Received a paper reward certificate in the mail a couple of months ago. This is the MR VISA annual cert (good for one free night up to Cat 5). Expires March 27. This morning I go into my MR account to make a reward reservation for mid-March intending to use the paper cert. From everything I've read here, I should not be able to use the paper cert online. I go through all the motions to book a standard reward room at a Cat 5 property and lo and behold the system tells me I have an e-cert expiring March 27 (same day as my paper). There are no unused certs in my account so I'm thinking Marriott Rewards may have somehow identified that I have the paper VISA cert. I book the room, it tells me it has attached the cert, and no points are deducted. So far, so good. In reviewing the reservation confirmation e-mail, I notice that the last four numbers of the cert attached to the reservation are not the same as the last four numbers of the paper cert!

Don't know what to make of this. Do I have both an e-cert and a paper cert expiring the same day? Are the two certs linked somehow? Hope Marriott Rewards can clear this mess up.