No online redemption. Phone call only

I just ordered my first (and possibly last) TP for a week at the JW Marriott Essex House. The booking shows the dates, and the points for the total TP (320,000) distributed over the seven nights of the stay, with one night listed as "free". It also shows that a certificate has been attached to the booking.

Is this the way a TP booking is supposed to look on the reservation details? Nowhere on the reservation is there any mention of the travel package made.

On a side note, there is a clear mention of the $25 nightly destination fee, so I guess that this isn't waived for travel packages. I thought that some programs were waiving these extra fees on award stays, but Marriott doesn't appear to be among them.

While in general I prefer Marriott's program over Hilton's, this is one benefit Hilton has over Marriott. It would be nice if Marriott, like Hilton, waived most fees for award stays, but they don't. :(

Quick question: I know that the certs expire one year from being issued. Is this date "book by" or "stay by"? I.e. if I redeem points for a travel package today, can I confirm a booking for Sept. 2019?

I believe it is stay by.

Under the current program the cert automatically gets one year extension from the time you call to ask for it (obviously need to be no later than the original expiration date). I extended my cert in March for another 12 months, 2 days before it was set to expire. Said cert is now attached to a stay in November but I cannot do that until I have extended the cert so it would be valid till Mar 2019 before I can use it for a Nov stay.

If Marriott has made decision on what to do 6 months before the actual merger, what is the benefit of holding the information from its members when there is less than 1.5 month before the actual implementation of such?

Dont forget back in April 19, there were very conflicting information as to how the elite status would be mapped, coming out from Senior VPs, even doing interviews with blogger... The confusion lasted for several days until Marriott finally came out to make clarification, and not even via any "official" channels - as to whether the current Gold from linked SPG / AMEX Plat / UA 1K would be mapped.

Based on your certainty scenario, shouldn't those conversion should have been decided 6 months before they made the mid year alignment? Yet as we all knew that there was not any certainty on many many things. Else Starwood Lurker would not become the ONE and the ONLY Focal Point of communication on all sorts of questions (just read the Wiki partitions would make you tired) on all fronts - from how to count for the eligible nights / stays to requalify this year to how to count the cumulative life time eligible nights / stays for the combined programs, to the status mapping, to many many things. Most of those questions were NOT answered until the past week or so, and many of the "answers" are actually Non Answers, as to "soon" the information will be available, as for the June 19th update on question 35 that I asked back in Mid May.

All signs indicate that many many of the details on all aspects have NOT been decided because Marriott wants to see how the public reacts, and to retain the biggest flexibility to decide what is the most advantageous to them, while not alienate the members too much.

I mean if it is something that people would/could potentially take advantage of because they plan on being generous that would make sense they would hold back the info until the last second. That being said I can see them going in various directions, but I still went ahead and got a package. I feel overall Marriott has been pretty fair with everything so far, at least more so than other companies have been in the past.

my biggest concern is getting a cert and not being about to extend. I know it has been a policy in the psst that they have been extended, but there in nothing that i see that confirms that they have to into the future. I want to use the first week int July 2019.

RT ANA or CX first for $1300?

I have read back a few pages and while certainly speculation exists, would my math hold? Huge caveat to start out here. I am solidly able to value SPG points at 2.3-3cpp, and am operating under that assumption. Completely understand that some may not be using the same valuation...

If i were to use the latest SPG points purchase promotion (along with family members) I would be able to purchase the Category 8 Marriott package for $3,300 (90k x 2.28cpp) and yield 120k AS or Virgin miles and 7 cat 8 nights (enough for roundtrip F)

After 8/1 , the speculation is that i the nights would be converted to points (6 nights at the current rate of 40k/nt) or 80k SPG.

• Total Cost: $3,300 (130k initial purchase)
• Yield: 120k ANA/AS + 80k SPG

If true, and i then net out the cash equivalent of 80k spg at $2,000 (2.25cpp) I would then be essentially paying $1,300 for a roundtrip F ticket with Cathay or ANA? Could this scenario get even better?

Since the new award chart kicked in for Asia miles two days ago, nobody has been able to book partner awards using Alaska miles. So don't assume that you can

That full value conversion rate is, as you say, speculation. My own hunch is that it is correct, but I am my no means fully confident. If that is the case, then you are basically getting 1 mile for 1 MR point (or 3 miles for one SPG). At that rate, there are all sorts of very high value flight redemptions, of which Cathay F is just one example.

Just don't forget that we are all "speculating" what will happen. It could be that Marriott expects everyone to remember that when they ordered their TP award it was for the miles with a discounted hotel award certificate. And if you turn in that cert or don't have it applied to a reservation by Aug. 1st, they could convert it to the # of points it was "worth" within a TP award (which would be much less than ordering a hotel award alone.)

A year ago I would have been very comfortable guessing Marriott would automatically redeposit all the unlinked TP hotel awards for the lower TP valuation. I've been surprised by how well they have treated most everyone with this merger. So now, I'm just not sure what they will do with those certs. But even so, don't forget, keeping an unused/unlinked TP hotel cert in your account past Aug. 1st is basically gambling. And like any other gambling, don't gamble if you can't "afford" to lose. At the very least, I'd recommend hedging my bet by finding some acceptable hotel to make an award reservation with and link your cert to it. Then after Aug 1st comes and goes, you can see how Marriott is dealing with those certs and make a decision to keep that reservation or cancel it.

Why would you hang on to 2 million points? Their value only goes down, especially now that Marriott have taken one of their main competitors out of the game...

I can understand not really caring about miles, if you have other sources. But hoarding points like that...