Does anyone know whether if you attached your certificate to a reservation before the merger you can can extend it for another year now (and change hotels within the same category)?

Thanks and sorry of this has been answered.

I found this in the WIKI


If you want to purchase the new 5 night travel packages then they are as follows:
5 night cat. 1-4 = 813T (25K MR points) costs 270K MR points (for 100K Airmiles)
5 night cat 5= 833T (35K MR points) costs 310K MR points (for 100K Airmiles)
5 night cat 6= 853T( 50K MR points) costs 390K MR points (for 100K Airmiles)
5 night cat 7=873T (60K MR points) costs 450K MR points (for 100K Airmiles)
5 night Cat 8- 890T(85K MR points) costs 560 MR points (for 100K Airmiles)
Note: for 50KAirmiles the costs would be 195MR (for cat 4), 255MR (for cat 5), 315MR (for cat 6), 355MR (for cat 7) and 475MR (for cat 8)

It so happened that a friend just canceled an OC5 today by calling the 801 number. Without any need to lead in, rep knew the code and did the refunding within 2 min. After finished it, rep told the friend his new account balance. Friend also saw it from his end.

So to refund an OC should have no problem Basically it is to Marriott's advantage when you cancel an OC due to the cost of hotel stay definitely is much higher than the value refunded (the bulk of course went to the miles transferred).

Refund of NC might not be as straight forward due to the explicit words in the new Travel Package T&Cs.

What is the UK number members are calling? I've read many posts and can't find it.

I posted it in the wiki for easy retrieval. Scroll to the bottom.

Is the consensus for a smooth booking is to make a points advance reservation and subsequently call to convert OC to NC and have it attached? Would there be another email confirmation once it's attached? TIA

Any luck with this?

So I made a points advance reservation (new cat 5) and it's displaying "Great! You’ve earned all the points you need. Deduct your points now for your stay, or we’ll automatically take care of this for you 15 days prior to your arrival."

Does the system think my existing OC7 (not yet converted to NC5) is enough points for the reservation? I definitely don't enough have points at the moment, so afraid to even click proceed to see what happens (incase it charges me for the remaining points needed)

And nowhere does it say e-certificate needed like it normally does..

That link to " Deduct your points now ", just takes me to a Terms page.

Yes. Always better IMO to refer agents to a specific booking done as to your requirements, instead of getting them to book it over the phone.

I'm not sure whether you'll receive a further email, but you can always check "My Trips" later to be sure that an award certificate is properly attached.

Final update for anyone that remembered my previous posts - had OC6, converted to NC5 but issues for months trying to apply to ex-SPG property. Got fed up with lack of proper Marriott communication (if it hadn't been for here I'd never had heard anything about the changes!) so eventually escalated to Corporate level. Took two months for them to resolve (which in itself is perhaps telling!) but eventually had to opt for Marriott property as unsurprisingly the SPG one had filled up by that point. Ended up with 90k points in compensation and a guaranteed one-cat upgrade. Happy with the end result, based on the points normally required for this stay (210k) it means I effectively got the airline miles for free. Painful and drawn out process though so won't be rushing back to Marriott for further stays after this (still have about 150k points to burn though).

When to convert to new packages
 

I have 4 old packages and also want to know the best strategy for extending the expiry dates.
1) If I "convert" these to the new packages, will my expiry dates become 1 year from today?
2) Is it better to hold off converting until I have some specific reservation in mind? I would then probably have to do all 4 packages.
3) How long can I stall this off for?

I have a OC8 that was booked in what is now a Cat 6 property. I need to change the date. Will I be allowed to do this without being forced to upgrade?

1) Yes
2) Yes, hold off if you want the furthest expiration date. You may convert only one package if you want. That is what I did. I am waiting to convert my other cert so I can get a later expiration date.
3) Must be done before the existing cert expires.