Yes.

5th night free is implicit in TP. However, unlike 7-night TPs, 5-night TPs are not priced consistently. The sweet spot is the cat 6 TP. It's only 250k (vs 235k for cat 1-5 TP). On the other hand, the cat 9 TP is 345k.

I'll add another thing, in reply to some above concerns about the CSRs, I had no problem with my booking. I should add that I am normally a 100% online guy. I'll pay a couple extra bucks to avoid a phone call. This call went fine though. It was just the straight 5 night package. I did a level 8 for 300k. She didn't sound overly confident but she handled it within about 10 minutes I would say. She had to take my Southwest number to line up the miles and book my hotel as I already had my days picked. This was Friday and the Southwest points are supposed to take 3 business days. So I'll be watching!

Which airlines are currently offering bonuses for transferring (Marriott in particular) hotel points: I know of Cathay Asia miles, and there always is a special deal with united.

I thought there was a short term special with Alaska , announced very recently, but I can't find it anywhere. I am thinking that I made it up. Anyone know of some Alaska or other special that would make these packages even more enticing?

I'd like to do the TP for WN companion pass in minor son's name. He's college hunting and if pass is in his name either parent can accompany in theory. We'd probably switch companion after a year. Is this possible? Would son need to use his own Marriott number and WN number? Or can I book the TP in my name and just transfer WN points to his account?

To be clear, you want your son to earn the CP and then select either you or your wife to be the Companion?

If so, then....your son needs to have the MR points in his name, under his number in order to transfer to SW account in his name and his number.

Okay. Got it. MR name must match airline name. Need to figure out if Marriott will allow point transfer to minor. Might be getting too complicated.

Normally you can only transfer 50k a year. However, there's a workaround right now. First open an SPG account and a Marriott account in your son's name with the same address as yours. Transfer your Marriott points to your SPG account (open one if your don't have it). From your SPG account, you can transfer any number of points to your son's SPG account (provided they have the same address). The last step is to transfer points from your son's SPG account to his Marriott account. The accounts may have to be open for 30 days before you can transfer points, so you may want to open the accounts sooner rather than later.

Actually there is also another way. Marriott will allow you to transfer more than 50K, but only when you are actually ordering an award. So if one account has 300K in it and the other 0K, just call MR and they can walk you through how to order the TP award from the 0K account by transferring the 300K (or whatever the real amount is).

How long after "purchasing" the TP will the WN points hit the account?

This is true for making a hotel redemption. However, my understanding is that ordering TP doesn't qualify. Can anyone confirm?

I did my travel package on Friday and have the points in my WN account today. Also shows my status toward CP as "completed." :)

I transferred 230k from my account into my wife's account a month ago and redeemed a travel package with no problems.

And I thought that you were only able to do that into a spouses account.

One reason I like Marriott, they understand the "grey areas".

My points posted today. It says that I have a CP until 12/31/2018 as expected. Awesome!