Question about Visa certificate?
 

I received a Visa certificate last November, and in January, made an online reservation for next October. The reservation says the certificate will be faxed to the hotel. However, when I look in my account, it says I have no unused certificates. Is that how it should look? In the past, I thought it was usually listed there until the stay took place.(?)

as far as I recall, the Visa certs have a "life" of 6-months.....so, if you received it in November it had to be redeemed for usage w/i 6-months, or May of this year......... therefore, IMO don't think you could use it for your October stay..........

was the Visa cert even shown as an option when you tried to do this reservation?

Yikes! Yes, it was showing when I did it and it asked if I wanted to redeem my certificate. It was the only certificate in my account. I can't I believe I messed that up, because I'm sure you're correct about the six months. (I don't think their system should have let me redeem a certificate that wouldn't be good by my stay, but that's neither here nor there now.) Anyway, thanks for the information! I really blew it this time.

perhaps thats why the cert no longer shows in your acc't - past its validity now so its been removed from your acc't
for future reference, if it's a Visa issued cert, BEFORE it expires, try calling Marriott Rewards and ask them to put you on hold and have them call Visa and get a one time per cert 6-month extension............... generally granted..........

Yes, I'm sure that's why. I'll have to cancel because I won't have the points in my account by then. I did extend a certificate one time, but I got mixed up about the terms of using this one. :(

Not that anyone has said anything incorrect re: the expiration, but don't certs disappear from the 'unused cert' section after being applied to a reservation (pre-stay)?

That is how I remember it...

They take your points at reservation and return if cancelled...pretty sure it works the same for a cert.

I would call MR and see if the reservation is still valid and how it is being 'paid for'...but I imagine it has expired.

OP original said that the cert would be FAXed to property which leads me to believe the system took the reservation to use points and the OP didn't have sufficient points at the time of making the reservation.............

and, yes, if the OP had a cert to use that was viable it would be taken away from ones usable certs (disappear from unused certs).......