Do e-Certificates stays need to occur before expiration?
 

Or do they just need to be reserved before the expiration date?

Must stay before exp date.

Has anyone completed a stay using free night certs that expired before the stay?

I managed to reserve award nights in Oct using certs that expire in Sep. The certs were pulled from my account and no longer show under "Unused Rewards Certificates."

The booking confirmation shows "The reservation has e-certificates. Your e-certificates will be sent to the hotel." I don't want to check in and find out the e-certs expired before getting redeemed by the hotel.

Marriott's system doesn't check to verify that the cert will be valid during the stay, only that it is currently valid when linked. Thus you can make a reservation today with a cert that is currently good, but will expire before the stay.

But, when that cert expires, it will no longer be linked to that stay. You will then either need to have another cert linked or use points to order a cert. I do believe Marriott's system will automatically pull the points from your account (about a week before the stay) if you haven't linked another valid cert to the reservation.

I called Marriott customer service asking whether my e-certs will expire before I check in. She noted that since the e-certs were already linked to the reservation, then the hotel will accept them. --i.e. No problems with expiring e-certs as long as they are linked to the reservation.

Can hardly wait to hear your reporting back in Octiber after your ecert stay!

Do you have it in writing? I would get one if I were you.

I would too, because my experience and virtually all posts on this issue in the past didn't have the same answer.

I think that you are going to be getting an unwelcome surprise upon check-in.

When the agent told me the e-certs will apply when I check in, I asked her to note it in the reservation. But how much will that help?

Should I ask the agent to generate new free night e-certs and replace the ones expiring before I check in? What if they tell me the same thing--no problem with the expiring e-certs already linked to reservation.

Darn Cat 1-4 certs are near impossible to use! These current ones are being used for CY Kona beach (still a Cat 4 for a couple more weeks).

The free night reward must be used prior to its expiration date, meaning the redemption stay must occur before that date.

Best Regards,

Drew

There's your definitive answer, Eethan!

Rule of thumb- when three or four Marriott board regulars stronglyy state the same thing- you may get very lucky, they may be wrong, but don't count on it!

Could call Marriott to see if they'll extend the cert. If they're nice, they'll extend it and you can use it.

If it's Megabonus certs, forget it. I have heard the Chase certs can be extended.