kipper

Be very, very nice to the representative. Ask how they are, and very politely explain that due to your travel plans, you won't be able to use the certificate before it expires.

What happened with Mr. Kipper's was that I called, talked to a CSR and explained that we have two large dogs, who limit our travel. I explained that with trying to get kennel reservations for them, the cost of the kennel vs. paying for a pet fee, we just hadn't found a reason to be able to use the certificate yet, and wouldn't before it expired. I asked for them to extend the expiration date, and she said, "I can't do that, but I can cancel it and give you points instead."

My biggest suggestion is to be very nice and friendly to them, and whatever you do, DO NOT insinuate that you are entitled to this, due to status, or throw around your status like, "If you don't do this, I'm going to take my 100 nights/year elsewhere." Remember that they are doing a favor for you, and be very grateful for their help.

pinniped

Is it possible that agents are more generous on the Marriott Visa certs but less generous on the Megabonus certs that have now become ubiquitous?

My situation: I'm Plat, but never really a 25-night-per-quarter Plat. So I always call and downgrade my Megabonus to the 4-night 2-Free-Cat-4 version. I have no problems using the Cat 4's. But I can imagine if I called Marriott to convert them to points, they'd see it as downgrading my 25-night / 40,000 point Megabonus to a 4-night / 40,000 point Megabonus.

Everyone will agree that 20,000 points is worth somewhat more than a Cat 4 certificate, thanks both to the expiration date and the fact that redeeming Marriott points one night at a time isn't maximizing value. So I can see where they'd say NO to this request a lot.

Your annual Visa cert? I can see a little more leniency on that one...

The core question in this thread - upgrading certs by kicking in 5,000 points - can't be done. I called and asked about it a few years ago and many others have too. Since I used to frequently redeem Travel Packages without the hotel portion actually booked, I kind of had to guess on the category...

kipper

Mr. Kipper's was the Megabonus certificate.

mareh

Marriott CS extended a category 1-4 certificate for my husband recently. I asked him to try, but was shocked that it actually worked. Never thought to ask about converting it to points instead--great idea.

CJKatl

Although I have done this in the past with success, I've also had one failure. My sister checked into a local (Atlanta) hotel this past December and let them know that I would be checking in later. They swiped her credit card and told her that she would be charged if I did not check in at some point. While I don't know if they would have actually followed through, we had previously agreed that if there was any issue, I would get to the hotel and straighten in out, which I did. There were actually two rooms, one on points and one with a certificate. There was no similar problem on the points room, only the certificate room.

CJKatl

Let me get this straight - If I had done 20 stays during the last MegaBonus, I would have gotten 35k points, but if I did four stays and asked for the certificates, I could have converted them into 40k points.

Something's not right here. As is, I exceeded the 25 nights, so I wound up with 10k more points than a Silver who stays only four nights.

I wasn't planning to stay 25 nights during the next promotion and was worried, but now I see all I need to do is switch to the certificates. I'll have my four stays done by the end of the first week of the promo. It doesn't seem right, but heck, it works for me. If Marriott's willing to do this, I'll take advantage of it.

kipper

They will convert the certificates as a courtesy. It is not a guarantee that they will convert them to points, as others have mentioned.

I would guess that if everyone opts for the stays and then calls to convert the points, everyone will receive the same answer, which will be "NO."

Retired FF

Thanks to this thread, I called the PLAT desk to ask if I could convert my two cat 1-4 certs earned through megabonus into points. The intial response was No but then asked me to wait until she has a closer look at my certs and how they were earned. She came back and said that I had been invited to earn the 2 certs through 4 qualifying nights stay and during the same megabonus promo, there was an offer for 40,000 points after a 20 nights stay. By looking at my history, she could see that I had 20 nights stay during the megabonus period and she was able to switch the promo for me and took away the 2 certs and replaced them with 40,000 points. The key here was that I HAD TO HAVE qualified under the parallel promo for 40,000 points in order for her to accomodate my request.
I am not sure if the same logic was applied to others who were able to do the conversion or just found a very accomodating agent on the other side..

ncgator

i only had 6 nts during the promo. i was targeted for the 25 nts, 40k. no way i could meet that. i called a couple weeks before the end of the promo and asked about the 2 nts/1 cert brochure i saw in a hotel lobby (i actually have done this for the previous promos based on the FT thread that discusses these promos), the CS person gladly changed my promo to the 2 nts/1 cat 1-4 cert manually after the promo period was over. i try to use my certs but this time i actually could not. I am gold. i called and asked for an extension on the cert. she put me on hold and then kindly said she would exchange the cert for 20k pts. i thanked her and moved on.

in the scheme of things, how many MR members do you think actually use FT? it amazes me during my travels the number of people i meet that are road warriors that know nothing about FT. that being said, i would guess that even if everyone on FT that is a MR member that did not use their certs and kindly asked for an extension Marriott would not notice. maybe i am wrong but i think it is a smaller % of the pop that utilizes FT than we in this community realize. of course i acould be way off base and totally wrong.

pinniped

That makes sense. Since they generally let you switch Megabonuses if you call, it seems logical that they let you do this.

Orange County Commuter

The real truth...

the internet is often the "death" of things like "conversions and extensions" If it gets to be widespread because of "publicity" companies tend to "tighten up" on the leeway they give their staff to make this type of adjustment.

Jasjot Sadana

ARE YOU GUYS REALLY SURE ??
Were these Certificates the Megabonus Ones or from the Credit cards ??
I would be amazed if still possible,i tried about 3 times with different agents,but no one came with a positive reply

Jasjot Sadana

Very LUCKY.
They rubbished this,even when it was the best i would have ever made efforts to talk nicely to an agent.

VickiSoCal

Did you look at the dates on these posts?

DeltaWings

+1

Also, use by a family member is possible, but risky. It can easily blow up on your family member.

I didn't notice my award was for the 1-4 certs this MegaBonus until I tried to use them, so I called and they changed me to the 1-5 certs without problem. Using them on a $300/night cat-5 in DC, so the certs are definitely worth more to me than the 40,000 points they also offer in the MegaBonus.