If you are Gold/Plat, the Studio to "regular 1 bedroom" upgrade is fairly common. Frankly, the room sizes aren't all that different in many RI's, but when we had small children sleeping on the pull-out it was nice to have the door separating the bedroom.

The harder upgrade to get at RI is the 1- to 2-bedroom, as many properties have very few 2BR to give.

"The Los Angeles area" is huge. We've taken a few vacation trips to the area and tend to settle in the Huntington Beach or Newport Beach areas, but usually only head into LA and SD (the cities themselves) one day each. Other than that, we stay fairly local to the beach towns near our hotel... Map out the places you want to visit and then select a hotel near there - one that minimizes your time spent in traffic.

Upgrades to 2-bedroom suites are common on weekends, but tougher to come by mid-week. It's the 7-night length of the cert that makes the upgrade difficult. You could ask if they would upgrade to a 2-bedroom for additional points, but if they do not have availability, that is unlikely to help.

I stayed in the Residence Inn Arcadia in December using a 7 night Marriott cert. I actually booked it last minute and called up the hotel prior to booking asking if I booked the hotel for 7 nights with the certificate, would I get an upgrade to a 2 bedroom suite(as a Gold). The guy working there was very nice and said that normally they only give upgrades for 2-3 nights but he checked availability and they were quiet that week so he said if I booked it and arrived before he went off shift, he would upgrade me for the week. I called Marriott and booked it and checked into the property 2 hours later and got the upgrade. Am pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten it if I not asked in advance(maybe if I had asked nicely at checkin). Def helped me decide which LA property to book :)

Does anyone know if you can use one of these packages at their Vacation Club properties, called Marriott but they did not know the answer and the Vaction Club number they gave me is not open over the weekend. Thanks

You can if a points reservation is available.

Thanks again!

Just cashed in for a Cat 1-5 + 132,000 UA miles... which is the 8th time I have cashed in for this package. This will be good for a 7 night stay in Peking, CN coming up at any of the hotels except Ritz Carlton, which is Tier 1. All other hotels are Cat 5 or less.... what a phenomenal deal.

Any recent success stories for the 5 night package?

Yes and no. Marriott hotels in Beijing tend to be under $100/night, which means you are only getting at most $700 in value out of your hotel points on this. Many of us would pay cash at that price and save the cert for something more valuable. By comparison, the JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay Resort & Spa is $413/night or $2,891 for the same seven nights and is also Cat 5. The Atlanta Waverley is $227/night, or $1,598 for the seven nights and the Orlando Airport Ren is $232/night or $1,624/seven. In terms of your redemption being a good deal because hotels in Beijing have a low redemption rate and are nice, plus the package itself is a good deal, yes, it's a deal, but in dollar cash-in terms many would not bother using points here and would bank them for another usage.

Confused by hotel + air package program
 

This program often pops up in FT discussions and I've read the wiki and a number of threads about it, but I'm still confused. Just to pick an example from what the relevant Marriott page lists as Hotel and Air Package 2, which includes Singapore as one of the airlines, if I pick a category 8 package for 7 nights and 35,000 miles, it would cost me 290,000 points. Here are my questions:

1. I get a certificate for 7 days that I can use within a year at any Category 8 hotel as long as it has award availability. Is that right?
2. I also get 35,000 Singapore (KrisFlyer) miles, which I can add to my existing KF account, and then try to find award availability on SQ. Is that right?
3. Can you only assume a standard room, or does the program have any provision for upgrading at the hotel, beyond what might happen depending on Marriott status?
4. I only see the option of 7 nights. Can that be varied at all?

Sorry about the pretty basic questions, but I've never really focused on this much-praised program until now. Thanks for any help.

One cannot make a blanket statement like this. Every case is different. For example, if the transfer plus the desired award will leave useless orphaned miles, it's a waste.

The CY is around $100/ni ... but I was looking to use at the JW Marriott, which is running around $220/ni .... $1,540 total + taxes... so I think this is not a bad deal (and I want to stay at a place where I can spoil the Mrs. a bit)... even though value can be maximized somewhere else. I'm combining this with the ridiculous $500 r.t. fares from SFO and this is going to be a very cheap trip to knock off another couple of bucket list items - seeing the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors. Will bank the UA miles for something down the road... maybe some first class on Singapore Airlines. :D

Apologies if this has been asked and answered but I am close to get the max travel package to use for 7 nights at the Ritz-Carlton in Dubai.

Can I go ahead and book the room as a normal points reservation for the 7 nights and then purchase the package when I have enough points or do I need to order the package before I can book the room?

Also, has anyone noticed that this particular hotel only seems to let you cancel a redemption booking within 24 hours and isn't a normal cancellation policy as at other hotels?

Book for points now. Call in once you have the certificate and have them attach it.