Originally Posted by
aaupgrade
It sounds like the $500 was selected to cover the standard change fee for 2 international tickets. It shouldn't be difficult to find good fares to the Caribbean during the summer as it is low season, especially early and late summer. Curacao Marriott is $143/night or 150K points for a week, GCM RC is 360K points for a week. I am sure there are other Marriott properties in Cancun (if you like that environ), St. Kitts, BVI, or USVI that have award availability and some excellent prices for June. I would think outside the box and not limit yourself to Jamaica.
To GCM from DCA economy tickets run $581 and first/business runs $1539, to CUR economy tickets run $633 and first/business runs $906, and to CUN economy tickets run $556 and business runs $823.
You may actually come out ahead in the long run. My advice would be focus on the solution. Good luck.
I'm not sure the OP is going to come out ahead in the long run given his trip is in 'early June', which could mean as early as 10 days from now. S/he's counting on using points to make the trip cheap. I agree there's probably availability at other Caribb locations, although up in the air on whether that includes a RC.
But if the OP has to change destinations, $250/ticket isn't going to cut it on an already booked airline ticket. That's the minimum change fee & probably doesn't include destination change, not to mention the airlines often require the same original booking fare to be available on the rebook, which might not be available 10 days out. Buying whole new tickets & eating the other tickets isn't exactly a cheap option either.
If I were the OP I'd find out what the actual cost would be re: change/destination fees & see if Marriott would ante that up.
Cheers.