Off topic, but - -

If you're considering visiting Sicily and have any connection with the US military (active duty, retiree, DoD civilian), don't forget to check NAS Sigonella. You might be able to find VOQ availability. I don't think they have a Navy Lodge there, though, but it has been a while since I visited so it's not impossible.

Confirmed ...
 

Like all other I have a couple of Marriott travel packages and was in the process of decoding wheather to use them on a reservation or keep it as a floater or to upgrade it.

​​​​​​After going through the various blogs and the FlyerTalk threads I decided to call.

So I called Marriott India and got transferred to rewards desk and had a discussion regarding the much talked about topic of Marriott travel packages and asked him to help me decide what to do with them.

The great agent went in depths to explain how the whole process would work and what can be done to maximize the benefits of exisiting travel packages.

And all of this is in line with what Marriott have already said :

He said that the best way to use the travel package right now is to attach them to a reservation according to the category of the certificate before this transition period 18 Aug.

Meaning if u currengly have a category 6 - attach it to the present category 6 accordingly.

​​​​​​Upgrading or keeping a certificate floating is only going to have one result.

"MARRIOTT TRAVEL PACKAGE CERTIFICATE WOULD BE CONVERTED TO BASIC CATEGORY 1-4 CERTIFICATE AND THE REST OF THE POINTS OVER IT WOULD BE REFUNDED"

He mentioned that if u upgrade a certificate from category 1-5 to category 6 using 30k points and keep it floating - it would change to category 1-4 in the new system and 30k points would be refunded.

He further mentioned if u keep a category 1-5 floating - it would change to category 1-4 in new system. Keeping a category 7 or above certificate floating would result in the same result as above para.

So he stressed that using a category 6/7 etc certificate on the same category now would give u the advantage of having that hotel booked using that certificate and post September 18 the floating certificate would be converted to category 1-4 and the points costing to upgrade that certificate to the desired new category would be according to the new chart and would be much costly then now - so he suggested attaching the certificate now before August 18 for more value.

So according to the above discussion I guess he pretty much simplified the whole process.

​​​​​​So final thoughts - upgrading a certificate now to book a stay at a desired hotel category is the way to go or else leave any kind of certificate as a floater and would be converted to category 1-4 post sept 18 and one could use the new chart to upgrade them to category above.

If anyone else wanna share any views regarding the above can please share.

All The Best
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There are two SPG hotels in Malta. We are considering spending our 1-week certificates at one of them.

As I have posted several times, if I were running the program that is the approach I would take. I think it is the easier, simplest, and fairest approach and it neatly addresses the re-categorization of the award table plus the valuation shifts in properties. If they map across to categories, based on how they priced the new travel packages in the first place, I think they will map to PEAK values and that will definitely make people upset.

I'm highly sceptical of this answer. If they're implementing such a simple resolution, technically speaking, why would they require one month to code that into their IT systems.

No to mention it screws anyone holding a Cat 6+ package (supposedly the points rich and therefore some of their best customers).

Not really. If you hold a Cat 6, for example, you can't reasonably believe you can get a cert worth a 40K peak room with it, for example (new Cat 5).

Seems reasonable to me. The certificate currently works for hotels during peak season and the new packages will encompass that into them. Certificates that people currently have are protected from peak season pricing and there's been no written communication from Marriott that this would change. Any notice at this point would be less than sufficient before stabbing people with such a change.

If Marriott sent an email to all track package holders in April letting them know that they needed to attached their travel certificates by August 18th to avoid being subject to future peak pricing, then there would be a stink but it'd be reasonable. A similar action at this point would not be reasonable.

This may be bad for the folks who want to book the SPG stays. But from Marriott's side, this is a clever and fair way to handle those certificates. It is going to be a huge headache having to deal with the upgrade or downgrade of the old vs new categories. Marriott can soundly claim that they treat all members fairly. You never gain or loss any reward from the TP calibration to base.

Clearly Marriott wants to get it right this time. Or it could have just shut down the TP program all together without any warning. This is never new with some of the other hotel/airline reward programs. I'll have to give Marriott applause on this.

I'd attach the TP to the Marriott property I plan to stay. Forget about booking the SPG aspirational properties or even the Ritz Carlton properties with those TPs. For those, we need to keep some points handy. Still those properties will be booked rather quickly....

Why do you say so. Has there been clarification that these certificates can not be used for SPG properties after August 18? Could you please clarify?
I am hoping to attach my certificates to Marriott properties for now. After August 18, I would like to transfer them to SPG properties. Is this possible? Would appreciate informed opinions.

The way the new TPs are written, they're baking in the assumption that you're redeeming at Peak values. It's still a pretty big devaluation, but it does not look like there will be two tiers of Travel Packages. Just one tier, if you hold a Cat 4, you can use it at a Peak Cat 4.

While I don't take a single phone call with a customer support rep as an "official" announcement, the way maxcalls describes it is honestly the single most straightforward and fair way to handle the conversion. Nobody gets screwed. In fact, we all get the benefit of being able to redeem at the entire SPG/Marriott footprint and I suspect a lot of us are going to get an expiration date bonus. With the 1-month blackout, they'll probably just err on the safe side and make all of the certs valid through September 2019. (Seems simpler than adding exact blackout days to the end of each individual certificate.)

I'm not worried. I'll have a new Cat 4 and enough points to upgrade it if I need to. I'll finally have a meaningful status at SPG hotels, and am looking forward to redeeming at a hotel I couldn't have redeemed a TP at in the past.

But the thing is SPG and Marriott said the old travel package certs will be converted to the new travel package certs where they can be used for properties at similar levels.
If they were planning on downgrading all certs to cat 1-4 and refund the points difference for any higher category certs, then they would not have said the above.
So now I am even more confused.

Ok, I just learned about this so I'm scrambling go catch up. I read a ton already, but not all 300 pages of this thread. So I'm hoping for some advice.

Marriott: 352K points
SPG: 63K points
As I understand it, I can convert the SPG at 3:1 which would giv eme a total of 541,000 potential points.

We don't know where we want to go yet, or when. Is our best strategy to just make an educated guess as to where and when, and then to book the highest category 7 night option? IN this case, a Tier 4-5 Cert, and attach it to a Tier 5 hotel?

Also, regarding miles. I have exactly the same number of United miles as American right now. Is it better to select United miles for the bonus or Alaskan Airlines??

Much appreciated any advice. Trying to figure this out quick before it all goes poof!

You can book reward MR rooms with borrowed points, but I do not think you can borrow to upgrade your TP. Your options are: buy SPG points; transfer either AmEx MR or Chase UR points. All of them are not super. But I think you should just eat the small cost, if I were you.