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Update 2/18/20: Marriott is still extending certificates. I had a certificate from my Bonvoy Boundless card that was expiring next week and one (not-so) quick phone call to Marriott using the number listed in the original post below resulted in a certificate with an expiry date of February 18, 2021 to replace my old one.
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You’d think that living in hotels would make it easy to use all the free night certificates my wife and I get from our credit cards.
That’s sadly not the case.
This might also seem unfair, but it’s often our dog’s fault.
Our first issue is finding a pet-friendly hotel. Our second issue is the pet fee. Most pet-friendly hotels where we can use our free night certificates charge a $75-$100 pet fee per stay. I’m fine paying that for a stay of 5+ nights, but not for a one or two night stay if I can help it. In theory we could use points to stay longer to reduce the per-night cost of the pet fee, but we maximize our points by staying at category 1 or 2 properties in each hotel chain, not category 4 and above like we’d need to if staying for longer after redeeming free night certificates.
That meant we recently had two Marriott free night certificates about to expire, both of which were good for properties costing up to 25,000 points per night. One was in my name and one was in Shae’s. I was able to use mine just before it expired the other week at the Aloft Buffalo Downtown on our way from Michigan to Vermont. I have Platinum status whereas Shae only has Gold status, so it made sense to use my certificate first. This paid off as my Platinum status resulted in a great upgrade to a spacious corner room with floor-to-ceiling views of the city.
The reason I chose that particular hotel is because all Aloft properties are pet-friendly and none charge a pet fee – a nice exception to the $100 per stay pet fee you get when staying at most Marriott brands.
With my certificate put to good use, we were out of luck with using Shae’s one before its expiry date as our accommodation for our three weeks in Vermont was already booked. She’s not going to get close to earning Platinum status this year, so it wasn’t even worth booking a night somewhere to at least get an elite night credit.
We had one option remaining – throw ourselves on the mercy of a Marriott phone rep. In the past, it was sometimes possible to extend Marriott Rewards free night certificates if they’d have otherwise gone unused. Since the change from Rewards to Bonvoy hasn’t exactly gone smoothly, I wasn’t holding out hope that a rep would be able to do this, even if they were willing. Still, we had nothing to lose except for a few minutes of our time, so a phone call it was.
My wife isn’t at all interested in points and miles, other than the fact that they help us travel full-time. She’s a good sport though, so she’s always willing to make whatever phone calls are necessary to upgrade/downgrade/cancel cards or get them approved.
I explained the situation to Shae and that we wanted to see if Marriott would be willing to extend her free night certificate. I’d have been happy with a three month extension, but figured we wouldn’t mention that in case they were willing to extend it for even longer.
She called Marriott customer service on 1-800-535-4028 and, when prompted to state what she was calling for, said “Reward Certificate”. This routed her directly through to a rep rather than being put on hold for ages or having to go through several more automated questions, so that was a good start.
Shae explained to the rep that she had a free night certificate due to expire in a week’s time and was hoping it could be extended. It took the rep several minutes to work out what to do as she was still getting used to their new system following the Bonvoy change. Once she’d worked that out, she gave us the good news – she’d extended the certificate for a further year from the date we called. The entire process had taken took less than five minutes and got us the exact result we wanted.
Shae called on June 11, 2019 which means the new certificate will expire on June 11, 2020, rather than June 18, 2020 which would’ve been a year after its original expiry date.
At first I thought she’d been reverse-Bonvoyed as the old certificate was still showing on her account:
It must’ve just taken the rep a little longer than expected to work out how to cancel that old certificate though, as it’s subsequently been removed.
Conclusion
If you have a Marriott free night certificate due to expire in the near future, give Marriott a call as it’s possible to get them extended post-Bonvoy. You might get a rep who doesn’t know how – or isn’t willing – to do this, so if that’s what you experience, hang up and call again. There’s no point in letting these certificates go to waste if you can extend them, especially seeing as it can be done by phone in under five minutes.
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Just hung out the phone with a rep, and was told only way to extend my award night from Credit card is to tell them where/when I would like to book on the day of expiration date. I mentioned few times, with the current situation, it will be very unlikely that I plan my travel ahead. It was a very unpleasant experience. I am Marriott TE and Hilton Diamond, it was a less than 5 mins conversation with Hilton, and they not only extended my award night from Amex for 1year and also along with my Diamond status. This give me a seriously doubt on Marriott’s uneasy policy, and will switch all my business/personal travels to Hilton from now on.
I’d give Marriott another call as hopefully it was just an unhelpful agent you spoke to.
I called back again today. The rep extended my certificate for one year started from today. I wished they have a more standardized training so the reps are on the same page.
