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When Marriott merged with SPG in August 2018, they massively increased the prices for travel packages. Travel packages offer a way to spend a big chunk of Marriott Bonvoy points in exchange for two things: a bunch of airline miles of your choice plus a 7 night stay certificate. The total cost in points depends upon the hotel category stay certificate you want and whether you want 50,000 or 100,000 airline miles.
When the post-merger travel package prices were first revealed, I immediately dismissed them as a bad deal (after gagging a bit). At the time, Marriott hadn’t yet implemented peak and off-peak award pricing. So, I compared the price of the travel packages to the cost to simply book 7 nights with points at the standard rate and to transfer points to airline miles at the standard rate. When comparing travel packages to standard award pricing, they’re usually a crappy deal (but more on this later in this post).
Yesterday we learned that Marriott will introduce peak and off-peak pricing as of September 14 2019. Once this goes into effect, it’s likely that the most desirable hotels and resorts will be peak priced when we want to go. That reminded me of the one redeeming feature of the new travel packages: they work equally well for peak priced properties. So, I figured that it is time to re-evaluate travel packages. In an all-peak world are they worth the price?
Before proceeding, let me explain the travel package price chart, above. Along the left side are the hotel categories. The category you choose will dictate the maximum value of your 7 night stay certificate. For example, if you pick a category 6 package, you can use your stay certificate for any hotels in categories 1 through 6. The top the chart shows two columns in gray: “7 Nights + 50,000 Miles” and “7 Nights + 100,000 Miles”. The values below these headings are the number of Marriott points you would need to redeem to get these packages. If you want a category 6 certificate and 100,000 airline miles then you would have to redeem 510,000 points.
One way to evaluate the value of travel packages is to look at what it would cost to get the same results without a travel package. For example, we know that it’s possible to redeem 240,000 Marriott points for 100,000 airline miles. And we can easily calculate the cost to book a 7 night award using the Marriott Bonvoy Award Chart. Add these together and you get the “do it yourself” price.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to do the math. I did it for you. Here’s the “do it yourself” price assuming peak award pricing:
Next, we can easily compare. How much do you save by booking this as a travel package rather than independently? The answer is pretty straightforward. It turns out that the savings are independent of the hotel category you book. You save 45,000 points when booking a 7 night + 50,000 mile package, and you save 90,000 points when booking a 7 night + 100,000 miles package:
Is it worth it?
The above analysis shows that you can save a significant number of points by buying a travel package rather than booking the exact same awards separately. But, is it worth it?
If you really need 100,000 airline miles, and you really need a 7 night stay booked at peak pricing levels, then travel packages appear to be a good deal. Not only is that a big “if” but there are other significant factors that make the deal weaker:
- Stay certificates expire after one year (but you might be able to get the certificate extended if you call)
- You cannot split the certificate across multiple separate stays or across multiple hotels. For example, if you wanted to spend 4 nights in one hotel and 3 nights in another, you can’t do so with one certificate.
- Nights booked with a stay certificate must be consecutive. For example, you can’t stay Sunday and Monday, skip Tuesday, then stay Wednesday through Monday.
- Free night awards must be available for every night of your stay in order to apply a stay certificate.
- You can stay less than 7 nights with a 7 night certificate, but then the certificate will be considered fully used. You can’t use the remaining days.
As you can read above, there are many reasons not to book a travel package. However, if you are planning to book a 7 night award anyway, and the 7 nights are available, and the 7 nights are all at peak pricing, and you can use the airline miles, then you can save either 45,000 or 90,000 Marriott points by booking a travel package.
What about standard pricing?
The above analysis prompted me to go back to standard award pricing to see if there are any good deals to be had. When we compare travel package pricing to booking the same awards separately at standard award pricing, are there any cases where it makes sense to buy a travel package? Surprisingly (to me), there are…
Here’s the “do it yourself” price assuming standard award pricing:
Next, we can compare the above chart to the travel package pricing chart. How much do you save by booking all this as a travel package rather than separately? In this case, there are times where booking the travel package actually costs more than booking separately at the standard night award price. These negative savings are shown as negative numbers below. There are opportunities, though, to save up to 60,000 points:
As you can see above, if you buy a travel package that offers 50,000 miles and you use it to book a 7 night stay during standard pricing, you’ll either save only a tiny bit (15,000 points) or you’ll end up paying more for the joy of using a very restrictive stay certificate.
