Just to confirm, I redeemed 270K points for a Cat5 7 night stay and 120K WN RR points. I made the request on a Monday evening and the points posted in my WN account Wednesday morning as Companion Pass Qualifying Points^

I did sweat quite a bit all Tuesday ::D

I have since registered my Companion online and made a booking. No issues. Havent received the actual Companion Pass Card yet. Not sure if that's checked when checking in.

How does the "Companion Pass Qualifying Points" work for this ? Is this a Southwest Promotion when redeeming a certain number of points, etc?

Or is this something on the Marriott side of things?

Thanks!

The Southwest Rapid Rewards 2.0 program has 3 types of points (and the same "point" may actually count for multiple categories):

1) Points (redeemable)
2) Tier Qualifying Points (not specifically redeemable on their own, used towards annual elite [other than Companion Pass] qualification)
3) Companion Pass Qualifying Points (not specifically redeemable on their own, used towards annual Companion Pass Qualification)

In the Marriott Travel Package situation, the points deposited into one's WN RR account count as Points and CPQPs. Since the 120k points transferred from MR to WN are CPQPs and exceed the 110k CPQPs needed to earn the CP, a CP may be earned simply by the transfer.

You are a GENIUS! Well, whoever found this out and you. This is a HUGE benefit, knowing how this works. This method gets you an extra benefit JUST from the points transfer.

Hey, I almost never fly Southwest, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out the extra benefit of this transaction if you do.

Now, if only transferred miles counted as Elite-Qualifying Miles on United . . . wishful thinking. :cool:

Travel Package & Upgrade Certificate?
 

Been reading a lot of threads in here which have been really helpful so far, so let me know if I'm making any incorrect conclusions here.

Thanks to the info on here I will be booking a travel package for my honeymoon to St. Kitts next year (have not called it in because the flights are not available yet and I'm not sure if I will need 100K or 120K miles, plus wasn't 100% sure if we were going to stay in the Category 5 Resort or the Category 6 Beach Club).

From what I've read, the availability of rooms with the travel package is the same as the availability of points rooms, is that correct? When doing a travel package, do they just give you the least expensive room? If so, can you use the travel package in conjunction with the "upgrade certificates" required to just book the room with points (5,000 points each per night)? To prove I really did search, this is the closest answer I could find which seems like you can, but it was from 2006 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...ne-choose.html . I know people have mentioned getting upgraded from a standard room (this is my first year as Platinum, hopefully can keep it for next year), but don't really want to risk that for my honeymoon.

I think we prefer to stay at the beach club, and due to checking the Marriott website everyday, I was able to reserve an oceanside condo for 250,000 points, which included 2 upgrade certificates per night. It was pretty interesting because at first I just reserved it without using points, but when I went to look at the points requirements again it said no points rooms were available. So I cancelled that, and it came back, so I reserved it with points instead. And now there are no points rooms available again, so it might've been the only one! So after all that babble, basically my main question is that when redeeming the travel package, I should be able keep this same room, correct? Worst case is I would need to cough up an additional 10K points per night?

Well if anyone wondered about the resolution to this (probably not!), I was able to switch the points reservation to use the 7-night certificate from the travel package instead, however I did still have to pay the extra 70,000 points for the upgrade, as I pretty much expected.

On a side note, which is a topic for another thread and was probably already discussed at some point, when changing points reservations via phone, I guess the specifics of the changes don't show up in your account activity. The points just magically appeared.

Thanks for the update. BTW - I would have thought the specifics would show up in the account activity, so thanks for the heads up on that.

Cheers.

FYI, we have been to St Kitts three times - once at the Timeshare and twice at the hotel. We are booked at the Timeshare again this coming winter (we are MVCI owners and traded in). We really enjoy the property and I am sure you will have a great time.

How to redeem Travel Package?
 

I already have the 7 night stay reserved at a Cat 6 on points. Do I just call sometime between now and the start of the stay to convert to a travel package?

The stay isn't until April but I don't want to convert right now just in case we have a change of plans. As I understand it then the week long Cat 6 cert would only be good 1 year from date of issue and I wouldn't get much of a refund if we decided to stay at a cat 5, correct?

TIA

Yes, the award certs are only good for 1 year, but there have be a number of posters here stating they have had good luck getting the certs extended for another year.

Basically, as long as you have your reservation already made, then you are "safe" in terms of your hotel award.

When you are ready to get your airline miles deposited, just give MR a call and order your TP award, and then let them know you have an existing reservation you would like to use the hotel portion with. They can attach the hotel cert to that reservation for you and you will be good to go.

Just call Marriott Rewards.

Marriott Nights
 

I have looked through a few places to find the answer to my question, but the search function is not working for me right now.

If I do the travel package, do I have to use all 7 Marriott nights all at once? Can I break them up and us some in one place and then a few months later use the remaining?

It is a 7 night certificate. Has to be used all al once for 7 consecutive nights at one property.

Thanks--that is what I thought!

Best Marriott to use for Travel Package?
 

I have 311,000 points so far and stay in a Marriott weekly. I would like to book a travel package to use Oct. 16-23 for a fun relaxing celebration with my best friend. Recommendations on the best Marriott to go to?