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Marriott Branded Credit Cards Free Night Certificate FNA Discussion Thread

Old Oct 22, 2018, 11:18 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: rrgg
If you need to cancel a reservation booked using a free night certificate, follow the process in this post before cancelling to avoid potentially losing your certificate. If the certificate is lost it should be re-enstatable by Marriott customer service, but it may take a while and require some extra work on your part.

Certificate top-off is available as of April 30th: and discussed in a separate thread. Marriott has announced that starting in early 2022, members will be able to combine free-night certs with up to 15,000 points when making redemptions. See the FT thread discussing the 10/26/21 announcements and Marriotts FAQ for current info.

EXTENDING AN EXPIRING CERTIFICATE:
  • A blogger reported that as of 12/7/2023 Marriott removed the internal tool to extend an FNA, so it may or may not still be possible.
  • Your best chance for an extension is to call Marriott within 1 month of the expiration and consider having a specific property and date in mind to book. It's not necessary but even without one in mind, pick something you might use and change it later. 1-800-MARRIOT
  • Most importantly, have a good reason for needing the extension, like illness or injury.
  • If granted, the new expiration date is 1 year from the date of the request. You cannot get a 2nd extension on the same certificate, meaning the maximum life of a certificate is 2 years.
  • If not granted, some have luck by calling later a few times.
  • In 2022, Marriott seemed to deny all extension requests except a few exceptions such as here, here, and here. They may be allowing some again in 2023.

Before 18 Aug 2018, Chase issued certificates good for specific categories of hotels. Post 18 Aug 2018, all certificates have been converted or will be issued at a specific level of points. SPG AMEX and Ritz Carlton credit cards have also begun to issue certs.

25K points - lower level certificates
35K points - higher level certificates
50K points - luxury level certificates

Marriott will introduce peak and non peak levels for hotels after 1 Jan 2019. Certificates will be capped at the points level where they can be redeemed rather than for a specific category of hotel. Thus, if a hotel is 25K at the non peak level and the peak level is higher, it cannot be booked in the peak level window.

Nine co-branded credit cards offer an annual free night worth up to 85,000 points:
  • Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card (formerly Starwood Preferred Guest Luxury Credit Card from American Express) - up to 85K (Second with $60k spend)
  • Marriott Bonvoy Boundless (formerly Rewards Premier Plus) Credit Card - up to 35K
  • Marriott Bonvoy Premier (formerly Rewards Premier) - up to 25K
  • Marriott Bonvoy from American Express (formerly Preferred Guest) - up to 35K
  • Marriott Bonvoy Business from American Express (formerly Preferred Guest Business) - up to 35K
  • Marriott Rewards Business Premier Plus Credit Card - up to 35K
  • Ritz Carlton Rewards - up to 85K
  • Marriott Bonvoy Bevy - up to 50k (with $15k spend)
  • Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful - up to 50k (with $15k spend)
Things to know:
  1. Amex credit card free night certificates are issued 2 months after the anniversary date of the credit card. For example if the Brilliant fee posts 7/1, the certificate is available in your Marriott account on 9/1. Chase FNA certificates can appear much sooner, within 1 week.
  2. The certificate expires one year after it is issued. You must complete your stay by the expiration date.
  3. Can NOT be combined with a 3-night award to get a "Stay for 5, Pay for 4" award.
  4. Can be used for a standard room only
  5. Cannot be used for "redemption with cash upgrade" or any points and cash combination
  6. According to Marriott's terms, points reservations can be gifted to another person but certificates earned from a credit card cannot. This means the certificate owner (cardholder) must check-in even if someone else is listed as a guest on the reservation. In some cases a property has given leeway and allowed just the guest to check-in anyway without the certificate owner present, but it is risky to depend on this.
  7. If you use "top-off" with a certificate and the room price later decreases, you can modify the reservation to rebook the same date and recover the difference in top-off points.
  8. If you made a reservation with a FNA and want to know its expiration date, you can find it by editing the reservation as described at this link.
  9. If you downgrade the Amex Brilliant to the $95 Amex Bonvoy card, you can still get your anniversary FNA.
How to use:
  • Search for a points booking at an eligible hotel and the option to use the certificate a replacement for some of the required points should appear during the booking process
  • Some have had trouble booking certificates from the 2020 credit card offer to get 5 free nights. In that case, try this website for booking: https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/red...free-nights.mi
  • Officially Marriott allows gifting of points awards but not gifting of free night certificates from credit cards. For the latter, your name will still need to be the reservation. Whether the property requires you to be present for check-in may depend on the hotel.
  • If you have 2 certificates of different value and try to redeem one, the Marriott website offers the one expiring first. If that's not what you want, work around this issue by making a dummy booking with that certificate. Then book the real reservation with the desired certificate. Then cancel the dummy. Be sure to pay attention to any cancellation terms since a few properties are more strict than others.
Older archived notes below:

