For those who got your certificate extended, what type of certificate was it? The Marriott premier credit card annual CAT5 certificate, or the Megabonus CAT4 certificates? I heard it's easy to get the CAT5 extended, but not the CAT4.

I requested an extension for my CAT4 last year, but MR denied it. Fortunately, the hotel I was going to stay happily accepted my certificate after its expiration date. (Technically, I booked the stay before the expiration date, but had to push it back a week past the expiration date. The hotel changed the date of my reservation and took the certificate)

I never get an extension for my certs. MR is very firm about this IME. I have no idea how the others got theirs extended.

Just wanted to confirm that the hotel (Fairfield Inn Capitola/Santa Cruz) still honored my MR Visa Cat5 Cert, which expired 4 days prior to my stay. They didn't even question it. Very friendly staff, too.

Using free night certificates for stays beyond expiration date
 

Last fall, I earned four free night (Cat 1 - 4) certs. I asked the phone agent to use these certs to reserve four nights at the CY Kona beach (Cat 4 soon to be Cat5). Two of the certs expire (1 - 3 weeks) before I check in.

The phone agent promptly made the reservation w/o questions and I received confirmation. The four certs still show under "Unused Rewards Certificates" in my account page.

Is it possible that the certs will expire and cannot be retrieved by the hotel when I check in? I understand that when you book a points award, Marriott sends a e-certificate to the hotel to secure your room. The same should be true for certificate redemptions.--My reservation confirmation shows "eCertificate required prior to check in."

Should I call Marriott to "redeem" my Cat1-4 certs and send one eCertificate to the hotel?

Well, I am not certain of the logistics you describe. What I can say, is that the stay has to be before the expiration of the certificate. Otherwise, it will not "exist" when the hotel attempts to redeem it for your stay.

I'm running up against this issue as well--was hoping to reserve a night several months beyond the expiration date.

Elsewhere on the web, it seems some people have been able to call customer service and get a 6 month extension on a Cat 1-4 free night certificate. Anyone here have luck with that?

Yes, they can be extended once.

If they are expired (without being extended), they will take points from your account.

Thanks Beachfan. Somewhere else on the web, people have reported only being able to extend a cert if they already had a current reservation with the cert. Do you, or does anyone else, know if that's still the case? Not sure if this is due to a quirk in their reservations system, CSR level of knowledge, etc.

Or can we just call and ask politely for an extension?

Mostly those they got from MR Visa - haven't heard from anyone that the ones from Megabonus can be extended.

I got a confirmation from MC that they can't be extended, and you can't use them after they are expired even though you made the ressies before they are expired.

Learned the hard way myself too. This is accurate.

Success; what about Hyatt free night certs?
 

Called Marriott Rewards customer service this morning and asked if they would extend my Cat 1-4 free night certificate for 6 months. After a few minutes of being put on hold, my wish was granted. They cancelled out the existing certificate and issued a new one. The new cert will expire 6 months from today.

This has me wondering, since we're on this topic. Anyone know if Hyatt will extend the expiration of free nights earned from their CC sign-up bonus? Or should I ask on the Hyatt forum?

Considering applying me and my wife for new Hyatt CCs but not sure we'd be able to use the certs in a year's time.

Did you earn it through Megabonus?

No idea what Megabonus is, so no. It was earned through a Marriott CC sign-up bonus offer.

Over the yrs Ive gotten the Cert earned via having the CC extended, never was able even once to get a Cert earned via the Megabonus to be extended

Marriott quarterly promo. There is one running at the moment.