Thanks, that's what I figured. Booked the 7 nights back when I didn't realize 5 would be possible without timeshare membership. Oh well.

It's still unclear whether the 5-night TP is actually available to non-MVCI owners. One of the bloggers says it is; Marriott does not appear to have confirmed this. In the other thread about it, there's 1 report of a success (from the blogger) and 1 report of a fail (from an FTer).

My hunch: the blogger got lucky. In any case, the jury is still out on this one...

You can if you have a timeshare.

Specifically an MVCI timeshare to be precise. :)

Right :D

...that is enrolled in the MVCI Destination Points program.

My wife inherited one that was not enrolled in the points program (still debating whether it is worth the price to do so) and she cannot book 5-night travel packages.

That's not correct. The 5-Night TP's for Marriott timeshare owners were announced in late 2008 to be effective 1/1/09, which was prior to the Destination Club inception on 6/20/10. Every Marriott timeshare owner was and still is eligible for them, and you can contact Owner Services to ask questions or order the TP's.

For detailed information sign in to my-vacationclub.com and click on "Program Changes" in the list on the right side of the page under "Marriott Rewards." [Link disabled] should take you directly to the page after signing in. (Right now the website isn't functioning because of maintenance. As soon as it's back up I'll check to make sure the link is still correct.)

Is there a dedicated thread for this? I couldn't find any in my search. And TPG did not provide his source or the FT thread in this article.

MMS also just recently posted an article about the same subject but sourced TPG from it.

Is there any truth to this at all?

Called Marriott Platinum Elite Reservations and the general Rewards line to try to book a 5-night TP and was told "nope" by both of them...only MVCI owners can.

Isn't the 7 night cert broken into a 5 and 2 night cert? Can you use it separately?

Not really. All 7 nights must be used on one stay. You can checkout early but you will lose the remainder of the nights.

Oh I redeemed one a few years back and couldn't remember if it was broken up into a 5 night and a 2 night. I used all 7 nights at once though.

7 night is broken into 5-2 but won't help to use as a 5 night. If do not use, the 2 night is forfeited

Was hoping u can just call and tell the rep to apply the 5 night at one place and the 2 night elsewhere later in the year.

I highly doubt it.

Not possible.

7 night TP Hotel e-certificate is for a contiguous stay at one hotel. That wording is very important because you CAN use it for a stay at a hotel that does not have 7 nights in a row available for redemption. For example, you could use it for a 10 night stay at one hotel comprised of 2-night award, followed by 1 night paid, followed by 2 night award, followed by 2 nights paid, and then the final 3 nights of your award certificate. This needs to be in a single reservation and have the e-certificate attached to the reservation, to facilitate this you would need to call reservations.

As previously stated, you can use a 7 night TP Hotel e-certificate for less than 7 nights but then the remaining unused award nights are forfeited.

Sorry to dash your hopes, but you cannot use it for a stay at more than one hotel.

(Following up for the timeshare owners)

That maintenance turned out to be a new MVW owners website, now owners.marriottvacationclub.com. We're still slogging through the changes over on TUG but to navigate after log-in to the 5-Night Travel Packages:

--> Click on Explore Destinations above the picture
--> Click on Weeks Options, Marriott Rewards in the column on the left
--> Scroll down to Marriott Reward Enhancements and Click here.

Are there capacity controls or black out periods for TP?

I'm looking at Category 8 or 9 for next February.
Central America or Caribbean.

Thanks.

A travel package night is the same as an award night. Availability is no different. Sometimes, 7 nights becomes the issue, but you can use all 7 nights in a stay, and use some nights paid. As someone else explained, you can use 2 free nights then 2 paid and then 5 more free nights or whatever if it's all one stay.

Billy

Using a 7 night travel package certificate
 

I had the strangest conversation with Marriott Rewards this afternoon. I had redeemed a 7 night certificate/air travel award recently. I called to use the 7 night Category 1-5 certificate. I asked to make the reservation for 5 nights in San Antonio. The rep told me that was not possible and it had to be made for 7 nights. I told her that didn't make sense and I had done it before for 5 nights. She said I had to make it for 7, so I did. Guess I will have to check out early.

Has anyone had this experience before? It makes no sense. Who cares if I give up the last couple of nights. It's my reward.

I'm guessing they just can't attach the certificate to reservation if it doesn't match the number of nights.

So why make a big deal of it - just book the 7 nights and check out after 5.

Frankly, unless your TP cert is going to expire shortly and I knew I only wanted to stay 5-nights I'd just redeem a 5 night points stay and pay for 4.

Was the rep thinking that you hoped to keep and use later the 2-night award?

