Well, you don't multiply by 8.
You multiply by the number of rooms you will need total. Each of the packages will come with the miles so if you order say 4 packages for 4 rooms you will also get 70K x 4 miles (or more if you pick a higher award). If you have no other air miles independent of these awards, that will leave you 4x 70k short. You might want to take the award with 120k miles (270k points) but that will also leave you short by 80k miles to get free tickets for all 8 so you might have to buy one. USAir may also have a way to buy miles to reach the award level required.

I guess the problem is US Air requires double the usual 35K miles. It seems to me that you might want to consider buying some of the tickets - especially for the people in the group who can use the earned miles on US or any Star Alliance carriers. Given the economy, you might find good fares on US or UA.

When you redeem a travel package award, you actually get two things (I was going to say two "pieces of paper", but they are literally pieces of paper). First, you get a hotel voucher (in this case, a 7 night stay at a cat 7). Second, you get airline miles deposited into your designated account. Accordingly, if you are planning to cram 8 people into one standard hotel room, you'll only need on hotel voucher.

Having said that, it reaches a point where you're better off doing the travel package because the incremental cost over just redeeming for miles is minimal. There is no requirement to use the hotel voucher at the same time as the miles, so you can just get extra hotel vouchers and use them in the future. I *think* they expire in one year but can be extended for another year for a minimal fee of $50.00 (If I'm wrong on that, someone will surely correct me).

The hotel voucher is electronic and either doesn't expire (according to Chris) or can be extended indefinitely for free.

As of October 2007 you have to have a hotel reservation to which you attach the 7-night hotel certificate, even if it is a dummy reservation just to hold the certificate. Chris told us a couple months ago that they intend on fixing this, so you won't have to have a reservation, but right now you do. If you cancel an award stay that has the Hotel portion of a Hotel+Air Travel Package attached, then the greatly reduced number of points for the Hotel portion of a Hotel+Air Travel Package will automatically be returned to your MR account. This is one of many bugs resulting from their October 2007 software downgrade.

7 nights + miles travel packages
 

This is probably a dumb question, but search is broken. If I redeem 250K points for a 7 nights cat 6 hotel package plus 120K UA miles, can I still use the 7 nights at a Cat 5 property if my wife changes her mind about where she wants to stay on a trip?

Yes you can

You can also use the award cert for a shorter number of nights. I rarely stay anywhere for 7 nights. I just redeemed a travel package for a 4 night stay, as use of the airline miles made it worthwhile for me.

If your not sure of the hotel you want to use the hotel cert for order the lowest possible category (i.e. Cat. 1-5). You can upgrade a cert by calling MR and paying the point difference between the category levels. So no penalty. But you can't call MR and get points back by reducing your cert's category level.

That is a TERRIFIC piece of advice. I wish that Marriott made this clear. Thanks so much!

Thanks a lot for all the good tips. You answered questions I hadn't even thought to ask yet.

After reading the instructions for redeeming this award, I have a couple more questions. It says to call in and choose your hotel, and they will issue an electronic certificate. I don't really have a set trip just yet, but it says it takes up to 6 weeks for the miles to appear in your account. Can I just choose any hotel in the right category for now and then change it later so that I can get started on the process of transferring the miles? Is there any problem changing dates or the hotel once you call in with a particular hotel as part of this award and they issue the electronic certificate? It does mention that you can pay an expedite fee and get the miles faster. What is the fee and how much faster can you get them?

Miles typically post 48-72 hours. You do not have to use the hotel at the same time. In fact, I don't think I ever have.

Like San1K, I rarely use all 7 nights - it is easier to get a suite upgrade that way :)

The biggest issue with changing hotels is making sure there is Standard Award availability for the hotel you want to use the award at. Other than that, a quick and easy call to MR can get your award cert associated with a different hotel award reservation.

I have redeemed numerous packages, and HAVE received the points back when downgrading from a cat 7 to 6.

Now, has anyone ever used the cert for 7 days for 2 rooms over 3 days each? I have this coming up, and will attempt this!

(Or thinking of the euro special 3 hotels, 7 nights....2,2 and 3, for the 2 rooms)

The single rooms for 3 nights is a KILLER in points!

