I am going to attach a 7 day certificate to a reservation in July. Unfortunately, I will probably have to change the date of my reservation. I wish Marriott would clarify what happens under control this circumstance.

My preferred property (25,000) is going to be reduced to a category 3 (17,500) in August. I could book another great hotel that will remain at 25,000. If I change my reservation, I believe I would have more flexibility if my reservation is for a category 4 (25,000) property.

Is making a reservation for my second choice (Category 4 - 25,000) instead of my preferred hotel (25,000 -> 17,500) a good decision?

I think this is the correct decision, if I was going to change hotels. I am less confident in the decision if I am changing the date of my reservation. I am new to Marriott, I will welcome any feedback.

PS The reservation will be after January. The new low season/high season pricing would be in effect.

Just because the property you now booked would go up to 35K, and Marriott would honor the 25K cert currently attached, does not by any means your cert would then worth for 35K property.

Besides, the current Cat 5 is not the new Cat 5, but the new Cat 4. Even if Marriott refunds the points to you it would still be the 25K/night value.

Why people still not realize the "number" of a category does not have any relationship between the old and the new chart?

Your bet most likely is not even a hedged bet but a bet that is doomed from the start.

I absolutely do understand that the number/Category relationship, or lack thereof, between the old and new charts. My possible bet was that by attaching it to one of the 5 hotels I found that are currently 25k points (current Marriott Cat 5), and that are going up to 35k points (and Cat 5 on new chart), then changing after the conversion to the Starwood property that will also be 35k it is essentially a post conversion current value even exchange. To take the category out of it, if when making the change they go by the post conversion point value at the already booked Marriott hotel, it will be the same value (35k/nt). Yes, there is a chance they will give points back at the rate of 25k (hence the hedge), but there may also be a chance that since the hotels will have equivalent value post conversion the swap may be more possible (versus a property that does not go up in value in August). Going by the scenario in your post it appears the worst case is I get a point deposit or certificate equivalent to book 7 nights at a property worth 25k/nt and I still get my airline miles, correct?

I think it's a great idea and it may go over some's heads.

Hi all, have a quick question for the travel package experts. I need to come up with 66,000 AA miles for an upcoming itinerary. I plan to convert 90K SPG to Marriott (and combine with existing Marriott points) for a miles+cert package deal, although it is unlikely I'll be able to use a 7-night certificate in my travels, so I would likely leave it as a "floater" certificate and not assign a particular hotel to it. In other words, I feel that I would be better served by having that cert convert back to points later on, to account for multiple 1 or 2 night stays.

Question is whether I am better off going with the Cat 1-5 + 120K miles, Cat 6 +100k miles, or Cat 7 + 70k miles. I know conventional wisdom is the aim for the "right side" of the chart, but I don't have an immediate need for the extra AA miles I'd end up with either (only need 66,000), so if there's some benefit to getting a higher category travel cert and leaving it unattached (resulting in more Marriott points later on), I'm not opposed to that strategy.

Any thoughts appreciated!

In general, you always want to max out the mileage portion, because it allows you to convert the relatively low-value Marriott points to the more valuable airline miles on a 1:1 basis.

Furthermore, in this case, saving on the mileage portion and going for a higher category won't really have any benefits to speak of, except that by locking your MR points in the hotel cert, you lose the ability to transfer them to favorable airline mileage ratio (since the travel package is being devaluated come August). If they do decide to cancel and refund everyone's cert in points, the points that you "invest" in a hotel cert will simply come back to you, no different than if you had just left them in your account and not use for the travel package. However, when that happens, you no longer have the pre-August favorable airline miles transfer ratio.

The Marriott FAQ clearly say that free nights from the credit cards will be converted to points-based certificate. Is the assumption part that they'd be worth 60k? They have stated that the anniversary certs will be certs of the highest-redemption point value of the current points system. I think it's a fairly safe bet that they'll be similar but I guess it's possible they'd reduce them to some lower point amount but that just wouldn't make sense since they're currently worth up to 60k/night stays.

Wow. Just wow from Marriott. So i had a short fall of 30k points in my account in order to purchase a TP. I have been trying to transfer points from a friends account for the past 1 week- they have been saying they cannot do this on account of "system upgradation" issues.

So then i asked the rep if i can combine points towards a particular reservation in lieu of a travel package. He said that this was possible and i would get the miles. However, if i cancel the 7 night reservation at the hotel, then apparently the certificate gets automatically cancelled - points are refunded to both accounts and the airline miles are taken back?

Isnt there a legal remedy for this?

Because it's insane. Most people (aside from obsessed few) who get cat 1-5 cert valid through smth 2019 expect to redeem it at cat 5. They will open marriott directory and try to book cat 5 hotel. If marriott starts telling all of them them that cat 1-5 cert is not valid for cat 5 property it's gonna get ugly.

Don't worry, he doesn't know how it works. However, when you cancel the reservation, I have had instances where the 45k or upgrades points are returned rather than the cert when cancelling online. However, you can call and cancel and get your cet back. Airline miles aren't taken back.

The last few times I canceled (recently), I got the certificates back to my account.

thank you

Correct that definitely occurs. I get both and I don't know what triggers one or the other. It usually tells you on the on the confirmation page. Always a pain if it's going to give me back the points because then I have to call. Most recently had this about a month ago.

And he told me that this is the process

1. I need to call and make an actual 7 night reservation first - i need to indicate what travel package and give my airline FF number
2. Post this, my friend (who would be giving me the points) needs to phone in to confirm the same

Is this correct? Also as a note, my friend has not exceeded the 50k transfer limit for the year. Apparently this is a workaround as MR to MR Transfers is not working