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Marriott goes dynamic March 29th
If you’re looking to book Marriott properties, I’d get to it. Starting on March 29th, the award chart that Marriott currently keeps will be ditched in favor of a completely dynamic award system.
They first announced this back in late 2021, but Marriott decided to follow both Hilton and IHG down the path of dynamic award pricing. If you’re unfamiliar with that terminology, it basically means pricing will correspond more closely to the price of the hotel room. This is why you’ll see some Hilton hotels price at a Million points a night, and it also means that the trusty award chart will go away.
We can assume the St Regis Maldives is about to get a lot more expensive
If you’re wondering…this is the current award chart and will cease to exist in a couple days
How Dynamic Pricing will be integrated
The real damage looks to begin in 2023 when award prices will mirror the cash rate. Until then…this is what we can expect
- Award chart disappears March 2022 and rates technically go dynamic
- We’ve been told that 97% will range between the current off peak and peak
- 2023 all hell breaks loose lol – we go fully dynamic
Status Extension news:
- Status is extended to 2/2023 whether you earned it in 2019, 2020, 2021
- Ambassador Elite will pop back up to $20k and 100 nights in 2022 from the reduced $14k in 2021
Points Expiration
Points won’t expire until 12/31/22 – and only inactive points ( 24 months ) will expire at that time
Suite Night Awards
All Suite Night Awards that were due to expire on 12/31/21 will be extended to 6/30/22
Free Night Awards
If your Free Night Awards are due to expire between Jan 3rd 2022 and 6/29/22
- credit card benefit
- annual choice benefit
- promo
- travel package
These are extended to 6/30/22
You will be able to add 15k to Free Night Awards
Marriott will be adding in a cool new benefit that will allow you to extend the use ( not value ) of your Free Night Awards by throwing up to 15k Marriott Points. This means a 50k Free Night could be potentially redeemed for a property pricing in at 65k ( who knows how this dynamic stuff will price out ).
To think…I stayed at the St Regis New York for just 60k Marriott Points
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card went through a major refresh in 2026 adding new bonus categories, travel protections, statement credits, and remains one of the best travel starter cards in the market. It earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott. Note that Hyatt is now a 4:3 transfer partner
Welcome Offer
Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Earn
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on gas and EV charging
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on vacation homes at top brands
- Cardmembers will earn 3x points on vacation homes at these top brands: Airbnb, Vrbo, Plu Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com and Vacasa.
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 2x on all other travel
- 1x on everyday purchases
- 5x points on Lyft rides Earn 5x total points on eligible Lyft rides including ride share, bike and scooter rides and subscription and membership products through September 30, 2027.
- 5x total points on Peloton equipment Earn 5x total points on eligible Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 through December 31, 2027.
Benefits and Credits
- $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- NEW: $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS fee credit Cardmembers will receive one statement credit of up to $120 every four years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to the card.
- NEW: Complimentary Apple TV subscription for one year
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is great starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Chase Ink Business Cash® , Chase Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into the Sapphire Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee remains quite low at $95 a year and if you use the $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠ you’ll wipe out that annual fee every year. It has great bonus categories and other useful statement credits to enhance your travel.
One thing that is a bummer is Chase lowered the transfer ratio to World of Hyatt from 1:1 to 4:3.
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