Upgrading Marriott Travel Packages

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A couple of readers have recently reported problems with trying to upgrade their Marriott Travel Packages.  This is a quick post just to affirm that it can still be done.  I just did it.  And, as expected, upgrading or downgrading has the benefit of extending the expiration date of the certificate.

Marriott 7 Night Travel Packages

If you’d like background on Marriott Travel Packages, please see: 12 things you need to know about Marriott Travel Packages.

Starting from Category 1-5

I logged into my Marriott account to get a “before” picture of my certificate.  Here it is:

Marriott Travel Package Cat 1-5 Exp 1-23-18

Note that the listed Points Value was 270,000 points (the number of points I paid for the package) and that the expiration date was 1/23/18.  Also note that if I had asked to cancel the certificate, they wouldn’t have refunded the full 270,000 points since most of those points were for the 120,000 Southwest points that I got from the package.  Instead, they would have given me only a 45,000 point refund.

Calling Marriott Rewards

I called the Platinum number (800-399-4229) in order to get a person to answer immediately.  She was from Reservations.  I asked if she could transfer me to Marriott Rewards, but she offered to help me directly.  Accepting that offer was a mistake because she didn’t know what she was doing.  If you try this, I’d recommend calling Marriott Rewards directly: In the USA & Canada: 1-800-450-4442.

I asked the first agent to upgrade my certificate to category 6.  About 20 minutes and several clarifications later, she admitted that she couldn’t do it (she said that she didn’t have access to the right system) and she transferred me to a supervisor.

I repeated my request to the supervisor, was put on hold, and about 10 minutes later it was done.

Email notifications

I received two emails regarding the upgrade.  One was titled “Cancelled Award Order Confirmation.” This one shows that my 7 Night travel package certificate was cancelled.  I presumably received 45,000 points for the cancellation (as expected).

The next email was titled “New Reward Order Confirmation.”  It showed the following:

Reward Details
——————————–
Description: 7 Night Partial Package Category 6 Hotels
Reward code: P870
Valid through: Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Total points redeemed: 75,000
Confirmed on: Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Reward Terms & Conditions
https://www.marriott.com/rewards/terms/usetrms.mi

Description:

7 Night Partial Package Category 6 Hotels
Reward certificate number: XXXXXXX

Total points redeemed: 75,000

This is a bit misleading.  It appears that it cost 75,000 points to upgrade, but in reality it only cost 30,000 points.  45,000 points came from the cancelled certificate and the additional 30,000 points came from my account.

Ending with Category 6 and a new expiration date

The difference in price between category 5 and category 6 travel packages is 30,000 points.  So, they withdrew 30,000 points from my account and replaced my 7 night certificate with this one:

Marriott Travel Package Cat 6 Exp 5-16-18

Note that the point value is now at only 75,000 points and the expiration date has been pushed forward to 5/16/18.  The Points Value now is the full value of the certificate if I were to cancel it.  It is, as expected, the sum of the original cancellation value (45,000 points) plus the difference in point price between the original and new packages (30,000 points).

Travel Package Pricing (for reference)

You can see in each of the packages below that the difference in price between Category 1-5 packages and Category 6 packages is always 30,000 points:

Air Canada Marriott Hotel and Air Package

Marriott Hotel and Air Package 3

Marriott Travel Package RewardsPlus United

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