marriott reward packages

[lovearuba]

Part of the sales pitch with purchasing a timeshare is the ability to use those points. I have close to 300k and I am having trouble with using them.

I first tried using 150K for marriott vacation club week, tried aruba both surf club and ocean but could find no availability, no availability ever.... I called customer service and they said book the hotel room and when it gets closer to the time transfer when its ocean or surf are open because they probably open them up for reward points closer to the time, although keep in mind I tried numerous dates and was unsuccessful. There is no availability ever...

Ok - so I decide to book a travel package for 220K points. Again tried aruba. The instructions on the web is order the certificate for the airline points, wait for them to get transferred to your freqent flyer program, book the flight, then call and reserve the hotel. Ok so I tried that, ordered reward 089 for 220K and had the frequent flyer booked to my account, found a date where I could use the frequent flyer program and called to reserve the hotel. Guess what!!! They dont have any rooms that they will let me use - This is next April guys. Anyways they had rooms but they were supposedly upgrades and I need to give them another 60K points. I cant believe it, nothing on their website said there were restrictions. Keep in mind I cant use the airline points and Marriott will not allow me to transfer them back to their points. --- ugh

My next step was to ask for a supervisor - useless. I took his name and asked for their law department. I was given a number for their corporate office.

I emailed the head of customer service and hope to get some satisfaction, hes been great in the past so I am trying that route before I purse a class action suit.

I'm sure I will hear a lot out of this post, all comments are welcome

 

[Cathyb]

First, is the April request Easter week next year? If so and you don't absolutely need that week, request one week earlier or later. You may have to pay a fee to change your ffmile dates. This confirms a lesson I learned a while back -- reserve the hotel (that can be cancelled easily with no fees) and THEN get ffmiles there -- and then I place a timeshare request altho that is not your situation.

 

[lovearuba]

no its not april vacation, it doesnt matter what week I choose they wont have any availability without charging another 60k points

 

[msjasa]

Request

The instructions on the web is order the certificate for the airline points, wait for them to get transferred to your freqent flyer program, book the flight, then call and reserve the hotel.

In reference to your statement above, can you copy and paste the verbaige from the Marriott Rewards website to a reply post that states what you indicated above?

I don't believe you followed the correct procedures but would like to see what written directions you were following.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Dave M]

Here are the instructions from Marriott's website. It looks as though you didn't follow them. They say to make your hotel reservation first and then order your travel package Reward.

Once you know the number of miles needed, call 1-800-MARRIOTT to make your hotel reservation. ... After your reservation is confirmed, you can complete the reward order over the phone or order online.

You ordered the Reward first. That’s never a good idea, as the instructions make clear. Marriott can't control whether you will be able to use your FF miles with the airline. But it wants to be sure you don't order the Reward until you're sure you can get the hotel space. You didn't do as instructed.

As for canceling the FF miles and getting your points back, Marriott makes it clear that isn't possible:

Once processed, airline miles cannot be transferred back to your Marriott Rewards account.

Fortunately, all is not lost. You can use those FF miles any time. Just make sure you have some activity in your FF account at least once every 18 months and those miles won't expire. Spend some time on the airline's site figuring out what destinations and dates have available free tickets. That will help you in your planning.

The same advice holds for making hotel reservations. And that hotel certificate can be extended (no charge) simply by calling Marriott Rewards when the certificate is about to expire and ask. If, ultimately, you can't use the certificate, you can turn it in to Marriott for a credit of 55,000 points. Why so few? Because the bulk of the value relates to what Marriott must pay the airline for those FF miles you got.

 

[lovearuba]

Thanks to all for your commnents.

I thought I would give you the current status, after working with three separate Marriott contacts I was able to find a room in January and get a direct flight using the miles posted to my account. One week in January was the only opening they had. Of course they had many other weeks available if I wanted to pay for them.

I have learned a valuable lesson. I will never take points for my time share again. Second lesson is even though I may think I fully understand the instructions on the website for booking something like this, I'll confirm with three separate Marriott reps because the story does change depending on who you speak with.

Have a great day

 

[Eric]

Now that they helped you are you still taking them to court ?
Keep in mind, maybe you won't find what you want next time and that certainly would be thier fault.

Thanks to all for your commnents.

I thought I would give you the current status, after working with three separate Marriott contacts I was able to find a room in January and get a direct flight using the miles posted to my account. One week in January was the only opening they had. Of course they had many other weeks available if I wanted to pay for them.

