To which locations can you a 5 day package? What cost?

Since a TP hotel award cert is no different that any other award cert, it could be used at any MVCI property that you can find the award availability for. (Some will be very hard to find any award availability, some will be fairly easy and most will probably be somewhere in between.)

I'm not sure what the cost is as I'm not an MVCI owner, but I suspect it would probably be close to the difference between ordering a normal 5 night award and a normal 7 night award. (i.e. a 5 night cat. 5 would cost 100K points with a 7 night costing 150K points, thus I'm guessing the 5 night TP award would be about 50K less than the corresponding 7 night TP award.)

Here is an example of a points to miles transfer bonus going on right now where TP awards have been excluded.

I am getting ready to order a TP award with 120K Southwest points. For a moment when I received an email with the info stated above, I thought AA might be a better alternative for me, but then noticed they had excluded the TP awards. :td: So I'll probably stick with Southwest and the CP that will come along with it instead. ^

So just to clarify, travel packages that include the air miles transferring to AA/US would not get the current 30,000 mile bonus that AA/US is currently offering during this current promo, correct?

Based on what I read last night it seems that AA/US does a promo in the spring where it's 50% bonus miles for purchases/transfers, at least they have the past few years. If I purchase my travel package during this promo period, I can get the bonus miles. Can anyone confirm this for me? I'm getting ready to purchase. TP and want to maximize the miles that I get.

Thanks.

US has done that promo-not AA. (In know they are merged now, but the difference may be important based on the following.) I have taken advantage of it often. It does include TP transfers-not purchases. However, the feeling this year is that the promo will not happen. DM and Aadvantage programs are being combined in Q2 this year. DM (US) is going away. I am not counting on it happening in 2015.

If you are referring to the specific promo I provided a link to, yes, TP awards seem to have been specifically excluded (as mentioned in the article.)

Wife and I combined have a total of 290k MR. We figure best use is in a travel package,but we're not sure when or where to go :). Am I right in reading that the best approach is to redeem for a Cat 1-5 Travel Package and then decide on when/where we want to go and possibly pay more MR points to upgrade to a higher category if necessary? Once redeemed, a package can be upgrade at a points cost but not downgraded for a points refund, correct?

Yes, go with the 1-5. You can definitely upgrade. Some (very few) report downgrading. I wouldn't count on that personally.

Definitely agree with Mr. Vker. Of course the main benefit of the TP award is the transfer of points to airline miles at a 1-to-1 ratio. As an AA EXP, I'm not sure if you need the extra airline miles or not.

If you really have more than enough airline miles, then personally, I like using points to upgrade my rooms at nice beach locations. For example, you could upgrade to a 1-bedroom Oceanfront suite at the Cayman's Marriott.

So while I agree the TP awards are really one of the single best hotel program awards out there, the biggest benefit really hinges on the airline miles transfer. So if you need/want miles to get that business/first award ticket, then there isn't any hotel award I know of that is better. But if you have those miles and would rather use them for hotel stays, then there are other options.

AA again excludes TP
 

Was going to be a little upset as I saw the latest AA transfer bonus but then noticed it again excluded TP.

Instead I transferred to SWA.
Points are enough to earn a companion pass which is good until Dec 2016.
Already took a trip to Vegas for Superbowl weekend with wife.
Nice to only have to redeem points for one person.

Can you sell travel packages?
 

I have two cat 8 seven day packages that I may not use. I can extend them into April 2016 in April 2015 but I'm traveling much less now and would like to sell them. Is this allowed? And yes, I know it's not allowed on FT!

How do they calculate how many more points when you want to upgrade to a higher cat ?
Thank You

It's not allowed on FT because its not allowed by Marriott. Should they find out (possibly hard for them to, but possible none the less), your account could be frozen or revoked completely. And based on another current thread going on, Marriott may well be policing their program more now they used to (or more than some of us realized.)

YMMV.

Just did it. It was the difference between the packages.
Went from 5 Day Cat 1-5 to Cat 8. Difference was 65K and that's what I was charged.

Interesting it showed up in My Accounts as:
5 Night Partial Package Category 8 Hotel -75,000
5 Night Partial Package Category 8 Hotel Canceled 10,000

So if you were wondering what they are "worth" if you wanted to cancel and get refund.

Thanks.
The way I look at it, 65 K is almost 23 % of a 270 K package which gets me a J non a long haul and seven days at cat 1-5. So then value is better in not spending the extra 65 K.