I'm not sure I completely understand your question. I think you are asking about getting a travel package with airline miles, but NOT get a hotel week as that would cost less points.

The answer is you can not get a travel "package" reward without paying the points for the hotel portion as well. In other words, 120K per award is the maximum you can get. And as you have found, the direct points-to-miles awards aren't quite as nice as the 1-to-1 conversion rate.

It is possible to "return" the hotel portion of a travel package and get some points back. But the number of points you get back will not be very much (50K returned points for a Cat 6 hotel cert).

One possible alternative that may help you is does your soon to be spouse have any points? Marriott will allow spouses to help the other get a needed award. In other words, if you only have 100K in your account left after the other 2 awards, and your spouse happens to have 150K, then either you could order one of the travel packages and the miles needed would be combined from one to the other.

Yes you can use the 7 nights later-but it has to be used in a single stay.
also-are they allowing you to cash in on two travel pkgs at the same time?This might have changed but I thought it was a once a year per redemption thing.
You might want to consider dumping your miles into BA as they have a 30%bonus going on- http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...hlight=british and BA could take you to some nice places for your honeymoon
Congrats BTW!

Hopefully I can alleviate some of the confusion:

I am using two travel packages for our honeymoon (a supervisor at the platinum desk confirmed I can use them back to back). BUT, I think I'll need some additional miles for the reward airfare.

So, I was thinking that rather than converting 250K MR points to 100K (example) UA miles, I would rather get a third travel package and get 7 nights at a hotel plus an additional 120K miles for only 270K MR points (cat. 7).

It seems to me that I would much rather spend the same MR points and get the same air miles (almost) and get to enjoy another 7 nights at any cat. 7 Marriott.

If they(MR)will allow you to do it booking another travel package-and banking the 7 night stay for a later date-would be the way to go.
One suggestion.Rather tan spend the extra points for a travel pkg with a level 7 property book the travel reward for the miles and 7 nights in a level one to five property.You can always "up"your stay to a higher property when the time comes to use it.
And,again,yes, you can book the stay for a later date and transfer the miles now.There seems to be a 24 month window(12 months + a twelve month extension granted by calling MR and extending the cert)

Question for Chris on Travel Package award/Stay Anytime
 

Chris, if you have a seven night stay from an air/travel package, but the property doesn't have 7 consecutive nights for a standard award, but does have a 7 night period where it has, say, 5 nights of standard awards and two of Stay Anytime awards, is it possible to use points to upgrade two nights (or one, or three, or seven) from the standard (travel package) award to a Stay Anytime award?

Also, previously you posted that you can upgrade the hotel category award for a travel package (if necessary) by paying the difference in points, but can you also lower the level of the hotel category and receive a refund of the point differential?

And while we're at it ...

I've been working under the assumption that the hotel part of a travel package can be extended once, making the total time available as two years.

Others swear that, because it's electronic or something, the e-cert can be extended indefinitely.

I sure would like a definitive answer.

My local Marriott rep tells me that it is better to renew a certificate just before you are ready to use it and only then get an additional year. I have a certificate that came due last March waiting for renewal in my desk.

That's what I did, so my cert is now good until next April or May.

The question is, can I do that again, or is that the end of the line?

In response to ohmark's questions:

Upgrade rewards cannot be combined with standard travel package rewards (or any hotel reward) to cover the cost of nights requiring Anytime Rewards. A separate Anytime Reward would need to be ordered.

Increasing the category of travel package rewards is a creative customer service tool used by Marriott Rewards associates to help accommodate our members' travel arrangements, but the official policy is that travel package rewards, once ordered, cannot be altered. For this reason, points would not be returned if, for example, a category six reward was used in a category five hotel.

To answer BigLar's question:

There is no fixed number of times that a travel package hotel reward could be extended. As long as the reward exists in the same form, with the same point cost and benefits, we are happy to extend it. I suspect that some Marriott Rewards associates quote "one year" just to be on the safe side, but again, this is not a rule.

I hope that helps to clarify for everyone. As usual, if anyone has additional questions I would be happy to answer them for you.

Thanks, Chris. Just to make sure you understand, I'm not asking about upgrade awards. The problem I'm asking about happens very frequently when attempting to use the 7 night hotel award that's part of the travel packages. All too often, you can find 4, 5, or 6 consecutive nights at a property (particularly a resort) available for standard awards, but not 7 consecutive nights. What I'm asking, and maybe you already answered, is whether for one or two of the nights that are not available as a standard award, I can pay the additional points to convert those nights to stay anytime?

If the answer is no, perhaps it's something Marriott Rewards should consider. If the hotel is available for stay anytime, and I'm willing to pay the difference in points between the standard and the stay anytime for particular nights that are otherwise not available, why isn't it a win/win situation? The hotel fills the room. I spend additional points to get the stay anytime. And I get to use my 7 night award where I want, when I want.

MR-UA Transfer, Travel Packages
 

How long does the MR->UA transfer take?

Also, if I request the travel package now, I have seen multiple threads suggesting the hotel award can be prolonged (+1 year) or upgraded? Any details?

Thanks.

Lari

The mileage transfer typically takes only a few days to show up in your account.

The hotel cert is good for one year from date of issue, and can be extended one year (from the date of extension, so if you're going to extend it, wait until the last minute :)).

I have heard rumours that it can be extended more than once, but I'm not sure.

For me, my last transfer took nearly 2 weeks. Because I wanted the miles quickly I regretted not ringing up for an expedited transfer. (I think non elites might be charged for this service). I was told that once the on line order is in process the miles transfer cannot then be manually expedited.

Regarding the hotel portion of a travel package it now appears electronically on your account and I have been told in writing by Marriott that it does not expire (as the old paper certificates used to)

I'd love to have written confirmation of this. Might it be just a UK thing? I ask because I was warned by a CSR that my cert was about to expire and so I renewed it for a year.

If they never expire, it would take the pressure off me.

We had a catagory 6 travel package and made reservations in April of '05 at Kauai Beach Club, the expiration on the certificate was Nov. '05.....We traded into the timeshare portion of the hotel, thus not needing to use our cerificate. We had to send the certificate back to Marriott and they extended it for 1 year---from the date they got the certificate back.....not the original dates. I sent it back in March of '05---so, now when I got it back it expired in March of '06.....We made reservations at Frenchman's Reef for March '06 that ended after the expiration on the certificate. We had to send it back again so that it would expire past our check out date......it was extended for another full year from when they got it back. They did check to see that we had a reservation, and I don't think they were happy about it......but, they did do it. We had to talk to more than one person at MR to get this accomplished. Some reps didn't think it could be done.