Wel,, I've documented from Marriott's own web pages the offer I thought I was receiving and unless I'm missing something it had no connection with a VISA promotion.

From everything I've read on the URL I cited in my prior post I believe I should have received a BB with an expiration date 8 months from my checkout (which was on 11/25).

Heralder describes an offer tied to Visa wherein the expiration date of BBs you'd receive would be coincident with the end of the promotion (12/30) regardless of the fact that you could end up stuck with a BB with an expiration date so soon after checkout to make it, from a practical sense, unusable!

I ended up sending a follow-up email to "customer care" referencing the above and providing a link to support what their offer's Ts and Cs actually were with regard to BB expiration dates. In addition I provided the URL that appears in my previous posting in this thread.

Bottom line was that I asked them for a definitive reply (to my original inquiry to them on 11/24) as to how I could exchange the "VISA" BB I received for one with an expiration date that reflects as per their ("M11") ) offer's terms and conditions.