Advice Needed: 5th night free vs. RewardsPlus Hotel + Air
Aug 27, 2014, 9:20 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Southern California (LAX)
Programs: Marriott Gold, Identity Platnium (Cosmopolitan), Palladium Card, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 177
Advice Needed: 5th night free vs. RewardsPlus Hotel + Air
I will be traveling to Honolulu, Hawaii from 9/13 to 9/19 and utilized the 5th night free stay at "Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa." for 160K points. I did not realize the RewardsPlus Hotel + Air package even existed (very new to the Marriott rewards program). [FYI - Flights have already been booked, but the miles can be saved for future trips, right?]
My question is - 1) Is it possible to cancel the current reservation & book the rewardsplus hotel + air package? I realize that the current hotel is category 8, and I have 145K additional points in my current account. In addition, I have 100K UR points so I'm able to transfer points in.
2) I currently have miles with United, American Airlines and Southwest. I understand people have different needs but how would you go about choosing the airline to transfer points? (provided that I am able to cancel the current reservation and rebook).
I would like to travel to Croatia next year, and I know Southwest would NOT be a good choice in this case. However, does anybody know if American Airlines or United would be a better choice?
If not, I do travel to vegas frequently. In this case, I do see that if I transfer ~60K points in addition to the points I would have in the account (160K outstanding due to current reservation + 145K points sitting in my account), I would get the companion pass, correct? I believe that companion passes are very valuable if used frequently.
Would love to get all of your thoughts. Thank you for your help, I greatly appreciate it.
My question is - 1) Is it possible to cancel the current reservation & book the rewardsplus hotel + air package? I realize that the current hotel is category 8, and I have 145K additional points in my current account. In addition, I have 100K UR points so I'm able to transfer points in.
2) I currently have miles with United, American Airlines and Southwest. I understand people have different needs but how would you go about choosing the airline to transfer points? (provided that I am able to cancel the current reservation and rebook).
I would like to travel to Croatia next year, and I know Southwest would NOT be a good choice in this case. However, does anybody know if American Airlines or United would be a better choice?
If not, I do travel to vegas frequently. In this case, I do see that if I transfer ~60K points in addition to the points I would have in the account (160K outstanding due to current reservation + 145K points sitting in my account), I would get the companion pass, correct? I believe that companion passes are very valuable if used frequently.
Would love to get all of your thoughts. Thank you for your help, I greatly appreciate it.
Last edited by CreditRocks; Aug 27, 2014 at 9:59 am
Aug 27, 2014, 9:47 am
#2
Moderator, Marriott Bonvoy & FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: McKinney, TX, USA
Programs: United Silver; AA Plat/2MM; Marriott LT Titanium; Hilton Gold
Posts: 11,727
Most award reservations have very flexible cancellation rules, but you should check the reservation you have already made.
First, note that the Travel Package awards are for 7 nights only (unless you are an MVCI owner who have access to a 5 night version.) Note that you can actually use a 7 night award cert for a shorter stay duration, but you will lose those extra nights as all the nights for a cert have to be used within a single stay.
So you could try to extend your existing stay for a couple of extra nights. And as long as there is still award availability for those extra nights, you should be OK with doing that. Just give Marriott a call and ask the agent to add the extra nights to your reservation.
If you just don't have the time to stay those extra nights, you can still use the TP 7 night award for your existing 5 night award reservation. Again, just call Marriott and tell them what you want to do and the agent should be able to cancel your existing award cert, order your TP award and apply the hotel cert to your reservation.
As for which airline to transfer points into, do you have elite status with any of them? If so, I'd check their availability first. If not, I would just check award flight availability with each of them and see which one(s) has award flights available for your trip. If there are multiple airlines with availability, I'd be looking at which of those I could use any extra miles I might have leftover for future trips. Basically, look at all the airline options and pick the airline that offers the best flights for you during this trip and possibly for any future trips you might want.
First, note that the Travel Package awards are for 7 nights only (unless you are an MVCI owner who have access to a 5 night version.) Note that you can actually use a 7 night award cert for a shorter stay duration, but you will lose those extra nights as all the nights for a cert have to be used within a single stay.
So you could try to extend your existing stay for a couple of extra nights. And as long as there is still award availability for those extra nights, you should be OK with doing that. Just give Marriott a call and ask the agent to add the extra nights to your reservation.
If you just don't have the time to stay those extra nights, you can still use the TP 7 night award for your existing 5 night award reservation. Again, just call Marriott and tell them what you want to do and the agent should be able to cancel your existing award cert, order your TP award and apply the hotel cert to your reservation.
As for which airline to transfer points into, do you have elite status with any of them? If so, I'd check their availability first. If not, I would just check award flight availability with each of them and see which one(s) has award flights available for your trip. If there are multiple airlines with availability, I'd be looking at which of those I could use any extra miles I might have leftover for future trips. Basically, look at all the airline options and pick the airline that offers the best flights for you during this trip and possibly for any future trips you might want.