Marriott Has No Plans On Letting Us Know What They Plan On Doing With Current Travel Packages, But Don’t Let That Stop You From Taking Advantage Of Them!

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Related Marriott Travel Packages posts:

• All About Marriott’s Lucrative Miles+Nights Travel Packages; The Best Way To Spend Your Starpoints.
• Guesstimating Where Marriott Travel Packages Will Work In August; Take Advantage Of Marriott’s Lucrative Miles+Nights Packages Now!
• Marriott Will Massively Devalue New Miles+Nights Travel Packages In August; Comparing The Value Of The Current Packages To The New Packages
• Another Guess At What Will Happen With Marriott’s Miles+Nights Travel Packages And Which You Should Buy Now Before It’s Too Late!

Marriott pleasantly surprised the travel community when they announced that Starwood points would convert into 3 Marriott points. Everyone’s biggest fear in the merger was that they would value Starpoints at just 1 or 2 Marriott points each and that didn’t materialize.

The ratio made sense for the most part, though it made Marriott’s top-tier hotels cost less (50-70K points) than SPG’s top-tier hotels (90-105K points). In August we’ll get a new award chart that drops the cost of SPG’s top tier hotels down to Marriott levels (60K points), but in February all top-tier hotels will climb back up to SPG levels (70K-100K points). One amazing thing Marriott will do is bring SPG off-the-chart hotels back onto the award charts, which will make for some insane bargains.

The 1 for 3 ratio made Marriott’s miles+nights travel packages a ridiculously good bargain, so it’s no surprise that they will be massively devaluing those packages in August.

For now though you can still buy a travel package, but Marriott refuses to say what exactly what will happen with the existing certificates and the new combined award chart.

I asked the official SPG rep on Flyertalk and got this response, basically saying that Marriott isn’t going announce anything until after they stop selling the current travel packages:

Marriott has been forthcoming about most aspects of the change, but everyone at Marriott refuses to say how they’ll deal with travel certificates.

One of the few data points that we do have is this:

There are several ways Marriott can handle current hotel certificates:

• Option 1: The worst case scenario is that they can refund 45K points for the unused category 1-5 travel certificates. Higher categories would also get a refund for the difference between what they paid and what the category 1-5 travel certificates cost. In other words 90K Starpoints converts into 270K Marriott which would convert into 132K United miles or 120K miles with an airline like American or Alaska and 7 nights in a category 1-5 hotel. If you cancel the travel certificate today they give a refund of just 45K points. If Marriott refunds 45K points that will mean you’ll pay 225K Marriott (75K SPG) for 132K United miles (0.59 miles per Marriott point or 1.76 miles per SPG point).
  • Personally I think that it is extremely unlikely that Marriott would still be selling packages now and would force the hotel certificates into just 45K points.
• Option 2: Marriott could give a points refund equal to the current value of the certificates. A category 1-5 package costs 270K Marriott points and the 7 night package is good for a max of 150K points. A category 9 package costs 390K Marriott points and the 7 night package is good for a max of 270K points. A tier 4-5 package costs 540K Marriott points and the 7 night package is good for a max of 420K points. Notice a pattern here? The amount spend for the airline miles part of the package is always 120K points. If Marriott refunds the hotel certificate part of the package into points that will mean you’ll pay 120K Marriott (40K SPG) for 132K United miles (1.1 miles per Marriott point or 3.3 miles per SPG point).
  • This is a good possibility, but would be generous given that Marriott would be giving a lot of points back.
• Option 3: Marriott could keep the hotel certificates valid for a certain amount of points per night, though they would have to smooth out the edges for the numbers to make sense for each category. I calculated 3 scenarios for this option in this post and the winners are the tier 1-3 and tier 4-5 certificates. With this option you would likely get between 1.1-4.4 miles per Marriott point and 3.3-13.2 miles per SPG point.
  • I think this is a very good possibility. It’s generous, but keeps the nights as certificates that can expire rather than points.
• Option 4: Marriott could keep the hotel certificates valid for specific categories. This was my original guess from this post, but it will be difficult to map all of the current certificates to the new categories.
  • This option is a possibility, but would make some people unhappy based on how multiple current categories would map to the same new category.

There are other options of course, but I’d guess that option 3 is most likely, followed by option 2, option 4, and finally option 1.

Of course there are other unknowns as well:

• Will Marriott continue to allow certificates to be extended for a year just for the asking?
• Will Marriott continue to allow people to upgrade and downgrade categories using the existing award chart if they want to make changes after August?

