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I didn’t want to write yet another post about Marriott Travel Packages, but this continues to be a burning topic. I just may have convinced a number of readers to jump on the last opportunity to buy these travel packages at great rates, and that there’s maybe a 60% chance that the result will be way better than expected.
Following my own advice, I had already bought one travel package to add to the one I’ve had sitting around for quite a while, and I decided to buy one more. As a reminder, when you buy a travel package, you exchange lots of Marriott points for a bunch of miles (always go for 120K or 132K miles) plus a 7 night stay certificate that can be applied later. If things go really well, floater certificates (stay certificates that are not attached to an award reservation) will be exchanged for points to cover a similar 7 night stay (see this post for more).
But that’s just one theory. There are many other theories of what Marriott will do with floater certificates when the new loyalty program kicks in on August 18th. We don’t know which is correct because Marriott won’t tell us.
In an email conversation with a Marriott source just a couple of days ago, I was told this: “…we are encouraging members with certificates to attach them to a hotel stay before 8/18.” There’s probably not anything too revealing in this statement. After all, regardless of what Marriott decides to do with floater certificates, we do know that they’ll honor reservations that have already been booked. And it makes sense to encourage customers to do the thing that will produce a reliable result.
On the other hand, it’s possible that I was given a little hint. It’s possible that attached stay certificates will be worth more than floater certificates (un-attached certificates). I asked a follow-up question: “Would you recommend attaching [stay certificates] to a refundable future hotel stay even if you don’t know where you really want to stay?” No response. Was I getting too close to the secret that Marriott won’t reveal?
Is there any downside to booking a refundable stay?
We don’t know how Marriott will handle floater certificates. We also don’t know how they’ll handle stays booked with certificates before the new program takes effect, that are then cancelled afterwards. Will they handle those two scenarios exactly the same? Maybe. Maybe not. Here are the likely options (in my opinion):
- Tie: Both scenarios result in an equal points refund.
- Floater certificates result in a points refund, whereas cancelled stays result in new stay certificates
If the first is true, then there’s no harm in booking a cancellable stay now. If the second is true, booking a stay now would mean losing out on the chance of getting a good number of points back, but it also means that you may be able to make your stay certificate more valuable by booking a property that you know will go way up in price after the merger.
If you plan to attach, then attach big
If you know where and when you want to stay, then you might as well go ahead and book exactly that. If you have no idea where you want to stay, though, and you don’t mind the chance of losing out on a points windfall, then it makes sense to book a hotel now that will become much more expensive in the new program.
I drilled down on the award chart information to find the best opportunities to book stays now that will be worth more in the future. This led me to the following recommendations for how to use existing stay certificates:
Current Category 1-5 certificate (Worth 25K Points Per Night)
Potential value gain: 10K points per night standard; 15K peak [peak pricing will be introduced in early 2019]
Book any of these properties that will be 35K per night in the new program:
- Marriott’s Villas at Doral
- Residence Inn Temecula Murrieta
- Paragraph Resort & Spa Shekvetili, Autograph Collection
- Eugenia de Montijo, Autograph Collection
- Calgary Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel
- JW Marriott Hotel New Delhi Aerocity
Current Category 6 certificate (Worth 30K Points Per Night)
Potential value gain: 20K points per night standard; 30K peak [peak pricing will be introduced in early 2019]
Try to book this property that will be 50K per night in the new program:
- Marriott’s Club Son Antem (unfortunately there is no award availability at this time)
Current Category 7 certificate (Worth 35K Points Per Night)
Potential value gain: 15K points per night standard; 25K peak [peak pricing will be introduced in early 2019]
Book any of these properties that will be 50K per night in the new program:
- Fairfield Inn & Suites Virgin Zion National Park
- Marriott’s Imperial Palms Villas
- Marriott’s Fairway Villas
- Marriott Vacation Club Pulse, San Diego
- Marriott’s Royal Palms
- Marriott’s Sabal Palms
- Marriott’s St. Kitts Beach Club
- SpringHill Suites Springdale Zion National Park
- Marriott’s Cypress Harbour Villas
- Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort
Current Category 8 certificate (Worth 40K Points Per Night)
Potential value gain: 20K points per night standard; 30K peak [peak pricing will be introduced in early 2019]
Try to book any of these properties that will be 60K per night in the new program (unfortunately award availability is virtually non-existent in these)
- Marriott’s Waiohai Beach Club
- Marriott’s Waikoloa Ocean Club
- Marriott’s Kauai Lagoons – Kalanipu’u
- Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas
Current Category 9 certificate (Worth 45K Points Per Night)
Potential value gain: 15K to 40K points per night standard; 55K peak [peak pricing will be introduced in early 2019]
Book this property that will be top tier in the new program (60K through early 2019, then 85K standard, 70K off-peak, 100K peak)
- Domes of Elounda, Autograph Collection
My approach
After compiling the above data, I realized that current Category 9 certificates have the most potential long-term upside. By using the certificate to book a hotel which will go up to category 8, it might be possible to make the certificate far more valuable. There’s absolutely no guarantee that this will happen, but it is possible that if one were to wait until after the merger on August 18th and then cancel such a stay, Marriott might issue a new program category 8 certificate (top tier) in its place. Between August and early 2019 there won’t be any difference between a new category 8 or new category 7 certificate since both will be able to book top tier 60K per night hotels. But when category 8 and peak pricing appear in early 2019, category 8 certificates will be much more valuable than category 7. By then, the mad dash to book top tier resorts for 60K per night will be over, and it should then be much easier to book any top tier property you want and at any time.
