Another option is to just pay for the room this time. Then you'll earn some points and have enough next time for the free stay in a category 6 room.

Then your $$ will have some redeeming value instead of just buying points.

I can't see any redeeming value in this discussion... :D

Collect 250 aluminum cans and take them to the recycling plant at $0.05 apiece. There's your redeeming value for $12.50.

I ended up getting a really nice MR rep on the phone who converted my free CAT 1-4 cert into 20,000 points! Case closed!

Glad you could work something out.

BTW, was that a previously ordered award cert or a cert received from a Chase Visa card?

Good to know, never heard of that option before. There actually was some redeeming value in this discussion, after all :p
I wonder if they'll do that upon request, or if you have to be actually needing those points for an immediate redemption?? Makes it even sillier to redeem those 1-4 or 1-5 certs for anything other than the top end, if you can turn a 1-4 into enough points for a couple cat 1 or 2's.

I definitely agree with you here, but I have never heard of anyone being able to convert one of the Visa certs into points.

That is why I asked where the cert came from. Marriott has always allowed persons to return award certs that were ordered. You can even return the hotel portion of a TP award for points, though you will only get a portion of the normal hotel award points back.

hhoope01 - Never knew about this option. Do you know, off hand, how many points have been credited for a cat1-5 7-day from a TP?

bd

The answer depends on the amount of airline miles you ordered with the award. The more miles, the less you will get back. Check out post #4 in the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...l-package.html thread.

If seychellesbound had forgotten to cancel a 20K award cert., it would be called a straight Cat. 4. Given that seychellesbound called it a "free Cat. 1--4," I bet it was 1 of those from Visa or similar, which really surprises me because the T&Cs on those clearly say NO. I would expect that would be harder to fudge around than getting a hotel cashier to accept too many Bonus Bucks ;) !

Once I was a few 100s of points short of an award with some company, so I asked about buying 1000, so the rep. comped me the little I needed :) !

BIG +1 on all three points!

I am very skeptical about this, unless there is some nugget of information that you did not tell us about, an oversight perhaps?

It was indeed the Chase Visa free night cert. Seems as if I the MR rep really bent the rules for me considering I haven't had a paid night at a Marriott in over 3 years! I'm a Hhonors Diamond (25 stays, 30 nights in 2010). Maybe the quality of service, ammenities, etc. will intice me to stay with Marriott more often.

I got 20000 points for an expired 1 night 1-4 award, as the t&cs said valid for 6 moths from 30 Nov 2009. When i tried to use it in Jan 2010 was told it expired 6 months after issue ( may 2009) luckily I had a copy of the t&cs and was offered the points.

I am not sure that I understand here, was it issued on 30 Nov 2009, or was it issued in May 2009? If it was expired, why did they give you 20,000 points?

Or the fact that someone bent the rules for you when you weren't willing to spend $12.50 :rolleyes:

Cheers.