I have learned a valuable lesson. I will never take points for my time share again. Second lesson is even though I may think I fully understand the instructions on the website for booking something like this, I'll confirm with three separate Marriott reps because the story does change depending on who you speak with.

Have a great day

 

[lovearuba]

Not related to this. However, I do think a class action lawsuit would be interesting. Lets face it the information provided in timeshare sales presentations is not full disclosure of the rules around ownership and use of points.

Here are some points to consider:

- Promises of renting your week as an option - tried that- they were willing to take it and give us a minimal fee but would not commit to a whole 7days even if we put it with them. We would not know until after the week was over. The sales presentation does not provide that information only the positive side of the rental policy.

-If you buy at the Aruba Ocean you will get full use of the hotel and pool at the hotel. Did I hear that there are now restrictions? Do I have that in writing, of course not I had no reason to think it wasnt true.

-Use of points - you can turn your timeshare week into a vacation package by taking the points and applying them to a vacation. No information is provided on the numerous restrictions. How can an entire resort have no weeks open for an entire year. Sales people should have said "based on availability and did you know you have a rats chance in hell in finding one in a place you want to stay". At my presentation I was told to try 51 weeks in advance and I wouldnt have any issue. They had plenty of rooms they just dont release them for rewards and if you are lucky enough to get one through a reward, they try to upgrade you for additional points. Where does it say that? Where does it say availability to me is different because I am using a reward certificate vs doing a private rental.

A lot of you are going to say, "but you have all that information in the paperwork", when you are going through that presentation all that information is not sitting in front of you. I dont think I actually have all those restrictions in my paperwork. You dont find it out until you start trying to use some of those perks.

My mistake, I expected a little more in the Marriott name. I expect people to be genuinely honest so yes I do get upset when I find otherwise. My disappointment is based on finding out that Marriott does not provide full disclosure.

Have a great day and thank all of you for your comments. I may not agree with them but I do appreciate them.

 

[TomF]

Here's my experience with using a travel award ...

My wife and I got into timesharing when we purchased at Desert Spring Villas in 1993. We were told that we could trade for 110,000 points every other year. We did that at the first two opportunities for a total of 220,000 points. At the time, a European travel package was possible for 225,000 points, including round-trip airfare, one week in a hotel and a discount on a rental car. We already had a lot more than 5,000 points in our account from prior Marriott stays. We were able to fly into Paris via London with a week layover on the return trip in London. We used extra points to stay for five days in Paris. While we weren't able to get the Marriott Champs d'Elysée, we did get a Courtyard (not at all like US Courtyards and much nicer) in a very nice close suburb on the Metro route. After our five days in Paris, we returned to London and spent a week at the Marriott County Hall hotel on the Thames near Big Ben. We used the car rental discount to rent a car to drive to Stonehenge, Bath, etc. All in all, a fabulous trip.

Granted, this took place in 1999 and things may have changed since then, but the points trade for a travel package worked out very well for us.

 

[turkel]

I can totally understand why the OP is upset. His expectations were not met. Unfortuneatly as many tuggers here already know his expectations were not based on facts. I do believe most Marriott salespeople are relatively honest as you have found with a lot of hard work you where able to secure your vacation.

Don't let this bad experience turn you off completely. Hang around here and tuggers will tell you the real deal. Trading in your timeshare for points is often not advocated here although some tuggers like pwrshift are pros at it.

Read up and find out the best use of your timeshare for you.

 

[Cathyb]

Going along with Tom's story: We took the "Big Trip" for 200,000 Marriott points (I think) and got two round trip tickets to Sydney, Australia; seven nights in Marriott Sydney hotel and a car rental certificate we didn't use. Yes, they were the good old days

 

[davemy]

Tuggers showed me the way

Travel packages do take planning many months in advance and can be a pain, but I have gone on 2 vacations. The first was maui marriott in the month of August and the second was newport beach this july. Total value Min. $7000.00 Both were Purchase incentives from marriott. I still have 385,000 points left to use. Hopefully i will pick up another 10,000 on a tour at newport coast villas. Next points trip Spain or France!

 

[pwrshift]

The MR program can be very confusing, especially if you are unfortunate enough to not get a sales rep who takes the time to lead you through the process like I did when I bought my first Marriott.

The instructions to order the FF miles first is probably correct in most cases, as long as you know what airline you'll be using, because you can't book the flights until the points are in your account. But I figure it's better to book the hotel first so you know what's available .. no sense booking flights until you know you have a place to stay. In addition, if you have to change it because of flight bookings Marriott lets you cancel without penalty, sometimes right up to check in day.

