What are you doing with your Travel Packages

[CalGalTraveler]

FWIW decided not to buy a travel package and will use the points for hotel gap stays next year e.g. 4 nights at Ritz Kapalua or SPG award stay. Even though expensive points-wise, we would never pay cash to stay there. This gives us almost a year to decide if this is worth it or we can apply the points elsewhere. We have plenty of air miles via Chase that can be converted to UAL or Hyatt plus 200k SWA miles so not itching for more.

We had a 7 night travel package before and had much difficulty finding domestic hotels where we wanted to stay for 7 nights. Finally opted to stay 6 nights (didn't use last night) at Marriott Park City cat 8. Nice place but still a hotel. Much prefer timeshares with more space, kitchens, fireplaces and thicker walls.

If we had plans to travel internationally we might have opted for a package. My DH is out of vacation time so if we travel internationally his company will pay for hotel since he is on business and I will tag along because I can work from anywhere.

 

[grandje]

George, that’s what we are doing too. Five nights in Sydney and then a week or so at Surfers Paradise.

Question for you. Did you already attach a Category 8 certificate for Sydney or are you waiting until after Sept. 18 when it gets reduced to Category 5? I had one attached but the representative suggested I unattach it and wait until the change over. Presumably I can then use a Category 5 certificate.

Best regards.

Mike

Hi Mike,

I made the reservations several months ago and although I've been reading the various threads about 'what's going to happen to TP's' and I know the Melbourne and Sydney Marriott's are going down by 5k MRP's per night......but I really can't be bothered or worried about trying to squeeze the last MRP out of every reservation I make so I've left it as it was. Who Knows....maybe Marriott will reimburse me the extra points when the new programme/rules kick in. My wife and I will be arriving in Sydney on 30th December, we are staying there for a week altogether and will be going to the cricket Test (Australia v India) before driving up to Surfers' Paradise for 5 nights (stopping along the way for a couple of nights at Port Macquarie). We are then driving back to Sydney (stopping at Coff's Harbour) where we will meet up with some relatives for a few days before we go to Melbourne (stopping at Mallacoota for a couple of nights). In Melbourne we are staying 5 nights at the Marriott and 2 nights at the Sheraton. We plan to go to the Open Tennis while we are in Melbourne. Overall, we will be away for 29 nights/days. Since my wife and I are both retired (managed to escape early) we take 4 trips of around 4 weeks each during the British winter (October - March). We bought our first MVCI week in 2009 and are doing our best to visit most of them. We are up to about 18 or 19 resorts at present and have a few new ones in our sights

George

 

[1Kflyerguy]

I went with two certificates, I have a cat 9 attached to a reservation in Asheville NC for July 2019.

Also have a Cat 1-5 that we plan to use for a trip in Oct or Nov 2019. I will probably end up upgrading that a higher category. We will are looking at either Austria or Hong Kong. My wife wants Austria so that is probably where we are going...

 

[mjm1]

Hi Mike,

I made the reservations several months ago and although I've been reading the various threads about 'what's going to happen to TP's' and I know the Melbourne and Sydney Marriott's are going down by 5k MRP's per night......but I really can't be bothered or worried about trying to squeeze the last MRP out of every reservation I make so I've left it as it was. Who Knows....maybe Marriott will reimburse me the extra points when the new programme/rules kick in. My wife and I will be arriving in Sydney on 30th December, we are staying there for a week altogether and will be going to the cricket Test (Australia v India) before driving up to Surfers' Paradise for 5 nights (stopping along the way for a couple of nights at Port Macquarie). We are then driving back to Sydney (stopping at Coff's Harbour) where we will meet up with some relatives for a few days before we go to Melbourne (stopping at Mallacoota for a couple of nights). In Melbourne we are staying 5 nights at the Marriott and 2 nights at the Sheraton. We plan to go to the Open Tennis while we are in Melbourne. Overall, we will be away for 29 nights/days. Since my wife and I are both retired (managed to escape early) we take 4 trips of around 4 weeks each during the British winter (October - March). We bought our first MVCI week in 2009 and are doing our best to visit most of them. We are up to about 18 or 19 resorts at present and have a few new ones in our sights

George

That sounds like a great trip. I don’t blame you for just sticking with what you set up. As you say, th difference isn’t much.

Have a great time.

Best regards.

Mike

 

[ACP]

I have three unused certificates in my account. A cat 5, 6 and 7. I also have only 32k points left. The lowest since 1997. I am rolling the dice that Marriott will treat loyal customers fairly either by honoring the cat, giving a good exchange rate of points back into the account or a very favorable upgrade path to new cats. If i am wrong, i hope the worse i can do is the devaluation path i would have followed if i did nothing.

