Thanks for the info!!! Very interesting turn of events, I hit the confirm e-certificate for my Free Category 4 stay and it docked 20,000 points from my account instead of using the VISA cert. So I called Marriott and they told me that I couldn't use my cert because it was outside the 6-months. The card was issued on the 12th of March and my stay is the 20th of September, off by 8-days. Since one of my motivations for signing up was to use it on my trip I called VISA who promptly said tough luck, very rude folks there. As a result I told them to go ahead and cancel the card then, which she promptly said OK and cancelled. Didn't even try and work with me at all or apologize for the confusion.