Marriott 5 night package upgradable

[slomac]

I redeemed MR points for a 5 night category 1-4 package back 6 months ago. I want to use it now for a category 5 hotel. In the past I could pay the points to upgrade it but they are telling me I can no longer do that with the merger. Has anyone tried to do this?

 

[Steve Fatula]

I redeemed MR points for a 5 night category 1-4 package back 6 months ago. I want to use it now for a category 5 hotel. In the past I could pay the points to upgrade it but they are telling me I can no longer do that with the merger. Has anyone tried to do this?

I have tried for a few months to find someone who would upgrade mine, but mine is a post merger certificate.

For pre merger certificates, which it sounds like you have, you are supposed to be able to convert them to a new post merger certificate, get one year from that date as the new expiration, and, one time upgrade. I have seen posts from some that have not been able to upgrade, I was able to a few months ago. Perhaps it just takes finding the right person at Marriott who knows how.

I thought it was a policy to be able to upgrade a pre merger cert when converting to a post merger cert.

 

[MOXJO7282]

I have a Cat 9 that they're telling me now converts to a cat 6 in the new system. I was on the phone for 2 hours trying to get it adjusted and the person said it wasn't possible and I didn't have a choice and they converted it to a Cat 6 so I got screwed because i thought since I had the highest cat in the system it would convert to that but it didn't.

Just another example as to how the value of the point is constantly devalued.

 

[PetePullen]

There is a Flyer Talk forum devoted to this at https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mar...travel-package-general-discussion-thread.html. (Be forewarned -- it is over 1400 entries last I looked.) Lots of good information ... and lots of shared frustration. There is also a TUG thread in this Marriott forum entitled
"Travel Package Certificate- Extensions?" started by Seaport104 on Feb. 11, which deals with reports of upgrades and refusals of upgrades, as well as extensions. I have just been reading and researching. I have not attempted to "convert" my old category 7 and 8 ("OC7" and "OC8") five-night travel packages to new travel package certificates ("NC_"). Good luck in trying to wade through all the great advice (read the "Wiki" at the very top of the Flyer Talk discussion) and in attempting to do any "upgrade" (that is just one point = you will see you have to ask for a "conversion" not an "upgrade," and even that might not work).

 

[AlmostRetired]

I am wondering if the took off the freeze off of upgrading hotel package certificates.

Currently I have two cat 4 five night stay packages and one Cat 5 five night package. I called reservations to see what room type a cat 5 five night certificate would get me at the Marriott Resort in St Kitts. I am thinking of going in April. It turns out to be what I thought, a garden view room that goes for 192 per night. The women who I spoke with sensed I was disappointed and added "but as a titanium member, you could ask for an upgrade." I responded with I would be happier if you would be able to upgrade my cat 4 certificates to Cat 5. She said she didn't think so.

A side track story that I will tie into the above. Last month I had a cat 4 one night certificate from my credit card that was expiring the next day, I called to find out if it had to be used that night or was good for the next night. If it was that night, I would just book locally to get the night credit and register on my way home. I was put on hold as she read the rules. The answer was unclear so she put me on hold and spoke with her manager. When she came back she said it was unclear to her manager so they extended the certificate for 1 year. I posted this on Tug along with fact that superiors have the authorization to extend at least one night certificates.

Back on track to story. I asked the women would she mind checking with her manager to see if her manager would allow a change. I was on hold for a long time. She kept coming back on line to let me know she was still waiting. Finally she came back on line and said she could not get to her manager so she made the change. Not believing it I asked could be stay on for a second longer for me to check. When I did, it still had the old certificates in it. She said I would need to sign off and than on again. She said she was looking at them in my account. I thanked her and I signed off. I signed back on and I currently have three Cat 5 five night certificates in my account.

My son is going to Italy the end of the month for 6 nights. I was going to offer him a cat 4 certificate but there were so few to choose from and none I would suggest he stay at. I am going to look to make sure the Cat 5's are still in my account. If they are he may get them.

Interesting.... this was done by the person answering thwe call and not a manager. This is what I started with "I am wondering if the took off the freeze off of upgrading hotel package certificates. ".

 

[VacationForever]

I am wondering if the took off the freeze off of upgrading hotel package certificates.

