Malta is not Sicily (we have had a 9 days driving trip in Sicily). There is NO chain hotel presence in Sicily other than one old Hilton resort near Taomina.

Malta is a different country albeit it is an island quite close to Sicily but I dont think one can do a "day trip" between the 2.

As for the poster considering Crete - Crete is a BIG island you will need a rental car to get around the whole island and there are plenty to do and see (the Minoans ruins for example) Google Minoan you would see it is considered one of the oldest cultures in the Med.

This is a fair assessment.

No reason to believe upgrades after Aug 18th would still get the old pricing. It would have to be based on the new pricing that comes in effect on Aug 18th.
I am not sure why there are still some folks who wonder should he or shouldn't he to redeem a Cat 5 basic package just because he does not know where he would use the cert - the bulk of TP value lies with the miles redemption, that is an unarguable fact. If one does not need the miles then there is no reason to redeem the TP especially one has no idea where to use the hotel cert. That should resolve most of the dilemma some still face, unable to make up their minds before the absolute deadline.

I agree with this, particularly if you have any intention to book aspirational properties at the momentarily lowered rate.

And a note on that: if the leaked T&C are what ends up being published you'll need to have points-in-hand for many of the new Starwoods--no Points Advance allowed. Another reason to potentially have a stock of points in hand.

You definitely can do a day trip between Malta and Sicily. It's an hour and 45 minute ferry ride each way. It's a bit ambitious but not impossible.

Why is that??

Most of the properties will go up in points. If you have plenty of points, you should just transfer them to SPG and book at SPG side when they are still cheap now. You do not need to mess with the Marriott side.

There is not much we can do with Marriott TPs. We can't use them to book SPG stays now.

yes, I realize Malta is not Sicily. We are planning 3 nights in each then somewhere else, maybe Venice.
There is a Four points in Catania Sicily listed on Marriot site.

It is not just the time of the ferry ride, but also the ferry schedules as well as whether it is in low season or high season (the frequency of the ferry services).

In any case it leaves you only a few hours to check out either Malta or the Sicily port where you take the ferry from. I am not sure this is a good idea given Malta the capital town is an ultra hilly town and not easy to get around on foot.

But many properties are going down in value. If you want a Marriott hotel going down in value but you spent all your points on a TP(s), you can get a point advance and book the room without the required points. If you want an SPG aspirational property you must have the points to book it. Those hotels are now 30-30k SPG, but will be the equivalent of 20k starting 8/18 until they activate category 8.

Exactly.

Just got off the phone with Marriott. The person i talked to said that they can't transfer more than 50K even when doing a redemption, that their system can't do it. Really would far prefer to have the miles in my wife's account. Anybody successful in getting a transfer in excess of 50K in the last day or two?

Ooops, forgot about 4P. We actually booked it at first for our Sicily trip but ended up cancelling the booking when the details of our trip gradually taking shape. It did not work out for us as we only wanted to use Catania as an in and out airport city and only planned to stay the night before our flight back to Milan MXP. That at the end did not even happen due to Italy Air Controllers went on strike so all the flights from CAT and PMO were canceled on the date we would fly. We at the end flew out the day before - straightly drove up from Syracuse and returned the car at CAT, flew out the same day to Turin then the next day took a train to Milan.

In case you are not aware, the 4P is NOT anywhere near Catania town center - it is quite far out along the coast You either need a rental car or need a taxi to get around though hotel said it had a shuttle back and forth between hotel and town.

If you are looking at exploring Sicily - you may want to do a bit more research - Palermo over Catania, Syracuse and Noto from Catania are far nicer, ditto Taomina.

Taomina is thought to be The town in Sicily to visit if you can only visit one town... I would not agree with it 100% but it definitely is a lot nicer than Catania.

With our almost round the island drive I would rate the cities and towns in Sicily in that order - Palermo, Cefalu (can easily take a train from Palermo), Taomina, Syracuse and Noto, (they often are mentioned hand in hand), Catania, and Messina being the last.
The must visit sites are out of any of the above cities / towns -
Villa Romana del Casale
Valle de Templi (Valley of the Temples - the Unesco site is modeled one of the temple ruin on this site)
Monreale Norman Church (there are buses from / to Palermo for a day visit)
If one has more time, then add Segusta (quite near Palermo airport about 50 miles drive)

You would short change yourselves if you only spend 3 days at Catania and consider you have seen Sicily... The island has an amazing rich history and actually once was Very Rich during the ancient times when it was a fought for, strategic location between the Romans and the Carthaginians, later the Normans (literally Men from the North, i.e. the Vikings). Very interesting and fascinating history,. It was just outside the west coast of Sicily the Roman navy fleet defeated the Carthaginian fleet with decided win, and that started the down fall of Carthage and essentially it was wiped off from the map.

For Venice, I would recommend you to visit it together with Croatia (just across the Adriatic sea) on a separate trip. Give Croatia twice or more time than for Venice. In 2016 we did a 2 weeks driving trip in Croatia as the first half of a one month trip (the 2nd half was equally split between Sydney and Hong Kong). There are lots of Italians vacation in Croatia's upper coast, lots of them drove down from Trieste which is fairly near Venice.

Has anyone unattached a cert recently, i.e. the last couple days?

We have a Cat 6 cert attached but the hotel will come down to 25K a night after Aug 18.

Now we now semi certainly that the floater cert would not be forced converted back to surrender point value, I feel I should unattach the Cat 6 cert and then reattach a cat 5 cert currently floating, after Sept 18th.

Actually many SPG properties are going DOWN in equivalent points after Aug 18.

What the new T&Cs seem to suggest, you cannot book SPG properties in the same way you book Marriott properties now, i.e. not having enough pts in your account but you can still book it first...
So during the lock down period when the legacy certs are not usable but the SPG properties you want are available to book with the LOWER levels, then you want to have the SPG (or Marriott) pts available to book them so to ensure the availability. Once the lock down period is over, then you call to switch the pts booking to cert booking.
I believe that is what the poster means to not use up all your pts for TP redemption if you actually prefer hotel stays and need hotel stays. The old TP value primarily is for the Miles which are what the majority folks prefer and the hotel stays are a thrown in extra.

What is the best option for someone with ~249 points to do with regards to these packages and trying to get ahead?