That is great to hear. Was this a recent request? Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me do that in the past (about 3 or 4 years ago I think.) Also per Chris, who used to be the Marriott Concierge, found here Question for Chris on Travel Package award/Stay Anytime View Single Post , officially points aren't given back for using a cert at a lower level hotel.

Also, I found the Chris/Socrates -- Reward Code 086 Question thread, while old it is still probably valid, where it implies that a single 7 night award cannot be used for multiple concurrent rooms. But go ahead an ask anyway. Maybe something has changed, or maybe you will get lucky and the hotel will allow it. Good luck.

Good advice is common among FTers. But this one is beyond good. Its' fantastic. ^
Thank you.

I'm actually about to redeem one of these purely for the miles. Is it still possible to redeposit the hotel certificate for MR points? I don't really see myself using the certificate anytime soon or should I just keep renewing the cert?

Unfortunately Marriott just downgraded the hotel portion of air/hotel awards so that if you return only the hotel portion, you get far fewer points than you used to.

So, I'd keep the cerftificate alive for a year, renew and try and use it even if only for a 3 day stay or so, you'd come out ahead. Of course, if you can use the whole 7 days stay, even the better.

Keeping the certificate alive keeps your options open, once you turn the certificate back in, it's gone and you get very few points back...

Billy

Yes you can, I just did it...downgraded from a Cat 6 to a Cat 1-5 package award.

Hi,
Is there a fee to renew the certificate? and how many times can you renew this certificate?
Thanks
Trang

Are Travel Packages Still Worth It Or Should I Just Book A Hotel Only Reward?
 

Comments requested.

Thinking now that with the devaluation of FF miles given the new fees associated with obtaining such awards, and the general problem of date availability and whether or not a non-stop is available to your desired destination, whether a re-thinking of the benefits of a travel package where one gets FF miles now needs to be re-evaluated.

We are not elite in any airline FF program, so difficulty in using miles is greater than for someone who is elite or expects to remain elite in their FF program where award availability may be greater than for the average person.

Just wondering whether it now might be better banking the extra MR points that are associated with a travel package (and their conversion into FF miles) and instead just using them for another straight hotel reward for future stays.

With prices of European hotels through the roof, I was thinking that this may be a better long term use of points for someone in our position.

What say you?

Thanks!

It depends on your circumstances. For me, transferring MR points to AA is a huge plus and continues to be a great value. In fact, as fares continue to rise, the FF miles become more valuable. I've never had a problem redeeming awards, provided that my travel plans have been flexible.

It depends on your redemption patterns for plane tickets and hotel rooms. If you can get first/business tickets on international flights, the travel packages are nice. If you are satisfied with coach tickets and like to stay at hotels in London where room rates can approach $800, you might be better off redeeming for a week of free room. I will redeem my first travel package in the next two months, and I intend to get AA miles. With enough time, I should be able to get lifetime gold and maybe platinum on AA.

I hear both of you loud and clear. I, myself, have been redeeming points from my Marriott account towards AA lifetime Gold -- don't know if I will ever reach it but am trying.

The points we are redeeming are from my wife's separate account, and we are not sure whether it is worth it to pursue in AA or anyone else.

At least one of you are elite in AA so that also makes a difference, of course.

Would love to fly business over to Europe but it is not available and since R/T coach to Berlin I snagged for $610 on DL -- with exit row on the overnight for us, it seemed that perhaps, I should just redeem the hotel only reward and bank her points for a future hotel award or travel package.

Berlin Marriott is our reward hotel if one had not guessed yet.

With 50,000 miles for R/T European travel and at the very least approx. $100in taxes and fees, not to mention future or present fees for reward seat redemptions on various airlines, I am starting to wonder whether in the long run, FF mile redemptions, and the programs, themselves, have any long term future. (I know that some are considering switching to a cash back card in lieu of their FF miles earning cards.)

I always have classified Hotel rewards programs in a different category as it was always far easier to redeem such awards and still is a lot less expensive to drive to certain destinations for points earning or redemption possibilities (mattress runs, etc.) than flying to a destination for your vacation -- even with $4.00 fuel -- you just don't necessarily travel as far.

