And this is a Marriott forum so please take this to either the airline forum or by PM

Agree. There are forums for each airline / hotel program on FT. Please go to the relative forum(s) to find your answers.

Alternatively, Google is indeed your friend. Just google it I am sure you will find many blog articles on the topics you have questions.

As for whom you call to book - how do you book your UA award flights (when flying Star A partners)? You call the airline of which the program currency you use for the award. All FFPs operate the same way in this regard, it does not matter whether it is UA, AS, AA, or whoever. Whose "currency" you use, it is from whom you book your awards!

I'm planning to do a Marriott Hotel + Air package, but I'm just interested in the miles and want to gift the hotel night award to a family member for an upcoming trip.

In this case should I:
(1) Transfer the award over to my family member's account
(2) Book the award from my account in my family member's name
(3) Book the award from my account in my name with my family member added as an additional guest?

You can only do 2 and 3. And I had been doing 2. I had a few occasion where the add'l guest name disappear between booking date and the check-in date

You can also read post 2154 that I have earlier this year for some additional info on the booking process for a family member or friend.

Great info, thanks! In your experience who's status is relevant for benefits on these bookings - the booking account holder's or the additional guest's who checks in?

The official answer I got from Marriott email respond is based on the staying guest status. And I had check-in as Platinum and got Platinum benefits like free breakfast / lounge / upgrade on a cert that book under a Silver status account before. But I did contact the hotel in advance. On the other hands, friends/family members that have no status but using my certs (Platinum status) had got Platinum benefits so far. We didn't contact the hotel in advance. So, my guess is that if you do nothing, the hotel will apply benefits of the certs owner as that is Marriott Rewards number attached to the reservation...but YMMV

When you are doing option 2 and changing the reservation name, are the night credits still showing up in your account or are they showing in the family member's account?

For this, I am not sure what is the official rule and I have both happened before. But majority of the time, it is the certs owner that got the Elite Qualify Nights credit to their account. For my own experience, the one time that did credit to my account was part of a longer stay where the very first reservation was a paid rate. It follow by a number of different reservations, including one night (CC Free Night Cert) of them is off my Wife (Silver) account before a cert booking that is not from my account. I end up got all but the Wife CC Elite Nights credit to my account. I contact the hotel in advance and managed to only required to do a single Check-In when we show up, hence, not sure if that is what trigger it. Hope this help.

Thanks for the response. My wife is going for lifetime and needs it with points, so we've been having her purchase all the travel packages under her account, with transfers from me. But based on projections, I can hit platinum again in 2018, so we were going to put the 2 x travel cert reservations in my name for January stays. We'll find out in January where these go regardless, but I expect them to end up with her based on your history, but we will see!

Not a Marriott guy and never booked a single free night. I’ll have 300k points by end of year and should have 450k or so by spring time.

Looking to book a higher level (level 7-9) or RItz package for a week free at a great property.

My question: how easy is it to find availability? Generally only book a few months early.

Book it now and change to points/certificate when you can.

Have others/should I have earned points on the nightly cash upgrade co-pay portion of a TP redemption?

I recently redeemed a 7-night Cat. 8 travel package at Marriott's Maui Ocean Club for an upgraded room category that required the 7-night e-cert and a co-pay portion of $250/night (this was how it was displayed on the website during the award booking process to which I later attached the e-certs by phone...not an at-property upgrade). I also paid the daily self-parking rate. I earned no points for either the nightly $250 or the daily parking charge. The only points I earned during the stay were for a $26 bar charge. Is this the correct earning method?

I searched around and assume I missed the answer since it seems like it should be a somewhat common situation.

Yes, it has been brought up many times and the outcome has been you do not earn credit on the cash portion of a C&P stay. It's considered an award stay and does not qualify. Also, spend for such things as taxes, parking, cleaning, etc. (operations typically farmed out and NOT operated by the property itself) do not earn points regardless what rate you book.

These programs are moving to a "find a way to say no" process just like many CSRs/FDCs do when trying to get benefits.

Hey everyone!

Has anyone who has redeemed a 7 night travel package in the last year advise me if they received the 7 elite nights upon stay completion?

I did for a stay this month. I did have a $26 bar charge...not sure if that matters anymore, though.