dsquared37

Aug 1.

margarita girl

They’ve all been extended to Aug 1. What you’re seeing is MM/DD/YYYY.

mobilemario

Of course 🤦‍♂️ 😆

Rondelltg

Hello All,

I am interested in using a TP. I never have before. I usually just stay 10 nights getting two of them free. I am LTT with over 993,000. Is there an area here that discusses the points value math? I was looking at Cat. 1-4 at 390,000 and when I looked up the hotel it was only 165,000 for the Cat. 4 hotel. I have status with Delta and United.

Thanks

HPN-HRL

A Marriott Travel Package, besides giving you a 7-night stay, also includes airline miles. Currently, a Cat 1-4 package for 7 days plus 50,000 airline miles (55,000 if you choose United) costs 255,000 points. Under this choice those 50,000 miles (55,000 if UA) would cost you 90,000 Marriott points (255,000 minus the 165,000 cost you mentioned), so not a great deal in my opinion (but OK if you need 50,000 miles from an airline which is otherwise hard to obtain, or need the miles for a redemption in the very near future). Their other Cat 1-4 option is 7 nights plus 100,000 airline miles (110,000 UA) for 330,000 Marriott points, making the cost of those 100,000 airline miles 330,000 - 165,000 = 165,000 Marriott points, which is slightly better but still probably not worth doing except in the situations I mentioned above.

As far as point value, bloggers currently tend to value Marriott points at 0.65 to 0.80 cents per point ($6.50-$8.00 per 1000 points); I value them at 2/3 of a cent per point ($6.67 per 1000 points). By my valuation the 50,000 airline miles would cost $600 (1.2 cents per non-UA airline mile; 1.09 cents per UA mile); the 100,000 airline miles would cost $1,100 (1.1 cents per non-UA mile; 1.0 cents/mile for UA).

The webpage for Marriott Travel Packages is at https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/red...el/packages.mi - it lists which airline programs participate. You don't have to have status with an airline to to book a Travel Package, you just need to have an account in the frequent flyer program of the airline that you want the points to be credited to.

Also, FYI the 390,000 points package you mentioned in your post is for 100,000 airline miles plus seven nights at a Category 5 hotel, not Cat 1-4.

I hope this helped!

Ripley62

Deleted

Ripley62

the post above does a very good job of the cost and benefits of the current TP. I’ve a few of the older ones, still have one left that expires in November.

my gauge of the value of TPs is how much if any they’re than a straight transfer to airlines, I don’t really use United and if I were to I have Chase points for that.

so to me it’s 60k Marriott points equals 25k airline miles. My last couple of transfers have been when there was a transfer promotion which in normal times happens couple times a year. AA use to have a pretty regular 30% bonus transfer from hotel points programs for example. I ended up with 60k Marriott converting to 33.3k AA miles

the other consideration is currently many properties are either points saver or off peak. The last week we were staying at cat 6 on the beach in FL that would normally have been a good use of my last old TP because for most of the winter it’s normally 60k points a night but after NYE it was 35k (point saver and off peak) made a great use of 4 of my and my wife’s 1 Credit card night certificates. That’s an example why especially in the near term it likely better to just use the points directly for hotel and separately transfer Marriott points to airlines programs even if there isn’t a transfer bonus. On top of that Marriott is now running a 40% off the points cost of most properties and you still can use the 5th night free. Another example the same FL beach property I mentioned above has a number of 5 night stretches with the 40% off at 144k for 5 nights. That’s just one example there are many as you pointed out.

also doing it directly mean you don’t have to deal with the flexibility problems that come with TPS now.