I'm with you and have very few points left (16,500) however 3 TP in the bank which I'm holding on to.
I'm off to Phuket Beach Club in January using Dest Points, so I plan to use one of my 7 night TP to stay in the JW based at the same resort, the Cat goes down to a 5 and I have a Cat 6 TP so that should cover that off, by doing this I will get a bucket load of DP back into my account
My other 2 TP I plan to use one to stay either at the Manor Club Ford Colony, although that will not be until Sept next year so will be looking to extend my TP (Hopefully they will do this) and also allow me to use a TP to book a MVC.
Not sure at the moment what to do with my other TP, especially coming from the UK, I may even try and get into Manor Club for two weeks and a few extra nights using DP. My alternative to Manor Club is to go to Hilton Head, we've been many times and like the look of the Westin there so may use the 2 TP to stay there instead.
Either one will be good, providing we can still extend and still upgrade - hopefully loyalty will be rewarded, (said with my fingers crossed).
Not long to have to wait and see

 

[winger]

That's a great usage of a TP. We stayed at Champs a few years back. Great hotel in an Incredible location. We arrived in the morning after a long flight, room was being prepped, they offered us a free buffet breakfast while we waited, by the time we were done eating, room was ready. Can't beat that!!!

Awesome location, especially if it were for a first time Paris visit like what we did a few years ago. Enjoy !

 

[winger]

We got two TP's, one with a Cat 6 certif for a stay next summer at the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel, the one built into the Blue Jay's baseball stadium - our first time to Toronto. A second Cat 8 certif for safety is attached to a Paris hotel, but we will cancel that once we find a use for it in a place we want to go. We also added miles from the TP's to our SWA acct. We can always use those for more travels around the US. Love their booking flexibility and prices.

 

[Armada]

We are doing the 'big' trip to Italy:
Rome 5 nights (Cat 9) at the Palazzo Naiadi
Florence 7 nights (Cat 8) at the Sina Villa Medici
Tuscany 3 nights at the Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco (paid stay)
Venice 5 nights at Hilton Molino Stucky (Hilton points)
We have the return flights from Venice as a business class award on United. Still working on the outbound award with United.
Based on availability/new rules, may swap Rome and Florence stays to Starwood properties.

 

[JIMinNC]

Gee...I kinda feel like I'm about the only person on TUG who didn't redeem their Rewards points for travel packages. Our 1.5 million points is still sitting there waiting to be used...someday.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Gee...I kinda feel like I'm about the only person on TUG who didn't redeem their Rewards points for travel packages. Our 1.5 million points is still sitting there waiting to be used...someday.

I also did not redeem for a travel package. if I had a specific 7 night redemption in mind I would have pulled the trigger. But I did not, and now am glad because I always guess wrong on these things.

I hope Marriott's stinginess in welcoming SPG doesn't extend to how MVC treats its ILG customers.

 

[Fasttr]

Gee...I kinda feel like I'm about the only person on TUG who didn't redeem their Rewards points for travel packages. Our 1.5 million points is still sitting there waiting to be used...someday.

Based on this and your airline miles thread, you’re a point saver not a spender.

 

[tborr123]

Bought a travel package but can't use the hotel portion within one year due to my schedule. Can that be extended? TIA.

 

[Fasttr]

Bought a travel package but can't use the hotel portion within one year due to my schedule. Can that be extended? TIA.

Historically yes. New system, who knows, but likely yes.

 

[JIMinNC]

I also did not redeem for a travel package. if I had a specific 7 night redemption in mind I would have pulled the trigger. But I did not, and now am glad because I always guess wrong on these things.

I hope Marriott's stinginess in welcoming SPG doesn't extend to how MVC treats its ILG customers.

That was sorta our thinking as well. Basically our 2019 and 2020 plans are at least notionally planned and no use for a package.

Based on this and your airline miles thread, you’re a point saver not a spender.

That’s been our approach. Save for retirement.

 

[winger]

That’s been our approach. Save for retirement.

Unfortunately, as just seen, with points (company-generated/controlled monopoly money), the consumer always comes out on the short end in the end if hording for use on some distant future large redemption.

 

[SueDonJ]

Gee...I kinda feel like I'm about the only person on TUG who didn't redeem their Rewards points for travel packages. Our 1.5 million points is still sitting there waiting to be used...someday.

Right there with you, Jim.

Eventually we'll put together a major trip for Don and me, our two kids and their spouses, and however many grandkids are in the world then. I know it won't be next year and not sure if it will be the year after, so I don't want to risk not being able to extend certs that we're ordering now. Plus with Don's back-and-forth India travel these last few years, miles are already piling up quicker than we can use them. The way I figure, whenever we use them these points/miles loyalty programs will still give us value for this intended trip despite ongoing devaluations. In the meantime we occasionally use points/miles for whatever comes up.

 

[ljmiii]

The staggering devaluation of the air+hotel travel packages came as something of a surprise (yeah...I know it shouldn't have) so the answer to the question of "What are you doing with your travel packages?" continues to evolve as the details of how old certs will be honored become available. Now the $64,000 question is "Will Marriott allow them to be extended for a year (or two) as they have in the past?". That said...

