A week or so ago a few readers and people on reddit alerted me to the fact that an official Starwood representative had posted some interesting information regarding free night certificates under the new combined SPG/Marriott program. I was a bit lazy so never got around to posting anything, but Freequent Flyer Book post today reminded me that it is probably worth posting about. The statement that is most interesting is this:
Floater certificates, including outstanding Marriott Travel Packages, will be cancelled and converted to equivalent points, credited to the member’s account for future redemption
The annoying part is that we don’t know what the equivalent points will be for each package, the same Starwood rep goes on to say: “I have no idea what the converted equivalent points will be.” It could be a wide range for example currently you can convert 270,000 Marriott points for 132,000 United miles and 7 night stay at a category 1-5 property. Category 5 properties cost 20,000-25,000 points per night, so will those with a 7 night package receive 150,000 Marriott points back? I highly doubt it as then you’re converting Marriott to United close to 1:1 and that’s an incredible deal. If they give you the value of a category 1 property you’d get back 42,000-52,500 points. I personally think it will fall in the middle and you’ll get category 3 back in points (70,000-105,000).
As some readers point out you could pay an extra 30,000 Marriott points to get a category 6 7 night package. That should get you 175,000-210,000 points back, but again that would be converting Marriott points to miles at close to a 1:1 rate and I just don’t see them being that generous. Some readers want to know if they should preemptively book a package in the hopes of a good return of points. My advice is that it really depends on what your risk tolerance is like. If I was to do it, I’d go for the category 6 package as I think Marriott will have a harder time not giving award certificate holders the equivalent in points than with the category 1-5 packages.
Actually, if you book 5 consecutive nights at Marriott, your 5th night will be free, so I believe Marriott will give you at most 6 nights worth of points back, since the 7 night is consecutive. Thus only 25k x 6 = 150k back, at most, if Marriott plays fair.
Everybody would be ecstatic if that happens.. Essentially that would allow users to convert their Marriott points to airline miles 1:1 (or even 1:1.1 in case of United)… which makes me very skeptical. I personally doubt they would do it. What disappoints me is the silence on their part. Whatever happens happens, but tell people what are you going to do with their certificates.
Well I think if they erase your 7FN and give you points not enough to get a 7FN, they would upset A LOT of customers, especially those loyal enough to have enough points for a hotel package, personally I don’t think any hotel chain would risk pissing off their customers. If they really want to rip you off, why stop at taking away 7FN which could only affect the top point earning members? They could simply increase points needed for 7FN redemption or something. I think the removal of the 7FN certificate is because of some technical/contractual issue at the time of real merger, but not because Marriott want to rip and piss their customer off and save some $$. Just my 2 cents.
Currently my cat1-5 , 5 night package from 1.5 years ago that I was able to get extended until December shows up as this:
Rewards Certificate P530 PARTIAL PKG-CAT 1-5 – 10,000 Points
Not sure exactly what this means- should I be trying to use / do anything with this before a certain date?
that looks alarming…I hope it doesn’t mean the “equivalent” points for a cat1-5 free night is only worth 10,000 points!
Anyone get an update on this? 🙂
Currently, a floater 7-night category 1-5 certificate that has been extended shows up as this: “Rewards Certificate P830 PARTIAL PKG-CAT 1-5 – 45,000 Points”. That seems to indicate that it will convert to only 45,000 points. Increasing it to a category 6 by adding 30,000 points would likely only convert to 75,000. I do not see why people would expect more.
Wow that’s a real floater. Flush it!
If the cert is cancelled involuntarily (and this is a key here) people would expect more because they should be able to use whatever they receive for a 7-night stay in a comparable hotel.
Thanks for calling attention to this! Been on the fence for what to do with my 300 points, and personally with this news likely will roll the dice and hope for a great conversion. If it falls apart, I’ll just try to book the Costa Rica category 6 hotel I had been considering anyways.
Rep told me I could cash in my category 8 certificate 7 nights for 80k points…… not a good deal
That is probably the refund amount in case if you cancel it.. am I mistaken? Hopefully if Marriott cancels it for everybody the return would be different.
I don’t think the possibility that conversion would be at 1:1 would be the driver. Points already converted into miles are a sunk cost for Marriott. They’ve already paid the airlines the cost of those miles. The question is about Marriott compensating the hotels.
Here’s a theory. Perhaps people are misunderstanding William. In the future (past Jan. 19), given the shift in points per night based on peak etc., those certs will have to be based on a total cost rather than a per-night cost. It seems possible (likely even) that they’ll issue a 150K cert which is good for 25K/nt for 7 nights… If that’s where they are headed as of January, it seems a good bet they’ll convert certs from categories to points as of August. If that’s true, we’d get certs valid up to 150K (cat 1-5) or up to 180K (cat 6). That would be enough for a peak NewCat 4 or lower, as well as an off-peak NewCat 5.
Conceivably, this would also fuel a move away from the weeklong rule, to allow people to use these certs for 5 or 6 days instead (maybe less). After all, they’ll otherwise need to decide whether a person who starts the week off-peak gets that lower rate for the full 7 nights, and conversely, if the person starts at peak whether they get to pay less for the last 4 nights etc. Allowing conversions for fewer days will reduce this. They might allow a 150K cert to be used for 6 nights at a NewCat 5 off-peak (30Kx5) (1nt free). Or a 180K cert could be used for 6 nights at a NewCat 5 standard level. Etc.
It’s maybe less exciting as a theory than getting points literally back into our accounts (though some of us would be pretty stoked to get away from the week manacles), but I think it’s technically consistent with what William said (i.e. conversion into points) without being so generous as it might seem. Of course I’d rather get the points back to the account, but that seems just too kind to imagine.
If this theory is correct, there might be less reason to rush to convert.
One time I was in a rush and left a floater back at the hotel. Felt a bit bad for the cleaning staff.
Will be interesting for sure, I have a 7-day Cat 8 certificate from a vacation package redemption of marriott points. I plan to use it ~October of this year – and I’ve already booked it. Of course, until the reservation actually occurs I still have the certificate.
I think, technically they “send” the certificates to the hotels right after you make the reservation.
I currently have a Tier 4-5 Ritz Carlton 7 night stay certificate. We have it booked for a trip in September. No chance that they will cancel the cert and I’ll have to rebook with points right? Worried about the hotel selling out.
I dont think they will cancel reservations that have certificates attached. People would flip, they have airfare, cars, nannys booked, etc. That is why I am suggesting that if people dont want point conversions that they should book certificates/nights pkgs. Just my opinion.
I really don’t see them canceling reservations that have already been made. The rep specifically mentions “floater certificates” ie certificates for which no reservations have been made.
I have a 7-night cat 8 cert booked for Aug 2-9 in Maui, and the Marriott rep said the reservation would be completely unaffected by any changes on 8/1 because it’s already booked.
What does this mean? All 7-night certificate will be converted to points? That’s rip off. Can I use my certificate to book a room for a future date now? Will the room be cancelled when the merge happens on 8/1/2018?