quite random (or consistent depending on your point of view) regarding upgrades.
I’ve tried the method you mention about checking if there are suites or upgraded rooms available sometimes minutes before I check in for exactly same purpose as you state.
Unfortunately, certain Marriott properties, even though they have available suites or upgrades available, will outright LIE to me and tell me they don’t have anything. One time, I pulled out my phone and showed that the Marriott website for their hotel shows suites available, they then have the kahunas to tell me that the Marriott website is wrong and cannot be counted on to determine if they have rooms available!
So if I understand this correctly If my room is booked using Friends and Family my tier benefits will not be honored? So no room upgrade or anything? If that’s the case that blows. I think Marriott will be losing me as a member. I’m a PPE tier member
That is interesting question. It is an ineligible rate for earning points. Does it mean that they won’t hinoh any elite benefits either?
No you won’t get a room upgrade.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e011620411b0e5a29aa4964dc2de52c429eb7cd7c71a7e1b7d4ba32aeda9c219.jpg
I’m just staying at Hilton from now on I think that Hilton Honers is the better chain / choice now as I don’t even no what to think about Marriott ps cannot get this to them for the last 3 weeks horrible phone issues just on hold for ever I just book my 2 trips in DOH and HKG with Hilton done no issues
Thanks for continuing to cover this! You’ve rapidly become the best MR source out there!
if I book the room with corporate code, is it eligible or not eligible ?
thanks!
Eligible. There could be some such as Travel Agent rates that are ineligible, however.
Keeping eyes open from China. We also have millions of people who are interested in the Loyalty Program.
does the below mean that reward nights are not qualifying anymore as you don’t earn points or miles on those stays?
“2.1.f Non-Qualifying Rates. A “Non-Qualifying Rate” is a rate a Member pays for a Stay in a guest room at a Participating Property which does not qualify to earn Points or Miles, as well as membership tier benefits.”