I just even without the current 40% promo don’t see the value the TP

as to the value of the points the points guy has good estimates but really it depends on how you use them and how you count value. If for example you’d never actually pay for business class airfare using points to do so isn’t really a saving it’s only a saving from what you’d actually pay for. With hotels it also matters if you count the value against the room booked or the room you actually were given. I’ve booked some rooms, primarily in Europe, and because of my status been upgraded to rooms that were going for thousand a night but the room category the points booking books into was a couple hundred.

all that said over the last few million Marriott points I’ve generally averaged around 0.01 cents per Marriott point. Whither with hotels or transfers to airlines. With airlines I’m 6’5” so try on transcon and transatlantic flights to book business class if it’s reasonable. With AA a one way transcontinental in business is normally 25k AA miles, so 60k Marriott points. A good price for those tickets are generally around $400 each way from my local airport. But can easily go much higher. The better use is transatlantic business which is often if you look 115k round trip for a ticket that’s hard to find under $2k and more normally closer to 3k, but with points on AA you have watch that it’s not flown non BA because the taxes and fees will then be over $1k or regularly more than a premium economy ticket. So the value of the points is very difficult to measure. If you fly main cabins airline miles are hard to get to 0.01 per point/mile.

Rondelltg

Thanks for this information. I really helps. I travel a lot like most here. I don't really have time to vacation until the end of the year and usually take off Thanksgiving - New Years. I am planning for this year hence looking at travel packages.

I like the idea of direct exchange for miles. I've never even considered it. I usually just build up the mile and get main cabin tickets. I'll keep an eye out for those bonuses this year.

I stayed home this year. Hoping that travel will open up this year without quarantines.

pazza2000

Now, when can we expect to see our old TP extension from August through to Dec/Jan?

ankomonkey

I have my final one attached to a booking in Spain for this May. I really hope the trip can happen as we haven't been able to travel much for the last 12 months or so, and partly so I can live my life without worrying about expiry dates, extensions, etc. First world problems, but I wanna get shut of all of these travel vouchers I now have and can't seem to use!

pazza2000

I have a few, some of which I’d like to use next Dec! I think we will get some opportunity over the summer, but suspect the door won’t be fully open come Aug 1st. Again, will be interesting see Marriott’s stance nearer the time.

dkerr

I find it odd that Marriott extended to Aug 1st, they should just have bit the bullet and extended through year end. Of course this is with hindsight. I was pretty confident that I could use my TP certs in May too, and have a reservation. But with the current "2nd wave" showing no signs of getting better and the destination I want to go to still prohibiting entry for travelers from the USA, I am starting to think that we will not be able to travel in May after all. Had Marriott extended to year end I don't think any of us would be wondering about yet another extension as there is actually a good chance that with vaccinations we will be able to travel with confidence before then. But before end of July I am just not confident yet.

RedSun

This is typical Marriott style, nothing odd. It will give in inch by inch, and piece by piece. Or forced....

Ripley62

my experience might, maybe, some guide or at least a data point.
I had two of the old packages left, one attached to a reservation in Hawaii. Back in Nov it looked like a Hawaii was opening and I booked and attached my last TP for a second week. In early December we started worrying about thing changing again and either being trap in Hawaii, not a terrible thing but also not do able either, or worse things going to quarantine to resorts. We decided to cancel an look for place we could fly to but if worst came to worse drive back from.

I canceled both weeks, 2 TPs, but only one showed up return to my account and it had a Nov 14 2021 expiration date, one year from my second booking. The other TP it seems was refunded for 160k point which I was quite happy with but neither nor the agent I talked to could figure out how Marriott came up with that number

So at a minimum it seems Marriott is allowing a cancellation to be returned with an extension one year from the date the TP was attached to a reservation

ankomonkey

I don't know what category it was, but that sounds like a good refund

Mine is an old TP too. It was due to be used before expiration date in Thailand last summer, but we couldn't enter Thailand at the time as they had banned non-citizens. It took me a while to find somewhere closer to home that gave reasonable value and could accommodate a family of 4 on a reward. I could probably rearrange to a later date at the same hotel if May travel is not possible, but I'm just weary of all the admin around cancelling, changing and negotiating/blagging. Marriott were not too customer-friendly last year when dealing with Covid-enforced cancellations and extensions. I don't fancy the same battle this year!