What are you doing with your Travel Packages

[AlmostRetired]

I have three 5 day travel certificates from travel packages sitting in my account (cat 5,6 and 7). One (cat 5) was actually from Jan 2017 when I did the SW travel package. I was thinking the cut over would have a good transition value but I was wrong. I have been wrong on more meaningful things so instead of getting mad, I will adjust and figure out how to get some value out the certificates. Being a rewards member since 1994 and having had 2.5M points pass through my account, I have been through a number of devaluations. My challenge with devaluations in general is it becomes harder and harder to find a way to use the points because often with the discounts I have available to me, the exchange rate boarders ridicules. Over time it became travel packages or nothing. While not overjoyed with the reward point transition/devaluation, I am happy with the lifetime gold to lifetime platinum which was a slight upgrade for me that I would have reached sometime next year anyway. Moving forward, I still enjoy Marriott and will stay at them when the cost plus status level benefits justifies the discounts I get at other brands (which I did anyway). I will cancel my Marriott CC but that is not big deal since I was using my reserve card more frequently anyway. The Marriott Loyalty program has two elements.. status and reward points. Based on my lifetime status, Marriott impacted me in the less meaningful area of the loyalty program for me. Maybe Marriott is smarter than I give them credit for. Maybe they understood this is the case for most people and the reason they are treating the status level more favorably than the point reward system. Again i will adjust, adapt and move forward... something us longtime timeshare owners (and TUG members) figured out over time how to do.

 

[dsmrp]

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.

Me 3!
although the airline miles from TP would have been nice, I just didn't have any city where we wanted to spend 7 nights this year or next.
(I am not in MVC so couldn't buy the 5 night package)
And it seemed iffy on Marriott extending the hotel certificate for more than 1 year.
I certainly don't have as many points as JIMinNC (wow!) so going to use our paltry amount for bookending cruises or timeshare gaps.

 

[AlmostRetired]

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.

Point Millionaires always have an advantage in turbulent times. For many of us the devaluation of 33 percent made a big difference in what we can do with he points so it was worth rolling the dice. In hindsight, it pays to save.

 

[GaryDouglas]

I minimized the downside of this massive devaluation process by getting four 5 nighters. So now I have over 500K FF miles and the primary hit was the TP cert devaluation. I kept more than enough points in my account to add to the travel packages as needed. Even if I had gotten the higher category level with the TPs, my current estimate looks like they are close in total points. So depending on what level of TP I actually use will ultimately determine how much I was hurt by. I was already disenchanted with Marriott's devaluation processes of the last few years, now finally my wife is. "All the Kings horses",....

 

[Wally3433]

5 Night Cat 9 in London - County Hall (two rooms).
5 Night Cat 9 in Paris - Renaissance Arc de Triomphe.
Two Business class tickets on American - ORD to LHR to CDG to ORD.

Probably not the best use of a million points, but I get to knock off two big cities from the bucket list. Mother in Law gets a free room for half and we have some miles leftover.

 

[Fairwinds]

I didn’t use TP but I recently booked two back to back 5 night stays in Costa Rica (still get one night free). Punta Islita and El Mangroove hotels. And now I’m recouping 40k points based on new hotel levels.