I attached a 7 night travel certificate to a reservation at the end of August. Does anyone know if I will be able to cancel this reservation after August 18th and keep my travel certificate?

I'm still finalizing my trip, and was counting on the flexibility we usually have to cancel reservations all of the way up to the reservation date. However, it's unclear if this will be possible given this week's e-mail from Marriott.

Looks like Marriott IT at its best again with all of these bogus 'certificate not attached' Emails. They already have enough call wait time right now ... oh what a joy.

They literally had not figured out yet how to do it as of a few days ago (and it sounds like flying by the seat of their pants), according to Mr. Marriott's office. I posted here a few days ago how they told me they would be handling it, but they still had not worked out the details as to how exactly they would map it. I think there were too many other fires to put out there and travel packages had not yet become the biggest fire, but was slowly growing into one, so they decided to at least put this much out there.

For those who are holding onto certificates of a different category hotel than are hoping to stay in post-change, make whatever adjustments you need to right now to attach the certificate (e.g. if the hotel you want is a cat 6 and you are holding 1-5 because it is moving down to a 5 later this month, upgrade to the 6 now and attach it).

If you are unable to do so by August 18 (as a week and change is not a lot of time for this warning) and if you were given incorrect guidance as to which category to purchase by the Marriott rewards agents multiple times (remember that Marriott records calls and can go back and listen to them so you can have that documentation that you were given incorrect information as to which package to get for X hotel), you might email Mr. Marriott's office and argue your case.

For those who are in one of those limbo categories where the points don't match up exactly to the new TP points values, you might also email Mr. Marriott's office and argue your case.

[email protected]

I continue to believe many of these will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Marriott is very aware that they are way behind on getting information out there, and they are becoming more aware that their agents are providing inconsistent and mostly incorrect information. The more they are reminded of this, I believe the more fair they will be about settling up with their valued members that want to use these stays.

yes, with small kids that is reasonable. I guess it's what stage in life you are. In my 50's now and my wife and I like to see as many things as possible on our vacations now, not just "hanging out" by a pool or beach, even it's luxurious. In our younger days with kids, no way could we do what we do now.

You will not. They plan to be rather inflexible with the legacy certificates and any changes will convert it to a new certificate. I think this helps just get them out of their hair more quickly. If you need to make any changes, make them now on your best estimate of what you can do, and try as much as possible to stick to those plans so you don't have to change anything on the certificate which converts it.

Yeah, I ended up buying a fourth package for this just because I could not pass up the amazing deal for the opportunity to stay at this property that I likely would not stay at otherwise. We chose the premium suite instead of family suite because it was the same square footage and there will only be two of us. Other than that, they looked the same to me - do you know if there is any other difference?

would you stay on the island the entire time?

I guess I am not sure why this is a bad thing. Worst case would be a legacy certificate that was stuck at a certain level and could not be modified. If it turns into a new one that you can adjust as necessary that's not a bad outcome.

Good question. I'm not sure yet. I have not done the research to see how long it takes to get from Crete to another nearby island. I know the ferry travel there is slow getting around, but if we could do a day trip (even an overnight trip) to one of the other islands without taking a whole night or day for passage, then we might just use the whole seven days there on Crete but also pay for a night or two on another nearby island.

From what I have read, however, there is plenty to do on Crete to keep one there for seven days. I can easily do a day or two of laying around, but I need things to do (especially historical sites and cultural events), and it sounds like there is still plenty to do on Crete.

this does sound tempting...thinking about booking 4 nights(Stay 5) We were thinking Malta, Sicily for this Feb, but this sounds too good to pass up with the huge devaluation coming, so might add this to the itinerary.
For those that have stayed here, what's the best airline to get there? We usually fly Bos-Dub using only 26k Avios on Aer lingus...but Dub-to Crete no good options. Malta-Crete, same.

I agree that in many cases (e.g. - you hold a cat 1-5 cert and it converts to 1-4 and you want to stay at a cat 4 hotel), it is not a bad thing at all. In certain cases where a hotel does not map to the category one thought it might land, or for those floating certificates, or for people like me whose plans change quite a bit and need to tweak dates, it could be problematic because now the TP holder has to purchase the upgrade based on the new TP pricing structure which is higher. If you are holding let's say a cat 6 certificate now and floating it with no travel plans in mind, or if you change your mind and decide you want to stay somewhere else, and you decide you would like to use it for a new cat 6, your travel certificate will have converted to something lower, so now you have to purchase an upgrade to cat 6, so instead of having purchased this 7 night stay + 80/120/132K miles for 300K, you will now be spending 210K more.

Let's say you have a cat 1-5 certificate and some family/work/life matter happens and you need to adjust the dates post-Aug 18. If your intention was to use it at a current category 5 hotel, most category 5 hotels do go down to 4, but for those hotels that do not go down, that would force you to have to upgrade at the higher pricing structure.

I think the old certs are in a different system. I downgraded yesterday and the rep told me that she had to cancel it in the old system and create the new cert in the new system. Worked perfectly. For what it is worth, the new cert she created is worded completely different in my account than the other ones.

what is the difference?
redeeming is the same until 8/18 with same t&c

But it isn't higher. The Cat 6 old isn't a cat 6 new. The old is getting you into a hotel that costs 30K points a night while the new is for 50K points per night.