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Anyone ever use one of the 7-night certs to book a reservation for a friend or family member? Would it be a matter of just adding them as additional guests? Not sure if there would be any issues if they were the only ones to check in.
Thanks! |
Originally Posted by FrequentlyAFly
(Post 29651836)
Anyone ever use one of the 7-night certs to book a reservation for a friend or family member? Would it be a matter of just adding them as additional guests? Not sure if there would be any issues if they were the only ones to check in.
Thanks! I've done the Guest 2 thing because it's easy on online award bookings, but only for people like my wife who I trust not to trash a hotel room, empty the minibar, and steal the robes. :D Well, she might empty the minibar...I can't stop that... |
I had a very incompetent representative book my package . She was not able to tell me how many miles I would get to AA 270k should be 120 k aa miles. Is there any email address I can email so they can see if she did it right?
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Originally Posted by pinniped
(Post 29651873)
Transferring the cert (e.g., booking it completely in someone else's name) is allowed.
I've done the Guest 2 thing because it's easy on online award bookings, but only for people like my wife who I trust not to trash a hotel room, empty the minibar, and steal the robes. :D Well, she might empty the minibar...I can't stop that... EDIT: I saw a few pages up in the thread - someone noted you can do this by calling them:
Originally Posted by CJKatl
(Post 29632148)
There is no prohibition against changing a points reservation, returning the points, putting a different name on the reservation, giving someone a points reservation, etc. Using the second guest "feature" when the first guest will not be staying is against the T&Cs and, perhaps, some local laws. The correct thing to do is make the reservation in the other person's name and use your points to pay. You used to be able to do this easily online but it is now easier to call. The guest listed on a reservation should always be the guest that is staying in the room. The T&Cs state this over and over. Someone recently posted that his account was closed for putting himself as the guest when he was not staying in the property, and I recently had a property reach out to me when I made a reservation for someone else letting me know my name would need to be removed. Here is part of the email from the hotel manager:
It was late and my sister had dropped off the phone. We intended to call back the next day, which we did, to change everything, but the hotel manager sent us this before we called back. Yes, people get away with listing someone who will not be staying in the room as the primary guest, and in the case of a points reservation since you could accomplish the same thing without having the person listed as a guest the hotel is not likely to care, but if the cert cannot be transferred the hotel might push the issue. In other words, if you cannot transfer the cert trying to accomplish the same thing by listing a second guest is not going to be within the rules. ADDED: Just had to call MR about something else so I asked... The TP cert is in the member's name but it can be used to pay for a reservation in anyone else's name. The reservation should be made in the name of the person staying and the giver should not and need not be on the reservation. |
AA is currently running a hotel points to miles conversion bonus promo, but Marriott hotel + air packages are excluded :(
https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...s-to-miles.jsp |
Originally Posted by SC Alum
(Post 29651561)
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but award nights do not count towards elite qualifying nights for Marriott rewards program. Has it changed?
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Originally Posted by Enigma368
(Post 29648730)
I agree that this is the most likely outcome. In likelihood, the new Category 5, while more expensive in points, will contain more or less the same hotels as the current Category 5. So for those of us with certs, our certs can still book the same hotels as now even though those hotels have increased in points cost.
It's hard, but not impossible, to see a situation where our certs lose value in these changes. They could change the certs to only apply to Categories 1-4 in the new award chart which could actually be a much smaller number of Marriott hotels than the current Category 1-5. I think they would avoid doing this though. It's also possible to see these certs increase in the value if they continue to be allowed for the new Cat 1-5 categories and the new Category 5 actually contains better hotels than the current Category 5. I'd say in likelihood, it will be a wash or maybe a slight increase in value. Unlikely to be worse. There probably aren't enough of these certs on the books to justify the stink it would cause to devalue these certs. If I had been thinking logically about it when I first commented, this is pretty much the only way they could do it. Otherwise, you could pick up a cat 7 package now for 330,000 points and stay in any SPG, RC, or Marriott after Aug 1 because they will all have to be in cat 7 or lower. That would allow you to stay in a top RC that would currently cost 420,000 points or a top StR that would currently cost 630,000 equivalent points for a week, so you would get to stay in these places for less than the point cost (nearly half as much in a few cases) and get 120,000 airline miles as a bonus. There was no way they were going to let that happen. A tier 4-5 package, at 540,000, will get you into any hotel after August 1 (but before Dec 31), which is a good deal compared to the price now for the top SPG properties (save 90,000 points plus get the miles), but after August 1, those will only cost 360,000 for a week instead of 630,000, so even that is not a good deal. They seem to have sewn up the travel packages pretty tight. I don't see a way to game them at this point. |
Whether there's a huge devaluation, a small devaluation, or no devaluation in 2018 depends entirely upon how the hotels are mapped into the new categories.
