I just do not want to quote anyone any more and go circle again and again. The last day of OC TP existence is almost here. OC TPs will be just a piece of the travel history.
My position has always been, Marriott has never stated the OC TP can be refunded at its TP portion of the points. Or OC can be upgraded and downgraded. There are cases of OC outright cancellations and some upgrades and downgrades, often the results of HUCA practices. I agree that Marriott has not been consistent with its TPs and this caused a lot of confusions. Some Marriott reps are poorly trained and they sometimes make mistakes and require supervisor assistance. But in general, Marriott reps have been friendly and have made a lot of concessions and exceptions, trying to please the members and win the travel business.
But the concessions, exceptions and member friendly cases do not make the cases to be the new policy. We should all take precautions with online blogs and discussions. Those TPs are still valuable and we all want to maximize the value. But there are also a lot of risks if we believe we can continue to bend Marriott reps' arms and continue to receive concessions and exceptions. I believe the HUCA is a strategy to exploit Marriott member friendly weakness. Marriott may have tighten its policy and follow its T&C more closely, with the most recent DPs.
I'm grateful for all the advice from this forum and from the online bloggers. But I also want to digest them with a bag of caution. Official policy (T&C) is always the baseline. Take online advice at your own risk.