Currently I have two cat 4 five night stay packages and one Cat 5 five night package. I called reservations to see what room type a cat 5 five night certificate would get me at the Marriott Resort in St Kitts. I am thinking of going in April. It turns out to be what I thought, a garden view room that goes for 192 per night. The women who I spoke with sensed I was disappointed and added "but as a titanium member, you could ask for an upgrade." I responded with I would be happier if you would be able to upgrade my cat 4 certificates to Cat 5. She said she didn't think so.

A side track story that I will tie into the above. Last month I had a cat 4 one night certificate from my credit card that was expiring the next day, I called to find out if it had to be used that night or was good for the next night. If it was that night, I would just book locally to get the night credit and register on my way home. I was put on hold as she read the rules. The answer was unclear so she put me on hold and spoke with her manager. When she came back she said it was unclear to her manager so they extended the certificate for 1 year. I posted this on Tug along with fact that superiors have the authorization to extend at least one night certificates.

Back on track to story. I asked the women would she mind checking with her manager to see if her manager would allow a change. I was on hold for a long time. She kept coming back on line to let me know she was still waiting. Finally she came back on line and said she could not get to her manager so she made the change. Not believing it I asked could be stay on for a second longer for me to check. When I did, it still had the old certificates in it. She said I would need to sign off and than on again. She said she was looking at them in my account. I thanked her and I signed off. I signed back on and I currently have three Cat 5 five night certificates in my account.

My son is going to Italy the end of the month for 6 nights. I was going to offer him a cat 4 certificate but there were so few to choose from and none I would suggest he stay at. I am going to look to make sure the Cat 5's are still in my account. If they are he may get them.

Interesting.... this was done by the person answering thwe call and not a manager. This is what I started with "I am wondering if the took off the freeze off of upgrading hotel package certificates. ".

Did she deduct points from your account to make the upgrade to Cat 5?

 

[AlmostRetired]

Normally when I upgraded or downgraded in the past, they cancel the certificate, put the points back in your account and take out the new point amount. There was no cancellation, no points put back in my account and no points taken out of my account. Just two new certificates expiring 3/7/2020. I do not understand how this was done but I also do not understand the theory of relativity but quite happy never the less.

 

[VacationForever]

Normally when I upgraded or downgraded in the past, they cancel the certificate, put the points back in your account and take out the new point amount. There was no cancellation, no points put back in my account and no points taken out of my account. Just two new certificates expiring 3/7/2020. I do not understand how this was done but I also do not understand the theory of relativity and an quite happy never the less.

Lucky you then!

 

[AlmostRetired]

Lucky you then!

If I am going to be lucky, I can think of a million other things I would want to be lucky on. I am thinking they undid the freeze. I just got onto email. I did get a cancellation of the cat 4 and and order of the cat 5. Unless their a a time delay no points added or taken out.

The cat 4
Cancellation Information

• DESCRIPTION: PARTIAL PACKAGE - 5 NIGHTS CATEGORY 1-4
• Certificates cancelled:
• CANCELLED ON: Thursday, March 7, 2019
• REWARD CODE: QP53

Cat 5

• DESCRIPTION: PARTIAL PACKAGE - 5 NIGHTS CATEGORY 5
• REWARD CODE: QP61
• VALID THROUGH: Saturday, March 7, 2020
• TOTAL POINTS REDEEMED: 45,000
• CONFIRMED ON: Thursday, March 7, 2019

 

[VacationForever]

If I am going to be lucky, I can think of a million other things I would want to be lucky on. I am thinking they undid the freeze. I just got onto email. I did get a cancellation of the cat 4 and and order of the cat 5. Unless their a a time delay no points added or taken out.

The cat 4
Cancellation Information

• DESCRIPTION: PARTIAL PACKAGE - 5 NIGHTS CATEGORY 1-4
• Certificates cancelled:
• CANCELLED ON: Thursday, March 7, 2019
• REWARD CODE: QP53

Cat 5

• DESCRIPTION: PARTIAL PACKAGE - 5 NIGHTS CATEGORY 5
• REWARD CODE: QP61
• VALID THROUGH: Saturday, March 7, 2020
• TOTAL POINTS REDEEMED: 45,000
• CONFIRMED ON: Thursday, March 7, 2019

There is usually a delay of 24 to 48 hrs for the points deduction and addition to reflect online.

 

[Steve Fatula]

Everything would be awesome if I could do so also! I wish I knew the name and extension of your rep....

