Counsellor

You have to call to get them attached.

As to the CSR's refusal to extend your Travel Package hotel certificate, as others have said earlier in this thread the solution is to hang up and call again. Sooner or later you should get a CSR who knows what (s)he is doing and will extend it.

RedSun

Or wishing to get a CSR who does not know what he/she is doing?

skimthetrees

One call does not mean anything these days, HUCA a few times to get a more definitive answer. You have to call to attach.

What is the history of the cert you tried to extend. You get one change after it is converted from an OC to an NC. One of my certs was Bonvoyed during the OC to NC conversion and a supervisor had to "fix it" and fixing Marriott's mistake meant they changed my converted NC which disallowed an extension on the fixed NC. If you had an NC4 that you got upgraded to an NC5 that counts as your one change. I notice you had one OC cert that had expired and you converted it after it expired. I could imagine they may have to convert then extend (or extend then convert) in that situation which may mean that cert might not be allowed another extension. You can try. Some rules are virtually unbreakable (one change to an NC) and some are at the agents whim (extending a virgin NC). If you HUCA a few times and still have no luck you can try escalating to a supervisor who is more likely to know the hard rules and either allow an extension or explain the hard rule that disallows the extension of the specific cert you are calling about. In order to give you what I consider a valid hard rule denial they need to look back through the account history to reconstruct the cert history change by change which is what they did for my one denial for the cert they changed to fix their mistake.

pazza2000

I’ve had this work to my advantage but also grossly backfire

pazza2000

Any particular office, time or number to call, for a better likelihood?

vivrant

good point -- everyone with certs should get something booked

Vikkie Hoang

Hello, someone suggested i try FT for my question, sorry if this has already been answered I tried searching this thread but wasn't able to find a similar situation. I'm wondering if I used an extension for my OC, does it count as my "one extension"? Or has anyone had success getting 1 OC extension and 1 NC extension? & Follow up question, I'm aware the expiration date is 'travel by' date and not 'book by', so if mine expired 3/31/2020 can i book the start of my 7 day on 3/31-4/6? or does it have to be 3/25-3/31?

For reference:
OC purchased: 3/2017, expires 3/2018
OC extended: 3/2018, expires 3/2019
NC converted: 3/2019, expires 3/2020

I was really hoping to use my NC to visit a friend in South Korea, however I'd been really hesitant on booking due to coronavirus scare, and as of earlier this week the number of confirmed infected spiked by a lot in SK and travel advisory updated SK to level 2 so it seems like I should not make the trip, since a lot of places would be closed/people are staying home and avoiding going out and about. I suppose worse case scenario I could take a random trip elsewhere before it expires but that would be less ideal..

Thanks so much in advance

davem4

Should be a quick question. I have a TP expiring 7th of July.

Does this mean I need to book by 7th July, or the stay must be before the 7th of July.

This was a certificate that converted from one of the old 1-5 packages. So not sure I'll be due an extension.

skimthetrees

I am not sure we have good data points on extending in a situation like yours. My guess would be that you can extend since you have not touched the NC since converting but it depends on the luck of the agent you draw when you call in. Have you tried calling to extend? One denial does not mean anything these days since different agents give different answers. I would suggest calling back a few different times to try to extend if you are initially told no. Perhaps try calling the UK line during UK business hours too (old reports used to claim better success there although I have not seen any recent reports from there).

In regard to your other question. You do not have to complete your stay by the expiration date but the exact date is not clear to me. My data point is that I used a cert last year where I checked in on a Tuesday and the 7-day cert expired two days later (Thursday) and it was fine. I had previously asked an agent if this was possible and they connected with a colleague in their Bonvoy team to confirm that it was. Even though I was nervous about it working I figured if it did not work I would quote the answer the agent gave me and demand they extend the cert to fix their mistake. Others have said you cannot check-in on the day your cert expires but I have no experience with that. In my case looking at the daily rate breakdown the first day of my stay was listed as free with the rest of the 6 days charged so I suspect it might have been a problem for me if my cert expired on the day I checked in since maybe the hotel would not be submitting it for redemption on a free day, they might wait until the first chargeable day (second day of my stay)? To recap, I was able to use a cert for a 7 day stay when the cert expired 2 days after check-in.

skimthetrees

See my experience above in reply to another poster for an experience on the use-by date. If you have not touched the cert since you converted it to an NC you probably can get an agent to extend it another year but it may require a few HUCAs.

arael77

Reverse Bonvoyed!

