7 Nights + 2 Plane Tickets Award
 

Does anyone know the awrd code for 7 free nights in Hawaii plus 2 plane tickets?

How many points would I need?

Thanks and Seasons Greetings...;)

We need a little more info to give you that. I think what you are asking about is a "Travel Package" award that includes 7 nights in a hotel plus FF points (and a small Hertz cert as well.) There are a few variations to the award that you will need to decide on. What is the category of the hotel you want to stay in? Which airlines do you want to use? How many FF points do you want? Check out theTravel Packages webpage from Marriott to see the variations. Once you make your decisions, click on the "details" link for that award and the linked page will tell you the award code. Note that this award is not an "Hawaii" award but a general 'anywhere in the world' award.

You will notice that there is a "Hawaii Sampler" award that allows you to split your nights among various hotels. Unfortunately, that award is not a part of the Travel Package. The hotel cert you will receive will be 7 nights in one hotel. BTW, there is no Marriott restriction that says you have to use the hotel cert for the same trip you use the FF miles on.

generally speaking, is this the best value using MR points?

A BIG YES :)

That's all I ever redeem my MR points for.

We cashed in for 2 travel packages this year.

We are going to Tokyo and Thailand for 2 weeks in Feb including First Class travel on AA and JAL.

I am looking so forward to this. It was an excellent use of points. Its probably my first and last time in international F.

I agree that these travel packages are by FAR the best deal with MR.

Mr. Vker:
Were you able to get Marriott to transfer more than 120k points to the airline of your choice - or did you already have a lot of points at the airline of your choice? Two international F seats surely took more than 120K FF points.

I think Mr. Vker transferred 120,000 miles with each package. Since he redeemed two packages, he was able to receive 240,000 miles. You are not able to redeem more than 120,000 miles for a travel package (regarding the miles in which most major American carriers participate in).

YES! ^

I earn 18 points per dollar spent at FS Marriott properties (10 + 3 Plat Bonus + 5 MR VISA). So when I use a Hotel+Air Travel Package I effectively get 18 airline MILES of my choice per dollar spent. I don't think you can find a better earning ratio ANYWHERE. So really the answer would be YES, this is the best value for any points or mile earning of ANY program. JMHO, well maybe not so humble.

VA1379 is correct, but I want to add that sometimes Marriott and a specific airline partner will have 'bonus' points added to the transfers. I think that there is a 10% bonus (so upto and extra 12K miles) for transfers into AA miles right now. I made use of that one for a Travel Package award last year and recieved 132K miles instead of the normal 120K. I think that there was a BA bonus a year or two ago as well (that one may have been a 20% bonus.)

I do believe there are some here that try to wait until Marriott has one of these bonuses before they order the award. The problem with that is that there is no 'official' time schedule for them or any real indication of which airline's program that Marriott will have a bonus for. So those persons use history, guessing, and just plain waiting. :)

Yes, but you can always get a regular 7-night award and then if a Airline miles bonus comes around you want to take advantage of before your stay, you can exchange the 7-night award for a hotel+air travel package. That is what I did a couple weeks ago for my stay that starts this Saturday.

Or another reason to make award reservations through an agent and not have the points deducted.

We cashed in as follows:

1) Cat 6 Hotel (7 night cert) plus 120,000 AA miles for 250,000 points
2) cat 7 hotel (7 night cert) plus 120,000 AA miles for 270,000 points

We had the other 30K miles already on AA. That equalled the entire 270k miles needed.

The plane tickets are worth approx $28000.00 not including the (2) 7 night stays.

We leave in just 5 weeks. ^^

The TP's are the main reason I do my hotel stays at Marriott. I'm about to cash another one. I'm on the fence about switching to Starwood for 2008 (reasons unrelated to the points or awards themselves), and if I do I will definitely miss the TP's. Starwood's version of the TP (Nights and Flights) is actually a weaker award than a straight 5-night Starwood award.

I thought I would add that we choose AA for these transactions. They have very easy online look up of award availability. They allow you to hold those tickets for 2 weeks before transferring miles. This allows us to have the reservations in hand before committing our Marriott points to AA miles.

What a great deal...was wondering what I should do with all my points. Since the miles do not need to be used in conjunction with the stay, it is essentially a way to just get a 7-night certificate? We may just want to bank the miles and use the certificate in Hawaii...would that work? Also, is it just AA that the miles can be transferred to?

Any airline partner. I have mine credited to CO. I have a gazillion miles in both programs, but seems I like to "dump" them into the ff mile program as its easy to do!


Also, as an elite (all levels, IIRC) they will do "expedited" transfers, getting them to the airline in about 2 days!

This has worked well for about 7 packages so far. ONLY problem is they are NOT LINKING the stay certs to the hotel you have reserved, and THIS WILL be a problem to come. See the post on the HI Hotel Sampler.

Why are hotel + air miles such a good deal?

7 nights at cat 5 = 115 pts
7 nights at cat 5 + 120k miles = 235k

so basically 120k marriot pts = 120k miles
7 (additional night at cat 5) = 5 US Flights or 2 Flights to Europe?

