newbie help please, just stumbled across the packages. I have 194 K Marriot points and about 50K SPG. I also Have a ton of Chase points. Wife and I looking to vacation in Europe this coming Feb, no destination chosen yet.
Question..I read about packages being devalued in Aug. Did I miss the cut off? ...or still a good deal to buy a package today?
Question 2-would transferring about 80k from Chase to Marriot be wise to get me to 270k to buy the package?
thanks.

You can instantly transfer SPG to Marriott right now, 50k SPG = 150k Marriott. So you have more than enough.

thanks for the reply. Should I buy a travel package right away...devaluation hasn't happened yet? We usually fly Bos-Dub with Avios points on Aer Lingus for only 26K points round trip. So, I assume the 120k Avios points package is my best bet?
edit-we would use Dub as jumping point to another country.

If you want to redeem your points for a TP award, I would do it sooner rather than later. Things will only get more hectic for Marriott over the next week. And if you have problems getting an agent on the phone, making sure all your points are in the right account, etc., you might run the risk of not getting it ordered in time.

I'm thinking about upgrading a Cat 1-5 --> Cat 6, does this reset the expiration date?

I have 340k points. I Want to buy a TP for a European stay, will fly using Avios. Should I buy the cheapest 270k package(cat 1-5), or buy the 330k package(cat 6). I do not know where we will be vacationing at this point or the probable cat #.
Will upgrading from cat 1-5 after Aug 18 cost me more points than now. I assume the hotel will most likely be higher than cat 1-5.

Wanted to follow up on my saga of trying to get a 5N package. Called and the first rep told me that I needed to be an MVC owner. I politely told him my dad was one and it would be ok to transfer MR if that's what I needed. He got far enough along and came back telling me that he was having issues moving the MR from one account to the other and that he would make an exception and book it on my end. Was on hold and hit a deadzone...disconnected.

All other reps just keep telling me 'no you're not an owner', which I understand even if I think the policy is ridiculous (family already owns one timeshare, they would have me buy another just to book this thing). Some told me point transfers were not allowed.

Fast forward to today and I figure I'll give it one more shot. The rep asks me which package and I told her, she happily went off and booked it no questions asked. I get an email after I hang up to find she booked a 7N package instead of a 5N...

​​​​If I have my dad on the phone with me, is there any way to reverse this and transfer the cert to him? I think the miles are too far gone at this point and couldn't be cancelled but I'm generally pretty bummed that I now have a 7N cert I know I won't use fully.

I doubt I could "upgrade" the cert to 5N, but figured I should ask if anyone here has gone down this particular rabbit hole before?

TL;DR: I'm dumb and accidentally booked a 7N I didn't want in quest for 5N. Trying to figure out if "upgrading from 7 to 5 is a thing I could attempt"

A quick note and question on booking the 7-night by combining points with a spouse, since I had a hard time finding info on that process.

I wanted to transfer 107K points from my spouse's account to mine to get the 270K point 7-night package (~163K in my account). After the 30+ minute hold times 3 times, I have been continuously held up at the last step every time. The "system is down" for transferring points between accounts due to "maintenance from the merger".

On the 3rd time now, and I escalated to a supervisor, now the "downtime starts at 10pm", and "more than 50K points is against the rules". Still waiting on hold while they try and figure it out.

Any tips, I am all ears :(

Can your spouse transfer her Marriott points to SPG, then transfer to your SPG account?

PS not sure if this will work. Hope someone can confirm.

The answer is NO. Per MR's policy, you can transfer up to 50K total per year into your account. It can be 30k from spouse and 20k from brother.... It is free for Gold and above only.

While technically an option supposedly SPG-->SPG transfers are taking a considerably longer time than they did in the past.

Login access down and even says call centers are effected. Anyone make TP bookings since 1700 PST?

This works under normal circumstances. But it is highly risky now. It was normally a 5-day transfer. But this is now 7-day or longer. You run the risk of tying the SPG points in no-man's land. I did this early and booked my TPs.