Originally Posted by milemission

Hi: My old 1-5 cert has attached to an old cat 5 hotel. The hotel is in US and is a Cat 4 now.

I'd like to change the date, what is the best way to do it? Contact Marriott or the hotel directly? Call or email? Thank you!

Originally Posted by buschoi

Try to send them a message on Marriott's website. I finally was able to convert an old 5 night cat 1-5 room certificate that expired in Nov, 2018 to a new 5 night cat 1-4 cert today, after more than 2 months of back and forth.

My old cert was supposed to expire on Nov 6, 2018. It disappeared from my Marriott account a few days before. Rather than waiting hopelessly on the phone for a rep who would have no idea what to do, I sent a message on Marriott's website, asking to extend the cert.

Three weeks after I sent the message, weirdly an SPG associate replied, asking me to call because it was a Marriott cert. I was frustrated because despite using the Marriott website to send a message asking about a legacy Marriott travel cert, an SPG associate responded. Of course there was nothing he could do.

So I called Marriott in late November. The rep could not see the cert in my account because it had expired. He initially did not believe in me and said there was nothing he could do. However, when I pointed him to the 235,000 points withdrawn from my account in Nov, 2017, and the fact that I did not use any room cert in that period, he started to be more helpful. He said he would forward my case to the appropriate department. He said expect to wait 4-6 weeks for a reply.

6 weeks come and gone, and there was no word from Marriott. Not a surprise. So I sent a message to Marriott again on its website, intending to put everything into writing instead of explaining my situation to the phone rep every time I need to call. Two days later, once again, an SPG associate replied and asked me to call. This time I replied to the message telling them I did call in November but received no response. I intended to put everything in writing this time and asked them to follow-up.

A few days later, a legacy Marriott associate replied to me, saying he could not see my cert in the account. Of course I had to explain the situation all over again. This time I also attached a screenshot from my account history, showing the 235,000 points they had deducted from my account.

A few days later again, I guess a higher-up rep took my case. He gave me two options - refund the room certificate, or convert it to the new cert. I chose to convert. I specifically asked to not convert the other two room certs in my account yet. Just to convert the one that had expired in November, 2018.

This morning, I received an email from him, saying a conversion was done. I checked my account. Lo and behold, he converted one of the two certs I specifically asked him not to touch, and the expired cert was still no where to be found.

I got back to him asking him about the expired cert, saying that expired cert was all the email chain was about. He got back 15 minutes later, saying he did another conversion. This time, the expired cert finally showed up in my account.

Conclusion - it can be done, but it may take a tremendous amount of time and effort. More than one time I was going to just give up the cert, thinking it's just not worth it. Luckily, it came through after 2.5 months. I would encourage you to give it a try again, but do it in emails/messages, so you can document everything. That way you have time stamps to show your communication, and you can refer the associates to the email chain instead of explaining everything from scratch every time you call. Although I was beyond frustrated, I tried my very best to be polite. So definitely try it.

Originally Posted by radley

Hi
I am in the Uk and last year I purchased a 5 Night cat 5 travel package. I used the miles and attached the hotel portion to a Cat 5 hotel stay in the US for this coming July.

It looks as if my work plans have changed and I will now be staying elsewhere, where there are mainly Cat 6 hotels.

Is it possible to "upgrade" the hotel cert with portents and attach it to a new booking?
Thanks in advance.

Radley

Originally Posted by radley

Hi
I am in the Uk and last year I purchased a 5 Night cat 5 travel package. I used the miles and attached the hotel portion to a Cat 5 hotel stay in the US for this coming July.

It looks as if my work plans have changed and I will now be staying elsewhere, where there are mainly Cat 6 hotels.

Is it possible to "upgrade" the hotel cert with portents and attach it to a new booking?
Thanks in advance.

Radley

Originally Posted by buschoi

It is. The wiki in a thread here on FT has a list of redemption options. Don't remember which post though. I only wrote down in my note that a Cat 1-4 with 5 nights and 110,000 miles will now cost 270,000 points, and a Cat 1-4 with 5 nights and 55,000 miles with cost 195,000 points.

I guess most people still have a bunch of old room certs left, so they don't need to redeem a new package yet.

I am a vacation club owner, so I can still redeem it. Not sure how much more difficult now for non-owner to get by and redeem one.

Originally Posted by kklems

YMMV but when I called today to extend a travel certificate I asked if I could upgrade the certificate. He said he remembered that used to be available for members but that was no longer an option. Of course a different rep my tell you something different. edited to add I am a US member so maybe the UK handles thing differently

Originally Posted by kklems

YMMV but when I called today to extend a travel certificate I asked if I could upgrade the certificate. He said he remembered that used to be available for members but that was no longer an option. Of course a different rep my tell you something different. edited to add I am a US member so maybe the UK handles thing differently

Originally Posted by potm

A big question for me now is whether they'll let us extend the expiry of a new cert for a year like they use to with the old certs.