I can be a little dense sometime, but I'm confused about the travel package. I read it to say it is seven consecutive nights in a category xx hotel. To me that means I have to stay in the same hotel and cannot split those nights between two different properties. True?

True (although I think there's still might be one plat program in HI that allows a split, but this may be gone too)...............

Does the certificate work like a points stay or a cash stay? In other words, does there have to be rooms available for points in order to use the cert? We're looking at Rome in May and hoth the Grand Flora and the Boscolo are showing no availability for a points stay.

Correct-it is a points stay. So you must be able to see points availability to use the TP certificate.

limited dates ARE avalable at both but no 5/7 consecutive nights...........

try the Marriott Rome Park which is available in May for point stays except for the 10-16th......

BKKLEE,

Where did you find the availability? When I was searching yesterday I ended up on a page with a calendar that showed "Not available for check in" on every day in May. Now I can't figure out how to get back to that page...:rolleyes:

Edit: okay, I figured out that by saying my dates are flexible it shows the calendar, but all of May, June and July are showing unavailable for redemption. I'll keep looking...

Change the number of nights to 1 and it will show you all of the nights for which awards are available. Award nights do not need to be contiguous, but the stay incorporating the award nights does.

For example, you could use a 7 night Cat 8 TP for a stays at the Boscolo from May 3 to May 14 and use the cert for May 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11-13 and then pay for May 4, 6, 8, and 10. There needs to be the same room type available on the paid nights.

The easiest way to do this is to call reservations to have this set up. I don't even know if it can be done online with the Cash and Points feature. My guess is not since Marriott IT tends to FUBAR all enhancements the last few years.

BTW April 28-May 4 is available at Rome Grand Flora.

As BKKLEE said, the Rome Marriott Park looks to be available all of May except for the 10-16th.

I know nothing about these hotels but the Rome Marriott Park is a Cat 5 and the two you mentioned are Cat 8. Do you have a Cat 8 certificate?

edit: and as aaupgrade said the Marriott Grande Flora is available for check-in on April 28th or 29th

Just for one further information point. I went to Rome last May/June and spent a week there on a travel package.

I redeemed the travel package in January and booked my air travel. Around the middle/end of April all of the Marriott hotels in Rome began to open up award space that allowed for me to use my certificate. Before that point they did not have any nights available for redemption.

Once they did open up the award space they seemed to open whole months at once.

Thanks, nissan 720,

That was beginning to be my plan. Good to know it's a possibility.

P.S: I grew up in northeast OK.

travel packages with u/g certs
 

Can anyone tell me if:

you can use a travel package and points to get nights at properties that normally require both...

specifically st kitts beach club - 3 bed villa normally = 3 upgrade certs a night from a cat 6

so 300k points gets me 7 nights + 120k airmiles
7x3x5k gets me the upgrade?

total per week 405k points and airmiles in the bank?

I think your math is correct...I used a travel package and upgraded with points for that exact property.

Check the cash upgrade option and see how much it costs to upgrade by cash vs using the extra 105K points. I recently booked a travel package and chose the cash upgrade option vs the points upgrade option based on my comparison of relative value of the two.

How does the cash upgrades work?

Specifically for travel packages-When you call Marriott Reservations to book the hotel part of the travel package you can ask them if there is a cash upgrade option and what the $ cost would be to use it. Then based on the $ cost you can decide whether to use cash or points for the upgrade.

In general Marriott offers cash and points upgrade options on award stays and you can see it -if available -when you try to book an award stay on their website.

More details in this post and others-
http://thepointsguy.com/2012/09/maxi...uite-upgrades/