No. You can call & get it credited. There should not be any charges on an award stay, unless it's a resort fee or you agreed to some type of upgrade fee.

Cheers.

I plan on ordering a package 1/1. I'm assuming the 5-night option is no longer on the table, but I am going to see if they will give me a 5 night for a 7 night price. It would make it easier to find availability (and I have an actual situation where this would make booking possible), plus I'd have to pay less in resort fees. Has anyone tried this yet?

Yoyo, the $39 ++ is probably the amount which MR is to pay the hotel, which was incorrectly billed to you. Just call that hotel & if the front desk can't help you, ask to speak to the Accounting Mgr. or General Mgr.

Perdue, AFAIK the 5-nighters are still on the table. Also, if you're forced to use a 7-nighter for a 5-night stay (wasting 2 nights,) you won't be charged resort fees on the 2 nights you're not there! Indeed, maybe you can get lucky enough to find someone to buy/ sublet the last 2 nights ;) .

With SWA, Companion Pass is good for year earned and following year. So if you do travel package in Jan 2017, CP is good for 2017 and 2018. If you did in Dec, it is good for 2016 and 2017.

@Brendan @SkiAdcock Thanks. Resolved in my favor.

Thanks you beat me to it.. haha.

I have a cat 1-5 certificate thanks for the travel package award. I also have a cat 8 award reservation being hold without paying the points (asking me to attach ecert to it).

I understand that I have to pay the point difference (90k) in order to use my cat 1-5 cert on my cat 8 reservation. So I called the CSR for that. After the end of the call, the cert were used and the reservation is now confirmed. The only question is, the CSR didn't deduct my extra points for that cat 8 reservation.

I would like to see myself lucky but still want to ask for the opinion. Should I be concerned about the reservation?

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps4dmlws3v.png

I would say yes, unfortunately. The property could very well see that a Cat 1-5 cert is applied to the reservation and tell MR that there is an improper reservation for their hotel's reward category. I'm definitely interested in the opinions of some of our more seasoned travelers/posters here too, though.

We are considering getting two TPs in order to get Southwest CPs. I anticipate using the CPs for flights with my wife as well as flights with my wife and four kids (oldest is 13).

Ideally I'd like to have one of the CPs in my name with my wife as the companion and one CP in a kid's name with another kid as the companion.

In order to do that I assume one of the TPs would have to be attached to one of my kid's MR account so the miles transfer to his/her Southwest account?

Any potential problem with having the Marriott cert in my kids account for use for a family stay?

Glad to see the packages can be used towards hotels 'on hold'. Have a Cat 6 that I am about to burn a package on, but am still undecided on which program to dump the miles into. Have quite a few AS so really don't need them there. And I'd like to use them for international premium cabin redemption but am split on which partner...

Just for the amount of miles UA seems to be the best choice. Anything else depends on where yu like to travel and airline you would use. I like AA especially for traveling on QR EY...missed the bonus window Nov 30 :(

Has anyone had any recent success booking a 5 night travel package?

I've tried 5 times over the past couple of days and have not had any luck with an agent. In the past, almost always got it done on the first call, maybe 2 calls if I was unlucky

How long ago was "in the past"?

Also, I'm assuming you're not a timeshare owner, right?

......

Any ideas?

I wanted to get Cat 9 Package and get SWA miles. My hope was to get the companion pass which you have to earn in 2017 in order to get maximum use. My stay is going to end January 3rd and I was hoping to use the Free week. Any idea on how I could use the Cat 9 Vacation week and have the SWA miles hit in 2017?

My travel dates are Dec 27th through the 3rd of January. Will They allow me to submit the voucher by the end of the trip!??!

That's a great question. I'm in the same situation and was planning on just getting CP for my wife and I, but it makes more sense to get it for one of the kids. Anyone know? I'm curious how the call to marriott to order the package would go, and whether you'd be ok to speak on your child's behalf.

Correct on not being a timeshare owner. FWIW, none of the agents specifically pointed out one way or another whether they'll still available for timeshare owners - just generic "we only have 7 night packages" when i inquired about a 5 night.

How recently were you able to book one? Doing my Google research, there's a ton of data points in early 2016 (many bloggers posted about it), but few datapoints within the past few months

Yeah, unfortunately I haven't seen any public successes posted since the bloggers advertised it.

I'm trying to imagine where we might reasonably go and stay in one hotel for 7 nights...

I've honestly been thinking about adding recommendations to the Wiki, particularly as I'm struggling with the same thing myself again. I previously stayed at the Prince Sakura Tower Tokyo during Cherry Blossom season and I thought it was a great use that went beyond the typical "beach for seven days." The hotel itself has a ton of cherry trees and was absolutely gorgeous this time of year. Also conveniently located to the train station and you can easily grab trains to leave Tokyo for day trips.

I take it you prefer to visit multiple locations while traveling, not staying in any one place for more than a few days. If so you will have to break with your habits to take advantage of this excellent offer. Fortunately there are lots of hotels in places worth spending a week at.