NEW EXTENSION OF CERTIFICATES announced in October 2021:
  • Free night awards, Suite night awards, and travel certificates will be given a new expiration date of June 30, 2022
  • The Marriott Bonvoy app shows the original issue date of your free night certificates. Go to Account -> Free Night Certificates to find the issue date in small print above each certificate. It's unlikely you have a certificate that won't be extended. If you don't see the issue date in the app, you'll have to wait for the actual extension to happen to check the new expiration.
  • Expiration of points is paused through December 31, 2022. At that time, your points will only expire if your account has been inactive for at least 24 months
  • In March 2022, Marriott will eliminate hotel categories and use variable point pricing for awards. Only a small number will be affected at first, so you won't see an immediate sweep of all properties at once.
PREVIOUS EXTENSION announced May 2021:
  • "Starting May 6, members who had a FNA with an original expiration date in 2020, or which will expire before January 2, 2022, as part of their Cobrand Credit Card Benefit, Annual Choice Benefit, promotions or travel package will be able to redeem it through January 3, 2022.
  • Please note that FNAs with an original expiration date before 2020 will not be eligible for the additional extension. Members do not need to take any action because the system will automatically update their account with these extensions on May 6, 2021."
PREVIOUS EXTENSION announced in 2020:
The expiration date on certificates this year is pushed to 1/31/21.
  • ...Members who currently have an active Free Night Award (FNA) expiring in 2020 as part of their credit card benefit, annual choice benefit, promotions or travel package will be able to use it through January 31, 2021.
  • Expiration dates will be updated by the end of April, giving priority to those expiring soonest.
  • If yours will expire within just a couple days, contact a Marriott representative here by private message.
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Marriott Branded Credit Cards Free Night Certificate FNA Discussion Thread

Old Sep 26, 2018, 4:44 pm
  #46  
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Join Date: Aug 2005
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any updates on using these certs for SPG properties?
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Old Sep 26, 2018, 5:31 pm
  #47  
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Programs: AA plt 2 mm, Marriott LTT, HH dia
Posts: 1,215
Originally Posted by cfischer
any updates on using these certs for SPG properties?
I tried to book an Element hotel on the website. It took points instead of the certificate. So I called Marriott. I immediately got through to a platinum agent, and she transferred me to SPG. I was on hold for over 30 minutes for the SPG portion. The man that answered had no idea what he was doing.

So in this situation, I had great customer service from Marriott, and horrible customer service from the SPG agent. After talking with him for another 30 minutes, he told me to contact the hotel. He claimed the hotel was the only entity that could change the reservation to a certificate. In my case, this was a 25K certificate. Finally, he said that since it was Sunday morning, the hotel probably wouldn't have anyone on site to change the reservation to the certificate, so I would have to wait until Monday.

I ended up just cancelling the Element reservation, and booking a Residence Inn a few miles away. I have never stayed in an Element before and was looking forward to it. But that is just too much of a pain to mess with!!!

Last edited by jeanie; Sep 26, 2018 at 5:39 pm
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Old Sep 26, 2018, 6:04 pm
  #48  
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
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Posts: 1,516
Originally Posted by cfischer
any updates on using these certs for SPG properties?
Please see post #716 , this thread.
Michilander is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2018, 7:56 pm
  #49  
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Originally Posted by cfischer
any updates on using these certs for SPG properties?
So a couple weeks ago I tried to make a reservation online for a Sheraton with my cert. It booked as a regular award (took points; didn't offer to use cert).

After reading this thread (I had meant to call Reservations, but never found time to hang around long enough) I finally cancelled the reservation today and called to rebook it. At first the SPG agent thought I was talking about a Suite Award (and promptly couldn't find it in my account). Then she said I would have to make the reservation through the credit card company. When I said "no, that's not how it works" she offered to research and came back after a couple minutes and said she had found the way to do it. And managed to get it booked without further hiccup. Overall the wait time to get an agent was longer than the time it took to get the reservation done.
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Old Oct 14, 2018, 9:45 am
  #50  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: LHR
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Called the SPG reservation line ( 888-625-4988 ) to book a Sheraton. First agent picked up, mentioned I wanted to use TWO Marriott Free Night Certs (25k points each, originally from Chase). They transferred me to another agent. They took my Marriott rewards number and details, asked which hotel I wanted to book and the dates. They made a reservation per free night certificate - for a two night stay, I have two separate reservations for the two nights at this Sheraton. I'm fine with this as the certificates were applied sucessfully!
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Old Oct 21, 2018, 12:52 pm
  #51  
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: AZ
Programs: HH Diamond
Posts: 200
Warning - RANT HERE!