If u assume you can get each cat 5 night at $200 is the 120k miles worth $1400?


Though another thought:

7 nights at cat 5 + 120k = 235k
Take 90k and convert the miles to hhonors pts for an aloha award
7 nights at Cat 5, 6 nights in Hawaii Hilton + 30k airlines award for 235k.

The reason they are such a good deal is for the miles exchange rate, which IMO can't be beat. Using the hotel+air package means, as you ahve shown, that you get 1 airline mile for each Marriott Reward point. And since in my case I earn 18 Marriott Reward points per dollar spent at Marriotts, that means I am getting airlines miles at the rate of 18 miles per dollar spent. IMO, a great deal by any measure.

Definitely not at 1.17¢ per point would be a waste of points IMO. Now 7 nights in Paris at a Cat 7 for 150000 which would normally go for $5950 is worth it at 3.97¢ per point.

Right now I am staying at a Cat 6 for 3 weeks for 390000. If I had paid for it, it would have cost $10500. comes out to 2.69¢ per point. So the hotel awards work for me, but I am a bit choosy as to where I use them. But that's just me.

Now if the hotel+air packages don't work for you, then there are always other hotel frequent stay programs you can choose from. Most everybody who does use them sees them as a great value.

Regarding the Hilton exchange thing, why would you stay at Marriotts to get Hilton points? If you wanted Hilton points, then stay at Hiltons. Personally that's not something I would consider as Hiltons don't exist in destinations I frequent.

This is a great deal to exchange MR points for AA miles 1:1 is a steal. I have use this twice and we fly FS for 60K each.

Not saying stay at Marriott to get Hilton pts. However if the air + hotel awards basically are add 1 marriott pt for 1 airline mile then there is a benefit

1. 1 Marriot Pt becomes 1 Airline Mile Becomes 2 Hilton Pts. Using a 175k Aloha 6 night Aloha award u get a 6 night hawaii award for 87.5k Marriott Pts, a savings of 120k pts of a normal Marriott 6 night Hawaii award.

2. Everyone eventually needs to use a Hilton or Starwood when Marriotts are unavailable or perhaps where a friend's wedding is. In this case, you can use those spare pts along with converted pts to get a nice award.

Not to hijack thread but what happens if u do hotel & air and cancel the hotel due to plan changes. Can you use the cert on something else?

Also can you use a 7 night hotel cert over 8 nights (6 night reward, 1 paid night, final night reward)

Based on the changes Marriott made to their system last year, my understanding is that if you cancel a reservation that has a cert award attached, the award cert will be automatically redeposited back into your points balance. For an award cert received through a Travel Package you will NOT get the full award cert value. I think the amount is around 35K for a Cat. 6. (I may be off 5K or so as I have never actually returned a Travel Package hotel cert. A search should bring up what the exact amounts are.)

The way around this issue is to create a "dummy" reservation for a hotel and have Marriott attach your award cert to that "dummy" reservation, then cancel your original reservation. Once you decide on what you really want to use the Travel Package hotel cert, you can then call Marriott back and have them attach the award cert to that reservation. You can then cancel your "dummy" reservation.

Its a pain, but it should work.

Yes, you can use a 7 day cert for an 8 day stay. Your stay has to be contiguous nights, but Standard Award availability does not.

Is this deal is ON? DO you have a link to it? I've checked the MR site to no avail. Thanks.

I'm not sure I understand your question. But I think you are asking if the 1:1 points to miles Travel Package awards are still available. The answer to that question is Yes. You can find the details at Hotel + Air Travel Packages.

This whole thread has been about Hotel+Air Travel Packages including Northern Traveler's post. You get 1:1 when cashing in points for a Hotel+Air Travel Package's. Here is the link.

I understand now about your Hilton scenario. If I ever have a need to stay at a Hilton I will keep it in mind.

Yes. But as already stated you have to jump thorugh some hoops to do it right now. Marriott Concierge (Chris), the official Marriott lurker here on FT has told us that they will be fixing the underlying problem. This problem came about with the October 2007 downgrade of their reservation system and Marriott.com. The underlying problem is that you can't cash in an award without having a hotel reservation associated with it, hence the reason for making a dummy reservation to hold the Hotel portion of a Hotel+Air Travel Package.

Yes, although since October 2007 you now have to go through an agent to make your reservations.

Wondering how much value my idea has as a good use of pts?


7 nights at cat 5 + 120kmiles = 235k
Take 90k of the miles and convert the miles to hhonors pts for an aloha award
7 nights at Cat 5 (Cancun), 6 nights in Hawaii Hilton + 30k airlines award (R/T Airfare to Cancun) for 235k.

How much exactly is
7 nights of Cancun = $1000
6 nights of Hawaii = $800
30k airline award $400

Worth?

Would it be $2000 and a good use of pts?

Interesting...I wasn't aware you could do this...can you do the opposite? I am long on HH points, and would prefer marriott points...any way to convert them?

Not that I know of.

I agree 1000% with all the strong positives for the 7 night package award.