I suggest you look for a hotel that is both next to something nice and also a reasonable base of operations for visiting multiple things in the broader area. That's the approach I use. I've booked week-long stays at beach hotels that are also near cities, parks, and/or cultural attractions I'd like to visit. Understand that "near" may mean 2 hours away by car or transit. The world doesn't come on a silver platter.

Updated Data Point - I was still unsuccessful in my latest attempt, but i can confirm the package definitely still exists for Vacation Club owners

TBD if is now restricted to them in practice, and not just in theory

What number to call to extend a travel package?

any help appreciated.

Call MR. Explain your situation. If agent can't help ask for supervisor. Worst case they can't do it.

Doesn't hurt to ask. In my experience if something can be done, they will do it.

Good luck.

Thanks. The deed is done.

Advice needed.

I'm just a bit short of the 270k needed for a cat 1-5 package + 120k AS miles.

I have about 296k UR and 118k MR.
Should u transfer my UR 1:1 to Marriott or MR to SPG to Marriott?

I think MR are valued less?
My primary redemption are primarily premium seats to Asia.

MR = the original Amex home-grown program?

I *think* UR has a better theoretical value, as high as 1 Hyatt point which is around 2 cents for most people. But I don't know (Amex) MR well at all. I briefly had that in the 90's...haven't done anything with it since acquiring my SPG Amex some years ago.

So if both MR and UR are 1:1 to Marriott, I guess I'd use MR first...

We did a 7-night one in Paris and another TP in Hawaii at a resort. Lots of options...think of it as a base for exploring nearby areas instead of being stuck in one place for 7 nights and more options become available.

Yes MR is the Amex home-gown program.

I figured as much as well, but MR does have some interesting transfer partners such as ANA.

The problem, especially on this board, is that MR usually means Marriott Rewards and not Membership Rewards. So it would be better to clarify "MR" as "Amex MR".

Marriott has the book four award nights and the fifth night free. Would this apply to a five night cert, get the sixth free ?

1. By all available evidence, you will simply not be able to get the 5-night package unless you're a Vacations owner. No reports of success in the last few months.

2. No further free night on top of the package free nights.

If you do the math on the 7 night packages and count the miles at a 1:1 ratio with MR points, you will find that you are only paying for 6 nights when you get 7 on the certificate side. It is because the fifth night is free. Even with the travel package.

Here is an example of the Hotel + Air Package 1 category 8 where you get 120,000 miles.

Package Cost: 360,000 MR points
Subtract 120,000 Miles.
Cost of Hotel Portion: 240,000 points

Regular Category 8 Night Redemption per night: 40,000 points
Cost of 7 Nights: 280,000 minus 40,000=240,000 points

So you see, in the end, you are kind of getting the fifth night free. These same numbers work out across all packages with the exception of United. Though even with United, the numbers work out the same if you don't include the 10% bonus points.

This however doesn't apply to the Marriott Vacations Owner five night travel packages. Those packages are based on the pricing of the 7 night packages prior to Marriott devaluing the program in 2011. There is no free fifth night free in the five night package like you see in the seven night package. In face, in the case of the category 9 five night package, you are paying for all five nights and all the miles at a 1:1 ratio. Other tiers have a slight discount on the fifth night.

Right. Ever since the bloggers touted about it, Marriott has enforced the rule. Though that does not stop people from trying regardless nobody seems to succeed. May be someone would eventually find an agent who is not up-todate on this...

In other words, the 7 nights package essentially is only paying 1 extra night for the Cat 9 properties versus the 5 nights package, and 1 extra night + slightly more for the Categories below 9, versus the 5 nights package - so the saving is not as big as people think despite their obsession on the no longer feasible 5 nights cert for non vacation club owners.

And this is what I didn't realize myself. I had always assumed that the MVC Owners package was including a night free on a 5 night package, but that's not really the case. If you're getting a cat 1-5, and don't want the 7 nights, it is a bit of a difference, but not as good as most wouldn't probably expect.

I did an analysis over on TUG a couple years back of the premium paid on five night packages. You can find it here.

The Cat 9 seven night package only costs 45,000 more points than the five night package. So you get two more nights for the cost of one.

If you look at all the five night packages, there is a cost to that fifth night where it is free on the seven night packages.

Here is the breakdown of the cost of the fifth night from the thread linked above. The fifth night is discounted in all cases except the cat 9.

Category 5.......15,000
Category 6.......10,000
Category 7.......10,000
Category 8.......20,000
Category 9.......45,000

Thank you all for the "fifth night free?".
I have a six night stay at a Cat 6, so as a time share owner I bought the 5 night for 20000 points less . Miles ( 132K UA) were the same so looks like I "overpaid" a little (10K).

For the sixth night will pay cash ($ 139). $ 4500 so paying cash is "cheaper".

buy a cheap resale MVC week to become owner if one is obsessed w/ 5-night package.