I flew to EVN last year on Qatar, using AA miles.

I am holding 3 and have not been advised yet.

Still showing 2 unused certificate. Could they be mistakenly attached one single certificate to two different reservations?

Travel Package transfer to AA

So far it has been 4 business days. Is Marriott backup because of the merger, or should I be concerned?

Ah! I did not realize we could get there via AA. Thank you for the information!!

Ummmm, Yes!!! They have, on more than one occasion, encouraged people to attach their "floaters." Some believe it is a guise!!!

No, that is not what they are saying!! They are saying that your current hotel voucher is good for a 7 night stay at this list of properties; for maximum benefit you should make your hotel reservation now. You will still be able to make a 7 night reservation after the change but the list of properties you can use it at will be different. If you use your voucher before the changes they will honor your reservation even if it would otherwise not be available to you after the changes.

Look at it this way. You redeem 270K for a TP. 225K is redeemed for Airline FF Miles and 45K is redeemed for a 7 night Cat 1 certificate. However, as an added bonus this special Cat 1 certificate will allow you to make a reservation at any hotel up to and including Category 5. Hence we will refer to it as a Cat 1-5 certificate. Category 1 hotels are 7500 MR per night but we will throw in a 5th night free. 6*7500 MR = 45,000 MR is required for a 7 night stay at a Category 1 property. For maximum benefit you can attach your Cat 1-5 now and take advantage of the "special provision" allowing you to reserve a 7 night stay at any property up to Category 5 until August 18th. If you have not made a hotel reservation by that date we could cancel your Cat 1-5 certificate and return your 45K MR to your account in the new program.

In the new program a Category 1 property is 7500 MR per night STANDARD, 5000 MR LOW & 10,000 HIGH. With the 45K residual points from your TP and a 5th night free you can reserve a Category 1 property for 7 nights STANDARD, 11 nights LOW and 5 nights HIGH with 5000 MR leftover.

Don't fool yourself into believing that your 45 MR points are only worth a 1 night stay in the new program. You have a window of opportunity to maximize your redemption now, anything else is a gamble.

What a SCC Judge would see is that you had an opportunity to attach your certificate to a reservation to maximize your redemption but you chose not to do that in hopes of a better redemption in the new program. Marriott is not liable to you for your negligence and since the entity where you redeemed your MR points and could have made a reservation no longer exists, you are bound by the Terms and Conditions of the new program.

That is what I have been suggesting. All "floater" certificates converted to a "restricted" 150K point certificate which would be equivalent to a 7 night stay at a new Cat 1-4. Any points used for category upgrades in the current program would be returned unrestricted. The point certificate would be "restricted" in the sense that if it was not used for a 7 night hotel stay it would retain it's 45K value which would be returned upon cancellation or become worthless if allowed to expire. Any upgrades of the 150K points certificate would be at the new upgrade rates. 60K additional MR points would upgrade you to a new Category 5 which would allow a redemption at a lot of existing Marriott Category 8 properties requiring a 90K MR upgrade now. Believing you are "owed" 150K "unrestricted" MR points and/or Certificates should transfer Category to Category is simply nonsense. A current Category 7 CANNOT have the same weight as a Category 8, 9 nor a Tier 1-3, 4-5 in the new program.

But hey!!! These are just numbers, Do with them as you please.

James

Agree with this. Austrian is a very nice airline, but long-haul and on their mid-haul narrowbodies they use for 4-5 hour flights. (Real J seats and great food on the aircraft they use on these routes.)

I'd probably get the 132k miles and look for one of those flights. I don't know anything about LOT but have a friend who flies ORD-WAW twice a year and says LOT is good enough in J that he does not feel the need to avoid it and connect elsewhere.

I'll chime in on LOT. We were rerouted on their WAW-LAX nonstop last year and really liked it. I agree with a poster above who says that Austrian is easily available when award seats open. I've booked it a number of times and have several Austrian flights held for future travel. I was surprised to find the new LOT seat even more comfortable. I haven't seen it at the 11 month mark when I'm booking, but I'd grab it in a heartbeat if I did.

I have talked to several Elite Marriott reps who have assured me that the packages would continue ... that a 1-5 would still give me a 1-5 in the new system ... should i not believe this??

If this not the case why do they keep telling me this... i documented reps names and employment city and dept..

thoughts? I am Platinum Elite BTW

SPG Lurker posting on an online forum is not the same as Marriott emailing all holders of travel packages and instructing them to take some type of action regarding their travel certificate. Pretending those are the same thing is just silly.

I'm surprised someone who has dealt with Marriott enough to become Platinum Elite thinks that the front-line agents know anything about anything.

thanks for the useless.. snarky remark..

Exactly. I seriously doubt that folks on FlyerTalk and obsessive travel blog readers are typical of Marriott Rewards members. Additionally, expecting customers to read material that is both outside of the T&C and not from Marriott seems unreasonable, to put it mildly.