My sales rep, years ago, told me that every hotel has to have 5% of their rooms available for points use...that means a 200 room hotel should have 10 rooms available for points use 330 days ahead. I've found that's not always the case ... and they seem to slip in some 'stay anytime' reward levels (a waste of points IMO) instead.

Once you know what hotel you want, see if you can book it on standard points ... if not, scroll down the page to click on "Dates Flexible?" and see what weeks are available for STD awards, if any. Often you won't see a whole week, but even 6 nites might be good enough...or if you're using the 'Elite' 3 hotel Europe certificate it might mean you can get 2+2+3 nights in different parts of Europe -- nice!

It takes work, it takes planning, it takes flexibility, and must be done early because of the limitations on hotels and flights.

One other point ... for the most memorable flights and for the greatest value in using points, save them until you have 540,000 points and plan on business class flights to Europe (160,000 UA FF miles so you need to order 240,000 miles from MAR) and two Cat 7 hotels such as Paris CE and London County Hall.

They wrote a song about April in Paris, prime time, so I did a simple test... today Paris CE was available Apr 5-12 but County Hall was not available Apr 12 for the 2nd week...checked the section mentioned above which showed me that CH was available for a week starting Apr 13...so checked Paris CE and if was available Apr 6 for a week too, so the only adjustment I would have had to make was 1 day ... arriving Sunday instead of Saturday. If you check what the rate is for these two hotels you'll realize the true value of using points properly...2 top line hotels for 14 nights and 2 business class flights might be $15,000 at Marriott and Expedia! If I was going on that holiday I would have booked those hotels on points and called UA to see flight availability which might spoil it all, but at this early date probably not.

Brian

PS...I should point out on this plan you still have 80,000 FF miles in your UA account (240-160) which is enough for 1 domestic biz class seat for you and an economy seat for the spouse at a future date. It used to be enough for 2 biz class seats as they used to be 40k each instead of 45k.

 

[Kilby5924]

Op don’t despair points really do work, granted Marriott sales persons tend to over simplify how easy it use them. Just like trading your week through II you need to learn how to use your points. I just came back from Kaua’i for two weeks on points and a trade. First class airfare and one week in hotel and one week on trade to Waiohai. I believe you really need more ways to obtain points than just trading your week in. Ex. Marriott credit card, take timeshare tour (once a year) we got 20,000 points for taking a tour at Waiohai. The offer was 15,000 point for person staying in the timeshare, but 20,000 for hotel guest since we signed up while staying in hotel on points we got an extra 5,000 points. Do ever you stay in hotels than stay in a Marriott? When you use your week add and extra day or two your stay and stay in a Marriott. Many times in the timeshare if you book activities through the TS or hotel they will give bonus points for booking through them and usually at the same price or even cheaper than if you book it your self. Are you flying to vacation? If so how will you get to the airport? Boston coach will give 500 bonus points. For me any trip of more than 9 days it cheaper to use Boston than to park my car at the airport. My point is that the system does work but you have to learn how to work the reward system check out flyertalk.com Marriott's sub group. Rewards are usually harder to use for TS because someone needs to turn there week in for points before it can be used for points unless it is a week that hasn’t sold. You have a better chance getting a hotel room.
Sheldon

 

[MikeM132]

Can you upgrade the hotel for money? I had to do this in Hawaii last year for one week. I followed the Marriott instructions, too. Was told by my Vacation Advisor to get the FF flight, then the hotel for that period (FF is harder to get). Guess what? One week at JW Marriott only had upgraded rooms ($40/night extra). On the other hand, it was a REALLY great room. I would "upgrade" again in a heartbeat.

 

[MikeM132]

Dave:
I need FF miles but want to get the travel award (better deal overall). Can I just bank the hotel cert for later? I am trying to use a bunch of points for first class tickets (3) to HI, but am also going to stay at my timeshares this trip. Would like to make another trip another time to a Mar. hotel and maybe just buy the plane ticket myself. Can you do this or am I throwing out 7 nights at a hotel? Thanks.

 

[Dave M]

You are correct that getting a Travel Package is the cheapest way to obtain the FF miles through Marriott.

You have two options with respect to the hotel portion of the Reward.

First, you can extend the hotel cert before it expires, thus giving you at least two years to use it. At the end of the second year, you can request an additional extension. The worst that happens is that Marriott says no.

The second option is to turn the hotel cert back to Marriott for a credit of 45K to 55K Marriott Rewards points - at any time before the cert expires. Although that credit might not seem like much, it still reduces the net cost of the FF miles to less than what they would have cost if you had used points for FF miles Rewards rather than the Travel Package.

