Well it was done so the supervisor might have been misinformed but they did it and I could have misunderstood (I didn't) but I got what I wanted accomplish.

Ended up cancelling after because the properties didn't work for me - the same category requirement is what made it fail.

But again, it is nor advertised and it may not "allowed" but after a few back and forth between the agent and the supervisor that's what they came up with.

If anyone wants to try and see what answer they get, report back and we'll see if more agents are willing to do it.

I used the MR points transfer to do just this two times. A few notes:

1) I was able to get mine extended another year, but I had to call. They said it was a courtesy, but normally do it.

2) I was told that the names had to match on the accounts for the transfer to work (however, the first time I did it, I used the MR in my account and just gave my wife's name and SW RR number and it worked.

3) For others who want to blow a big chunk, another good time is get the 110K the first of January. The companion pass is go for the year it is achieved and the following year. That way you basically get two full years.

I have done the one year extension thing with the hotel certificate part of the travel package several times. The main things one should note are:

1. You must call Marriott Rewards to request the extension. They will extend a year from the day you call.

2. The actual date of expiration for the room certificate is processed differently depending on the online account system or the actual reservation system. Let me explain from my personal experience.

I had a 7 day category 5 certificate left over from an order in June 2010 when AA and Marriott announced that they were cutting ties. I had ordered this travel package to get 120k AA miles and had extended the certificate twice already. This year, the expiration date for the certificate was 6/29/13. I waited until 6/29 to call to extend the certificate this year. When I logged in that day, I noticed that my certificate was gone.

Marriott Rewards told me that it had disappeared from the online system used to make reservations, but the certificate was still in my account. I extended it another year and upgraded the certificate to a category 7 to use at the JW Marriott HK next year (the award reservation was made before the hotel went up to a category 8).

3. The best thing is to order travel packages with a category 5 certificate unless you know you want to stay at a higher property when you order the travel package. You can always upgrade the room certificate by paying extra points.

4. Any travel packages ordered before a major devaluation (like the one that kicked in January 15 2010) that increases the points for a seven night stay at one property will affect future pricing of a travel package.

Marriott will allow one to order a travel package before a major devaluation at the old rate and extend one courtesy extension of the room certificate at the old rate. Any further extensions will require one to buy up to upgrade the certificate to the new award schedule. I had to pay up in 2012 for one category 6 certificate extension. It costed me 50k extra points since pre-Jan 15 210, a 7 night stay at a category 6 property costed 130k, whereas it costs 180k points now.

Thanks to all for the excellent information and advice -- more than I could have hoped for. At this point, I think we're down to two similar options:

A) Purchase 100K Marriott points between my wife and I, combine our points into her account, transfer 270K UR points into her account and purchase the 370K Category 9/100K Rapid Reward package, OR

B) Purchase 100K Marriott points between my wife and I, combine our points into her account, transfer 150K UR points into her account and purchase the 250K Category 5/100K Rapid Reward package.

We will then call next summer and try to extend the package to the summer of 2015. Worst case scenario is that we have to go in 2014. Oh darn. ;)

Option B would save us 120K UR points in the short term which could come in handy over the course of the next year or two, but we know that we definitely want the Category 9 hotel in Paris when we go.

I'm also wondering if it is conceivable to combine another 100K Marriott points purchase in 2014 to lighten the Ultimate Rewards transfer (which I value more highly) and upgrade to Category 9 at that point? I'd love to hear thoughts and opinions on this and whether option A or B is more sound (or if I should be considering anything else).

Many, MANY thanks again!

--Jim.

Still hoping anyone with experience might weigh in on the two options I posted above. I'm strongly leaning toward Option B and purchasing 100K more points next year to upgrade the cert to Category 9. A good plan?

I'm concerned by something mentioned in this post about transferring points between spouses:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...dure-ever.html

In it, the Marriott rep states that points can only be transferred for a specific award redemption. I assume purchasing an e-cert would qualify, but would upgrading that certificate next year also qualify? Anyone with experience here?

Thanks again,

--Jim.

As long as the process remains the same, my understanding is that it shouldn't be a worry - you can just have a specific points booking (at any hotel) for the transfer that you later cancel and all of the points will stay in the transferee's account and, then, you can use them as you want.

the Cat 9 Paris props were "created" only this year.........what makes you think that come March of next year that the property you're looking at will remain at Cat 9 and/or the points for this prop will be the same???????
in fact, a limited # of props have been known to change catagory during unscheduled times as well.........
frankly, I'd make the 7-night resee now even though you don't have suifficient points and "lock it in".....the system won't release the insufficient point resee until approx one-week prior to the checkin date, but in the interim you can "play" all your proposed games......

Great, thanks again for the input. 100K Marriott points have been purchased, and I'm just waiting for them to post. Once that happens I'll transfer the Ultimate Rewards points and purchase the e-cert. Thanks again!

Does anyone know if the hotel cert can be split across multiple hotels?

AFAIK, no. Also the 7 nights have to be consecutive in the same property. Of course, u can check out earlier if u like.

Yes and no on that. The nights have to be used during a single stay, but you could have paid nights intersparsed within the stay as well.

IOW, if you had a 9 night stay, you could have 3 nights award, 1 night paid, 3 nights award, 1 night paid, 1 night award and it would work. All the nights have to be at the same hotel and equate into a single "stay".

the ability to split the 7-nights over different props no longer (for about 3-yrs for Europe and last yr or the previous for HI...... don't think it ever existed in the US but then again I'm a Marriott newbee) exists...........

The EU, UK and HI hopper certs were different, they did not include any air miles, and have been, sadly, gone for awhile.

Marriott Travel Package
 

Hi,

I am planning to exchange marriott points for a travel package that includes 7 nights at a resort and air miles. Does anyone have recent experience with this? I particularly am interested in knowing how long they take to get the air miles into our account. I am looking at American Airlines.

Thanks for any input.
Sue

AA miles should post to your account in 48 hours or less. In fact, the Marriott rep helping with your TP will be able to tell you how long the miles will take to show up.

Here is a piece I wrote on TP's. Hope it helps. Read it from the bottom up. The entries posted backwards. :)

http://www.rewards-insiders.marriott...ople/tker/blog