some what off topic, but did anyone see the fuel charge stunt AA pulled yesterday? :td:

not somewhat off topic..........completely off topic............belongs in AA forum..........
http://loyaltylobby.com/2013/08/28/a...-beyond-ba-ib/

except if you want point out how Marriott handled their devaluation vs others. What Marriott did earlier this year was actually one of the Nicer things they have done in a long time to their elites (who tend to have the most lose in a devaluation). Also not irrelevant if you just switched your Marriott points to AA and got caught by this.

I see absolutely no relevancy between MRs devaluation to AAs announcement on certain award fuel surcharges...........

How did Marriott handle their devaluation in a way that was, 1. nice, or 2. different than any other chain?

The amount of notice given. Marriott gave months of notice and allowed you to book reservations even if you didn't have the points at the time.

At AA or Delta and some other hotel chains the notice was none or very limited. There is a reason they call them Skypesos now. :rolleyes:

Sorry to revive this old thread, but I am wondering if anyone has more recent experience with the above statement. I'd rather post here than start a new one. Does have anyone successfully redeemed a Cat 5 package, then converted it to a higher Category? I have enough points to get a Cat 5 package with the max of miles -which I need, so I can book flights before availability runs out- but I'm planning a stay at a Cat 9 hotel (hopefully, I'll have the 110k extra points by mid October).

actually your post belongs in this thread
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...-packages.html
as the one you posted in is NOT related to your question.........
IMO if MRs still allows "paying" an increase in points to increase the 7-night portion of a TP it's previously been limited to 1-catagory, not 4 as you propose to do, but for a CORRECT answer to your question, best just to call MRs and ask them................

Thanks for moving it to the correct forum. Apologies.

I have paid the difference in points to upgrade from a category 6 to a category 8 travel package.

Thank you! I just called today and confirmed it is possible to do this. I wanted to buy a Cat 6 package then pay the 90k point difference to upgrade to a Cat 9 and they said it's doable.

I'm a little bummed though. I couldn't do it yet -I'm 2.5k points short! I'll have to wait until next week...

If u are in hurry, you can buy 3 K points directly from Marriott.

Thanks for the suggestion, gv111. I'm going to wait on it. My stay this week will give me the points I need. Also, I'll probably end up buying some UA miles to top the miles I get with the package and I'm trying to keep the spend to a minimum in this redemption.

Marriott -7 night awards?
 

For an upcoming trip I have a choice of 5 nite or 7 nite award. With the 7 night award I believe you can do 100k pts to 100k United miles.. Just seeing if others believe the 7 night award for the mile conversion is the better way to go? I am indifferent on how many nights to stay

5 night award would be 40k pts a night (booked before cat increase)
7 nights award +132k pt would be 420 pts a night (if you assume 40k for each night, then 280k pts for room AND 140k Marriott for 132k United.

the pros/cons of TPs over 5-night awards has been discussed before -
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...-packages.html

personally, I opt for the TP as my flights out of BKK are very limited on UA flights (only to NRT) and none to AU/NZ and/or EU........

I know lots here think travel packages are one of the best redemption options.

In the example below that may not be the case.

Cash in 200,000(category 1-5) points for 7 nights & 50,000 aeroplan points....
that means 7 nights = 150,000 points. Therefore no discount on what it would normally cost to redeem 7 nights.
At the moment aeroplan has bonuses of up to 25% when transfering points from Marriott. 50,000 Marriott converts to 60,000 aeroplan.
Hertz has 0 value to me. I will get a better rate elsewhere or not need a vehicle.
Anything I'm missing?

Just piling on the Hertz cert, I find that useless as well.. absolutely certifiably useless

These travel packages only makesenseif there are bonus miles involved such as a 100 % bonus for unto 60000 miles ( Marriott to US Air ).

Time to bring it back !

I doubt it will be brought back. Happened every spring for the last 3+ years. But DM is ending with the merge. Likely around January according to the US Airways forum. Everyone will be converting to AAdvantage.

I do see great value in the travel packages. 1:1 MR points for airline miles plus the hotel stay.

I guess I'm missing something here.

I think your point is that with a TP award you are "essentially" converting 50K points into 60K miles. Correct? If so, note that a straight transfer of points to miles would normally require 140K MR points to get 50K miles (or 60K with the bonus.) So the TP award provides a fairly nice savings considering you are getting both the hotel award and the miles.

Also, you picked the lowest miles option for a TP award. The big benefit of this award is getting the airline miles at a 1-to-1 points-to-miles ratio. Thus the biggest benefit would be seen when converting 270K points into 120K miles (145K with the 25K bonus.)