My London summer 2019 stay in a Cat 9 was and is a no brainer. We're going to stay in London (Yay!).

My Aruba Jan 2019 maybe stay in a Cat 9 appears to have come out a winner. If I can trade 'up' and 'out' to new Cat 6 in spring or summer 2020 I'll do that. Otherwise we'll make time this winter for some unexpected sunshine.

My Portland, ME May 2019 almost certainly stay in a Cat 8 is probably still on. Unless the stars align and we come up with a better use for that long weekend AND a better use for the cert.

Lastly My Paris summer 2019 probably not stay in a Cat 7 continues to seem like a safe play. I'll rebook the Cat 7 into 2020 if I can. It might turn out that we'll be able to use it. And worst case I've turned the MRPs into 132K United miles.

In a perfect world I would have my London trip, 132K United miles, and still have the hoard of MRPs I had accumulated over the years. But 'twas not to be...

 

[JIMinNC]

Unfortunately, as just seen, with points (company-generated/controlled monopoly money), the consumer always comes out on the short end in the end if hording for use on some distant future large redemption.

Agree, but we really haven't been in a position until the last year to even take trips using primarily hotel rooms since we still had children in the nest. We needed timeshares/condos. Now that our youngest is in college, hotel-based trips are back on the menu for my wife and I (hence our Mediterranean cruise in two weeks with three nights on the front end in Barcelona and two nights post cruise in Rome). So, up until now, we've only been able to use points for a few specific uses and have been accumulating (not consciously hoarding really, just our needs didn't line up with points using).

We decided to accept the current devaluation and not book anything just to use the packages. We've sorta got our 2019 and 2020 notionally planned (and most of 2019 actually booked), and using travel packages really didn't fit what we have on the docket. Better to wait and accept the devaluation and use them when we have something we really want to do, than to burn a bunch of points for something we weren't inclined to do right now. There will still be value there when they overlap with our needs a few years from now.

Since once we're no longer traveling for work, the miles will quit building as fast, even then, I'm not inclined to burn everything on one or two trips. We'll more likely try to find good redemption value for regular hotel stays where we can find value and use them over a number of years.

 

[duke]

Very Positive News from Marriott re: Travel Packages....
https://onemileatatime.com/marriott-travel-packages-refunds/

 

[ann824]

The 5 night packages seen to have disappeared on the Marriott Vacation Club website. They were there a few days ago, but looks they have made changes to the page and they are gone for now.

 

[VacationForever]

...dreadful sorry, Clementine...

 

[catharsis]

but no comment as to whether/how it will apply to MVC-Owner 5 night packages?

 

[bazzap]

The 5 night packages seen to have disappeared on the Marriott Vacation Club website. They were there a few days ago, but looks they have made changes to the page and they are gone for now.

The MVC website still shows
“We have 5-night travel packages that include your hotel stay and airline miles that is only available for Marriott Vacation Club Owners. Travel to more than 3,600 Marriott hotels worldwide* and choose how you get there.”
albeit the detail is not now displayed.
https://owners.marriottvacationclub.com/timeshare/mvco/marriottRewardsOwnerSpecials

 

[Luvtoride]

We just booked a 5 night stay at the Marriott Champs Elysees (CAT 9) in Paris for May 2019 and used the airline miles of the travel package for Air France (supplemented with transferred points from AMEX) to book 2 round trip tickets in Business Class (total purchase price would have been $18k) from NYC. The hotel we booked is going up by 15,000 points per night after Aug. 18th. Thanks everyone for all of the great advice/ ideas on using MRP before the Aug 18th changes.

We're booked and confirmed now! I sweated out the transfer of the Marriott air miles to my Flying Blue account. I was told it could take 1 to 2 weeks by Marriott Rewards. Ended up it took only 3 days from Thursday request to Monday evening to hit my account. Air France was good enough to put our seats on hold twice to give us time for the points to land in our account. We can't wait for this trip, our first to Paris! Thanks again everyone for the great advice on the Travel Packages prior to 8/18!

 

[Luvtoride]

The MVC website still shows
“We have 5-night travel packages that include your hotel stay and airline miles that is only available for Marriott Vacation Club Owners. Travel to more than 3,600 Marriott hotels worldwide* and choose how you get there.”
albeit the detail is not now displayed.
https://owners.marriottvacationclub.com/timeshare/mvco/marriottRewardsOwnerSpecials

bazzap, interesting that there is mention of the 5 night packages on the MVC site as you directed us to, but no chart showing the points requirements. There is a link to the 7 night packages on the Marriott site with the revised charts (only 2 airline groups now, United and all others) with the 50k and 110k mileage choices. If someone gets through to MVC vacation advisor it would be good to see if they can find the chart with the 5 night packages.