My thoughts are that Marriott will handle these certificates generously and that’s why they are staying mum. Announcing that they will do options 2, 3, or 4 would create a massive amount of demand for the current certificates. By not announcing anything they will keep demand down until it’s too late to buy the current certificates. I don’t think they would keep selling packages today if they planned on pulling the rug out from underneath everyone with option 1.

I would definitely recommend buying current travel packages while they’re still being sold.

Here are Marriott’s top miles+nights travel packages for 7 nights in a hotel and United miles. With these you can get up to 132K miles and it’s always worth getting the 132K miles package if you can afford it. Prices are in Marriott points (divide by 3 for the price in Starpoints):

Here are Marriott’s 2nd best miles+nights packages for 7 nights in a hotel and Aeromexico, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Copa Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, GOL/Varig, Hawaiian Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Southwest, or Virgin Atlantic miles. With these you can get up to 120K miles and it’s always worth getting the 120K miles package if you can afford it. Prices are in Marriott points (divide by 3 for the price in Starpoints):

• You must call Marriott at 800-321-7396 if you want to book a miles+nights travel package. They can’t be booked online.
• The miles will post within a few days of the transfer, regardless of when or if you use the 7 night certificate. You may also be able to pay to expedite the mileage posting.
• The 7 night electronic hotel certificate expires in 1 year, though Marriott currently will extend them for 1 additional year if you contact them.
• You don’t need to choose the hotel at the time of a nights+miles redemption.
• The certificate must be used at one property for 7 consecutive nights.
• You can have the certificate issued in anyone’s name.
• You can currently upgrade your hotel certificate by paying the difference in points later on.

Will you buy a travel package before they are devalued next month?

Until 7/20 only, you can still buy Starpoints on sale for 35% off for the final time. This will be an absolute BARGAIN for these packages!

Related Marriott-SPG merger posts:

• AMAZING! Marriott’s New Award Chart Is A Dream Come True For Aspirational Hotels; Roundup Of The Hotel Category Changes 
• Where Will You Be Able To Use Chase Marriott And Starwood Anniversary Nights?
• Another Guess At What Will Happen With Marriott’s Miles+Nights Travel PackagesAnd Which You Should Buy Now Before It’s Too Late!
• Breaking Down The New Marriott/Starwood Combined Cash+Points And PointSavers Award Charts
• Marriott Will Massively Devalue New Miles+Nights Travel Packages In August;Comparing The Value Of The Current Packages To The New Packages
• Final Opportunity: Get 35% Off The Purchase Of Starwood Starpoints; Buy The Points You Need To Take Advantage Of These 7 Awesome Redemptions!
• Get A 100,000 Point Signup Bonus On The Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Credit Card!
• Live Blog: Follow The Marriott-Starwood Program Merger Announcement!
• 3 Starwood AMEX Cards In The New Marriott Program: A Comparison Chart Of The Good, The Bad, And The Horrific
• Comparison Chart: How Marriott’s August 2018 And February 2019 Award Chart Compares With The Current SPG And Marriott Award Charts
• Marriott Got Almost Everything Perfect, But The Starwood AMEX Cuts Are Just Too Painful
• Rack Up The Starpoints While You Still Can: There Will Be 6 Months Of Amazing Starwood Hotel Bargains!
• No Marriott, The Starwood AMEX Card Will Not Be Richer Than Ever. You Are Just Changing What I’ll Use It For
• Starwood-Marriott Merger FAQs: Answers To Your Questions About Anniversary Nights, Status From Existing Cards, And More
• The Starwood Consumer AMEX And Multiple Chase Marriott Cards Are Being Discontinued! Here’s What You Need To Know About 9 Starwood And Marriott Cards
• Will The Starwood Cards Disappear Or Lose Their Starpoints Signup Bonuses Today? Now Is The Time To Signup If You Don’t Have These Cards Yet!
• AMEX: 3 Starwood Cards Will Be Available For New Applications After The SPG-Marriott Program Merger In August
• Guesstimating Where Marriott Travel Packages Will Work In August; Take Advantage Of Marriott’s Lucrative Miles+Nights Packages Now!
• A Week Later, But No Solid Answers To 3 Contradictory Marriott-Starwood Merger Details That Everyone Wants To Know
• Marriott Clarifies Contradictory SPG Gold Information
• Roundup Of The SPG/Marriott Lifetime Status Rules; Will You Be Able To Hit Lifetime Status This Year Before The Lifetime Program Is Devalued?