Originally Posted by
GrizShel
I have spent a few hours this trying to catch up with things - I have missed everything for months, mainly due to an extended illness. I want to do a check now and see whether or not I am getting a correct understanding of things, I'd greatly appreciate it if someone would let me know if these interpretations are right or wrong, and correct them if you can:
I have three 7-night travel packages booked late summer 2018 under the old system - two cat. 9 and 1 cat. 5. Each is attached to a reservation, most likely I will not be able to use them. I also have several reservations booked as backups last summer.
1. My understanding is that I should be able to change the attachment to another reservation booked last year as Marriott Bonvoy has continued the policy that such reservations can be grandfathered at the rate in effect at the time it was booked.
2. If I want to use, for example, an Old Cat. 9 certificate next year instead of this year, I need to detach the certificate before the reservation cancel by date or 15 days before arrival (whichever comes first). If I want to maximize the extension of the expiration date, I should wait however to a few days before it's current expiration date to request its conversion to a new category 6 cert.
3. One of the properties I booked with the old TP was Mauna Kea Beach, which remains until now a Cat. 6 property. So I think I could still get an award booking next summer after I have converted the TP - or is that only possible in off-peak pricing?
4. It looks like we're pretty screwed if we can't use the TP this year or next - the points back from cancelling them are pretty trivial - and even more trivial I have read somewhere if canceled once converted to a new TP. By my logic, if I can't use one of the 3, the best thing to do would be to cancel the lowest cost one I have (old Cat. 5) and at least get 45k points back, not much, but better than nothing.
5. It's a minefield trying to make conversions / changes over the phone. It seems to have been thought that experiences were generally better with UK customer service, although reading recent posts seems to indicate that it won't necessarily make a difference.
Converting your OC9 to NC6 and OC5 to NC4 is fairly easy through the UK call centre.
Attaching them to a hotel that has gone up to a higher category that you had booked before will likely be very difficult though. You will need someone who understands that Marriott's policy is to honour the original price and has the knowledge to be able to do it. They will have to manually credit you the points difference, cancel your existing cert, order the higher cat one and attach it to the booking.
You are right in that you get a fresh one year expiry from when you convert the OC to the NC. It has also been reported a few times on here that agents have allowed a one year extension on NCs. Potentially that gives you at least 2 years to use your certs.