And this as of today appears to be how they will handle it.

The only published information about what would happen to existing certificates obtained before the program change has on the FAQ at https://members.marriott.com/faq/

The key sentence was: "Starting in August, any outstanding Certificates will be updated from Category-based to points-based values in the new combined redemption chart and may be used for stays at Rewards or SPG hotels up to the points value displayed on your updated Certificate."

This was in the context of free night certificates form credit cards. However, in the absence any published details about certificates from travel packages, it was the next best thing.

I purchased an old Cat 8 certificate and made an old Cat 8 reservation. Like you, I didn't attach the certificate. While I merely doubt that I will be allowed to combine the two now, I am certain that I will receive conflicting answers about the ability to do so from CSRs and other posters on FT.

I highly doubt it was an outright lie, but at the very least it was huge misinformation that people were taking as "truth" because he happens to be a Lurker. I know that the Lurkers have established quite a bit of credibility here on FT, but FT is NOT an official channel for Marriott communications, nor are the many blogs out there where the bloggers have "inside sources." Add to this fact that the CSRs were giving contradictory or completely inaccurate information regarding the usability of certificates, ability to upgrade/downgrade, etc and we have Marriott successfully POing their most loyal, point-hoarding and social-medial savvy customers.

Marriott could have avoided all of this by:
1. Stopped selling legacy TPs as of a certain cut-off date (far earlier than 23:59 EDT on 8/17)
2. Informed those who were buying TPs in the last 30 days that there would be a 1 month blackout period or what the mapping would look like
3. Provided all CSRs with official talking points regarding legacy TPs
4. Used their own communications channels to provide updates instead of FT/bloggers

In fact, other than here on FT, I still have not seen any details on official Marriott channels (email, Marriott.com) relating to the 1 month blackout, inability to upgrade/downgrade, the mapping of legacy to new certs or anything. This lack of official communications has been very disappointing.

Out of curiosity, how have the CSRs been responding on those topics over the last couple of days?

I was actually wondering about the certificates from credit cards. Since the Chase certificate has not been converted yet (at least mine hasn't), I wonder if I have a case to use it at a cat 5 hotel since it says 1-5 in my profile?

I'd push back a bit on this. The Lurkers are credentialed representatives of the corporation posting publicly in the name of the corporation and in their capacity as employees. FT may not be an official channel but their are certainly making official statements.

Oh I agree - what they post has to be vetted and approved by management. But going back to the earlier post by SPG Lurker saying all floating certs would be converted to points and then Marriott Lurker saying, nope, they will be mapped to new certs - it proves that management clearly did not know what path they were going to take when SPG Lurker first posted. Clearly a lot people made the decision to gamble based on SPG Lurker's post because it came from a credentialed representative. Now the house wants to change the rules mid-game, so people are steamed. I do not blame the Lurkers as they have been an invaluable resource in the past and will continue to be so - but I 100% blame Marriott management. They dragged their feet on making a decision and that decision still does not feel "official" to me.

Problem here is...many more people aren't on FT, nor do they read blogs summarizing the information. Official announcements need to be done through proper channels, not some forum post nestled in some thread with 5000 posts.

This x100. And if it truly is official, then why not post it somewhere on Marriott.com and/or email those impacted directly? At the very least inform your CSRs.

upgraded certs to cat7 thus mapping to new cat5

If Marriott had publicly announced the Marriott Travel Package certificate conversion chart in advance, nobody could legitimately complain. That's really the point and source of all the dissatisfaction.

I can see it from both sides. If you were gambling and lost oh well, that's the game you played. If you're buying a travel package to use and overpaid by 30,000 points, were told incorrect information by a CSR (I was explicitly told I could extend the package if needed so if I can't extend two certificates by a couple months I'm kinda screwed) and received zero communication from Marriott I think you have every right to be pissed. If nothing else this has made me start looking into the other hotel loyalty problems. I haven't done a deep dive, but Hiltons diamond status match looks interesting: https://statusmatch.hiltonhonors.com/

Can you explain how you calculated these in more depth?

Well, some bad news for those of us who overpaid. At least in the interim. According to my source at the company, it appears that Marriott is going to double down on the values being fair for those of us who paid more than we needed to.

Information is going to be forthcoming, but basically, their logic is that if you bought in on cat 6 or 8 or T1-3, the majority of those hotels are now available in your new category plus you have access to the SPG inventory. Of course, this ignores the overpay that others didn't have to make and the withholding of information.

Seems like action is going to be necessary now.