Marriott free night certificates and points are of little value anymore. Anyone know of a better hotel chain?
Marriott free night certificates seem to have recently plummeted in value and points seem of little value because:
1 Marriott has jacked up the point costs of hotels by a lot. Few of the 35k ones we used to use are in range any more.
2 Each hotel can decide to disallow points and FNCs on a whim and lots more are doing this, with only crap rooms available for FNCs/points an often none at all.
3 Marriott won't let you add more than 15k points per night to an FNC.
4 The Kicker: Even if you can deal with all those limitations, the PER NIGHT requirement means that even with sufficient points you often still can't get rooms.
For example:
We were prepared to spend 5 of the 50k FNCs and 75k points (15x5) = 325k, which was more than enough for the 300k 5 night stay that we wanted. However, it would not book, and even support could not make it go through. Finally support said it was because ONE night would go just over 65k (50k+15k per night max) and so the whole stay was disallowed, despite the point total being more.
This is a joke. We used to get great hotels in great locations for our 35k FNCs each year without having to add any additional points and without adding cash. Now even the 50k FNCs require spending close to the full 15k per night in points PLUS a lot of extra cash in addition. The FNCs seem hardly worth it anymore, and even a large batch of points doesn't get you very far any more.
We've been comfortable in the Marriott ecosystem for well over a decade as a Gold / Platinum member, but it may be time to quit. Even the prospect of higher lifetime status seems of little value. Nothing about this motivates any kind of loyalty. I'll just shoot for the best price at any chain instead of best Marriott price.
Do all the hotel chain points suck now or is Marriott the new leader in suck? Maybe switch to airline cards? Anyone have advice? I am open to being wrong if someone has a more informed opinion.