It's too bad we don't have a massive existing thread on this topic where questions like this can be posted. .

Would "as a general rule" make you happier?

Thanks very much for this useful information, lexdevil.

I actually owe you an apology. I don't know what I searched before, but all the hotels except the RC were under $100. And I swear there was no JW. So I checked again and the numbers are much higher. It is a better deal when I looked this time, and I tried a few things and cannot replicate the numbers from last time. My bad. My apologies again.

That sounds like a good deal for you. Whether something is worth it is dependent on each person. If I was going to stay at a property for 7 nights, I would use one of my free certs, even if the cash cost for the week was only $700. Sure, there's places where I'll get better value cash price wise but if I needed/wanted to stay at the property the options are spend the cash or use the cert. The value of the travel package is such that even only extracting $700 from the certificate part, it is still an excellent use of points for me. As it is I have an excess of certificates as I've needed the airline miles more.

Also just in case you aren't aware Singapore won't let you book first class flights using United points or other partner airlines. You'll have to use KrisFlyer points.

Beijing is not cheap IMO - looked for a stay back in May 2017 and ended up staying at Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn instead - they were a lot cheaper and the Holiday Inn has a better location compared to the CY and still cheaper. I couldn't use points as Mr. needed to expense his room and we need to pay for our room (it will seriously violate his corporate policy to pick a more expensive hotel - the difference in price was too big to justify for the expense).

Also if the rate is high - saving the extra 15% service charge/tax would be nice too.

No big deal.... was actually good to do a double-take and re-check rates to make sure I was getting the best for my $$ / points. I have another trip I could use the certificate for in Vegas, but I still feel the best use will be in Beijing since I can get the Cosmopolitan for ~$115 - $125 per night, and am willing to pay that out of pocket. :)

I checked this with the MR desk yesterday.

Once you have issued a Marriott TP, you can only upgrade up to Cat 9, not to a R-C TP.

If you want a R-C TP, then you need to issue the Tier 1-3 TP, which you can upgrade to Tier 4 or Tier 5 as required.

Thanks for the follow-up.

If so, this is a new-ish policy, or I have been given exceptions in the past. I redeemed for a cat 1-5 certificate last year and upgraded it to a tier 1-3 this summer for a stay at the London Edition.

This was my experience about four months ago.

This was not my experience last summer when I upgraded a Cat 5 TP to Tier 4/5 RC in Bali......... no issues were even mentioned on the phone when I added the points.

Have use multiple Cat 1-5 and upgraded to Tier5. Will be redeeming another cert in next 48 hours will report back then.

Apologies if someone has asked this question.
If I have a 7 night cert for hotel, and I want to redeem this, I have to make sure the hotel has reward availability?
And how do I find out this availability, can I find out this information on their website?

Try making a 7 night booking on the website using points rather than money. You can then call in and have the certificate attached in lieu of points.