Holy Moly!

This is the 2nd time reported that 45K pts being deducted from the account when just doing a cert conversion. I dont know if the system requires the reps to manually override something or the reps failed to follow a sequence....
The correct steps as we understand it from the DPs posted 2 weeks ago, are to
1) Cancel the partial OC which the pts immediately returned to the account.
2) Use the same refund to order the NC.
3) Attach the NC to a reservation.

We have seen Skimthetrees' Saga when the supervisors ordered a higher level cert on step 2).
We also have seen variations of mistakes happened between 2) and 3).

Your saga reinforces me to EMPTY my balance first before doing any cert conversion to attach to existing booking. If my account does not have the needed points, it may prevent the rep to make the same mistake. Or forces the system to tell the rep that not enough pts for ordering the NC. so hopefully the rep would go over what s/he has done up to that point and may find her / his error.

It should NOT be customer's responsibility to make sure things are handled correctly, THREE weeks after the Merger that we were told everything works fine... Other than the miscounting of nights and inaccurate elite status, Marriott has NOT acknowledged any issues that impact the customers just as gravely or even worse - such as the TP mess and the SPG pts not refunded on canceled reservation.

Also call overseas call centers instead of dealing with the incompetence of the North America agents...

She either is not a real supervisor or just plain refuses to help. I had similar experience with a guy who when I asked to speak to a supervisor, he said, I Am The Supervisor and flatly out refused to transfer me.

The way to handle the incompetent / hostile reps is just quickly hung up on them - I dont even bother to find an excuse any more as after all the phone disconnects so often after long hold or transfer.

The Goodwill points come in different descriptions. I got one shown as Goodwill but a friend got one as a "bonus from Omaha Office".

On the app you should be able to see the balance changes almost instantly. On the site it takes some time delay and only shows up on the Side Bar in the total tally

As long as the total balance has reflected the addition, it means entries have been done.

On 2 such occasions I stayed on the phone with the supervisor UNTIL I saw my balance reflected the added points.

Neither the app nor the site would show the actual entry until the next day but if it has been done, it will show in the Activity screen the next day.

What a nightmare dealing with the Travel Package. All just go back to how Marriott's original intend is to fleece the customers but because of the public outcry Marriott has to change course, very reluctantly - that would explain why so many reps are still poorly trained. The conspicuous deaf silence on all fronts is not without reasons.

Actually, I can see the activity on the app, and that is how it is described.

I won't be in a hurry to redeem any more of these certs until Marriott gets their act together!

1) The TP can only be booked by phone.

2) The TP can only be used for STANDARD room.
SPG allows you to book room above standard room by calling, ON POINTS only, with more points.
So if the property does not have 7 consecutive nights, your only option would be to book a 5 or 6 consecutive nights and still use the cert. But that requires even more know how.
You can NOT use a TP and then add points for the room above Standard.

3) Some SPG reps know how to do it. It is a matter of agent roulette. Go Back to read the thread for the posts on last week you would find at least one successful data point.
However you would still need 2) to be able to book.

Unless your stay is in very near future, otherwise you should wait till all the SPG properties have migrated to Marriott booking engine before you make another attempt.
You would still need STANDARD room being available to use the cert though.
Unfortunately the high end SPG properties all are "suite only" properties so point booking only and pay above the standard room rate.

Was it a Goodwill or a "bonus from Omaha Office"?

Agree if you do not need any more booking in the next 2 months, leave the remaining certs alone until most agents are finally up to date on the procedure.

I have to attach one to Hong Kong Sly City for 3rd week of October. So I plan to call the Hong Kong /China number Monday or Tuesday. I imagine if UK office can do it now, they should be able to too. A poster posted he called UK office and everything was done quickly and smoothly.

Bonus from Omaha.

We do not know the 5 nights cert but one only. However the information in the Wiki should be enough for anyone to deduce what the coides might be.

No.

Think about it, how could Marriott sell you a partial cert with drastically reduced point value versus a regularly point redemption?

The old TP is designed in the way that the airline miles took the bulk of the points but still are "cheaper" than doing a hotel points to airline miles transfer. The hotel stay cert is almost like a gravy.

Someone has done some analysis on the new TP point allocation, and has come to the conclusion the hotel portion would actually cost MORE than doing a pure point redemption. I knew I have read it but forgot where because this is not something makes any sense for anyone.

@ margarita girl, while the experiences have been frustrating, hopefully your Phu Quoc stay will make up for that. We were there 2 weeks ago (on a TP) and had an amazing stay.

Thanks for that! I had the foresight to book it in Feb before the category change, for January 2019. :)

(However, I was prepared to cancel if Marriott cheaped out and didn't offer free breakfast! But all is good now.)

Happy, please be less condescending. It was an honest question.

FWIW, my reason for asking is that I'd seen members post on other forums and blogs that they were able to buy a partial cert at the surrender/upgrade/downgrade rate (ex. a former cat 8 for 135,000 points) without the miles portion. People claim it has happened, and it was easily accomplished. Apparently they just called in and said they needed to purchase a cert and gave the rep the code for the cert they wanted. I was just curious if there were any DPs from this board that this was possible. IF (and that's a BIG if) those members were telling the truth, then they saved a lot of points over a pure point redemption by doing that. But again, that was pre-merge, so who knows any more.

Does anyone have an actual DP to share?

I'm beginning to think I almost bought a hotel package for 45K points today! After I called to attach a Cat 1-5 cert to a reservation yesterday, the cert stayed in my account but Marriott took 45K pts from my account and this is what was listed in the activity:

However, after I called this morning to complain about the unauthorized 45K point deduction, I see that a cert was removed from my account and 45K points was posted as follows:

Not familiar enough with TPs, but maybe someone who is can interpret for me what happened.

New travel packages - not a great deal - has anyone done the math?
 

The error you are making is you are calculating the travel packages based on todays rewards values. The travel packages appear to be based on the PEAK pricing that comes into effect in 2019.

In the travel packages, if you calculate the PEAK reward value at full-value in the package, then each 50K miles is given for 75k MR points, which is a good deal for the miles.

For example, Category 6 PEAK is 60,000 MR points. Therefore, your 6 nights is 360,000. +75,000 for 50K miles = 435,000. +150,000 for 100k miles = 510,000.

The people that get the short end of the stick are those that want to use travel packages on off-peak days, as a Category 6 is only 40,000 MR points per night. It appear that travel packages going forward are really only providing value if you plan to use them on PEAK dates.

Pretty sure it's manual. Here's what shows in my account activity for a 45 minute call to convert an OC6 to NC4

I was just trying to give you a common sense explanation that in my mind it would be easier to understand, not knowing people actually be able to buy a partial certificates outright - I seriously doubt this is an allowed redemption but most likely a rep error / system glitch that people have found out they could take advantage of.

On this board alone, there are TWO very recent DPs (literally the last 2 days) that the posters asked to convert an existing OC5 to NC4, then attached to an existing hotel booking - their accounts got deducted by 45K pts in the process.

We do not know whether these 2 persons ACTUALLY received a new cert or not due to the delayed, overnight processing of activity on the certs. Besides both posters called back to get the mistakenly deduction reversed.

Could you provide links on those DPs you have read?