If you request (for example) a Code 83 award (7 nights in a category 1-5 hotel and 120,000 FF miles), you'll pay 235,000 points. If you then turn in the hotel part of the award for 45,000 points, your net cost for the FF miles would be 190,000 points.

If, however, you obtain those 120,000 FF miles with "Air Mileage Awards", you'll pay 310,000 points (2 X 50,000 miles awards @ 125,000 points each and 2 X 10,000 FF miles awards @ 30,000 points each).

Thus, the travel package is still a bargain for obtaining FF miles. A cost of only 190,000 points for 120,000 FF miles is a lot better than a cost of 310,000 points!

 

[winger]

For sake of example - say I go online Marriottrewards and try reserving Paris CE. The calendar for Std award looks like swiss cheese in April. Can I still make use of my 7 night category 7 std hotel certificate? If so, how?

 

[pwrshift]

Winger...It's not unusual that April in Paris hotels are busy! They even made a song about it!

So, if you can't get a 7 night stay at CE, book a week in County Hall London Marriott if you haven't been there, on the Thames River at Westminster Bridge facing Big Ben - pay a little extra per night for that view! And then, if you are an elite MR member get, for 150,000 points, a 3 hotel stay in Europe hotels and break up your stay in and around Paris for the second week ... you might still get to Paris CE in April that way. Try it out -- maybe first 3 nights in CE and 2 nights in another one, followed by 2 final nights back in CE. Don't get discouraged ... use your imagination. I don't suggest you go to Europe for just one week.

Brian

 

[winger]

Winger...It's not unusual that April in Paris hotels are busy! They even made a song about it!

So, if you can't get a 7 night stay at CE, book a week in County Hall London Marriott if you haven't been there, on the Thames River at Westminster Bridge facing Big Ben - pay a little extra per night for that view! And then, if you are an elite MR member get, for 150,000 points, a 3 hotel stay in Europe hotels and break up your stay in and around Paris for the second week ... you might still get to Paris CE in April that way. Try it out -- maybe first 3 nights in CE and 2 nights in another one, followed by 2 final nights back in CE. Don't get discouraged ... use your imagination. I don't suggest you go to Europe for just one week.

Brian

Oh B - I won't be going to Europe for some time, something called 'parenthood and no reliable babysitter' tying us up for say another 10 + yrs ...I am just dreaming away, learning as much as I can, which is my reason for posing the question. I am limited to Hawaii since that is close enough to California where I am at.

Is it true those 150k 'hopper' hotel certificates have to be brought separately from the travel packages (, which normally give one hotel certif for 7 nights at one hotel?

 

[pwrshift]

...Is it true those 150k 'hopper' hotel certificates have to be brought separately from the travel packages (, which normally give one hotel certif for 7 nights at one hotel?

Yes...that's why I suggested you use the 7-nighter certificate from the pkg in London and the other in Europe. Have fun.

Brian

 

[m61376]

Oh B - I won't be going to Europe for some time, something called 'parenthood and no reliable babysitter' tying us up for say another 10 + yrs ...I am just dreaming away, learning as much as I can, which is my reason for posing the question. I am limited to Hawaii since that is close enough to California where I am at.

Is it true those 150k 'hopper' hotel certificates have to be brought separately from the travel packages (, which normally give one hotel certif for 7 nights at one hotel?

By the time your kids are teens they'll be old enough to enjoy the trip with you, if you decide to take that route. Of course,t hen everything becomes even more expensive, but, as they say, the memories are priceless

 

[avpmouse]

I am going to Paris next April & used the points package. I booked the CE first through the rep, then had my points transferred to AA where I already had some points. So I was able to get business class one day prior to what I had anticipated & used 20,000 points for a night stay at the Courtyard by the Airport when we first arrive. Now I'm working on the second week, hoping to trade for Marriott at Disney and debating on the car. I suppose if you don't like doing this sort of thing it can be agony, but for those of us that think of it much like entertainment or a Sudoko game it is extremely rewarding and my husband is a happy camper when he goes on vacation.

Linda in TX

 

[pharmgirl]

For sake of example - say I go online Marriottrewards and try reserving Paris CE. The calendar for Std award looks like swiss cheese in April. Can I still make use of my 7 night category 7 std hotel certificate? If so, how?

Is there a calendar for dates available at particular hotel on the marriott website? If so, how to find this

thanks for info

 

[pwrshift]

It's described in post 13.

Brian