We point enthusiasts don’t like Dynamic redemptions because they set a fixed price on the value our points represent as rebates. We prefer to battle Marriott/IHG/Hilton’s matrix to seek out value when we redeem. Indeed every time I arrange a leisure stay I always, always, always search for redemptions. At all times when I redeem I could pay, but if the redemption makes good value, above 1c per point, then I will consider redeeming, at 1.5c per point I will always redeem. The most telling example of this behaviour was a few years ago when I stayed at the Marriott Marquis on Times Sq for 3 nights, redeeming the first two $500 nights at 45k points per night and paying for the last one as the cash rate was $200.
But it does now seem that we will to a great extent have near-dynamic redemption pricing with 8 categories, each with 3 options, off-peak, standard and peak but in the thicket of new information are pointsavers that apply to each option. So that’s actually 6 different rates for each category. So a Cat 1 off-peak point-saver starts at 4,000 points moving to a peak category 8 at 100,000 points through a total of 34 - yes, you read that right - 34 different price levels.
So, our old Marriott redemption table was
6,000, 7,500, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, 25,000, 30,000, 35,000, 40,000, 45,000, 50,000, 60,000 & 70,000
See, it fits on one line!
Our new redemption table is (takes a deep breath)
4,000, 5,000, 6,000, 7,500, 8,000, 8,500, 10,000, 11,000, 12,000, 12,500, 13,000, 15,000, 16,000, 17,500, 18,000, 20,000, 22,500, 25,000, 27,500, 30,000, 32,500, 35,000, 37,500, 40,000, 45,000, 50,000, 55,000, 60,000, 65,000, 70,000, 80,000, 85,000, 90,000, 100,000
Ok, so it’s not dynamic pricing, but gosh, our Marriott Rewards redemptions just got a lot more complicated!
A better way for Marriott to squeeze every last point out of redemptions! Perhaps 32,500 is more palatable for a particular redemption than 35 or 40K, so I’ll pull the proverbial trigger to stay at Property YZX. Or perhaps I only have a measly 33,000 points in my account so I can now “afford” that one night stay!
Its similar to the airline pricing model. If all airfares were either $500 or $3000 to any destination, you’d get some who’d pay $500, but very, very few who could afford to shell out $3000. But if we have $150, $175, $225, $280, $350, $410, $500, $550, $600, $675, $800, $880, $995, 1250, $1500, $2000 & $3000 it suddenly becomes affordable to many more people.