I didn't realise either was possible, how do i use miles from BA on AA award flights or upgrades?

OW awards can be used on any qualifying airline's points. In my recollection, if you would like to book an AA flight using BA points, or vice versa, you must be attempting to fly to a destination not supported by the originating point carrier (i.e. if you use BA points and want to fly AA, BA can't have an option to fly to that city). I do know that all OW awards must be booked over the phone as websites will only allow booking of the individual carrier's awards.

Hope this helps!

is there a dedicated OW phone line, or just use BA and request OW redemptions...? when i have upgraded using miles on BA in the past i have not recieved upgrade on any AA segment

You can just call BA's reservation line. If you're sapphire, ruby, or the like on BA then you should be able to qualify on AA since OW status is recognized across carriers.

Travel package 7-night expiration?
 

I booked a 7-night travel package a while ago, and I don't see it listed in my account. Does the hotel portion (the 7-night stay) expire? I looked at the terms & conditions and didn't see any mention of this, so of course I am hoping the answer is "NO!"

One year from the date you ordered it. However, marriott has been very good about extending that another year, if you call and ask before it expires.

Billy

how do you know the exact date you ordered it, if you did not maintain very good records? is calling the only way to know

The date of the order is stated if you have any unused certificates. Look up your reservations and scroll down. There should be a list of unused certificates at the bottom (if you have any).

Marriott was good with me about extended a cert another year.

MR extended my last travel package for an extra year as a courtesy but warned that extending it a second time would require me to pay a significant number of additional points.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect the courtesy extension is only available for elites, possibly only plats and PPs.

Update
 

I called Marriott, and they were very nice about it. They extended the award for another year, even though it had expired in early January. The old booking was under the previous rates, so they had to charge me the difference in points, but it was well worthwhile.

^ to Marriott for handling this well. I still, though, don't see exactly where it is documented that these awards expire in a year.

MR is fairly bad about not having printed rules that they follow. That being said, they are very customer friendly and often go beyond what few rules they have posted. For example, they have written that you can buy 10% of points toward an award if you're short, but in reality, they'll let you buy 20% (or more).

Billy

7 night Marriott cat 1-5 stay certs
 

Hi there,

I´m new to the Marriott forum, so please forgive me if this has been answered before, but I couldn´t find any other threads on this topic.

From time to time FTers have offered "7 night Marriott cat 1-5 stay certs" in CC. How do these exactly work?

1. Who gets these certs in the first place?
2. These certs can be used for any Marriott property (max. cat. 5) and are capacity-controlled, right? If it´s possible to redeem points for a stay at a particular property on a given date, it also is possible to use these certs, isn´t it?
3. As the cert presumably only is good for standard room, is it possible to upgrade to a Club room or suite using points/cash?
4. anything else I should be aware of?

Thank´s in advance!

These certificates are available as part of Marriott's Travel Packages, which provide for a certain number of frequent flier miles in addition to a seven night certificate good for a Category 1-5, 6, 7, or 8 property (depending on the package that is selected).

I regularly redeem for travel packages and the availability is as you describe - if it's possible to redeem points, you can use the 7 night certificate. If some nights in the middle aren't available, you can pay for those nights and use the certificate for the remaining nights.

Not too sure about your next two questions.

my guess is most of these are the hotel portion of a travel award. Fully transferable, they can be "gifted" to anyone. The person who is asking to exchange this used about 270K marriott points and got 120K miles transferred to his favorite airline, and has the use of a week stay in a cat 1-5 hotel.

Cat 1-5 specifies which properties you can go to, there are 8 categories, and this certificate does not includes hotels in the 6,7 or 8 category. If award stay is available throughout the dates you want, then you can use this certificate for that stay.

There are plenty of great properties that are Cat 5, particularly in Asia, although in general, they are not expensive.

You can pay extra points to upgrade, but not to a club room - only to a "better" room. Plats, and at some properties golds, are automatically upgraded.

Few resorts have club rooms anyway (actually none that i am aware of). Some hotels have award availability but only for "higher" room types (like no garden view, and only ocean view) and then you have to pay more points or cash per night. you only get a "standard" room for free. Definition of standard varies from hotel to hotel.

Some hotels charge for 3rd or 4th guests (think Hawaii, for example), even on award stays. Some hotels have "Resort fees" that you have to pay, you guessed it - even on award stays. Some hotels charge for parking, even though they are the only parking available (san francisco makes sense, but The JW Ihilihani does not).

Billy