Old Jul 30, 2016, 4:21 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Slickw
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Legacy to New Travel Package Conversion (effective August 2019)
A Marriott supervisor can currently convert your legacy travel package into the new category mapping. If you hold a Category 6, 8, or Tier 1-3 legacy certificate, it's ideal to downgrade your certificate before converting so that points don't potentially get lost in the process.

The codes for the new partial packages are:
New Cat 1-4: QP83
New Cat 5: QP91
New Cat 6: QP99
New Cat 7:

Originally Posted by Marriott Rewards Insider
Members who purchased a Category 6, Category 8 or Tier 1-3 certificate prior to 8/18 are able to request a one-time exchange for a Travel Package one category lower. This process will cancel your current Travel Package, reissue a Travel Package one category lower and result in a refund of 30,000 points to your account. To submit a request, follow these steps:
  • Select Packages - Deals from the Topic drop down menu
  • Submit your request
As a reminder, status.marriott.com will periodically have additional updates.
Source: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...es-update.html

The legacy certificates map to the new certificates as such:
Cat 1-5 => Cat 1-4
Cat 6 => Cat 1-4
Cat 7 => Cat 5
Cat 8 => Cat 5
Cat 9 => Cat 6
Tier 1-3 => Cat 6
Tier 4-5 => Cat 7
==================================================

If you are unsure where you will use your 7 night stay, when you request the package, just ask for a category 1-5 hotel. That way you are out of the least number of points. If later, you decide to book for a higher level category, then you can do so and pay the difference the travel package points. If you can't use your certificate within the year, then as close to the one year anniversary (without going over!) call to extend the certificate for one more year. That's as long as they will typically allow, one extension. There is an option to expedite the mileage delivery to within three business days (sometimes faster) for $15. There are reports that this fee may be waived for platinum members.

Effective April 1 2017 re: Southwest & the companion pass:

"Purchased points, points converted from hotel and car loyalty programs, and e-Rewards, e-Miles, Valued Opinions and Diners Club, points earned from Rapid Rewards program enrollment, tier bonuses, flight bonuses, and partner bonuses (excluding points bonuses earned on the Rapid Rewards Credit Cards from Chase) do not count toward Companion Pass."
************
Can I book SPG properties with my Marriott Travel Package? As of 9/1/2018 apparently not. see https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30155836-post6529.html
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Marriott Travel Packages

 
Old Jul 27, 2018, 2:14 pm
  #4321  
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Programs: United Premier 1K
Posts: 1,230
Originally Posted by imverge
If your only goal is flying to Tokyo from Toronto then you are better off redeeming with Aeroplan as Air Canada offers direct flights to HND and the fuel surcharge is $86 return. You can also book EVA with a connection in TPE with fees of $55.

The other option is Alaska Airlines and redeem on Cathay Pacific with a connection in HKG.
Why not put them to United instead of Aeroplan. Yes, a non-United flight from Toronto to Tokyo is 160K UA miles vs. 150K Aeroplan, but you are also getting an extra 12K United Miles in the transfer, and there will be no fuel surcharges when booking through UA.

That said, if you need more points to top up for the award, Aeroplan points will be much easier to get in Canada than UA through credit card signups. (Just keep your eye out and make sure they get used in case the Air Canada purchase of Aeroplan doesn't go through)
Toronto1970 is offline  
Old Jul 27, 2018, 2:14 pm
  #4322  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 159
Originally Posted by coconutjay
Hi All,
I've been reading most of the stuff on this thread and planning on buying a Cat 1-5 package, but cannot figure out the best FF program to get. I don't have a need for the hotel stay yet, but hoping post conversion, I will be able to book SPG hotels with the package (either equivalent point refund to be used for bookings or new Category cert assumption, I know there are many other speculative ideas out there, but I am gambling here with the hope it is in our favor). I am also going to attach this to a category 5 hotel that will be a cat 5 in the new program in hopes there is a bonus when I need to cancel it, the hope is that this doesn't happen enough for them to have to program something for, my bet is this is not so common.

Note: I converted a bunch of Amex MR Canada to SPG to buy this for the gamble, I may lose on this bet as I could have used the Amex travel program or the Aeroplan, but wanted to get a taste of the business/first class flight people often speak of.

I've tried to find information every where about flying to Tokyo from Toronto and which program is best to collect and use, but all that is mentioned are the flights from the US, nothing from Toronto. I apologize if this is not the right thread to post in, but any suggestions on the program would be great. I tried to post in one of the VS threads, but since this was related to the travel packages, I thought maybe someone may know this here. I looked at JAL, ANA as these were the best ones, but hard to collect here in Toronto. I found Virgin Atlantic and Alaskan, however can these be used to book the connecting flight to one of the US hubs with ANA or JAL. ANA uses I believe a code share with UA metal and was hoping I could use VS miles for this, but nothing I could find confirms this. I am not sure how the JAL flight using Alaskan could be done without getting a separate itinerary to get to the US, which is not preferred since additional costs are required (ie luggage/flight).