When TP's are booked, they show up in the system as a 5 plus a 2, prompting the occasional Flyertalk thread asking if you can split them up. I don't know why they book that way, and no, they aren't supposed to be split up. But I don't know why, systematically, they can't just book the 5 if the guest is aware that they are using the whole TP.

Look at it this way: you don't have to beg for a late checkout and you have a place to stay if your flight gets canceled. And canceled again the next day. :D

I'm actually letting my son use this. This certificate was going to expire soon and we already have our vacations booked for the next year, including 2 cruises that we obviously won't be able to use them. So I was just trying to make sure someone used it. I did email customer service to find out the logic but haven't heard back from them yet. I don't want him to get stuck paying for the daily parking fee for the days he isn't even there. I'll post if I get a response that has some good reasoning but I can't imagine what it would be. I probably got someone at reservations who just can't use any of their own thinking.

I've had lots of stays where I've parked in the hotel garage only on the 1st or last night of the stay and been charged correctly for it. The front desk should be able to handle that independent of what kind of stay it is. I would *hope* they wouldn't even pretend they can't...if that happens, definitely talk to the manager.

Booking 2 rooms at the same time using 2 Travel Package 7 night cert?
 

My relative had previously issued 2x Travel Package awards and has 2x 7 night certificates sitting in her account.

She just tried to book 2 rooms at the same hotel using 2x 7 night certificates she got using 2x Travel Package awards. The agent said that she can only book 1 room at a time.

Does anyone else have any experience on this? I don't see why you can't use 2 different certificates at the same time for a family who needs 2 rooms.

I have ordered 2 TP awards before and had no problems ordering 2 rooms (same nights/same hotel). Maybe the issue was they had to make it two separate reservations? Or maybe there was only one available award room left at the hotel?

It might be worth trying again with a different agent.

Thanks for the information.... I will try again today.

Yes, as suggested try again. All too often CSRs don't look for ways to do what you want, but rather find excuses for why things don't work like they should. Doing two separate bookings will probably work fine. There's no need to reference the first booking, but do track them both to make sure there are no issues shortly after completing the second rez.

Just book two separate reservations on two separate phone calls if it's too much of hassle to do it in one session.

Not sure if anybody knows - can a travel package be applied to a reservation in a different person's name? I know you can make point reservations towards another person, and you're not theoretically supposed to be allowed to on free night certificates.

The more-restrictive rules are for things like Megabonus certs, right? Although it sure seems like I've been able to put other people as Guest 2 on those too...maybe I'm imagining that.

In any case, I've never heard anything about more restrictive rules for TP's than regular awards. Just the limited ability to redeposit. I know I've redeemed 2 at a time (same dates, same hotel, adjacent rooms) and that's allowed, although I'm guessing I was still Guest 1 on both rooms.

Definitely yes. I gave a TP hotel stay to a friend as a wedding gift. It was no problem at all.

Thanks to both for the responses.

As for the certificate, it was a few years ago and I tried to call in to reserve a room under my wife's name for a cert (can't remember if it was the Chase CC one or a Megabonus, and I remember other people talking about it in the past.). I just added her as a 2nd guest, and we didn't have any problems, but I couldn't put it in her name as primary at that point.

Apologies if this has been previously addressed (I did check the previous 7 pages of posts), but how does the Travel Package work with "special" rooms; you know, the ones that require additional points or additional $s per night?

Also, I'm not seeing the special rooms offered as a Rewards option for many of the hotels I am considering for my next family vacation. The suites etc show up under the "Standard Rates" tab, but not on the "Awards" tab, so I'm worried that I wouldn't be able to get into the room I want with the Travel Package deal.

Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks

You'll need to see the hotel available for a regular award stay if you want to select it as your travel package destination.

Most hotels I've looked at don't allow you to pay extra for upgraded rooms. Ironically enough, I'm at one now that does, it's an Autograph property in Europe. I booked it at the standard award rate and then talked to the GM about upgrades. This property does a one class upgrade for gold/plat, and he offered me a second upgrade for 50 Euros/night. After checking in definitely worth the money.

Hello FTers,

Has anyone had an experience of redeeming a Cat 7 reward while using a Cat 8 cert from the travel package? will the difference in points be refunded?

Thank you!

I have gotten a refund before. Same circumstance. I had a cat 8 travel package and ultimately used at a cat 7 property. I asked if they can refund the difference and they did.

Yes, but I would call MR to have the reissue the cert as cat 7 and refund the difference. I would not count on it happening automatically.

Definitely true. If the cert will work for a specific reservation (i.e. a cat 8 cert will work for a Cat. 7 hotel), then the system will just use the cert with no refund. If you actually want the refund you will need to call in and get a CSR involved to help out.