 

[AlmostRetired]

Just saw the points removed from a he account. They rep cancelled the cat 4 without adding back the 10k points. She did take out 90k, 45k for each cat 5. The cat 4 was unusable for me so while the extra 10k per cat 5 is worth it, I will try and get it back.

 

[Steve Fatula]

Just saw the points removed from a he account. They rep cancelled the cat 4 without adding back the 10k points. She did take out 90k, 45k for each cat 5. The cat 4 was unusable for me so while the extra 10k per cat 5 is worth it, I will try and get it back.

I've spent 2 months now trying to get an upgrade.

 

[VacationForever]

Just saw the points removed from a he account. They rep cancelled the cat 4 without adding back the 10k points. She did take out 90k, 45k for each cat 5. The cat 4 was unusable for me so while the extra 10k per cat 5 is worth it, I will try and get it back.

Wait 24 hours. When I did a straight conversion from the old Cat 1-5 to the new Cat 1-4, my account showed 10K were taken out. 24 hours later 10K got re-added back.

 

[Carlsbadguy]

I tried multiple times the last week to get my Cat 8 5 night package upgraded to a new Cat 6 package but no such look. Needed to make a reservation at an old Cat 5 hotel before devaluation so converted to the Cat 5 package and got 30,000 points put back in my account. It took about 12 hours to see the points in my account.

 

[MOXJO7282]

Maybe they're only upgrading a certain level of cert because they would not even consider upgrading my cat 9 that was lowered to a 6 in the new because I can't imagine some can do it and some can't.

 

[NboroGirl]

Here's my lucky story:

Back when everyone was having trouble with Marriott reps post-merger not knowing anything, or even being able to get thru on the phone, I waited until September before I called. I had a 5-night cat 6 certificate that now maps to cat 1-4. I read on TUG about people in my situation getting 30,000 points refunded, since the old cat 5 also now maps to a cat 1-4. When I called, I got a rep who was working from home (she mentioned her husband talking to her in the background). Instead of requesting the 15,000 point refund I should get for a 5-night certificate, I mistakenly thought I was owed a 30,000 point refund (which is what you'd get if you had a 7-night certificate) so that's what I asked for, and I received 30,000 points back into my account. I also thought that my certificate would then be reassigned to a cat 1-4 then but it still showed cat 6.

Fast-forward 4 months when I called to extend my 5-night certificate for another year. We now knew when and where we wanted to use it, but it would be after its expiration date. The certificate still showed cat 6. The rep told me that when it gets converted to the new cat 1-4 it automatically gets extended for a year, and that's what happened. As mentioned above, they cancel the old certificate and then charge you for a new one. They cancelled the cat 6 certificate, dumping 25,000 points back into my account, then charged me 10,000 points for the cat 1-4 certificate, netting me 15,000 additional points. I received 2 refunds for my 5-night cat 6 being mapped to a cat 1-4 after the merger. My total refund ended up being 45,000 points.

 

[AlmostRetired]

I called today to upgrade the cat 5 to a cat 6. Turns out the hotel we would like to stay at during Christmas in San Juan is a cat 6. The person I spoke with denied the request and when she went to the speak with her manager the answer was the same. I did speak with the manager who couldn’t explain why the upgrade was approved. She did say a manager can approve the change. I did ask her if a manager could make the change, under what circumstance would a manager use this discretion. She said she didn’t know. I believe i could have bullied her into the change since it was done yesterday but I refused to be an jerk. I will try again tomorrow. It seems so arbitrary they they just stopped allowing it.

 

[Big Matt]

Well, I'm in a pickle with mine. I got burned with the hotel I wanted to use it for moving from a category 4 to 5. I have tons of points, but can't upgrade. Stupid question: Can I get points back if I simply want to turn it in? I know it will be a bad deal, but I really don't know if I can use the category 1-4 for much in the places I want to travel.

 

[1Kflyerguy]

Well, I'm in a pickle with mine. I got burned with the hotel I wanted to use it for moving from a category 4 to 5. I have tons of points, but can't upgrade. Stupid question: Can I get points back if I simply want to turn it in? I know it will be a bad deal, but I really don't know if I can use the category 1-4 for much in the places I want to travel.

Had you already made the reservation for the hotel before the category change? I made a reservation for a cat 4 hotel a few weeks ago, tried to call and attach the cert but got left on hold and had to hang-up. This week i tried calling again only to discover the hotel changed to a cat 5.

