A lot of people booked Marriott travel packages before Marriott & SPG unified. The hope was that because it wasn’t possible to map over to the new award chart directly that Marriott would be generous and those with specific packages would get a great deal. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case and it was basically the worst case scenario. To make matters worse before announcing how the packages would map over Marriott stated that existing package holders wouldn’t be able to downgrade/upgrade and they wouldn’t be able to book properties again until September 18th.
Some good news for those in that situation:
- Partial refunds. If you booked a category 6, 8 or tier 1-3 package you can receive a one time exchange for a package one category lower. This is being done as those packages can be used at the same properties as the category below them (e.g category 6 is the same as category 5). To request a refund click here and select ‘packages-deals’ .
- Trade certificates for points. You can trade your seven night certificates for points, category 1-5 will give you a 45,000 point refund and then categories above that will receive the difference in cost. Break down for other categories is as follows:
- Category 1-5: 45,000 points
- Category 6: 75,000 points
- Category 7: 105,000 points
- Category 8: 135,000 points
- Category 9: 165,000 points
- Properties bookable now. You can now use your certificates immediately rather than having to wait until September 18th.
It’s not clear how things will work exactly for those with five night certificates vs seven night in terms of trading certificates. Those five night certificates normally require you being a time share member but I know lots of readers were able to book them without that being the case.
Hat tip to OMaaT
I had a marriott category 6 7 night certificate. It was a category 1-5 that i had paid 30k to upgrade to category 6 prior to the SPG merger. I called and was able to get it refunded for 75k points, so not a partial refund, but was happy to get 75k points back.
Dr. can you confirm (and if you have anything from Marriott in writing) about your point on “Trade Certificates for Points”. I just called Marriott 2x today–1st rep said he’ll process the request (trade a 7 night cert of 45k pts) but it wasn’t done so I called 2nd time and rep told me that CAN’T be done post merger completion 8/18th. Any other way to escalate to make get this refund (since 35% bonus to Aeroplan starts tomorrow). Thanks!
Has Anyone recieved a full refund? i see DPs for denials for 30k, but none for full refunds
I used the 1-5 certificate to book a 7-night stay. If I cancel my reservation now, do I get the 1-5 certificate back? or I get 1-4 certificate? Or points? If I get points, can I use it for 1-5 hotels, or only 1-4 hotels? Thanks a lot!
Logging into my Marriott account I see that my two five night Category 6 Travel Packages are still saying Category 6. Anyone else still showing the old category and not the new converted categories yet? Im sure it will get converted eventually but just hoping that maybe the 5 day travel packages wont get converted. Wishful thinking but one could hope
The declined my partial refund. Anyone else have this experience? Any meaningful responses?
Hello XXXXXX,
Thank you for contacting Marriott Customer Care regarding your travel package details.
After further reviewing your account, I see that your certificate is not attached to your reservation. Any certificates that were not attached prior to August 17, 2018 will not be honored. There will be no adjustment of points for the category changes, and you will need to book at the points rate for the new category. There will be a month long black out period ending mid September, where you will be unable to access your certificates. Once access to use them are restored, guests will have the ability to book reservations through http://www.marriott.com.
We appreciate your patience during this time. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions or concerns.
Safe travels,
Marriott Customer Care
Booked a Cat 6 and asked for a Cat 5 price point refund.
It’s a form email.
Hello.
Thank you for contacting Marriott Customer Care regarding your travel package details.
After further reviewing your account, I see that your certificate is not attached to your reservation. Any certificates that were not attached prior to August 17, 2018 will not be honored. There will be no adjustment of points for the category changes, and you will need to book at the points rate for the new category. There will be a month long black out period ending mid September, where you will be unable to access your certificates. Once access to use them are restored, guests will have the ability to book reservations through http://www.marriott.com.
We appreciate your patience during this time. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions or concerns.
Safe travels,
Arie M.
Marriott Customer Care
DENIED BY MARRIOTT. I RECEIVED THE BELOW EMAIL AFTER TRYING TO GET A PARTIAL REFUND OF 30K POINTS FOR BOOKING A CATEGORY 8 PACKAGE!!!
Thank you for contacting Marriott Customer Care regarding your travel package details.
After further reviewing your account, I see that your certificate is not attached to your reservation. Any certificates that were not attached prior to August 17, 2018 will not be honored. There will be no adjustment of points for the category changes, and you will need to book at the points rate for the new category. There will be a month long black out period ending mid September, where you will be unable to access your certificates. Once access to use them are restored, guests will have the ability to book reservations through http://www.marriott.com.
We appreciate your patience during this time. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions or concerns.
Safe travels,
Jeffrey Robinson
Marriott Customer Care
Below is the response I received after requesting the 30k refund from my category 8. What’s the point of the point adjustment if I cannot use the points on alternate reservations…
Thank you for contacting Marriott Customer Care regarding your travel package details.
Any travel packages that were attached to a booking prior to August 17, 2018 will be honored. On your account activity, you will see a point adjustment on your account to compensate for the category change. These points are not available to use on alternate reservations, they are strictly for adjustment purposes. Your reservation will be adjusted prior to your arrival.
We appreciate your patience during this time. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions or concerns.
Safe travels,
Nathan O.
Marriott Customer Care
To my understanding, probably the hotel you reserved has a increase in category after 8/18. They honored your reservation and add “adjustment” points to your reservation; so that you can still complete your stay even though the required points are increased.
that would make a lot of sense if i had attached the travel package. If they added an additional 30k points to bump me up to the old cat 9 (new category 6), that would be awesome though.
Updates: Old cat6, requested refund yesterday and get same reply today: no partial refund, and still has black out until sep 18. Marriott really needs to be consistent on their policy, especially at this transition point.
Latest update: need to resubmit the request after 5-8 biz day or till their system can process this request.