Travel reward vacation packages

[tmoscola]

Anyone have any tips on booking a vacation package, air and hotel with MR points? I think I am going to try and book a five night package. Just wondering of all the logistics to get it booked. Do I just call Marriott and have them book it? What about the airfare? Does Marriott book that? How do I know how many miles I need to get to my destination, etc. Now I need to figure out where to go....thinking definitely a category 6 hotel.

 

[KathyPet]

Marriott does not book your airfare. You must take care of that yourself. That means that you need to have a frequent flyer account # set up with the airline that you want to travel on. When you call to get the vacation package you give Marriott the FF # and they will deposit the miles into that account (takes a couple of days for them to show up) and then you make your flight reservations. Getting these arrangements made can be a logistical nightmare. Let's say you want to go to Paris in September. You check on line and find that the Marriott in Paris (there are several) has rooms available for points for the days you want. THen you have to find a airline that flies there that has seats available using FF miles for that departure and return date. If you are lucky the airline will allow you to reserve the seats without having the miles currently in your account and hold the reservation for 24-72 hours while the process of putting the miles in your account takes place. Not all airlines will hold the reservation for you. So you might end up having Marriott put the miles in say a United FF account # and then find out that there are not seats available on United for the dates you originally wanted. Be prepared to spend hours on the phone with the airlines checking dates and seat availability. Make sure you have a big pad of paper next to the phone!

All of the airlines have charts on line that tell you how many miles you need to have to get to your destination in either coach, business or first class. You can usually find the charts by going toi the airlines websites and going into the link for their frequent flyers. THen you have to dig around to find where the charts are located.

 

[thinze3]

Also, don't forget about the ff miles partnerships, Skyteam, Star Alliance, etc..

I deposited my miles into a Delta account and reserved Air France flights to Europe.

 

[pwrshift]

Hi Terry .. Did you have any problems booking onto AF through Delta? Were you happy with it and what 'class' of seats did you have? Any idea what the cash price on the air tickets and hotels would have been and perhaps a brief analysis on your overall savings and return on the package meant to you?

I've found it a rebel benefit even with point devaluation, and wondered it you agreed.

Brian

 

[wsrobinson]

Hi Terry .. Did you have any problems booking onto AF through Delta? Were you happy with it and what 'class' of seats did you have? Any idea what the cash price on the air tickets and hotels would have been and perhaps a brief analysis on your overall savings and return on the package meant to you?

I've found it a rebel benefit even with point devaluation, and wondered it you agreed.

Brian

I am headed to Paris on July 31. I used MRP for a great portion of the trip. I booked Marriott Champs for 7 nights (CAT 8) using points and round-trip air on AF out of Cincy. It cost me 340K points. The room was $840/night US (at the time conversion was 1.4) * 7 = $5880. I booked a coach seat w/ miles at a cost of $1341. Total cost $7221. Second half of questions, I'll let you know..

 

[Danette]

Australia 2011

We used MRP on 2 travel packages this year. First step - check the airline charts on Marriott's website to see where you get the best value. We booked Quantas through Alaska Airlines since it took fewer Alaska miles and Marriott gave us more for Alaska versus Quantas. Then call the airlines to see when FF miles seats are available and put the flight on hold (if that particular airline will - Alaska will allow a 72 hour hold on International flights only, no hold for domestics). I used a live body on the phone rather than try to figure the flights out online - it cost an additional $15 per ticket, but was well worth it. Then call Marriott to purchase the package with the number of airline miles and hotel category you need. Marriott expedited the FF miles deposit and it was in my Alaska account the next day. The Marriott rep also made my Sydney hotel reservations and we had an extra weeks certificate we're using at Christmas.

Yes, we paid through the nose to buy direct and get those points, but I never would have paid $20,000 plus for first class tickets to Australia. The devaluation is disappointing, but I will continue to use the program for every point I can squeeze out of it

Danette

 

[tmoscola]

Thanks for the tips! Still trying to decide where I want to go.