More comments welcome!

My patterns have changed. I have to say, that I have close to 750K in my account, and earn about 700K-900K a year! So, YMMV.

BUT...that said. I am now looking at using my UA SWU's to u/g coach tix, and NOT dump miles into CO/UA ff accts. I feel that the use of MR points for London (my wife's FAVORITE place!) and other expensive hotels is now a better value, while paying for coach and u/g'ing.

WOW! However, is that MR points or FF miles -- still quite impressive!

But I hear you. Am doing a re-think on the travel pkgs -- at least my spouse's. Since I can put FF miles into my AA account only from my MR account -- I think we will pass on the travel pakg option with hers.

More views on this issue, requested!

Excellent question Njupin... I too grappled with the pending issue over the past month, while in the process of booking a travel package to Rome next summer. I was at almost 600k of Marriott points. I always book my trips well in advance to take advantage of availability. I did book the 0910 pack (7 night cat 7 and 120k AA miles) at the end of the day. I plan to use the AA miles on long haul international as stated by Bpauker, to get the most value.
Even with award tix fees, taxes and fuel charges....getting international award tix is still a good value.

In my current situation...my Marriott earn rate is much faster...and will continue to be much faster than any of my preferred airline earn rates (AA, DL, UA). This past spring I used 240k of "airline" AA miles to go to Cancun, depleting my AA account down to a "measly" 250k. If my earn rate improves on the Airlines then I will tend NOT to book a travel package and use the Marriott points for hotels only.

I am elite in AA (LT gold....also going for LT Plat) and UA so that helps. Transferring miles from Marriott to AA helps in the quest for LT PLAT.

But you can put AA (or any other airline Marriott deals with) miles in either of your accounts.

Example: to put miles in your wife's AA account with a travel package where she has only 100K Marriott points but you have a million. Order the reward (by phone, I imagine) and tell them you'll be making up the difference from your account. They will take 170K from your account (100K + 170K = 270k) and dump it in her account, issue the cert in her name (or yours, I think) and put the 120K miles in her AA account.

Problem is that I have over 300,000 in my account and she has over 500,000, so neither could do this maneuver -- at least not right now.

Will consider it when mine drops below the amount required for the award, but I think that for the present, I will just redeem a hotel only award from her account -- but could be persuaded by contrary posts on this issue! :)

By the way, in doing research for this post, I came across HHoppe1 post about now being able to upgrade/downgrade hotel portions of a travel package -- could not do this before and did not know of this change.

This was important to me as I am sitting on a 7 night Category 6 reward and would have loved to downgrade it and get the 15,000 points refunded to my account -- Guest Rewards confirmed that this can be done.

However, Berlin is such a hot destination right now, that whereas a couple of years ago award availability was wide open for the Marriot and the CY City Center -- that is not the case now.

Problem is the 7 night award is booked under the wife's reward number and they will not substitute my name and awards number for hers.

Was told that SOP was to cancel the reward reservation and then re-book under me. Problem is, space is so tight, unlikely would get the dates wanted -- Calendar shows many dates already sold out for Standard Rewards.

So unless one of you know a special phone number to make the switch, will have to content myselfy with the 7 night awards stay taken from her account, and upgrade/downgrade my Cat 6 for some other stay -- no biggie, but would have preferred to clear the books before using another reward.

I believe that travel packages are better now than ever. International flights to/from my country have gone up 50-80% this year so converting MR points to AA miles is a great deal for me. If you are pursuing your 1MM threshold for lifetime gold, that's a major reason to keep on using them. Gold makes a lot of difference with AA.

The travel packages are the only awards I redeem with MR. For me they provide the best value.

I booked an Executive First ticket to Brazil on Air Canada (75K miles) over New Years plus 7 nights at The JW in Rio ^ and I still have 35K miles which can fly me anywhere in North America in Y.

Another factor to consider is how quickly you'll use the airline miles. For the last several years, as my MR balance increased, I'd always assumed that whenever I was ready to book a weeklong Marriott reward stay, I'd redeem the package and stash the miles into my AA account.