Just want to add that it can be a fantastic way to help get you to AA 1 or 2 million mile status--which gives lifelong Gold and Platinum Elite status respectively.

Plus I find AA miles the easiest to redeem bar none even before I earned status on AA--and I have been UA 1K and CO Platinum---which do not hold a candle to AA in terms of ease of mileage redemption (especially CO).

travel package hotel portion used for multiple rooms?
 

Hi, I'm a long-time lurker (many years), but recent member. I know about redeeming for the travel package and getting the 7-night hotel stay. Anyone ever had success in trying to use the 7 night ecert to book 2 rooms? 1 for 3 nights, 1 for 4 nights? We're going on a family vacation and will need 3 or 4 rooms, but probably will only be staying 5 nights at this location.

thanks!

I think the answer is no but I would love to be wrong on this. I tend to stay in a place for 2-3 days most of the time and being able to get 2 rooms for 3 days would be great. Let us know what you find out.

Welcome to FT :)

Sorry but the answer would be no :(

I've never seen this question asked before here and I don't read the rules as explicitly covering the issue. To those who assured the OP that the answer is no, what do you base this on? I'm not saying you're wrong; I just don't know.

Absent a definitive answer, the OP should either post a question specifically to Chris or e-mail the question to Marriott Rewards.

FWIW, I did a search on FT and didn't come up with much... but then again, there are a TON of threads/posts about how wonderful the travel packages are, and that they are the only way to redeem points, blah blah blah... hence this thread.

Besides, I see all the time on FT advice on how people "bend" the stated rules, with full understanding that it won't always work, be ready for the consequences, and all that. I'm just trying to see if anyone has actually tried to do this and has some advice. Even better if they were successful, but the last thing I want to do is make a misstep... I have some time, as the trip isn't until August.

The actual situation would be to try to use two 7-night awards for 3 rooms for 5 nights (paying the one extra night).

thanks

Here is the applicable T&C text: "A Reward Certificate is good for one consecutive stay, for one standard room only, as shown on the certificate." This text can be found at Marriott Rewards Terms & Conditions. Look at rule #9.

I read this to mean that each Reward Cert is good for one room only and only good for a consecutive stay. (Note that this does NOT say that the award nights have to be consecutive. It only states that the "stay" has to be consecutive. IOW, one could have a 10 night stay where nights 5, 6, and 7 had no standard award availability, but the other nights 1-4 and 8-10 could use one 7 night cert.) Should someone want to get 2 rooms one for 4 nights and one for 3 nights, you would have to order a 3 night award cert and a 4 night award cert. A single 7 night will not meet the T&C rules shown above.

Now does this mean that there are absolutely no GMs out there that might "bend" the rules for someone especially a known, frequent customer of their hotel? Possibly. I'm sure they have "bent" rules before, but I wouldn't count on too many bending this rule.

Well, yeah, maybe. You quote from the award stay language which may or may not pertain to travel packages. For example, the rule you quote also says that if you stay less days than the cert provides for, you can get points refunded. Think you can do that with a travel package certificate? I guess it would be good news if you could.

Just a guess:

Hotel manager might do this after you already have booked 2 week packages and one regular rate room for five nights - but only if they like you :) and if they have a way of modifying the reservations as you want without messing up their reimbursement.

Otherwise, you'll just have to throw away the 2 extra nights on the packages and pay for the third room.

I guess I will find that out in July as I requested two Travel Packages for two award rooms for 6 nights each. It would be great if I could get some points back from not staying that 7th night. But I'm not expecting any.

Marriott has some awards that are specifically designed for splitting nights (i.e. Hawaii and Europe sampler awards) where one gets 2 2-night awards and 1 3 night award. And as far as I have seen, a Travel package 7 night award is really nothing more than a 7 night award plus some airline miles. Yes, I realize they will penalize you if you try to return the room award, but that doesn't have anything to do with how a particular hotel would let you use the award. It is still just a standard award (unless you got the Stay Anytime version.) So I would think that they would have a Travel Package "Sampler" award if they were going to allow the use of multiple rooms.

With all that said, I'd love to be proven wrong. It would sure help me out if they would allow more flexibility in using the Travel Package room awards. :cool:

Marriott Reward Travel Package for family of 8
 

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this board and have a question about how many points I need for a trip to Hawaii for my family of 8. USAir points to Hawaii for the week we want to go is 70,000/person. The hotel is a category 7.

7 nights category + 70K miles = 220,000 marriot points

Do I multiply this by 8?

Or is it since I already have enough USAir points for 4 of us do I only need use marriott points for the other 4

Any help is appreciated

I'm assuming that a USAir ticket to Hawaii is 35K per person and that you already have 140K (since you mentioned that you already have the points for 4 tickets.) Which also means you still need another 140K miles to get the other 4 tickets. You also need a minimum of 2 rooms since you have 8 people.

So with that you could order two Travel Packages each which include 70K miles. This would cost 440K Marriott points. Of course if you want/need more USAir points, you can up your two Travel Packages to include more points.