There was a blip in Marriott’s terms and conditions last week which mentioned the discontinuation of travel packages on January 19th. It was quickly removed, but now confirmed again with more details.
You can read Marriott’s help article here. Basically you can no longer make a travel package redemption, and if you hold an existing travel package you must reserve by February 28th.
What’s interesting is, if you decide not to redeem your package or later cancel your reservation, the hotel portion of the package will be fully refunded in points, and
The refund will be based on the current Points redemption category levels and will equal the sum of the Peak Points Redemption Rate per each Night of the Travel Package Award, at the highest category for which the Award was eligible.
In other words, you may be in for a treat if you have an unredeemed travel package.
- Cat 1-4 Hotels + 100k Miles cost 330k points, and you are entitled to a refund of 30k*7=210k points. You are buying 100k miles for 120k Marriott points
- Cat 7 Hotels + 100k Miles cost 750k points, and you are entitled to a refund of 100k*7=700k points. You are buying 100k miles for 50k Marriott points
For United miles there was additional 10% bonus so the deal is even sweeter. If you have a travel package and don’t have a strong intent to use it, you may just want to wait till March and cash it out.
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