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One of the easiest ways to find a good use for your hotel points is to see the options layered onto Google Maps. AwardMapper used to be one of my favourites, but its owners seemed to have given up on updating it. It’s one thing to make a bit of money from affiliate marketing commissions for paid stays, but it is exponentially more difficult to do so when helping people use their points!
So, I understand the instinct to let things slide, because it is really hard work to individually pinpoint thousands of hotels and then keep the map updated through the annual award category “stealth devaluation” process. Or even worse… when the loyalty programme completely changes the award chart structure, as Marriott will be doing in August:
But when somebody is willing to put in the effort, I am willing to promote it on their behalf! A Flyertalk member named Tejavepa has provided a map that lists every SPG / Marriott hotel, grouped into their new award categories. Tejavepa’s map is simply amazing.
If you’re looking for cheap Category 1 or 2 hotels, you can limit your views to those categories. If you’re tempted by the Category 8 hotels that will be charged at Category 7 prices for the rest of 2018, you can limit yourself to those categories as well.
You can reach Tejavepa’s map by clicking here. Marriott should offer this guy a job! Amazing…
I keep getting an error message when I attempt to transfer Marriott points to SPG?
I’ve tried two different tablets, anyone have any advise to get round this issue?
This is an issue which seems to be affecting a lot of people – Marriott IT seems to be in virtual meltdown currently.
I think there’s no way they’re going to hit August 1 as the launch date, and in any case there’s nobody in Marriott currently confirming this date unequivocally. At the moment they’re just saying ‘in August’, which gives them the whole month to get their IT systems ready!
Yeah – I was having trouble myself with this last night. Will try again now.
Worked now!
Same here, just a matter of keep trying daily until it works.
What a star.
If I want a 7 night TP for the JW Marriott Phu Quoc which catagory should I get now before the August change ?
I’m unsure.
Nobody knows for sure whether Marriott will be cancelling outstanding certificates and refunding points, or whether they will issue new certificates that work in the new award chart.
But you could always book a Cat 6 package today then immediately use the certificate for a dummy booking in Phu Quoc, then hope to change the dates later.
It’s super useful so hats off to the guy who did this but just be aware that it can be a bit quirky.
Even though I had all categories selected, the Courtyard in Gdynia (Poland) wasn’t showing. I had to unselect and reselect the Category 3 tickbox to get it to appear.
With my SPG Amex I’m going to be getting 3 points per £1 of spend, right? So does that mean in the new system I’ll be able to book off-peak redemptions at category 1 hotels for 5,000 points, or the equivalent of just £1667 spend? Obviously there aren’t many cat 1 hotels in Europe, but that does seem like a good very good deal to me.
Yes, with the fifth night free as well…
Details about peak / off-peak dates haven’t been provided though… Hopefully hotels won’t be allowed to say that every day is a peak date.
Slightly related:
Read online a blog today that an EY redemption in F using AA miles got the chauffeur service. It was somewhere on the booking in their account so worth checking all your online flight details.
Interesting – can you post a link to the blog? Cheers!
Are you aware of any official update from Amex on the conversion rate from MR to Marriott come August?
An Aussie site i was reading is reporting a whopping 50% devaluation to 1 Amex Membership Rewards point = ⅔ Marriott Rewards points!