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Marriott Bonvoy has finally implemented its dynamic pricing of awards. But the news isn’t all bad, however. It is actually possible to save points on award stays, even those that you have already booked.

I have an upcoming 5-night award stay over the Easter weekend. Almost the textbook definition of “peak travel dates”…  However, I have found – twice now – that the price when paying with points has decreased.

Luckily, Marriott Bonvoy makes it really easy to take advantage of the lower pricing. You don’t even need to “cancel and rebook”.  Here’s how…

First of all, open your Marriott reservation and click on “Edit Room”.

You should then be shown whatever rooms are available, including the one that you have already booked…

You will be asked to confirm the change in your reservation, and any points difference will be automatically refunded to your Bonvoy account.

If you have any Suite Night Award requests outstanding, these will remain attached to your reservation. It really couldn’t be any easier, even though Marriott’s IT is scary at times!

 

Bottom line

Between March 29th and today, I have managed to save 6,000 Marriott points on an upcoming award stay. I’ll be sure to check every couple of days before the cancellation deadline – maybe I will save even more!

For what it’s worth, the cash rate appears to be unchanged, so Marriott’s algorithm must be taking expected occupancy into account. As a quick reminder, the hotel is only reimbursed a small amount for award stays UNLESS the hotel is 90-95%+ full. So, the more confident that Marriott corporate is about the hotel not filling up, the fewer points it can decide to charge…

In the grand scheme of things, I would still rather have a fixed award chart. But it’s nice to know that there might be some upside to the new system, at least at the beginning. So make sure to look at your existing award bookings from time to time…

Have you managed to save some Marriott points this way? Let us know in the comments section…