It took 3 agents, and about an hour but i got them to honor the reservation, they upgraded my cert and now i have cat 5 cert attached.

 

[MOXJO7282]

Well, I'm in a pickle with mine. I got burned with the hotel I wanted to use it for moving from a category 4 to 5. I have tons of points, but can't upgrade. Stupid question: Can I get points back if I simply want to turn it in? I know it will be a bad deal, but I really don't know if I can use the category 1-4 for much in the places I want to travel.

Yes you can turn the certs back in for a certain amount of points.

 

[AlmostRetired]

I called today to upgrade the cat 5 to a cat 6. Turns out the hotel we would like to stay at during Christmas in San Juan is a cat 6. The person I spoke with denied the request and when she went to the speak with her manager the answer was the same. I did speak with the manager who couldn’t explain why the upgrade was approved. She did say a manager can approve the change. I did ask her if a manager could make the change, under what circumstance would a manager use this discretion. She said she didn’t know. I believe i could have bullied her into the change since it was done yesterday but I refused to be an jerk. I will try again tomorrow. It seems so arbitrary they they just stopped allowing it.

I called today and was not allowed to upgrade my partial package (5 night cat 5) from 5 to 6. I was not surprised and I was going to leave it alone until I was told that while I couldn't upgrade the package, if I wanted my points back the rep could downgrade my package to a cat 4. When I asked if this was because it was upgraded in error, I was told "no, any rep can downgrade a package". I asked while I can understand if no changes are permitted but how can you go in one direction. Answer....that was the policy. I asked to speak with a supervisor who confirmed that anyone can downgrade a room package. She said that she looked at my account before coming on line and Ariel (I never knew her name) who made the change in the first place will need to be retrained. My intent was not to get anyone in retrained, especially when this was the first time (actually second time) I spoke with Marriott since August and left the call feeling like someone gave a crap about loyalty. Now I feel compelled to email David Flueck in support of Ariel.

Does anyone have his email address. I think I remember reading somewhere that it doesn't follow the first name.last name@Marriott.com format.
Can anyone confirm that the hotel portion of the travel package can be downgraded? This seems very self serving from Marriott and if true added into my email to David.

Thanks in advance

 

[Steve Fatula]

Yep, tried again today, and, was told "We do not upgrade those any longer". At this point, I give up.

 

[MOXJO7282]

Yes you can turn the certs back in for a certain amount of points.

and I got bad info this morning and was told you can't put back the points either so anyone who has a cert is likely stuck with them as they are.

 

[AlmostRetired]

I called today and was not allowed to upgrade my partial package (5 night cat 5) from 5 to 6. I was not surprised and I was going to leave it alone until I was told that while I couldn't upgrade the package, if I wanted my points back the rep could downgrade my package to a cat 4. When I asked if this was because it was upgraded in error, I was told "no, any rep can downgrade a package". I asked while I can understand if no changes are permitted but how can you go in one direction. Answer....that was the policy. I asked to speak with a supervisor who confirmed that anyone can downgrade a room package. She said that she looked at my account before coming on line and Ariel (I never knew her name) who made the change in the first place will need to be retrained. My intent was not to get anyone in retrained, especially when this was the first time (actually second time) I spoke with Marriott since August and left the call feeling like someone gave a crap about loyalty. Now I feel compelled to email David Flueck in support of Ariel.

Does anyone have his email address. I think I remember reading somewhere that it doesn't follow the first name.last name@Marriott.com format.
Can anyone confirm that the hotel portion of the travel package can be downgraded? This seems very self serving from Marriott and if true added into my email to David.

Thanks in advance

This is becoming interesting. I call twice a day this week getting different people. Today I got a person who was willing to do the upgrade. She said that under no circumstances can one upgrade past a cat 6 and to go from a cat 5 to a cat 6 would cost me an additional 105,000 points. I asked her to check and had her look at my recent upgrade from the cat 4 to a cat 5 for 35K additional miles and she said that going from 5 to 6 is not proportional. She said it is the reason she technically isn't suppose to do this. Trying to get to Atlantis for 4 days (wasting one day) some time between 4/17-4/28 and while they have a cat 5 as part of the group of Atlantis hotels, they only availability for points is cat 6 or 7.