Does the expiration date on the certificate mean it should be redeemed (as in completed your stay in a hotel) by that date or you need to book a stay (to use in the future) by the expiration date? I thought you just need to book by that date but am confused now.

Redeemed

I'm not sure that's correct. My understanding was that the certificate had to be redeemed, not just attached (since an attached certificate can be "dis-attached" and moved), and it was "redeemed" at check-in. Thus, check-in had to occur during the validity period, and once you had checked in you were "good" for the whole stay even if check-out was outside the validity period. So, "completed" no, but "started" yes. At least, that's my understanding.

Can you kindly point us the posts that this has been established?

We probably need to get a definite answer on this one, because it can make a HUGE difference especially if "attached" means redeemed, and one could attach it to a stay months later. I seriously doubt this would be the case, Marriott even the old program, would not be so generous!

The only program I know of that let you use a cert for stay well pass the expiry date is IHG program that you can indeed book a stay long pass the expiry date of your cert with the caveat being, if you cancel the reservation after the cert has already expired, you lose the cert - it would not be returned to your account. Though even this generous policy seems to start having mixed results at the hotel levels since last year.

More experienced TP users such as my321 please chime in.

Before the merger, people used to say you get almost 3 yrs out of a certificate. You could extend if for a year, and then apply it to a reservation that could be 11-12 months out, so almost 3 yrs after cert's original issue date. Not sure if those rules have changed

The key thing is, in the past, you readily get a one year extension for a life of 2 years, even pointed out by the reps. The 2nd extension is always a hit or miss, not a sure thing like the 1st extension. Besides during the old days a cert can be detached from the dummy future booking and gain new life. That part is iffy under the new program - depends on how zealous the CSR is to adhere to the official rules.

The new program SPECIFICALLY disallows the extension AND, has the languages there about NO REFUND of the cert when the reservation is canceled.

Until there are people who actually test the water under the new program so to provide new DPs, I would not count on the old practice, given how customer unfriendly the new program has become.

Personally I would count myself lucky if the rep would automatically issue a new cert when the OC is converted to the NC, without backdating the cert to originally issued date after being so unlucky subject to that - and there is another poster reported the same several weeks ago - so there are 2 such incidents reported albeit out of doz and doz of conversion without suffering that. We know this could happen.

Not super clear on how the 5-night package upgrade costs are--

I have an old 5-night Cat 1-5 package (OC5/P530), which according to wiki now maps to Cat 1-4 (NC4/QP53). The discussion here indicates it's possible to upgrade this to a new Cat 5 travel package, and it seems like it is 30K or 60K (I can't figure out which from the posts here) for upgrading the new Cat 1-4 7-night package (OC5/P830) to a Cat 5 7-nighter.

Is the "refund cost" of 45K next to NC5/QP61 the cost to upgrade a new 5-night Cat 1-4 (NC4/QP53) to a 5-night Cat 5 (and is the correct code NC5/QP61?).

Thanks for helping me clarify...

I have five OC5 expiring in July 2019. Today I called to apply one of them to NC4 for a reservation. After it is done, I found four of them converted, so they now expire 12/31/2019.

I called back to say this is not what I wanted, I have not decided whether I want to convert my other OC5's, I may want to refund them for 45K points because I may not be able to use all of them in Category 1-4 by 12/31/2019. Then I got a supervisor who told me that everyone should have received an email last August that you need to use your TCs or they have no value after the merge. When I said I may want to refund the 45K pts, he wanted me to show him where in the web that says the OC5 can be refunded to 45K pts. He accused me of reading too much on FT and hang up on me.

Good God some of these Marriott people are freaking clueless.

Had a reservation with a cert. Called to adjust dates by 2 nights and the rep cancelled the certificate and returned it to my account. Never re-attached it to the "new" reservation she made.

Now I'm calling back and the person I'm speaking with doesn't know how to attach the certificate.

I'm so damn sick of the incompetence from these poorly trained reps.

Since Marriott was so generous about extensions, I never tested the last possible use date of a certificate. As you, Counselor, and margarita girl have stated, it was possible to get at least one year extension and in some instances a second one. Also, each category change extended a certificate another. Although I had intended to use it earlier, I recently used a 5-night certificate that I purchased years ago when it wasn't against policy to offer them to all members and airline transfer bonuses counted for travel packages. Sorry that I can't help with this discussion.

We aren't even sure if it's possible. There are Very Few data points on NC7 in general. My thought is that it's 150k. I plan to call in and try to get it done at some point, but I'm well aware that if it is even possible, it might take a full work day to accomplish.