Time to fire these "friends" imo

I booked a TP directly into a friends name (no 2nd guest bs), and the 7 nights went to my account as stay credit... Not sure how much value there is there but I'm happy to do this for friends/family when I know I won't be able to utilize the TP. Wish the current spg/mr program would stay as it is...

Same here. My wife redeemed a couple Travel Packages, but made the reservation in my name for the first and in my parent's name for the second. Both credits went to her account, even though my number was placed on the first reservation by the hotel to give the Platinum amenities.

Go with what the others say then and not with my post as far as nights' credit. Since I have been LTP for years I stopped monitoring my nights. Maybe I have gotten the credit and not noticed. I thought you need to be in the hotel to get the credit, but if others have consistently been given the credit maybe I am wrong. Sorry about that.

Quick question and I apologize if the answer is already buried somewhere in this thread. When you buy a Travel Package or transfer miles to an airline (UA), do those points get subtracted from your Lifetime total?

No.

I am short 50k points for the hotel and air travel package. I need to wait for my statement closing date on April 23rd and then for chase to transfer the points to Marriot in order to have 270k points.
Do I need to wait till I have the total 270k points in my Marriot account to book the travel package?
Or can Marriott wait for a couple of weeks for the rest of the transferred points?

I am wondering if I should do this b4 the announcement

Thanks. So much for that. Just hoping if there should be change to the Marriott travel package, it won't happen till August 2018.

I don't believe the TP's will die today. I have 270k in my account right now, and I'm not calling yet.

If I were a betting man, I'd bet on this:
- TP's will survive, but it'll be in some lame form that isn't as good as it is now.
- It'll eventually be done entirely online, but we'll lose the free 2nd-year extension.
- We'll have until August (?) to pull the trigger on a "legacy" (Category-based) TP, but if we ever call to extend or change it after that, it will turn into the new, lame form.
- There will be some sort of hard end date on Category-based TP's - as in, the stay must finish by August 2019. No way to extend it or category-upgrade it after that point.

So the "bet" I'm placing is simply that I'm not on the phone with Marriott literally right now. From what I understand, the hold time is like 2 hours anyway, as people are panicking and redeeming their points.

I hope I'm not wrong.

The answer is accurate, and I do not believe the TP will be weekend-BOGOed on us and yanked away immediately with no notice, but...

Several years ago I was afraid hopper awards were going away so I called Marriott. I did not ask for this, but the phone agent gave me a "goodwill" gift equal to the points I was short. In other words, a phone call cannot hurt. Good luck.

Perspicacious as always.I wonder what the logic of gutting the outstanding feature of MR might be, but then again I'm not running a loyalty program. If they do this, and implement things like PQD at all levels and suite/lounge lockouts for < 75 nights, it will merely show that they've learnt nothing from the WoH debacle.

I figured that Hyatt killing its loyalty program would serve as an instructive lesson to others. I hope that Marriott doesn't prove me wrong on this score.

Public Service Announcement for those like me...

If you highlight the word and right click you will not get an option to look up this word in dictionary when using Windows. If you look up the word in Google, though, which will be an option, the definition will appear in a new tab, not a pop-up. :D

Is there evidence that Hyatt is hurting from the change in policies? I fear the lack of truly bad news or reversals out of that program means Marriott has learned exactly the wrong lesson here.

I don't follow the FT Hyatt board close enough to know the whole fallout from their changes. I was never HY Diamond...I've had HY Plat (which isn't a real status) thanks to the credit card, and now have some silly name I can't remember. (Discoverer?) I keep the CC for the free annual night and end up there for maybe 2 award stays and 1 paid stay per year.

The only intrigue (to me) for a low-tier member is that getting to 4 confirmed lounge upgrades per year seems pretty easy. Since Hyatt lounges are generally good and often present at resorts, that makes it potentially a good reason to throw some business stays their way. I probably would not exceed 4 leisure stays per year. I don't know who felt like they got hit hard in that program change: people who barely made Diamond under the old rules or people who do 100+ nights. I know they added a tier, so I assume if you can hit the top tier you're okay.

It's beginning to look like Hyatt will be the brand for those interested in aspirational stays in the future.