You have to call Marriott Reservations and ask them to reserve 8 consecutive days at the property. They can apply 7 nights to a standard award, and you can pay for the unavailable night.

Is there anyway around the consecutive rule.. I could do 10 night at the property no problem. It's the one night in the middle which is either double points or $450 + tax!

Not that I know of.

Hey, it's pretty good that they let you do that. If it were me, I'd spring for the 65K (are you sure about that number? I think the Stay Anytime awards are 2X the one night price, so if it's a cat 7 prop, you're looking at 70K), since on average it's only ~28K/night. For a $450/night hotel, that's pretty good.

Besides, as the date approaches, standard availability might open up.

As a last resort, you might try calling the hotel to see what they'll let you get away with.

Unfortunately, the stay must be contiguous nights to use a single award cert.

One thing you might try is to call the hotel GM and talk with her/him. A few years ago, I wanted to spend some nights at the Marriott Grand Hotel just outside of Mobile, AL. I couldn't get standard availability for all the nights I wanted to stay. I talked with the GM and he graciously offered to let me use my standard award cert for all the nights. ^ It doesn't hurt to ask.

YES - see below


As VA1379 already stated, but I will rephrase since I think you may have misunderstood his post.

You call Marriott Reservations and ask them to book 8 nights, 7 of which will be standard award nights. Give the CSR the hotel name, the dates of your stay, and also let them know the night that is NOT available as a standard award. Many CSRs are very adept at this, whereas others are not, so you may need to help them along by telling them you already checked availability and need them to book an 8 night stay that includes 7 award nights and 1 paid night. They can and will book a single reservation that includes a 7 award nights and 1 night paid. You will be given a single reservation number for this 8-night reservation. You can then have a standard award, or perhaps the hotel portion of a Travel Package, applied to the 7 standard award nights.

In order to use a 7 night award, you can use it for stays that include 7 award nights as long as the stay is contiguous at the same hotel. The award nights do not have to be consecutive. So you could use a 7 night award for the following 10 night stay:

Check-in
Mon - Award
Tue - Award
Wed - Paid
Thu - Award
Fri - Award
Sat - Paid
Sun - Paid
Mon - Award
Tue - Award
Wed – Award
Check-out

You could not use a 7 night award for the following stays as it is not a contiguous stay:

Check-in
Mon - Award
Tue - Award
Wed - Paid
Thu - Award
Fri - Award
Check-out

Check-in
Sun - Paid
Mon - Paid
Tue - Award
Wed - Award
Thu – Award
Check-out

Where is the property located? What level Rewards member? What level hotel?

If you are Platinum, and the property is located in Florida, Hawaii, or Europe, you can use the Hotel Sampler award. You are issued three certificates, two for two nights and one for three nights, which can be used at the same hotel. These do not have to be used on consecutive nights.

If you're not Platinum, I'd still call the rewards line and see if they might let you do this. The points for Hawaii and Europe are the same as seven nights in a Level 7, Florida is equal to Level 6.

So if you're a Platinum Rewards member looking for a Level 7 hotel in Europe or Hawaii, this would be a solution. If you're a Silver looking for a week in Altoona, this doesn't do anything for you!

I am looking into booking a travel package and could only get a 6 night stay at a popular hotel. How did the 6 days stay on a 7 day travel package work out? I guess getting points back is at the discretion of each hotel. Were there any other issues with using a longer certificate for a shorter stay (such as Marriott not recognizing that a 7 night cert is to be applied to a 6 day stay)?

No luck getting any points back. I just lost the last night of the packages. And I haven't seen or heard anything that changes my previously stated views that the TP 7-night award cert is the treated exactly the same as any other standard 7-night award.

Hi . has anyone got an awnser to the above ?? It is just the question I was about to ask and found this on a search.

Cheers.

Jchand

No fee to renew/extend. I still have a cert from 2006 that I have extended now twice (up and downgraded it) and will do so again before the new redemption rates kick in.

Be aware that Marriott Concierge has posted that certificates paid for under the current rules will NOT be extended from January 15th 2009.

Ok Guys thanks.

So if I get a cat 6 Cert on 10th Jan 2009 I will have to use it by 10 th Jan 2010.

Darn that's a shame. I am about to purchase a 7 Days + Miles redemption and would be good to just hang on to the voucher till I can make full use of it.

This may not be the best place to ask but I have 250k points and not sure if I should go for 100k Virgin Miles/SQ Miles and Cat 7 or 120k miles and Cat 6. Is there much difference in the accomodation Cat 6 to 7 as never redeemed any o fmy points before.

Rich

I hadn't seen that. My understanding was that a Cat 7 travel package could still be extended, however, you would need to upgrade it to a Cat 8 travel package after Jan 15, 2009 using the current Category differences if you wanted to stay at one of those properties that went up a notch (NYC & London properties, etc).

You are probably right. Any link would be greatly appreciated.

As stated above, after January 14, 2009, you will no longer be able to extend Travel Package hotel certificates obtained under the current rules.

See Marriott Concierge's post #167 in the long thread about the forthcoming changes.