I've been surprised too. After the merger announcement there were a lot of SPG folk transferring points & redeeming for travel packages, plus the SW/CP also had a lot of folk transferring. However, since there's now an end date 3/31 to the CP aspect on the SW side & most of the initial rush by SPG folk is over, there's a chance TPs might survive. I do think Marriott's going to stick more to the 7 day than allow 5 day exceptions though, based on recent posts.

Cheers.

The TP has been part of Marriott for many years. The only change this year is the impending merger. I suppose that could cause both Starwood and Marriott people to redeem their points, thinking that merger will erase whatever their favorite award is, but I don't think that in and of itself is going to kill off the awards in each program *during* the year.

As for how individual airlines treat the points/miles gained from hotel conversions, that too has ebbed and flowed over the years. I don't think one airline (especially one non-alliance carrier focused on only one small part of the world) changing rules is going to vastly impact redemption from Marriott.

If Marriott was suddenly dropping all Star or all Oneworld carriers, yeah, I think people would move fast on that.

I can't blame you for redeeming Cat 9 if you are pretty sure you're going to use that. I'm thinking about pulling the trigger on a couple TPs soon - maybe doing one Southwest and one AA or something like that. I do think I want to get my 2018 TP's booked under 2017 rules, as I fully expect one big award chart with about 12 categories. First to make room for those top Ritzes and St. Regises, but eventually flooded with today's Cat 9 Marriotts and JW's.

In the grand scheme of things, I think a lot of this is Flyertalk chatter. I think if you grabbed a random SPG Platinum member at a hotel and said "Are you moving all your points to Marriott to redeem TP's for WN points?", he/she would say "Whaaaaaa?" :confused:

It is the bloggers, which have a vastly greater audience than FT, who are driving the current run on TPs. It is now widely known that a person who has never set foot in a Starwood or Marriott hotel can purchase 90k SPG points, launder the points and get a WN CP without ever having been in a WN airplane.

I'm in agreement with nsx. Just because WN has put an end to this scheme on 31 March doesn't mean that Marriott couldn't shut down TP #3 before then.

Bloggers. Flyertalk. Milepoint. Whatever... My point is that there are millions of members of these hotel programs who don't even know people like us exist.

Why does Marriott care about Southwest's Companion Pass rules? They'll happily sell you 90,000 Starwood points. Your cost to buy them is probably higher than whatever they pay WN for points plus whatever small amount they reimburse a property if you actually use the hotel part.

No doubt there is a cost to Marriott that their rewards program is being used as a point laundering operation when members have no intention of staying at their hotels.

For the same reason that Amtrak Guest Rewards was used as a point laundering intermediary between UA and Choice Hotels, and they shut it down because it was costing them money with no benefit to Amtrak.

You really think that the amount of money Marriott pays for 120,000 WN points is greater than what they charge for 90,000 Starpoints?

If the member doesn't use the hotel portion of the TP, that actually saves the program a few bucks.

I got my Lifetime AA status plus a couple WN Companion Passes in the past in large part because of Marriott Travel Packages. (I've redeemed probably 10 of these in the past 20 years.) Nothing really new here except the ability to convert in Starpoints. If we generally accept 3:1 as a reasonable exchange rate for the points (which most people do), that in and of itself should break the program.

I vaguely remember Amtrak being a lossless conversion intermediary between Midwest Express and Continental. I get how that one cost them money.

For a brief period you could send 50k Continental miles to Southwest via Amtrak and Choice to net 100 Southwest credits, for 8 free round trips plus a Companion Pass. Fun times.

Damn. Wish I'd have known. Wonder if I could have started that whole chain with my Midwest miles!! I want to say some of those Amtrak conversions were bidirectional...although it's possible I'm misremembering how easy it was.

Oops, I mis-remembered. It was 20k Continental to 40 Southwest credits. You needed to combine 2 or more of these to get a Companion Pass.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...s-credits.html

What is the fine print on these packages for who can use them? If i purchase the package can i book it in my parents name (they may want to stay at one marriott for 7 days in a row). Or is this just one of those put them down as a registered guest sort of things and it works itself out.

My 20K United bonus miles posted today. I purchased the 5 day package November 22.

Mine, too. I did the transfer on Nov 3. I did follow up via email afterwards, although I don't know if it mattered.

Same here. Purchased on Oct 13. I was terrified that maybe I forgot to register.

got mine 20K also today. I did email them and they said they will investigate at first, then tell me a week or two later that I will see the 20K before Jan 31.

Quite true, I also don't fly WN. I have over 700K MR points since I have not touched my MR account for 20 years. I don't know how much those points have devalued over the years. I cashed in a TP 22 years ago for 7 nights at Marriott Vienna plus 2 economy tickets on BA from PHL to VIE with stopover in London, plus 7 day Hertz rental. I value SPG award stays more than Marriott stays, so I don't have any interest converting MR points to SPG points.

My new MR Plat status is motivating me to consider a TP for Paris (even though Marriott properties are not my preferred)in April, so that I can convert 100K MR points into UA miles for premium airline awards.