After announcing in January that travel packages were going away, Marriott Bonvoy told us that any unattached, unexpired travel certificates remaining in member’s accounts on 2/28 would be cancelled. However, members would receive a refund equal to the number of points required to book seven nights at peak price for the category level of the cancelled certificate. This was all supposed to happen on March 1st.
However, March 1st came and went and there were no refunds issued. In fact, unattached certificates were changed into a different type of cert, but with an unchanged expiration date. It seemed like we’d all been Bonvoyed again.
We reached out to Marriott to ask about the situation and were told by a Marriott representative that “A technical issue has delayed us from issuing the refund as previously expected…please know that we are working to resolve this as quickly as possible.”
Quick Thoughts
In January, Marriott announced that they were doing away with travel packages, leading to widespread speculation as to what was going to happen to all of the unused, unexpired certificates that were floating around out there. Then, at the end of the month, Marriott announced what seemed to be a very consumer-friendly solution.
Marriott told us that “if your Travel Package Award remains unattached after February 28, 2022, the hotel portion of your Travel Package Award will be automatically canceled and refunded in full to your Marriott Bonvoy Account in Points on March 1, 2022. So, cancelled packages would receive the number of points required to book seven nights at peak price for the category level.. As an example, if you bought a Category 5 cert and 110,000 miles for 390,000 Marriott points, Marriott would refund 280,000 points after 2/28 if the certificate was unattached to reservation.
That seemed very generous, especially amidst Marriott’s plans to ditch its award chart later this month and transition to dynamic points redemption rates.
This was all supposed to come to fruition on March 1st, but by the end of last week no one had received a single point from Marriott. Oddly, the certificates were changed into a different type, but with an unchanged expiration date.
Now Marriott is saying that they still plan to issue refunds as promised, but that the refunds themselves are being delayed by unspecified ‘technical issues.” As we all know, there’s no IT in Bonvoy. Anyone who has had even glancing run-ins with Marriott’s IT will find it unsurprising that they weren’t able to execute the refund program on-time, as planned.
While it would have been nice to see more proactive communication with members on Marriott’s side, at least we have some confirmation that there’s no intent to Bonvoy folks out of their travel certificates. Hopefully, we’ll begin to see refunds posted shortly.
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The suspense is killing me. Did Greg draw the Bank Error in Your Favor card?
Greg did indeed! I’m 420K points richer!
Got my 700,000 points today. Should be good for a few nights if I act fast before they become close to worthless.
Honestly I am extremely surprised by how much they are giving out for these certs. prepandemic and with the cert close to expiring, i called them to see how much they could give me if i forfeit the cert. they offered me 45k but also offered to extend it. and though the pandemic they kept extending it. I just got my 210k in my account. and I can say that I did not get bonvoyed for once lol.
My points showed up today. Yay! Not Bonvoyed for once.
Hey @Tim – did you reach someone who you believe to have actual knowledge of this, or is the representative just a call center agent? A few people (myself included) have been told by call center agents that these refunds will start being processed tomorrow (Wednesday, March 9). Would like to know if you heard from someone reading the same script, or if you heard from someone more reliable. Thanks.
Yes, this was from our Marriott corporate contact. It’s about as close as we can get to the ‘horses mouth.” He did not mention a specific date, though, so let us know what happens tomorrow!
Thanks Tim.
Nothing happened yesterday….
As a whole — emphasis on “as a whole” — the hotel loyalty programs are not worth the time and aggravation. If you are still in the game, you deserve what you get.
Nick, tell me I’m wrong.
I called about 5 times including yesterday. They said they should begin to post middle of this week. such terrible program
The communication around the delay has been lackluster, to say the least,
I have absolutely NO TRUST in Marriott anymore! They never fail to DISAPPOINT Bonvoyed members!
Marriott wants us to PANIC and start using whatever remains and they don’t need to deposit the points w new expiration.
I don’t disagree…the last 24 months haven’t inspired a lot of confidence.
I used to work for Marriott many years ago. They were the first chain to cut free lunches for employees but only offer a 30 min lunch and did not provide refrigerators to bring lunch. It was impossible to leave and come back in 30 mins. To me it showed a complete disregard for people that supposedly wanted to serve. It’s all bs.
IMO, they might delay so we won’t be able to use the points prior to 3/29.
I think you might be on to something, Robert.
Will you discontinue using Marriott properties? (Other than award stays.)