On the other hand, if you want to redeem for 100,000 points, the category 1-4 and category 5 packages are not too bad. You’ll save 60,000 points with these. Is it worth dealing with all of the travel package restrictions in order to save only 60,000 points? In my opinion, the answer is yes, but only if you already know how you’ll use the stay certificate and you know that the award nights you need are available.
Conclusion
I don’t recommend ever buying a Marriott Travel Package unless you have a specific use in mind for the 7 night stay certificate. Even then, I only recommend the packages that result in 100,000 airline miles and only under certain conditions. If you do have a specific use in mind and you want the 100,000 airline miles, make sure that all of the following factors are also true before proceeding:
- You have enough Marriott points to book the package (duh)
- The seven night stay you want is currently available to book as an award stay
- If booking a low category package (category 1-4, or category 5), then make sure that the award stay isn’t available at off-peak prices (in other words, don’t bother with the package if you can book at the lowest prices directly).
- If booking a higher category package (6, 7, or 8) then proceed only if the majority of the 7 nights are at peak pricing. This is especially important for category 8 packages.
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As a data point – I attempted to use a (new) Category 6 travel package (initially purchased pre-merger and then converted) for a stay in a Category 5 hotel and was told this was not possible… fortunately I was able to go back to Marriott and get a refund and Category 5 certificate instead, but it appears that they are no longer “up to Category 5/6/7/8” but are instead fixed to a set level.
This re-emphasises that you should ensure to have a firm plan in place to use the certificate before buying it!
Thanks Nick. That’s really odd. I don’t know why they would want to limit the packages in that way. I’ll have to do some research to see if that’s really their policy or simply uninformed agents.
Greg
Do you still get the 20% transfer bonus to United when booking a package? Used to before the merger.
Thanx
You get a 10% bonus now. For example, you would receive 110K United miles instead of 100K miles from other programs
So my Category 9 package expires today. At the moment I have no intended use. Would you convert to a Category 6 certificate or just take the 165,000 points? The way I look at it, is to base it on the cost of 4 peak nights since the fifth night is free and I don’t plan on needing seven consecutive nights at the same hotel.
Sorry, just getting to these comments. What did you end up doing?
Bonvoyed – when using a very restrictive cert costs more than booking separately. Ah, but it’s just noise around the edges
Greg, did you take into consideration the “Stay for 5, Pay for 4” in your do it yourself calculations?
Yep. I assumed that you would pay for a total of 6 nights thanks to that feature.
Gotcha, just wanted to double check. Have a great weekend 🙂
Couple of points. First, even if you are staying for less than seven days there must be seven consecutive days of availability. This almost bit me in the butt last year when I assumed my six night booking at HK Courtyard would be fine. Second…most of us burned up our Marriott stashes in the last 18 months. Actually generating enough Marriott Rewards points to get one of these is gonna be tough and involve significant trade offs for other spending options.
Edit: But a good overview and thanks for putting it out.
Are you sure about needing 7 consecutive days of availability on shorter stays? I was explicitly told by Marriott that that wasn’t required (but they’re not always right). On the other hand, I’m not sure that’s a huge problem since the new packages are usually a bad deal if you don’t plan to use all 7 nights.
100 percent sure. Almost had to buy my wife 6 nights in HK because of it; there was no way for the rep to attach the 7 night cert to a six night reservation. There was no availability for adding a night however because she was landing at 9 AM we could use an available night before she arrived (which ended up not being a terrible thing since the room was ready for her at 10 AM). Marriott rep talked it all through with HK Courtyard to make sure the reservation was not cancelled.
Edit: and I was a Platinum when I was trying to get this all sorted too.
I had a different experience, I was able to book to use the certificate when only 6 nights was available. This was before the merger though.
I am sitting on a few million Marriott miles. What is the best way to use these?
toilet paper?!?…..trade them for what you need…you can get a whole vacation air/hotel/car through them and if you have millions I suppose you aren’t worried about the value of using them that way. here is the link with options: https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/redeem.mi