Successfully got Marriott 7-night travel package extended on third try. Called and ask if they can be extended, citing the current corona scare and family was unwilling to travel. Rep said no it can't be extended because "points have already been deducted" (whatever-tf that means).

I mentioned that I think they sometimes give a one time extension by somehow cancelling and reissuing the certificate. Rep hummed and hawed for a minute and then put me on hold for 30 minutes (!).

Came back and said it has been extended, though she called me out and said that I already extended it in the past. I said I hadn't specifically got an extension, but I did convert it from old TP to new TP. She said "oh that appears in our system like an extension". Despite that she still was willing to do it.

Now my account shows:

• Rewards : Partial Package Refunded +45000 Rewards
• Bonus: Reward Adjustment +45000 Points
• Bonus: Reward Adjustment +45000 Points
• Bonus: Reward Adjustment -45000 Points
• Rewards : Partial Package Redeemed -45000 Rewards

And a new 7-night FNA in my account expiring in Feb 2021.

A little bit dubious of the many +/-45000 in the accounting, though my account is currently showing 45000 points too many, I'm assuming that will all shake out correctly by tomorrow.

First time I called was just flat out told no extensions, second time I called the rep asked when I originally bought it. I said back before the merger and she said "Hmm no they probably aren't going to be willing to extend that". Third try was my last try before giving it up for surrender value. Guess I got lucky today.

pazza2000

Be interested to hear where some are rushing into using their TP certs before next week? I know those holding C5’s in particular will be much worst off come the changes. The C’virus is maybe restricting advance planning.

RedSun

All the TPs are close to 2 years old. Marriott has been advising people to use them. I do not see the reasons for the continued complaints. If people has no plan to travel, and bought those TPs as speculative plays, then they are responsible for all the category changes.

skimthetrees

There is so much, where to start? There are not that many complaints at this point but most are valid. Yes, the certs still out there have a history of almost 2 years but many have more than a year left to use with an extension which is significant. Even after almost 2 years Marriott does not have a system that can reliably deal with cert issues in a consistent manner and they have not trained a majority of their agents well enough to know how to handle cert issues which leads to incredible frustration for people trying to get the most use out of them. They continue to devalue the program at a rate unheard of before the merger compounding the frustration. This thread is for general discussion on TP's and that includes complaints, so buck up, don't let it get to you, try to help where you can, and we'll try to help everyone make the best of what we've got!

The good news is I will be OK! I have one cert left to use, I just got it extended for another year, and I expect to have no problems using it. My success is in large part because of the many helpful contributors here sharing their experiences. Thank you everyone!

RedSun

1. Original TP was valid for one year. Marriott has officially agreed to extend one year.
2. Marriott advised to lock in the rate or category before the change. And it even agreed to honor the point advance reservations for some changes.
3. All the TPs had very low cost. Even at the current devalued Bonv^y value, the TPs still have value far greater than the points we paid.

I understand all the hardship about the conversion and all the category changes and de-valuations. But all of those have been documented and discussed extensively.

For the people who paid 270,000 points and get 132,000 miles and a Cat 1-4 7-night hotel TP, it was a tremendous value. Some people even cancelled the hotel TP since the TP was just the extra.

For the people who bought 5+ those low category TPs and had no intention to use those cheap TPs, they will continue to lose value due to Marriott devaluations each year. You really get yourself to blame for the speculative bookings. People can continue to battle Marriott on this. Sure have fun....

We would not have seen this much complaint had Marriott done like Hyatt does to stick to the rules and offer no extension and no category changes after the cut-off date....