it is a bad idea to put words in someone's mouth, especially when you don't understand what they are saying.

That is how it should look like.

The total of hotel point cost booked by TP is NOT going to match a pure point booking.

When I had a Cat 6 cert attached to a Cat 6 hotel (30K/night x 7), my booking showed a total of 75K pts, NOT 180K pts, despite the per night pts would show 30K and a 5th night free, but they do not add up to the total which is 75K.

If your cert is correctly attached, you will see the final total of the booking MATCHES with the surrendered value as we know it for that category - that is, 45K for 1-5, and add 30K each category up, incrementally. That would be the total pts you should see in your booking. Just ignore the details in each day's points which are only for pure point booking, not TP booking which is a bargain and to me, is where Marriott wants to create the biggest breakage, hence the secrecy and the no up or downgrade harsh policy.

I no longer have any idea what is going on... 1/2 of you say one thing and the other 1/2 say something else, ha.
Either way, calling in now to have them investigate and confirm everything is aok before the 18th.

Please let us know what you find out; I'm quite interested in how you can have a certificate supposedly attached and yet still need points to complete the reservation.

Who put those words into your mouth. If you do not understand, just ask.... :D
Bryan's TP is attached and you said no.
FrustratedinCA's TP shows the same way as Bryan's TP and you said that is attached.... Funny!

This is how my TP is attached. And I still need to deliver points. I figure you have not seen this before. And you said this is new data point. No, it is not.
Bryan's shows the same....

Just called in.
The rep confirmed that the certificate was NOT attached. The rep from the other day just booked through points instead of using my certificate. Since I only have a balance of 120k, and did not have enough to cover the point-only booking price of 240k, nothing was deducted hence the message that I owned points blah blah.

Now that she has fixed it, my reservation shows as:

• Order reward certificate(s) for this reservation

This reservation has e-certificate(s).

Your Reward certificates will be sent to your hotel.

Thanks all - glad I double checked this before the big day.

The price now shows as 280.32 USD 360,000 Points, which is what I paid for my cat 8 TP (360k).

Excellent! Yes, that was the point I was making that this message:

"Please remember to order e-certificate(s) once you earn the required points.
If you have not earned the required points 10 days prior to your reservation, customer support will contact you to discuss payment options."

made it clear it was not attached.

And had he listened to you he would not have a reservation with a cert attached to it. Perhaps you ought to investigate your reservation as well.

Slightly off topic, but anyone having issues booking a single cat 1-5 cert (from chase or promos) online? It keeps booking the reservation as "points advance" and not attaching the e-cert..

Just to summarize:

- a correctly attached TP cert will mean the reservation will say "reservation has e-certificate(s)"
- the number of total points shows on a reservation with a TP cert attached will depend on whether the TP cert was ever upgraded/downgraded/extended:
- if yes, then it'll say 45K + 30K per category above Cat 5 (i.e. the "refund" value)
- if no, then it'll say 270K + 30K per category above Cat 5 (i.e. the total TP price)

EDIT: here's a few examples of the points shown on my actual reservations:

Cat 7 7-night stay (cert upgraded) - 105,000
Cat 1-5 14-night stay, with 2 certs (one cert renewed) - 315,000
Cat 7 7-night stay - 330,000

Thanks for the real examples.

This is reassuring! I called to attach a Cat 8 certificate (that was purchased as Cat 8 and has never been upgraded or downgraded) to a hotel yesterday and mine shows exactly the same thing (280.32 USD 360,000 points) as yours

and now this!?!
 

and now for the latest MR agent confusion...I have a MR agent talking with supervisor about the in house memos and Q&A's...take this for what you want, but she tells me that I should just keep my cat6 instead of upgrading, because post merger cat 6 will be bookable with current cat 6 certs.....after 30 minutes of chatting, researching, talking with supervisor she still interpreted it that way. I said if i had something in writing from a company rep that i could make a case with, in case that was not the case, and I should have upgraded to cat 8...she tried to find one. a supervisor helped her find something that according to her had the same gist, just not the exact verbage to confirm...and that supervisor said it was for in house agent help and not for public release....this would be a very generous solution from MR, but I'm thinking in my head why the 1 month delay...I said I felt safer to upgrade to a lvl 8 in case it took that to get the stay at the lvl8 hotels that will drop to lvl6 post merger, she said I could book the new cat 6 hotel with my lvl 8 cert but would not get refunded any points (so no downgrades)...so she was trying to save me some points..I used my last 540K to get 2 low end pkgs and stock up on airmiles,...which is the real value for the packages (even after southwest stopped allowing them for CP)....I doubt she had all the info, probably misinterpreted some of what she did have, but if by any chance she is right, everyone but the top tier cert holders that have to scramble for the limited availability post 9/18, should be very happy.

At this point, nobody should take what ANY CSR says seriously. I'd say 99.9% of them know as much as we do, which is next to nothing.