5 Night travel package questions

Hi all,
please help me with 2 questions:
1. Can I split my 5 night hotel stay portion of travel package for 2 rooms at the same days (1 room for 2 nights and 1 room for 3 nights) so we can travel with parents and rent 2 rooms?
2. I am a platinum this year and if I get 5 night hotel portion of travel package, can I send my parents and will they get all the benefits?
Thank you for your answers.

We use travel packages all of the time. Unfortunately, the answers to both of your questions are no.

dima said:

Hi all,
please help me with 2 questions:
1. Can I split my 5 night hotel stay portion of travel package for 2 rooms at the same days (1 room for 2 nights and 1 room for 3 nights) so we can travel with parents and rent 2 rooms?

No: Only can be used for one room at a time. Five consecutive nights at one property.

2. I am a platinum this year and if I get 5 night hotel portion of travel package, can I send my parents and will they get all the benefits?

I have been able to get Plat benefits for two rooms when I am traveling and have other family in the other room. However, if you are saying you will not be there at all, its difficult to set them up to receive benefits. You are supposed to be there for check in. The award stay IS transferrable. But then, the reservation will have to be in their name, otherwise they will not be able to check in. Difficult to have both ways.

Thank you for your answers.

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Perhaps this is one of those times when having names "Such and such" Junior or "Such and such" III or similar could be a real advantage.
I am sure they would never know the difference then.

Got it. Thank you!
At least it should work with my son because of the same name, but not with parents

I am unable to find the 5 night packages on my vacation club. com
I only see 7 night packages

Are they still available?

Anyone have a link?

pacheco18 said:

I am unable to find the 5 night packages on my vacation club. com
I only see 7 night packages

Are they still available?

Anyone have a link?

Click to expand...

I can't search for it now-but they were always hard to find. They are still available. You have to call to book anyway. You can also call to check points needed for a particular package.

pacheco18 said:

I am unable to find the 5 night packages on my vacation club. com
I only see 7 night packages

Are they still available?

Anyone have a link?

Click to expand...

You just need to sign in to your account on www.my-vacationclub.com, then under Account Information under Marriott Rewards you should see Program Changes.
If you select this it will show the 5 night travel packages
https://www.my-vacationclub.com/marriottrewards/default.jsp

I booked one of the 5 night packages a couple of months ago for travel this summer. It's still available, but the downside seems to be that it removes the free fifth night when booking normally with points. So, whereas 5 nights in a category 7 would normally be 140,000 points, with a 5 night package it's 175,000+the number of miles you want to add to your frequent flyer account.

Perhaps things have changed, but every time I have booked a 5 night travel package previously I have effectively paid for 4 nights and got the 5th night free.
They do also still say in the 5 night travel package description
"Redeem for 4 nights and get the 5th night free
It’s really that simple. Use your Marriott Rewards points to stay at Marriott hotels for 4 nights and get the 5th redemption night free."

gsb said:

I booked one of the 5 night packages a couple of months ago for travel this summer. It's still available, but the downside seems to be that it removes the free fifth night when booking normally with points. So, whereas 5 nights in a category 7 would normally be 140,000 points, with a 5 night package it's 175,000+the number of miles you want to add to your frequent flyer account.

Click to expand...

Yesterday I booked a 5 night category 7 travel package with 120,000 FFM for 270,000 points.

5 Night Package Premium

There is definitly a premium to be paid when you go for the five night package over the seven. The fifth night truely isn't free. The current five night package point values are based on prices of old 7 night packages before a large MR dealuation by Marriott. So MVCI came up with the five night packages. See this post.

Here is the premium you pay when you go for five nights instead of seven, based on 120,000 air miles. But it is the same regardless of the number of miles you take.

I know I did this breakdown before, but I couldn't turn it up in a search, so I started from scratch.

.....................120K Miles
Category 1-5....235,000
Category 6.......250,000
Category 7.......270,000
Category 8.......300,000
Category 9.......345,000

If you got the 120,000 miles at one point per mile like you do on the 7 night packages, here is what you are paying for the five night certificate.

Category 1-5....115,000
Category 6.......130,000
Category 7.......150,000
Category 8.......180,000
Category 9.......225,000

To buy 5 nights straight up it costs the following. Consider the fifth night free.

Category 5.......100,000
Category 6.......120,000
Category 7.......140,000
Category 8.......160,000
Category 9.......180,000

So the premium you are paying is as follows:

Category 5.......15,000
Category 6.......10,000
Category 7.......10,000
Category 8.......20,000
Category 9.......45,000

The fifth night truly isn't free. The premium above is what you are paying for that fifth night. For the category nine it isn't free at all since a category 9 costs 45,000 points.

That is a very helpful analysis, thank you.
I guess back before the now highest categories were introduced this premium did not jump out at me when looking at what I still see as the really good value of the travel packages generally compared to any other use of MR points.
I will though certainly now look more carefully at the nights/category options when booking my next travel package (my last one was a 5 night cat 6, which I was very pleased with)

Dioxide, thanks for clarifying that. The package I booked was for a category 9, so I think I had to pay full price for all five nights. I booked over the phone, so I just assumed what was true of category 9 was true of them all. Glad to see there's at least a slight discount for several of the other categories.

Dioxide,

Nice work.

It seems to me that the "sweet spot" is the Category 7 5-night travel package with 120,000 miles. The point per night is identical to the 7-night package (30,000), but since FFM are more valuable than Rewards points, you get a better value in terms of FFM/points redeemed.

Who to call re Travel Package

Getting ready to order our first 5-night travel package.

Do we call the regular MR # or MVC?

We also need to transfer points from my husband's account to mine since I'm the one who needs the airline miles.

Can we do this all in one session with whomever?

aka Julie said:

Getting ready to order our first 5-night travel package.

Do we call the regular MR # or MVC?

We also need to transfer points from my husband's account to mine since I'm the one who needs the airline miles.

Can we do this all in one session with whomever?

Click to expand...

The MR transfer from your husbands account to yours requires emailing paperwork to MR. They will send that to you for completion. That takes a couple of days to happen. Then you can call either MVCI or MR after you have the MR points in your account.