My e-mail from Marriott CS - pretty unequivical I think :

"Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding your Marriott Rewards account.

On checking your account, I can confirm that indeed you have an unused Hotel Reward which is part of the Travel Package 087 that you arranged on December 14, 2005. The partial hotel credit would be 50,000 points.

I would like to suggest to keep this certificate as this has an excellent value. Normally 7 night at a category 6 hotel requires 130,000 points.

The Reward is an electronic certificate which does not expire like a paper certificate after 12 months.

If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,"

Tom

I, too, would be interested in an answer to ohmark's question.

I'm sorry I missed this question when it was originally posted.

It is not possible to upgrade a individual nights of a standard travel package reward to an Anytime Reward nights. The ability to do so would add great flexibility to reward redemption, and I will certainly submit the idea for consideration. As always, the feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!! This is truly a great benefit!!!! It is nice to know that it is not a use it or lose it sort of thing.


Marriott Concierge:

Here is my question.

Point/Stretcher awards are usually (if not always?) discounted rates of a level above any given category e.g. Category 7 P/S = Category 6 awards (nights or packages, or for that matter Ritz Carlton reduced point night awards)

Is there any way, that a Category 6 hotel package award, as discussed above, (wonder where I got that example from? ;) ) could be substituted for a Category 7 or R/C Point-Stretcher 7 night award??

After all, they essentially equal the same number of points! :)

I am specifically thinking of the island of Maui where once upon a time, you had 3 Category 6 hotels -- prior to your upgrading the Marriott Wailea -- and your closure of the Renaissance Kapalua, and the impending closure of the Renaissance Wailea.

That leaves no Category 6 properties on that island, at all!

However, since the Ritz Carlton Kapula on a reduced night 7 night award equals the points that were required for the Category 6 package or hotel award, I think it only fair that the hotel certificates be able to be used at this specific property, even if one cannot make an overall blanket rule for the above.

Could you run this specific example by your superiors?

Thanks,

NJ

Indeed, that is a very frequent occurrence. I've often wondered if it was intentionallly done, so as to preclude the ability to use the more valuable 6- or 7-night awards.

When Redeeming a Travel Package, Which Airline to Choose?
 

I have redeemed for a travel package once before, but knew ahead of time the trips I wanted to use it for. Therefore there was no decision to make on which airline to choose (In this case it was Southwest and I was able to get 5 free R/Ts plus put my account over the top for a CP).

Now that I'm approaching enough points for a second package with no preconceived plans for a specific trip, I have some more flexibility.

I believe it is is fairly common knowledge that the travel package award is the best "bang for the buck (points)". However, I don't recall seeing discussion of which airline to select within a travel package (If I'm mistaken, please point me to a thread - I didn't find anything in my cursory search).

So my question - within the constraints of the available redemption partners for a Marriott Travel Package, which airline gives the most value for the redemption? For purposes of this discussion, assume no elite status with the airline.

I'm initially intrigued by the Frontier Airlines option where 120,000 miles could get nearly 5 R/T's to a variety of Mexican resort destinations (25,000 each) or 8 R/T's to LAS, but I'm curious what options others have chosen or dreamed up.

You have to consider what will give you the best deal, and it depends on your location and personal travel patterns. If you tend to fly with LCCs, then you should redeem with Southwest or Frontier. I fly mainly with United, and I would redeem for United miles to use for upgrades or free tickets when the airfare is expensive (at least 3 cents/mile).

I would hold off redeeming a travel package until you know what you want for the airline award. You have some time to think about it since you do not have the points currently for the package. You can always lock in an award stay for the hotel by making the reservation without paying for it, and you can get the hotel reward certificate later (from a travel package or redeeming for free nights).

Do you already accrue AA miles? Their program is unique in that all miles - including partner miles - count towards lifetime levels. One of my Marriott Travel Packages in the past pushed me over 1MM lifetime earned miles.

This benefit and the WN CP benefit you point out make those two programs of additional incremental interest above/beyond the miles themselves.

I find that the foreign carriers are much tighter with the miles you get in a travel package. I am going to order one shortly and am using United miles to get a flight on Thai. You get 120K United miles but only 85K ANA for the same package. I just wish United was still on AMEX membership rewards.

You might also check for which carriers offer bonus redemptions for hotel points. British Air has offered as much as a 50% bonus, and others including Northwest have offered bonuses in the past. I'm not sure about current offers, but I always wait to buy travel packages until there is a promo being offered. It increases your points received from 25% to 50%.

I got a 20% bonus with AA, and I believe BA is currently offering their usual 50% bonus.

Is that bonus a Marriott one or an AA one?

Are you saying that if the Marriott transfer provides 85k miles-you will get 127500 miles from BA-with a 50% bonus?

Along the same line of thought. I've never used a package in the past, but based on past comments on this board was considering the 7 night in a category 7 with airfare to Hawaii. But what I encountered was the resort hotel only showing stay-anytime availabilty throught the spring and early summer months. If I was to send the points to my AA account, what would be the chances of standard rewards on both the resort side and airline side showing up together to make a 7 day trip possible. I'm sure others have done it, and my search was just a very cursory search to assess availability. What has been your experience?

This may not help with your specific goals on this trip, but the 7 night cert and the miles can be used independently.