My wife and I had already tentatively planned to visit Hyatt’s Miraval Arizona this coming January. I’ve read great things about this all-inclusive wellness resort and I’ve been itching to go. I had it on my to-do list to book the resort when news broke that Hyatt was once again offering a Miraval BOGO (Buy One, Get One) deal on award stays. Yes! But, this time, weekends aren’t included in the deal. Boo.
Actually, the weekend restriction for Miraval’s BOGO deal wasn’t really a problem. Nearby is the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain where we would happily spend a weekend. So, we could book the Miraval for 4 nights during the week and book the Ritz for the two days before or after to make an excellent 6 night visit to the Tucson area. We previously stayed at the Ritz for 7 nights in April 2021, and loved it. See this post for details: Ritz Carlton Dove Mountain Tucson. Bottom Line Review. For the upcoming trip, we had two Marriott 50k free night certificates that could hopefully be used for the Ritz if it was available at standard pricing (this category 6 property costs 50K points per night standard, 40K off-peak, or 60K peak). In my opinion, this is probably one of the best uses of Marriott 50K free night certificates in the U.S. (see: Best uses for Marriott free night certificates, 35K and 50K).
I searched for Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain award availability on Marriott’s website. On the weekend after our planned Miraval stay, the Ritz was priced at 60K points per night. We wouldn’t be able to use our certificates for that weekend. But on the weekend before our Miraval stay, the Ritz was available for 50K points per night! Sweet!
When I went to book the Ritz with our free night certificates, I discovered the problem. One of the certificates was set to expire January 3rd, 2022. Our planned stay was later in the month. Ouch. So close, yet so far.
In the past, Marriott has been willing to extend the validity of these certificates in situations like these. But, when they automatically extended the validity due to Covid a few times, I vaguely remember that part of the deal was that they claimed that the certificates could not be extended again. I’m not even sure that I’m remembering that correctly, but that’s what was in my head and so I wasn’t at all sure that I could get it done. But, I’d certainly try…
Online Chat
My first attempt to extend the free night certificate was through online chat. Sadly, I didn’t think to record the session and so I’m left with my hazy memory of the conversation…
I remember that the rep was courteous, but told me something like “we’ve already extended your certificates at least once and so we can’t do so again. I’m very sorry.” Somehow, despite the real agent being very nice about it, the experience felt more like the fake conversation shown in the image above.
Phone Call
My next step was to call Marriott Bonvoy. In the past it has taken a long time to get a rep on the phone, but this time it was quick. To get the agent into the helping mood, I first asked for something that I knew she could do: I wanted to move points from one family member’s account to another. After a few minutes, that was done and she asked if she could help with anything else. Why yes…
I told the super nice agent that I had a free night certificate that was set to expire very shortly before my planned stay. Was there anything she could do to help? She replied, “let me take a look, hold on a minute…”
A short time later, she said “I’ve extended your certificate to October 2022. You should be able to use it for your stay now.” Is there anything else I can help you with?” No, but thank you!
Sweet!
Conclusion
Marriott apparently has a soft policy against extending free night certificates that have been extended before. If you find a nice phone-rep who wants to help, though, they’re still able to extend the validity of certificates. That’s actually no different from the way things have been for years with Marriott, but it’s great to find that it still holds true!
Note that if you do have success extending a certificate, it will then be valid for a year from the date you call. For that reason, it can make sense to wait until closer to the certificate’s expiry date to make the call. On the other hand, if you wait until the last minute to call, then you won’t have time to use the certificate for some other purpose if they deny your request. So, I’d recommend calling no closer than 3 weeks before your certificate is set to expire.
After my free night certificate was extended, I booked the Ritz with no problem whatsoever. The Miraval resort was much tougher. Miraval awards have to be booked over the phone, but phone wait times were crazy. Last Friday, I missed their callback and they didn’t call back again all weekend. Finally I tried again Monday afternoon and got through after a long wait. Without incident, I finally booked 4 nights for the price of 2 and applied a Hyatt suite upgrade for the stay! I expect that we’re going to have a fantastic 6 nights in the Tucson area!
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Anybody have any experience with getting Radisson certs extended? I have two from credit card spend that will expire in a couple months but would prefer to extend them as I have no current use for them… any others?
Are there any reports of Marriott extending the 7 night travel packages?
