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As part of the announced changes coming to Marriott Bonvoy on 14 September, 2019, a couple of Youtube videos were released. One video in particular caught my eye.

Points Advance is a concept that is unique to Marriott Bonvoy. Points Advance allows you to book and confirm an award stay, even when you do not yet have sufficient points in your account.

As long as you have earned enough points 14 days in advance of your expected arrival to the hotel, you’re fine… You simply “order an award certificate” online. i.e. allocate the required number of points to that specific hotel reservation.

However, starting approximately 25 seconds into the video you will hear such gems as “the rate will be subject to change” and “with Points Advance you are locking in the room, NOT the rate”.

In plain English… Points Advance will do very little for you going forward. Yes you might be able to guarantee a room at very popular hotels. But unless you are already fully expecting to pay “peak” award pricing, you cannot lock in the rate. I don’t know about you… but I like to know the cost of my hotel bookings at the time I make them!!!

Because of this change, it will make little sense to make speculative Points Advance bookings ahead of the 14 September, 2019 implementation of peak pricing.

At least Marriott has made it very clear… with Points Advance you are locking in the room, NOT the rate. 🙁