Agreed, but I’m glad you managed to get it sorted out in the end 🙂
I just called to get my last 35,000 point award for signing up last year (they used to give points to sign up much better than the certs) that was due to expire the end of the month. Called the number asked for rewards and 2 minutes a year was added from today. Nice, fast, easy and I’m only a silver, my wife’s is the platinum account. Found this on a google search! Thanks for your advice, I saved a free night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just a data point to add to the mix. Free night cert from Amex Bonvoy card (which was ported over from old SPG card) was due to expire today. Took a shot and called to request extension. Rep wasn’t rude, but wasn’t exactly nice about it. She told me more than a few times, that this would be, “a one-time-only extensión”. Whether she meant for this cert or for any future cents as well, I wasn’t too sure. But after Greg and Nick’s recent podcast discussion the declining value of these certs, I’m not sure if I’ll keep the card for another year or not. Marriott’s never been a first, second or even third choice for my family, but the annual cert has always been a solid discounted backup once the points / certs for other programs have been used throughout the year.
I’d called and tried to actually use this expiring cert a week ago to make a one night booking for my parents during their road trip last week. I’d read that, if you call, this can be used for a booking for someone else. But the rep I spoke to hadn’t gotten that memo 😉 and said I couldn’t do that. Tried with a second rep, but still no dice, so I gave up and booked with points (which was allowed).
I’ve just called and got my 7 nights category 1-4 Package extended to 27th Feb 2021 by a lovely lady. It was my second attempt after being turned down the first time.
Mahalo for your advice! My certificate was expiring today, I phoned and got it extended another year!!
I had the same great experience, they extended one 25k and one 35k certificate for another year
So disappointed in Bonvoy… I’m about to lose a 7 night cat 5 certificate. To be fair I’ve extended it twice but only because the old policy was so lenient. As long as you call before it expires it can be extended. So I marked on my calendar and if I didn’t get around to it I would just call. The new policy is strict and I get that but at least notify me of the new policy or the last time I extended it make me aware that this is the final time it can be extended. We’re talking a huge value here and it expires on 2/27. Does anyone have any tips or direct contacts at Marriott who can help??? I’ve tried calling once and emailing once, denied both times. I’m sick to my stomach over the whole thing. Please help!!!
If Player 1 has an old SPG Amex card and Player 2 is an authorized user, can Player 2 get a Chase Marriott card or do we have to cancel the AU card?
If P2 is only an authorized user and doesn’t have any Marriott cards themselves, they can get one without having to cancel the AU card.
Do you have any lucking doing the same with expiring IHG free night certificates?
I haven’t tried with their certificates, but I think I’ve seen other people say they’ve not had any success with that. Still, if it’s about to expire and it’ll go to waste, it’s worth a call to ask if they can extend it in case they say yes.
Thanks for the advice (and responding so fast!)
PS – I love GC Galore
Thanks, I’m glad GC Galore is helpful 🙂
Called IHG customer service to get 1 month extension on expiring soon free night certificate. It was not easy but finally she offered 30k points in exchange for FNC. I took it and was satisfied with exchange.
That’s great news – I’d not heard of IHG offering that before.
Thanks a lot for the timely article, Stephen! I was sitting on a Cat 5 FNC that’s expiring on 4/4/20. I just made a call at the number that you’ve provided in the article, stated my reason and the associate extended it for another year from today (the time I made the request). It’s super helpful. Thanks, again.
That’s great news – I’m glad it worked for you as well.
Glad they had better luck than I had with 4 $50 Hyatt Gift certificates that they refused to extend.
I just called and got extension successfully. I’m so glad I googled and found this site. Thank you
Marriott keeps going down tubes got rid if their credit card
Take my busimlness somewhere else
Thanks for this post. Do you remember if you received the “you’ve received a free night” email after your certificate was extended?
I called and the rep successfully extended my free night certificate; however, I received the email I mentioned above. The confusing part is November is when I receive the anniversary free night, so I cannot tell if the rep just reissued a new certificate or if I indeed earned my anniversary FNA. If the latter, then I should see two FNA in my account, but I only see one.
I’ve checked my emails and I did receive an email with that subject line, but I think that related to the new free night certificate, rather than the extended certificate as a result of the phone call my wife made.
Thanks for the quick response! I imagine that happens to many of us who wait until close to our anniversary to ask for an extension lol.
[…] both of mine that I earned last year shortly after receiving them. However I had read (for instance here and here) that calling in would do the trick, although as with all things Marriott there’s a […]
Just a quick data point: this example was for Chase certificates which I have had luck extending in the past. Wasn’t sure if it worked for Amex certificates. Called in and was granted a “one-time exception” to extend by 12 months from the date I called. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it was based on the date you called, as it is still two months before the certificates expire, but it should provide enough time for me to use them nonetheless.