But I'm up over AA 400K miles now, and don't have any immediate plans for any overseas vacations. So it'll take me a while to burn thru what I already have, and given how qucikly the airlines are changing their programs, I would be hesitant to drop another 120K miles to AA. Who knows how much airline devaluation may occur over the next 3-5 years before I'd be ready to use them?

On the other hand, if my airline balance were minimal and I had short-term flight plans, I wouldn't hesitate to redeem a MR package and use the miles for the trip, even if I had to pay whatever ~$50-100 redemption fee the airline might currently be imposing.

The best value is clearly to continue using the travel packages. It allows you to get the hotel reward at the same points as if you did it separately as well as the airline miles at 1:1 which is phenomenal. If you did the hotel & mileage redemptions separately, the mileage redemption is over 2 points per 1 mile.

YMMV, but I always prefer to get the most value out of a reward.

I agree completely, travel packages are a great deal.

The only advantage of separate redemptions is that it now appears that the hotel samplers allow you to use the free stays on different dates, rather than as a single 1-week block. Depending on your schedule it can be a bit tricky to find a solid week to stay at a particular hotel.

700K-900K MR points alone. NOT including 350K+ airline miles a year.

Let me clarify.....

The TP's are a GREAT VALUE, IF you dont have enough FF miles. The problem I have is that FF flights are becoming so difficult to use, I am planning on using my MR points for hotel stays, and NOT flights. I buy my flights, u/g using miles or buy F/J, and use MR points for STAYS only!

YMMV, but this works for me!

Actually I have a "modified" strategy. Redeem travel packages and get AA miles to get lifetime PLT/Gold. Then transfer from AA to Hilton where I can redeem "free" nights even when a hotel is sold out. Beats Marriott's availability.

That should improve since it appears you are moving from Nonepass to UA MP. MP is much easier to redeem than Nonepass IMO. There is a reason it is referred to as Nonepass. For mileage redmeption, I find AA to be the best with UA in second. Now from what I understand NW has good redemption, but I really don't like their premium product so what's the point. There is plenty of availability using your Nonepass miles for redemption on NW (I wonder why?). Now getting premium international awards (including confirmed upgrades) to certain high demand destinations like SYD, PEK, and PVG can be tough on any airline.

By my point / mileage valuations and calculations, it appears the cat 7 - 120K miles package effectively increases the value of Marriott points by 35-40%. (I value Marriott points at .70-.75 cents each and AA miles at about 1.35 cents each.) That's a huge increase.

On the other hand, as some have noted, if you don't need the miles for award travel in the immediate future, it may be better keeping the points with Marriott. The potential for airline devaluation is great, much greater in my view than the potential for hotel point devaluation. Also, to maximize the benefit of the travel package, you need to do a 7 night award stay. Many people, myself included, don't stay in one place for that long.

I am toying with the idea of redeeming for a travel package for a trip to London next summer. Air award is already booked so it is a choice of booking 7 hotel nights using my HHonors points or going with Marriott and racking up an additional 120K miles toward AA Lifetime Platinum status. I'm 450K miles away and getting 120K miles closer is very appealing, but I don't need the additional AA miles to sit in my account. The HHonors redemption is actually a better deal if I only look at the hotel stay, but the AA miles give a solid edge to the Marriott award. On the other hand, I'm Diamond with HHonors and will only be Silver with Marriott so upgrade chances much higher with HHonors. Decisions, decisions.....

IMHO, There's not really a decent Hilton property in London to compare with what Marriott offers there. I've had great stays with Hilton in Paris, Budapest, and Rome, but the UK seems like a pimple of the butt of Hilton and they can't seem to get it right.
Hotels will devalue the points to some extent by category creep, but overall they appear to be a much more stable quantity compared with airlines.

I came to the conclusion a couple of years ago that the bang-for-the-buck ratio was much better with hotels than with airlines. Now, with them charging for baggage, and even getting an award ticket, it's hard to economically justify scrambling for miles.

I've burned most of mine, and my future plans are along the lines of doing what it takes (promos, cc's, etc.) to get the miles for a particular trip, and then use them up.

Meanwhile, I'm getting Marriott and Choice points faster than I can use them, and Hilton (with their AMEX) keeps building up in the background.

Works for me.