If you tried to do a straight points to miles convertion, it would take about 350K MR points to get that same 120K miles. And don't forget that a straight convertion does NOT includes any hotel award certs. So the top end TP award saves 80K points PLUS throws in a nice 7 night hotel award.

how dare you bring logic and facts to a FT argument :D:D

+1
Never seen a 1:1 MR (Marriott) to airline mile conversion.

Please PM me if there ever is such a conversion. I will be able to do a RTW in F.Handsome gift for you in that.

deleted--repeated someone else's post

Is it possible to transfer the already booked nights portion of a travel package?
 

All -

I booked a travel package last April for travel in April 2014. Is it possible to transfer the hotel portion of the package to someone else?

Thank you.

unless you're seeking speculative answers, IMO the way to get the correct answer to this question is to ask MR as what others did, or did not, do previously does not necesarily mean it can still be done today...........it ONLY takes a phone call...........less time then posting this question here...

BTW, from previous posts, the hotel portion of the pkg has been known to be extendable for an additional year (at least one poster says done twice - ie. 2 yrs)......., but then again, this takes the effort of using the phone......

Thank you for the reply. I am used to USAir, where phone agents don't always have the right information, so I try to find the answer before I call.

must be several MR reps that took lessons over at USAir (or have they renamed the airline to AA yet?) as they don't always give you the correct info either, however if you ask for an extension (for another year) you'll see the update in your Marriott.com window as the expiration date will then show 4/2015 vrs 4/2014.......

Can I make a reservation for someone else with the miles also going into their account?

Probably not. A possible way of doing this is to transfer Marriott points into other person's (B) Marriott account and then redeem the package from B's Marriott account.

I would call and ask on this. A couple years ago, we offered my parents a travel package - (gasp, they turned it down). I called before making the offer and Marriott Rewards said we could do that. Mr. TravelersWife has been plat. premier for several years and is lifetime plat. so I don't know if that helped - but I thought the answer sounded like it was no big deal, as long as the other party is getting the whole package.

AA 25% Bonus, not good for travel package
 

Got email that AA is giving 25% on hotel conversions.

T&C exclude hotel and air packages.
Details at:
http://www.aa.com/viewPromotionDetai...&_locale=en_US

That's a decent offer. Wish AS is offering this as well... ;)

AFAIK, AS has not offered such a bonus in last 3-4 years. So it is unlikely to offer it in future.

Math 20% discount= 25% bonus
 

With this 25% AA conversion bonus, MR points are providing the same exchange ratio of United Plus.

AA
70K MR points -> 25K AA miles + 25% , i.e grand total 31,25K (2.24 point per mile) (70/31,25)

UA
56K MR points -> 25K UA miles , also here 2.24 points per mile (56/25)

Marriott Travel Packages - Help
 

Hi

I'm a relatively long-time hoarder of points, and am now looking to redeem some of them for travel packages, as I understand that's the best value for points.

When I go onto the travel packages part of the site, and click 'view', it doesn't let me select anything - the first step is 'select quantity' but I can't do that.

Can anyone help / point me to where I'm going wrong?

Also, my search of this forum didn't reveal anything - is there a decent FAQ thread?

TIA

From the Travel Package web page:

Please call 1-800-321-7396 to order any of the travel packages below.

Hi Flapster, I have always had to do these by phone, but to the UK number 020 7012 7312 ;):D

Ok, silly me.

Thanks guys.

So, a follow-on question:

It seems to be the generally accepted wisdom on these boards that these travel packages are the best use of points.

So, is it essentially booking one of these, you receive a voucher for the category of hotel and the air miles / avios stated - you then have to try to find an award flight with those air miles?

I've only tried to book a reward flight once, and found it extremely difficult - either stupidly high taxes, or no availability...

Have I got it right?

The airline miles get deposited into the FF program of your choice. You are not required to use the FF miles when redeeming the TP.

You do need to make an hotel award reservation when you redeem the the TP for a hotel of the same category as the TP hotel award certificate. You can change dates on your hotel reservation, cancel the hotel reservation and the electronic TP 7-night hotel certificate will go into your Marriott Rewards account (look under activity for unused certificates) and/or book a different hotel at any time. Most all of those will require calling Marriott Rewards CSR. You can even upgrade your TP hotel certificate with the applicable additional points and apply it to a higher category hotel; just call Marriott Rewards CSR to do so.

Your TP Hotel certificate is good for 1 year from date of issue, so if it goes into your unused certificates, don't forget about it. You can call in and get the certificate's expiration extended, but keep in mind that it will be extended for one year from the date you request the extension.

You can also turn the TP hotel certificate in, and get points back, but for a Cat 5 TP hotel certificate you only get 10,000 points back - not a good move by any calculation as a regular 7 night cat 5 hotel cert goes for 150,000.