On the other hand, if I could have leveraged a current category 8 certificate into a future category 7 (60K per night) reservation, I would have done so. But I couldn’t find any award availability at the properties that would make that possible. So, I decided to go with current category 9. If I had a Ritz Tier 1 or Tier 2 certificate I would try to downgrade it to a Category 9. But I don’t, so I didn’t.
I called Marriott Rewards to upgrade my existing category 8 certificate to category 9 (this process took over 2 hours: the first agent said it couldn’t be done but offered to transfer me to someone who might be able to help. She transferred me to reservations. Sigh. The next Marriott Rewards agent was able to do it, but it took an eternity to complete). Next, while I still had a competent agent on the phone, I purchased a second category 9 travel package. Finally I asked her to use both 7 night certificates to book two separate rooms at the Domes of Elounda. Award availability was quite good for June and July 2019.
With all of that done, I set an April 2019 reminder in my calendar to cancel these reservations in case I haven’t already done so. I have to cancel this one more than 30 days before in order to avoid a cancellation fee. Of course, we might alternatively actually stay during the times I picked — that would be great too.
And now I’ll wait to see what happens. Will we learn any real facts about how Marriott will handle the travel package transition in time to do anything about it? Probably not. Most likely, we’ll have to wait until August 19th or maybe even later to find out what will happen with our old style travel packages. To hedge my bets I kept one certificate un-attached… just in case.
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[…] Banking travel certificates for future luxury […]
[…] Marriott was very secretive about what would happen with travel packages after the merger, so I wrote about a thousand posts (give or take) speculating on how best to play it. Since we knew the hotel categories were going to drastically change, there was likely a play where your stay certificate could be worth more… perhaps much more… if you bought the right category. I also wondered if you could score big by attaching a certificate to a hotel that you knew would be much more expensive after the merger. For details about the latter, see the post: Banking travel certificates for future luxury. […]
Hi! I was just wondering – has anyone had success switching old 1-5 certificates that were attached to hotels that are now 35k (e.g. Calgary Airport Marriott) to other hotels that are now 35k? I would like to switch it but not sure if it’s possible.
Technically it shouldn’t be possible, but it’s definitely worth trying. I have reason to believe that if you get the right phone rep, they may be able to do that.
[…] consider using it to book a hotel that will be going way up in award cost in the new program (see: Banking travel certificates for future luxury). It’s unlikely, but there’s a chance that this will increase the value of your […]
I would most likely use the certificate for a top tier SPG hotel in Europe next summer. Which hotel category would you recommend: 8 or 9?
I was thinking of using United because my miles stash needs a boost. I live in Hawaii so I usually fly on AA or United F or biz on a through ticket to Europe. I have plenty of AA miles. However, sometimes I have just flown to NY to be able to fly on a carrier that we can’t usually connect with like Emirates or Singapore Airlines. Is there any way in which using Alaska would be beneficial? I only ask because I could transfer UR pts to United and Alaska is harder to amass.
Hi Greg/Nick, I’m looking to book a Cat 8 package in Oahu. Once I have attached my 7nt certificate with a property would it be possible to either switch it to another Marriott property that is currently not showing any availability OR switch my Marriott stay to let’s say the Sheraton Waikiki which will be the same category in the new program? Basically, am I stuck with the hotel that the certificates are initially attached to?
Thanks!
Probably. In general, you can always cancel a certificate based stay (if it is still within the cancellation window) to get your certificate back and then use it for a different property. In this case, we don’t know how that will work when the new program takes effect so I can’t promise that it will work, but I expect it will. The biggest unknown is what category certificate you’ll get back if you do cancel your original booking. We simply don’t know and won’t know until August 18th at the earliest.
Nick or Greg. can travel packages be used to book St. Regis or any SPG yet?
No. The programs combine and the new award chart takes effect 8/18. You’ll be able to book them after that. Marriott has said that it might not be possible to make reservations that day — they are planning for those systems to go down for a bit. It’s anybody’s guess as to whether the outage is an hour, hours, or a day or more. But you won’t be able to book an SPG property with your Marriott points / travel packages until then.
Nick, thank you. Do you have any insight or thoughts into a product change with regard to travel certificates? Example, I book any category 9 hotel using certificate for use next year. Then I product change to another property.
I don’t think they’re going to let us swap properties at the same category level, if that’s what you mean. Usually I think that you would cancel your existing reservation in order to get the certificate back and then make the new reservation.