Over the last month, I’ve tried and tried again as a titanium elite and also for my wife via every avenue I’ve got short of twitter. Denial after denial. In that time, reps always send up to a higher tier support via a case. Even a cert that was issued in Dec 2020 and auto extended 1 month to Jan 3 2022 meets with denial. Historically I’ve had 100%. Even in August, a rep said sure but why not wait til December to maximize time to use. Even pushing on that fact, all i get is “sorry we gave you incorrect information but the answer is no.”
Super frustrated as I’ve had a ton of these and earnestly been working the backlog down.
As an aside, historically, a 7 night cert could extend.
Glad some are having luck but I’d advise not to be totally reliant on this.
Not a Free night cert, but I recently called about my SNA that’s gonna be expired 12/31/21 to be extended just a few days for my trip in Jan 2022. Phone rep said no…
Any idea if you try the trick of booking using the cert (say start of Jan) then once confirmed change the booking to past the certificate’s expiry? Does the cert ‘stick’.
No. In my experience that doesn’t work.
Log this under the, “it can’t hurt to ask,” and “if told no, ask elsewhere.”
Were these certs from the anniversary of a card or as part of a SUB? I’ve tried a couple times to get the certs from the 5 50k certs SUB for the Marriott Boundless card extended but with no luck.
Not sure how much of a difference it makes how you earned the certs.
Card anniversary. I’d be surprised if it matters how you got them, but I’ve been surprised before.
So…Marriott….possibly possible to extend
Ihg…..unlikely to extend
Hilton?
Hyatt????
Buehler?….Buehler?
I think that Hilton and Hyatt are also unlikely. For those with status, Hyatt sometimes will give you some points (not to the full value of the cert, though) if you call about it after the cert expires.
Agreed on Hyatt, but Hilton may be more responsive on a case by case basis — you showed them that you did use some of the Certs you had accumulated over the last several Covid years.
I called Hilton today to confirm my free night certificates. They said I could use my certificate past the (new) expiration date as long as I booked it before it expires. I have some issued late 2019 which now will expire Jan 3, 2022. I can book now for a February trip. Not sure what will happen if I need to cancel after Jan 3.
Thanx, Linda! That is good to know!
Historically, they have been willing to relax it for a further 14 days — which coincidentally takes that thru the MLK weekend of 2022.
Thank you for the tip on extending expired Marriott certificate Nick. Dove Mountain is a really beautiful resort.
I discovered that you can actually book the Miraval BOGO stay starting on a weekend as long as your points nights are applied to the weekend stay and your free nights are during the week. That is what the Miraval agent recommended when I booked my January stay. I am checking in on a Saturday with the BOGO offer. You will love Miraval and they let you start using the resort facilities and activities starting at 11:00 am the day you check in.
Sorry meant Greg not Nick in this post.
Wow, that’s a great tip, thanks!
Do you think it will work to extend 7 night certs?
I don’t know, but I’d certainly try it if I still had one
It has worked for me in the past. I think I have been able to get the package extended once if not twice. Got it in 2018 when JetBlue matched the Alaskan offer, and since then kept it through the merger and conversions. Finally using it for a weeks stay starting tomorrow.
Greg,
Congrats to you! I recall that someone on Flyertalk recently posted that they were able to extend a cert (not sure the denomination) thru till 9/22 when they called in September.
I think that it probably helped that you presumably had Platinum status or above.
Thanks!
When they extend a cert it is always for a year from the date you call. I’ve added a section to the conclusion about that. Regarding status: I wrote this post all in the first person to simplify the story, but the Bonvoy member who called only had Silver status.
Wow! That’s even better!
hope you have a great trip … i love tucson!
Thanks!
Awesome! Good to know they are still willing to extend certificates.
For transferring points from one person to another, do they require speaking to the other party on the phone too?
The person who wants to give the points to another person has to be on the phone, but the recipient doesn’t need to be on the phone. You do need to know the recipient’s Marriott Bonvoy number, of course.
Does anyone know, What’s the chances of IHG extending a free night cert?
Tried it once and failed, but it’s anything goes in the New Normal. Thought at one time you could book past the expiry date as long as you did it before it expired.
Yeah, they changed that ability to book past the expiry date (it’s coded into the system and won’t show hotels available beyond expiration). I’ve never heard of IHG extending individual certificates — but as Greg said, it can’t hurt to try.
Oh…good to know. I have a cert that is expiring in Jan and I have a stay planned in March, I would love to use them for. The other issue is I have an IHG cert from Sept 2020 that has been extended to March 22 which works out perfectly, but the one issued in Jan 2021, expires in Jan 2022, what is the chances of IHG extending that one for me to use in March? Any tricks?
I’ve never had luck getting IHG certs extended in the past, but it can’t hurt to try