Had Marriott just merged existing categories of the two programs and done nothing, there would have been FIFTEEN different levels. Clearly, that's a confusing mess. I personally thought they'd consolidate to 10-12; instead they went all the way down to 8. My first concern with going to only 8 is that it means a bunch of hotels are going to map across in theory to some sort of "half-level". We know those will probably bump up, leading to what I expect to be the small devaluation. The question is whether Marriott will properly move hotels into a full lower category where the mapping *isn't* on a "half-level". For example, on August 1st, every one of today's MR Cat 5's should become a Cat 4. If that happens, then your Travel Package did not devalue. If they do not do this - if they use the consolidation of levels as cover to leave today Cat 5 as tomorrow's Cat 5, then yeah...this is going to be a bloodbath of a devaluation. Marriott has hinted that a bunch of properties are going down a level, so it's possible that the Cat 4/5 area will be treated fairly and they'll just soak us on the high end. My second concern is the introduction of Peak/Non-Peak. Most locations in the world have a few truly peak weeks, but hotel programs are prone to calling half the damn year "peak" once this structure is in place. That makes whole months of non-peak time pretty unattractive for awards because you're still paying the max-peak award rates. |
Originally Posted by SC Alum
(Post 29651561)
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but award nights do not count towards elite qualifying nights for Marriott rewards program. Has it changed?
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I just read the Starwood announcement and this is what it says:
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+1 Some combination of Enigma, Farnorth & Pinniped above! Next: If Marriott ever issues anymore mid-level freebies to MegaBonus participants &or Visa cardmembers, what will be the maximum category? I hope it's New 5 but expect New 4!!
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Originally Posted by icydog
(Post 29652535)
I just read the Starwood announcement and this is what it says:
- Redeem your TP by August 1st for a Ritz at current levels. Stay can take place later. or - On August 1st, the certificate converts to its underlying points value and you can redeem it at any hotel in the portfolio for that number of points. Example: You have a Tier 3 cert sitting in your account. You're basically getting a 300,000 point Ritz stay for that. (6 nights x 50k) That converts to a Category 6 cert in the new program. On Aug 1, you're freed from Ritz...redeem it at St. Regis or wherever else you like. |
Originally Posted by Brendan
(Post 29652564)
+1 Some combination of Enigma, Farnorth & Pinniped above! Next: If Marriott ever issues anymore mid-level freebies to MegaBonus participants &or Visa cardmembers, what will be the maximum category? I hope it's New 5 but expect New 4!!
Megabonus feels like it's going to be Category 4. I'd be shocked if we were getting "new" 5's out of Megabonus (unless Megabonii get tougher than 2-stays-earn-1). |
Originally Posted by farnorthtrader
(Post 29652418)
I have now seen confirmation in at least two blogs (that were interviewing marriott execs) that the existing certs will track across at their point value on the current chart, so a cat 1-5 cert that allows you up to category 5 (25,000 points/night) now will only allow you up to category 4 (25,000 points per night) after August 1, so a fairly large devaluation.
I have a Free Night Certificate from a Marriott Rewards or Ritz-Carlton Rewards credit card. Can I use it at an SPG hotel (or vice versa) after August? Members may book a redemption reservation with an existing Free Night Certificate under the current terms up until August 2018, even if the arrival date is after August 2018. Starting in August, any outstanding Certificates will be updated from Category-based to points-based values in the new combined redemption chart and may be used for stays at Rewards or SPG hotels up to the points value displayed on your updated Certificate. For example, you will be able to apply a Marriott Rewards Free Night Certificate to an SPG stay, or an SPG Free Night Award to a Marriott Rewards stay. Ritz-Carlton Rewards Free Night Certificates can also be applied to Marriott Rewards and SPG hotels. Regarding your devaluation comment: No one can really comment on the scale of the devaluation until the new lists are posted. They are making it sound like the categories will track to points value, not category. So (in general) Cat 5s will become 4s. Now, of course they will take the opportunity to adjust some up as they see fit, but the comment was made that most properties are going down in points cost.
Originally Posted by farnorthtrader
(Post 29652418)
They seem to have sewn up the travel packages pretty tight. I don't see a way to game them at this point.
Less clear will be Tier 1-3 packages, but will probably allow redemption at up to Cat 6. But what happens to Cat 6, 8, & 9 which values are between levels? And Tier 4-5 which value higher than the 8/1-12/31 chart. Refund of points? |
Originally Posted by Aero137
(Post 29652716)
This is confirmed for CC free nights in the FAQ section of members.marriott.com:
I assume this will apply to MegaBonus and TPs as well. Regarding your devaluation comment: No one can really comment on the scale of the devaluation until the new lists are posted. They are making it sound like the categories will track to points value, not category. So (in general) Cat 5s will become 4s. Now, of course they will take the opportunity to adjust some up as they see fit, but the comment was made that most properties are going down in points cost. So Cat 1-5 packages will map to Cat 1-4, Cat 7 will map to Cat 5. That will be pretty straight forward. Less clear will be Tier 1-3 packages, but will probably allow redemption at up to Cat 6. But what happens to Cat 6, 8, & 9 which values are between levels? And Tier 4-5 which value higher than the 8/1-12/31 chart. Refund of points? |
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