Thanks for this. Gave up on the VbyM number after seeing your reply and called back the main Marriott number. Once I finally got through to someone, they were able to process it in about 60 seconds. So indeed, moral of the story is to HOCA if the agent seems confused on what you want!

This!

Always pay attention on the default check box of saving the card on the site. Some sites are sleazy to make this a default and you need to manually uncheck it.

I never save CC info on ANY site, from the travel to the shopping, except it is an autopay service like Comcast or ATT.

Even on AMZN I removed the CC once a promotion finished.

Good Idea. But let's just see if the pending becomes a charge. I hope not. I think I am tired of talking to CSR and vice versa.

removed all credit cards from amazon site

Not sure what your intention is.

Someone posted either here or in the comment sections of one of many blog write ups on the Marriott TP that it is $20 fee to cancel a TP redemption. So your $20 fee may be related to that, and not an expedite fee to AS, as that should be $15.

I dont know how a "downgrade" from a Cat 6 to a Cat 5 redemption would work. Others have done and read your post can provide more information.
You can cancel the current hotel booking part of your Cat 6, presumably get back a cert of 75K description - presumably it is 45K + 30K = 75K in total. If you cancel that cert, that is exactly what you get, at current structure. Nobody knows what is going to be on August 1st going forward.
Wild speculations have been thrown around on how many points one would get back on the unattached certs. You can take a gamble as some are as wild as 25K x 6 for Cat 5, 30K x 6 for Cat 6, so on so forth. Will Marriott be so generous on an already very generous TP especially due to the SPG 1 to 3? That is the gamble you need to decide whether to take a bet on.

If it posted, call back to get a refund and some courtesy point. Ask to speak to a manager upfront before starting your story.

This is the trick.

15 minutes on hold, but after that it was as smooth as can be.

I'm going to hedge my bets here. I have two certificates. I've attached one and am going to leave one floater. I know that I may be sorry.

The rules have never changed.

Depends on whom you get. New agents who are more cautious would seem hesitant and not sure what to do when you just said to redeem a Cat 5 120K airline miles package. Then they go check with higher up and come back to tell you the 7 nights cost. There are less cautious new agents who just read the table and redeemed a 5 nights you asked.

However 2 weeks ago on a lengthy weekend call, I have heard from one agent who was overseas call centers based, said those who accidentally redeemed the 5 nights for ineligible members (you who are not the VC owner) will get reprimanded. I personally would not want to cause the innocent / ignorant agents trouble for selfish needs.

There is also at least one DP reported on this thread someone's 5 nights cert was audited and revoked. Pts taken from his account to exchange it to a 7 nights cert, WITHOUT any notice to him. His calls to all the way up to Exec Office, focused on the no notification part does not do any good. Marriott flat out told him he was not eligible for 5 nights cert.

There are also 2 or 3 DPs on Reddit from last month about being audited and the certs revoked. Not sure this is the risk worth taking. To each their own.

Sorry for attaching, sorry for leaving a floater, or sorry either way?

That was me. Rather than wasting time calling 800-321-7396, call the number shown in the details of the credit card charge. There may be different numbers, but the one associated with my charge was 801-468-4034. It only took a few minutes, including hold time, to get the charge reversed. Having something resolved quickly was a welcome change from dealing with Marriott.

Aeroplan miles showed up on Tuesday, just like last year - regardless when you redeemed the week before, it shows up in your account on Tuesday the next week with the original redemption date.

AS miles redeemed on Sunday with Expedition (offered by the CSR based in London, Canada as fee is waived for Plat) is still not in the account. CSR did say expedition still means 3 business days versus the regular being 7 to 10 business days.

Though someone has posted he asked for expedition and paid $15, around mid day EST and the miles were in his AS account several hours when he checked. No such luck here for me, CSR did give me the Certificate Number for the AS miles portion.

Now I need to figure out where to attached the 2 Cat 5 certs. If we can book further out than only up to next July it would be easier but unfortunately we have to do what limitation the parameters have.

As it gets closer to the transition date, I believe the odds of a significant devaluation decrease. I am not saying that MPG (MR+SPG) couldn't penalize someone who either has a floating certificate or changes one which is currently attached. I just believe the reaction to doing so would be severe enough that it won't happen. Hold times are already long and even if MPG contacted everyone today about significant devaluation, it would be difficult to accommodate everyone. My uninformed guess is that we will receive in some form something close in value to the amount of points required to book 7 nights in the category of the existing certificate.

I don't think there's any downside attaching your certificates, if you know when and where you would use your certificates. If you cancel your reservation before or AFTER the August launch date, your certificates will become floaters again. I don't see how Marriott could treat them differently.

Are we still set to have Category 8 hotels including all suite SPG hotels become bookable for 60,000 points in August? I have enough points for either a travel package or 5 nights at one of these luxury properties. I'd rather the nights as I already have a lot of air miles I'd like to use up

Good question.

What I meant was that I am (unlike others here) reading Lurker's comments as a suggestion that we're better off attaching these things, but I've decided to do one each way (one attached, one not attached). I just decided that since I have two, I'd do one each way.

I don't think anything's clear here. I don't think it's clear that you're better off attaching. I'd sure take 150,000 new program points for my certificates rather than 7 nights in a current category 5 hotel. And I think floaters are going to be converted to points, not certificates. But attached certificates that are subsequently canceled may well get certificates rather than points. There's no way to tell. And this is by design: They are intentionally not telling us. I don't believe for a second that they don't know exactly what they are going to do.