Any help would be appreciated.
Assuming a trip in Y...

I'd probably stick them into Aeroplan from YYZ. From YVR, you could stick them in BA and get a RT for 50k on JL YYZ-NRT, or with Virgin Atlantic and have a YVR-HND on NH ( ANA )... but that only works for direct flights.

Aeroplan costs 75k, but you'll have better availability with routing, including routing through UA hubs. Also, AC has YVR-HND which is a much better airport to fly into than NRT... Also costs less to get to and from HND airport.

If you're wanting to go anywhere else in Japan, Aeroplan will give you the ability to add in stop-overs for that same 75k as well. So, you could work in a trip to Okinawa or Sapporo or even Osaka. Sure, you could get a JR rail pass and take the bullet train but you'd have way more flexibility. I'm not sure what kind of trip this is, but most people who go to Japan will want to visit Kyoto anyhow.... and that's a $360 CAD round-trip journey by train. An open-jaw Could give you the option to go YYZ-HND-FUK (train from Fukuoka to Tokyo, stopping in Kyoto ), and then HND-YVR-YYZ for example... you could even stop over in Vancouver while you're at it.

Unless you're in Vancouver, AC is your best bet. That being said... 50k British Airways points will get you YVR-NRT... and YYZ-YVR = 25k Aeroplan... so it really depends on what you want to do, and where you want to go in Japan. Just Tokyo? Or other places?
bluemeansgo is offline  
Old Jul 27, 2018, 3:28 pm
  #4323  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,731
Originally Posted by imverge
If your only goal is flying to Tokyo from Toronto then you are better off redeeming with Aeroplan as Air Canada offers direct flights to HND and the fuel surcharge is $86 return. You can also book EVA with a connection in TPE with fees of $55.

The other option is Alaska Airlines and redeem on Cathay Pacific with a connection in HKG.
No brainer to put it in Aeroplan if you would use it up in 2019. The Doomsday is not until June 30 2020 if the Sleazy Air Canada ends up not able to buy Aeroplan dirt cheap by driving down its share price from CAD20 a year ago when the nonrenewal of contract announced, down to below CAD2 recently. Now AC wants to buy it at CAD3ish?

If your trip is a R/T you can have 2 stopovers and 1 destination, i.e. 3 stopovers in total. You can also route thru Europe to Asia.
EVA has excellent business class product that many claim the services and amenities are comparable to other airlines F, certain far better than either AC or UA, and many European airlines.

I am giving you this suggestion from a person located in US but actually have redeemed 2 TPs and a big chunk of AMEX points to send miles to Aeroplan because we plan to do a miniRTW in 2019. (for example 160K should be able to bring you in business class to Australia via Europe from East Coast, with 2 stopovers and a destination which would be in Australia the farthest point. Just need to spend some time to learn the do's and dont's on planning the routes.

Please go to Air Canada forum on FT as well as do some googling to learn more how you can really make great redemption with your Aeroplan miles. FT itself has some excellent dedicated threads on the Aeroplan miniRTW topic.
Happy is offline  
Old Jul 27, 2018, 4:05 pm
  #4324  
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,731
Originally Posted by tth6133
The 1st option would work except in the following 2 scenarios:
1) Marriott decides to cancel your cat 1-5 certificate and refund less than the full 150K points on 8/18; or

2) the hotel is no longer bookable with points for the dates you want.The 2nd option is a little safer. The only risk is Marriott doesn't allow you to downgrade your certificate and reattach to the reservation. I don't foresee Marriott not allowing downgrades in these types of situations. Upgrade is a different story, however, and may cost you more than what's on the current chart.
I am in this situation; I have a current Cat 6 cert attached to a hotel that is Cat 6 before the new chart came out. Hotel will go down to 25K new Cat 4 on Aug 18 (was Aug 1). We would need the 7 nights no matter what so I leave it alone.

Several days ago I had a lengthy chat with a rep on what would happen when the hotel category changed - after went off to check with higher up for a long time, she came back to give the expected answer.

1) if hotel category goes up, Marriott will honor the existing booking, without any change allowed (this is just like the existing rules).

2) if hotel category goes down, Marriott will look at how many points would cost for new booking, and member is given the option of the lower cost option.

Here comes the rub - because this is the 7 nights cert, not a normal point booking, therefore even at 25K, a 7 nights booking would still be much more than the current 7 nights Cat 6 30K night booking's intrinsic value (45K + 30K).