I made a reservation using my Chase Free Night shortly before the system merge. No points were deducted but the Free Night Cert continued showing unused and the reservation had a note that I had to request an e-cert. I decided to wait until things settled down so today I tried to request the "e-cert". Nothing happened so I called the reservation line and was treated to some pretty interesting "customer service".

After looking at the rez, first she told me that I hadn't done what I told her I'd done. She couldn't elaborate and when I tried to mention the system merge she kept speaking over me and then said "first you need to listen to me carefully and then I'll listen to you .. carefully". She tried to attach the free night cert but when that didn't work she put me on hold. Came back after a few minutes and said OK it's attached now. And then proceeded to keep talking. She insisted the system was not in error but never did listen to me, carefully or otherwise.

I didn't have high hopes for the call but didn't expect to be lectured on how I need to act....
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 11:20 am
  #52  
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I started a wiki which will hopefully help with frequent questions. Please add information that will help each of us use the ones we have.

Last edited by SanDiego1K; Oct 22, 2018 at 12:29 pm
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 11:26 am
  #53  
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 609
Calledto ask how to my 25k certificate from chase and the agent said cant do it online only via the phone. Ok Id like to make a reservation for an upcoming stay. She said its been used already. When? She told me the date and hotel. Thats impossible. I used points and didnt call to make the reservation like you said, I did everything online. Sir you used your certificate already. Why would I use a 25k certificate on a 17.5k hotel? Im not sure but you did. Mam, Im sorry but there must be some type of technical error as I didnt call in and I didnt apply that. Ok please hold Ill desuct the points and add your certificate to your upcoming stay. Never received an email or heard otherwise from them and no points deducted so Im not sure where it stands.

I noticed no 17.5k points were ever deducted from my account for the stay in question but I thought it was due to a severe issue at the hotel they decided to not charge.

Well Ill see what happens.
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 1:38 pm
  #54  
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
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It seems Marriott/Chase are getting their act together. My free night cert originally show up a month ago as a 25K and this morning its now an 35K.
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 2:23 pm
  #55  
soy
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
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Do they still extend them?
Anyone have recent data points for cert extensions, I have a 25k Chase cert expiring next month and really doubt I will be able to use it before it expires.
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 2:25 pm
  #56  
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
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Originally Posted by soy
Do they still extend them?
Anyone have recent data points for cert extensions, I have a 25k Chase cert expiring next month and really doubt I will be able to use it before it expires.
I had one extended in June, should be possible.
soy likes this.
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 11:44 am
  #57  
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Houston
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Posts: 5,770
I have a pre-merger Cat 1-5 cert that I attached to a reservation for a couple of stays in a month. These were attached before the merger of the programs in August. I am considering using the for another purpose but am very concerned about losing it due to general “merger drama”.

Has anyone in a similar situation canceled one (of course, within the cancellation rules for the previous reservation)?

What did the cert come back as after the cancelation?

What was the cancelation date of the new cert? I have several of these and have no idea what their expirations were before they were attached?
Renard is offline  
Old Dec 13, 2018, 11:37 am
  #58  
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: DEN
Posts: 134
Marriott reps still extending award night certificates?

I read a recent comment on the awardtravel subreddit that someone was not able to get any reps to extend an award certificate's expiration. I know before the merger this had been trivial, but I haven't read much about people extending free night certificates (either travel package certs or Chase free night certificates). Anyone able to extend one of these recently?
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Old Dec 13, 2018, 11:53 am
  #59  
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: COS
Programs: UA Gold/1.5MM (several years running now!), Marriott LTTE, Hertz Prez
Posts: 1,899
I have extended one post-8/18. Not sure if status plays a role in how cooperative they are, or if there might be training shortcomings with so many new call center agents. HUACA might be the best approach here.

Edit: This was a CC free night certificate.
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Old Dec 18, 2018, 9:59 am
  #60  
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: DEN
Posts: 134
Looks like it was a false alarm: quick call in and my wife was able to extend her 2x 60k point Ritz certificates from the RC she'd gotten last year. Called into Marriott Rewards, who then transferred her over to some Ritz desk who quickly extended the certs by a year.
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