Whatever you have in mind, make sure you understand the implication with a reservation that has an OC attached. If it is an NC, it seems one can cancel and the cert comes right back, WITH THE SAME ORIGINAL DATE.

With an OC, good luck if you do something without first detach the cert.

You NEED to attach the cert before March 5th. No if or but or I want. The ONLY WAY to be able to use your current cert on the properties that go up in Cat, is to attach the cert before March 5th. Period.

If you book the room with cash, points or TP, the reservation is complete and is paid for. But if you only do a point advance booking, then you only hold the room and it is not paid. Then you'll have to pay for the room at the then current market rate.

Lesson learnt from the last August merge. You'll need to pay for the room or have the TP attached before any rate changes.

I wanted to redeem a Marriott CAT5 7 night TP for SPG property.
I called the customer service and the rep just made me a points advance reservation and told me to call after Mar 1st to attach the certificate to the reservation.
But she was not very sure that the system would be ready by then.(?!)

From reading some blog post around Aug 2018, I was under the impression that booking SPG property with Marriott TP cert would be possible after Aug 2018. Is that not the case? Thanks.

No, it is the case. The rep, as many today are, was wrong. HUCA. You need to have them convert your old cert to a new cert if you have not already and then they can attach it. The rep probably did not know how to convert the old cert to a new cert -- bad rep. It is definitely possible and you can do it today if you find a competent rep.

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40 minutes and counting on the UK line for a simple OC --> NC conversion. Obviously I missed the combination of words that should have led me to immediately HUACA. :rolleyes:

Have you got the conversion done eventually?

Is there any keyword I should say to get OC converted at least? I asked them to convert the package from OC to NC (and hopefully to keep the category by paying points difference), but it looks like the front line rep in UK has no idea with the conversion at all. After a long hold, the rep just came back and said that my package is for category 1-4 only now and asked me to call back when I am ready to book the hotel.

Is it easy to get it converted from OC to NC at least from US marriott support? Maybe it will be my backup plans

Eventually - at 50 minutes or so - although the agent converted the wrong certificate - instead of the one expiring in April he converted the one from July. And yes I had the same "when you're ready to book the hotel" garbage, although as it happens I was converting due to the category changes and needing to attach a certificate before that happens.

Ultimately I received two emails - cancelling the 830T and ordering a QP83 - so next time I'll try the script in the wiki and HUACA if the agent doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about.

Thanks for this info. Does the new cert have the expiration date updated to one year from now? I have tried the script in wiki but it doesn't work that well.

Also, did you tell them that the hotel you wanted to book is converting to new category so they agree to convert the certificate and attach it to the hotel? Or did you just convince them after 50 mins to convert the certificate only and not attach it to any reservation yet? I hope that I can be more prepared and get a better experience when I call them again. Thanks

In the past, Marriott will call Chase to get an approval to extend the credit card FN - it is handled totally differently from the TP which Marriott gets to decide all by itself whether to extend it or not - FN from credit card requires the bank's approval.

This.

There is a reason why it is in the Wiki. It it has proven working better, why reinvent the wheel?

I guess I have followed the script but it looks like the front line reps didn't get the idea at all. Somehow it seems like they do not know the conversion is needed in order to use the old travel cert without any "upgrade". Should I expect them to know and HUCA if they seem clueless about it? May be I have to ask the rep whether he/she knows about the TP conversion before continue?

I have always just clicked "1" (option for marriott rewards member) to connect to the representative after calling UK line. Start wondering whether I connect to the right people. Should I connect them in some other ways? Thanks