So rebooking as a normal point booking would cost 25K x 6 = 150K while the intrinsic value of a Cat 6 TP cert is only 75K in current setting.

To us, the difference is only 30K pts in case we cannot get back a refund. Not a whole lot especially it is from the SPG end, and we rather have the hotel reservation secured. So I leave the cert attached as it is now.

Last edited by Happy; Jul 27, 2018 at 4:16 pm
Happy is offline  
Old Jul 27, 2018, 4:45 pm
  #4325  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 159
Question for the Marriott Experts here.

I have a stay at the Nanki Shirahama on the 21st of August... but new status takes effect on the 18th... which is when I go down to Gold Elite. Any chance of them honouring the previous Gold benefits which have moved to Platinum Elite tier ( Breakfast / Lounge ).

I was going to email the manager to ask if there's anything perhaps that could be done as it's first trip to the area, but I can't find any email address for the place.

Any tips or advice, anyone?
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Old Jul 27, 2018, 5:15 pm
  #4326  
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Originally Posted by sgan317
I could be wrong but aren't you supposed to indicate this is an attempt to direct traffic to your own blog?
Renard, imverge, CDO and 2 others like this.
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Old Jul 27, 2018, 7:17 pm
  #4327  
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Programs: UA-1K, MM, Hilton-Diamond, Marriott-Titanium
Posts: 4,419
Can you cancel a confirmed reservation, that has the 7 day cert attached to it, online and the cert will automatically go back to my account? Or, do i have to call up to cancel the hotel, hope they do it correctly, and redeposit the cert into my account.
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Old Jul 27, 2018, 8:04 pm
  #4328  
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 534
Originally Posted by cruisr
Can you cancel a confirmed reservation, that has the 7 day cert attached to it, online and the cert will automatically go back to my account? Or, do i have to call up to cancel the hotel, hope they do it correctly, and redeposit the cert into my account.
You need to call. Make sure the detached certificate shows up in your account before you hang up.
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tth6133 is offline  
Old Jul 27, 2018, 8:15 pm
  #4329  
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1h20 later ... package booked. This is getting a bit ridiculous pre August ... had to wait 45 mins to speak w/ an agent and then it took another 30+ mins to get things booked.
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Old Jul 27, 2018, 8:54 pm
  #4330  
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: MIA
Posts: 497
Originally Posted by dsquared37
I could be wrong but aren't you supposed to indicate this is an attempt to direct traffic to your own blog?
Sorry, still relatively new to the rules of FT and to being in a more prominent role for a blog. I will be sure to indicate that moving forward. It was completely unintentional
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Old Jul 27, 2018, 9:03 pm
  #4331  
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: SFO/YYZ
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Posts: 2,431
Originally Posted by tth6133
You need to call. Make sure the detached certificate shows up in your account before you hang up.
You do not need to call. I've cancelled several reservations with 7 night certificates. I had to attach on the phone, but for a cancellation the certificate goes back to your account perfectly fine.
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nexusCFX is offline  
Old Jul 27, 2018, 9:14 pm
  #4332  
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 56
Yay, Im excited just used the most miles in one clip to date. Nervous but excited lol.

Just ordered a Category 7 travel package and the whole process took just over 8 minutes. The majority of that was listening to the rules. I must say you guys had me prepared for the worst and I lucked out.
NJKen is offline  
Old Jul 27, 2018, 9:58 pm
  #4333  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Programs: SPG/Marriott
Posts: 3
Newbie here!

Quick question/confirmation, can we book SPG hotels with the TP? For example, if I'm looking to book a 7-night vacation in Hawaii next summer, preferably to stay at one of the Westin Ka'anapali Villas, what would be my best option? I currently have about 360K marriott points.

Any advice would be appreciated!
Cheers all,
newkidandy is offline  
Old Jul 27, 2018, 11:03 pm
  #4334  
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sydney, Australia
Programs: QR/AC Gold, VA Silver, IHG Plat, Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 1,581
Originally Posted by cfischer
1h20 later ... package booked. This is getting a bit ridiculous pre August ... had to wait 45 mins to speak w/ an agent and then it took another 30+ mins to get things booked.
Maybe worth calling international numbers instead? I never have waiting time at all when I called the Asia Pacific number, and they completed the packages in minutes.
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Old Jul 27, 2018, 11:46 pm
  #4335  
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: SF Bay Area
Programs: IHG Ambassador , Marriott platinum, United, Delta
Posts: 64
Can I downgrade a Cat 9 Cert to 1-5. I have to cancel our reservation we made using the certificate and will not be able to travel for at least a year.
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