No, it will NOT automatically attached.

Just used a 7 nights cert on a stay in Hong Kong for the exact Cat 6.

Booked the res online, system did not recognize the cert but instruct me to buy points.
Cannot choose the cert at "payment". Called and CSR attached the cert.

It has been mentioned and discussed at least 10 times in the past few months - the Travel Package 7 nights cert would be split into a 5 nights and a 2 nights cert when it actually attached to the booking - and those of us who actually have gone thru the process believe, the reason why it would not be auto-attached online is because the system is never designed to recognize a 7 nights cert and knows to split it this way - because after all, the TP redemption is a very very small percentage in the universe. Only when now with the SPG transfer the TP redemption is become much more known by members. Besides, given the total amount of points needed to redeem TP, without the 1 to 3 SPG transfer, there are not many people who have such a big pile to redeem the packages as Marriott program is not known for easy earning such as HHonors!

Folks can just scroll back a few pages and know the only way to do it is to call.

For the poster(s) claim it can be attached at payment, well, s/he would be the only one(s) who has claimed the positive experience - or, may be s/he is just guessing, based on the REGULAR redemption of certs from Mega Bonus or from CC bonus / anniversary cert. TP cert is totally different.

I'm struggling to understand the benefit of the 5 night vs 7 night stay. I must be missing something.

For example, (and this assumes these are the redemption amounts):
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.co...theyre-secret/

If one redeems the Travel Package for a Cat 9 property:
5 days costs 345k
7 days costs 390k

If you redeemed without the travel package it would cost:
5 days: 180k
7 days: 270k

In either scenario one gets 132k United miles.
But for 5 nights you spend an add'l 165k to get them vs 7 nights where you get the 132k United miles for 120k.

What am I missing? Is the only benefit that people can use less miles (perhaps they don't have the extra?)

First of all, it's really just best to assume that you can't book the 5-night package. Some people get lucky but that's nothing you can rely on unless you are a timeshare owner.

The benefit is simple. Fewer MR points for the same number of miles. It can be hard to find a cat. 1-5 that you actually want to spend seven consecutive nights in. Category 8 and 9 packages aren't as popular because the primary objective is usually the air miles, not so much the hotel nights. So whatever points you spend to upgrade the hotel week, you can't spend on a second travel package.

Kind of. The "benefit" is that a lot of people don't want to stay somewhere for 7 nights. They much prefer staying 5 nights (or even less) somewhere. That means if you have to order a 7 night award, you are wasting the points for the extra 2 nights as you only wanted 5 nights. That extra 90K points means you are almost half way to ordering your next 5 night TP award. :)

So yes, they use less points to get what they want and 90K points isn't a trivial number of points.

Makes me wonder why they even display this awards chart

Which awards chart are you talking about? I didn't think Marriott actively advertises the 5-night award chart. IOW, you have to be an MVCI owner to see the chart on a Marriott website or you have to go to Blog writers that are posting the site.

can somebody please let me know how long does it usually take for the points to post to my airlines account ( specifically AA ) if I were to redeem my points for a travel package?

I transferred to Delta and it took 2 business days. The rep on the phone quoted me 3 business days.

I've had all of UA, AA, and WN post in about a day.

The reps always quote three days, but they're usually faster.

I pulled the plug on a WN TP award last Saturday and the points were in my WN account on Monday.

wow that was really quick turnaround times. Rep tolde it will take 1-2 weeks and so I'm wondering if the points transfer process is backed up or something right now but if they do post within a week I would be really happy as i have a need for the miles right away.

I may be wrong, but I've always been under the impression that the time it takes for airline miles to post was less about how quickly Marriott gets the miles to the airlines and more about how often the airline checks the "Marriott queue" to pull in the airline miles to their program.

Some airlines may pull miles in more often. Others less often.

Since my UA miles landed on a Sunday, I'm going to guess that United's IT department actually built an automated tool to receive the Marriott queue.

Shocking, I know. :p

I cant decide which tp to get! Already got one wn and one as package over the last year..which airline is the least likely to be devalued? As, aa, or ua? Shoild i justw ait for another ua bonus?

I travel the most to asia and east asia, followed by europe.

Already have:
Wn cp +120k points
195k as
175k aa
185k ur
12.5k ua

The question of which airline program will have the least devaluations over the next year or so might get better responses in MilesBuzz or possibly one of the airline forums. A hotel forum probably won't have the same number of airline program experts looking in it as those other forums will.