A week or so ago a few readers and people on reddit alerted me to the fact that an official Starwood representative had posted some interesting information regarding free night certificates under the new combined SPG/Marriott program. I was a bit lazy so never got around to posting anything, but Freequent Flyer Book post today reminded me that it is probably worth posting about. The statement that is most interesting is this:
Floater certificates, including outstanding Marriott Travel Packages, will be cancelled and converted to equivalent points, credited to the member’s account for future redemption
The annoying part is that we don’t know what the equivalent points will be for each package, the same Starwood rep goes on to say: “I have no idea what the converted equivalent points will be.” It could be a wide range for example currently you can convert 270,000 Marriott points for 132,000 United miles and 7 night stay at a category 1-5 property. Category 5 properties cost 20,000-25,000 points per night, so will those with a 7 night package receive 150,000 Marriott points back? I highly doubt it as then you’re converting Marriott to United close to 1:1 and that’s an incredible deal. If they give you the value of a category 1 property you’d get back 42,000-52,500 points. I personally think it will fall in the middle and you’ll get category 3 back in points (70,000-105,000).
As some readers point out you could pay an extra 30,000 Marriott points to get a category 6 7 night package. That should get you 175,000-210,000 points back, but again that would be converting Marriott points to miles at close to a 1:1 rate and I just don’t see them being that generous. Some readers want to know if they should preemptively book a package in the hopes of a good return of points. My advice is that it really depends on what your risk tolerance is like. If I was to do it, I’d go for the category 6 package as I think Marriott will have a harder time not giving award certificate holders the equivalent in points than with the category 1-5 packages.