Thank you Greg. Yeah it’s that cancel thingy that spooks me.
Two part:
1) So the Domes of Elounda must have opened up booking past November in the article Nick wrote last month?
“That said, why pay 60K in August when you could pay 45K today? Well, here’s why: because the hotel isn’t currently bookable beyond November 2018, so if you want to stay next year, you might end up being cornered into paying more”
https://frequentmiler.com/2018/06/29/book-these-now-top-properties-going-up-in-august/.
2) All in all, I really like your strategy Greg. I also attached my certificate to the Domes of Elounda for next June. Does this property have a lounge? 🙂
1) Yes, it either opened up or Nick didn’t look all the way to late May/June in the schedule. I’d guess the former.
2) See you there! LOL, I don’t think there’s a lounge
After reading the Domes of Elounda FlyerTalk post, I think they didn’t have their availability extended for some reason no Nick was accurate :). Honestly, in a perfect world I hope I am allowed to extend the certificate another year and move the reservation to October 2019 as this is a more ideal travel time for us, but my thinking was if the worst case scenario in the merger is spending 7 days in the hotel in June, so be it.
Have you thought about how you’re getting to HER airport?
No, I’ll worry about how to get to HER once I figure out if that’s where I’m really going.
Just adding this here as a DP: I called on Saturday and the agent said her system was down to do the package upgrade (cancel and then re-issue higher certificate, apparently). She said she created a ticket and would follow up with me but haven’t heard anything. I called again today (wait time only 30 mins) and got this taken care of.
I would like to use the 7 night certificate on a SPG resort. Any recommendations on the ability to attach to a hotel or these certificates are only going to be good for Marriott?
They will be good for SPG after August 18th, but we don’t know what category certificate you would need to buy now to ensure being able to book your desired SPG hotel.
Honestly, I am not familiar with much of Marriott conducts business with their members. If the resort is an “all suites” does Marriott treat the ‘limited’ view or lower end suites as standard for the travel packages or are they not available to suite resorts?
All hotels are supposed to have some rooms defined as standard and those are the ones that would be bookable with travel packages. The problem is that Marriott gives hotels a lot of leeway to make those standard rooms available or unavailable at any given time so many properties rarely have standard room availability (Marriott Vacation Club properties: I’m looking at you)
What do you think would happen if you attach a certificate now, find out how they handle unattached certificates then cancel it for points, if they go that route? I assume you can cancel these certs if you need to anyway.
I’m assuming that if they’re going to handle attached and unattached certs differently, we won’t know until it’s too late.
Thanks, so the gamble is to keep it unattached and hope for points.
Also, I have 200,000 Marriott points so I can order a category 1-5, 7 night 55k UA miles travel package or try to get a category 6, 5 night 77k travel package. I’m looking to redeem at a category 6 hotel, 30,000 pts. that will go down to a category 4 hotel, 25,000 pts. August 18th. If I order the category 1-5 what are the chances I can use it or the points refunded, if they go that route, for it at the what is now a category 6 hotel going down to category 4 in August? Any advice?
Can someone help me to understand if a 5 NIGHT STAY package with the MAX airline mileage redemption is any better than the 7 NIGHT STAY with MAX airline mileage redemption – if you have access to either? Thanks!
The 7 night package is better only if you actually want to stay 7 nights AND you can find award availability for 7 nights in a row. Otherwise go with the 5 night package. For most people I think that the 5 night package is a better bet. One exception is at the high end: category 9 certs aren’t much cheaper for 5 night than 7 night.
Would love to go to the Domes of Elounda. When I tried to make a reservation I noticed there is no availability after Nov 31st until April 17th. I asked Marriott about it they said it is a seasonal location. Does anyone know?
Yes correct.
Want some advice given my goals which are somewhat different. Currently I have an unattached cat 1-5 certificate and my ideal outcome would be to get points rather than nights so I could transfer many of them to Alaska Air and maybe book a night or two. Seven nights locked into one chain hotel to be used within a year or two would not be my top desire. Having said that, 7 nights free would be worth more than 45k transferable points. Seems that most people advise attaching nights through dummy bookings, but given the way I prefer transferable points how much riskier would that be? Should I do nothing or should I attach to a dummy booking to the Saigon Renaissance which I may visit in 18 months (but would prefer to stay in 4 nights rather than 7)? Thanks for any help.
Given your preference for points, I’d recommend NOT attaching the certificate just in case they handle attached and un-attached certs differently.
Greg, just wondering since you went for a 7 night package does that mean you think it is not worth trying for the 5 night packages? If I am able to get a rep to sell me the 5 night I am wondering if Marriott would somehow use the fact I am not a vacation club member against me in the future conversion.
Good question. In general I’d go for 5 night if possible. Category 9 packages, though, aren’t as good of a deal for 5 night as 7 nights (there’s only a 45K price difference whereas most other categories are closer to 60K price difference)