Update: Gary Leff reports that Marriott is discontinuing these travel packages. That’s probably due to Marriott preparing to eliminate their award chart and hotel categories. The final day to purchase a travel package is 1/18. #Bonvoyed again.
Related post: Marriott Travel Packages Haven’t Been #Bonvoyed Again, But Good Luck Finding Someone That Knows That
Originally posted on 8/18/19:
This is a more technical, advanced level post than usual. I didn’t think I’d travel back into the weeds of travel packages, but they’re back again…
Marriott is introducing peak pricing on hotels next month. Worse yet, peak dates won’t be disclosed, but will be dynamic. Plus 5th night free awards will no longer give the actual 5th night for free, rather they will give the cheapest night for free.
Marriott massively devalued existing and new travel packages last year. But in the good news department, travel packages won’t be affected by peak pricing. They will work within a category regardless of the dates. That’s good news for people with existing travel packages and it means we should take another look at the value provided by new packages.
You can buy travel packages here.
For example a package with 7 nights in a category 1-4 hotel with 55K airline miles costs 255K Marriott points. The better value package provides 100K airline miles for 330K Marriott points. Normally you need 60K Marriott for 25K airline miles (2.4 Marriott points for 1 mile), while the large package gives an extra 50K airline miles for an extra 75K Marriott points (1.5 Marriott points for 1 mile).
If you choose United as your airline you’ll get 55K miles with the 255K package and 110K miles with the 330K package.
Normally you need 60K Marriott for 27.5K United miles (2.18 Marriott points for 1 mile). Marriott only gives that many miles if you transfer in blocks of 60K Marriott points, but for comparison’s sake we’ll use the ideal ratio to compute the value given by travel packages. That means if you wanted 110K United miles you would need about 240K Marriott points. The same math applies for other airline miles, as normally you would need 240K Marriott points for 100K other airline miles at the ideal ratio of 2.4 Marriott points for 1 mile.
Now we can calculate how many Marriott points you would have to use for 110K United miles (or 100K other airline miles) and 7 nights at a hotel. As 7 nights at a hotel would include 1 night for free, we can add the cost of 6 nights onto the 240K points that would normally be needed.
As you can tell from the new award chart in this post, 7 nights at a category 4 hotel would cost 120K points off-peak, 150K points standard, or 180K points peak after the 1 free night.
The chart below compares the value you can get from each package, depending on which category you use and if you redeem for nights during off-peak, standard, or peak dates:
| Travel Package Category: | Cost for 7 nights and 110K miles: | Value if redeemed at off-peak rates: | Value if redeemed at standard rates: | Value if redeemed at peak rates: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category 1-4 | 330K Marriott | 360K Marriott (30K savings) | 390K Marriott (60K savings) | 420K Marriott (90K savings) |
| Category 5 | 390K Marriott | 420K Marriott (30K savings) | 450K Marriott (60K savings) | 480K Marriott (90K savings) |
| Category 6 | 510K Marriott | 480K Marriott (Negative 30K savings) | 540K Marriott (30K savings) | 600K Marriott (90K savings) |
| Category 7 | 570K Marriott | 540K Marriott (Negative 30K savings) | 600K Marriott (30K savings) | 660K Marriott (90K savings) |
| Category 8 | 750K Marriott | 660K Marriott (Negative 90K savings) | 750K Marriott (No savings) | 840K Marriott (90K savings) |
If you use the package during peak dates you’ll always come out 90K points ahead of what you would pay if you redeemed for the miles and 7 nights separately. That’s a much better value than what these packages offered until now.
The use case for off-peak and standard dates is more mixed, with better value to be had from the lower category packages than the higher category packages.
Will you redeem for a new Marriott travel package?
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20 Comments On "[Package Sales #Bonvoyed As Of Next Week] Marriott’s Latest Devaluations Means Travel Packages Are Much More Attractive"
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Problem with packages is that the good values start at 300k points, which is $150k of spend on the Marriott card. That’s way above what mere most people do in a year. And by the time you collect all those points, who is to say Marriott doesn’t devalue the packages? Other then sign up bonuses that are hard to get on these cards if you ever had an spg card, how does one get to 330k or 570k points?
Thanks for the detailed post. I’m a tad confused because Marriott says that only for UA you get 110k miles and all other airlines you would get 100k (while you’re saying UA is 121k while all others are 110k). So the 10% more for UA above other airlines is already included in the 110k. Would appreciate clarification. Thanks.
Yikes. Good catch, I’ve fixed this now.
Same advice applies though, it’s good for peak dates, but probably not much else.
Does Marriott still offer 5 night packages or only 7? What is the redemption tiers for the 5 nights? Thanks
5 night packages are officially only for timeshare owners.
Some reps will sell them to you, but your account may be audited.
Any word if credit card nights will be affected by peak/off-peak?
They are not by category, they are by points for required for that night, so they are affected by peak pricing.
Hi Dan, Thanks as usual for the informative and helpful posts. Can you book a seven day package for seven rooms for one night, or alternatively, use the package over a few stays instead of a one week long stretch?
are the packages able to upgraded to higher categories, if yes, is the value still there?
Sorry, just saw the chart.
The other problem with the package is you need to use 7 nights otherwise you are wasting night
Tough question for you Dan:
If i have 7 night travel package cat 1-6 expiring in June (good for Sheraton Tel Aviv), should i ask Marriott to extend it before jan 18th? Or can i wait till June to make the request?
I have yet to extend these, but Marriott extended for me a couple times bc of covid…
That is tough, as Marriott very well may extend it again.
I’d probably wait it out.
I’ve booked many 5 night stays and Marriott always took the cheapest night off and not the 5th night
See the original date of this post?
Lol wow that is a good point
You wonder when Marriott might tell us how many nights will be needed for status in 2022. They still have not announced what modifications will be made. Hilton did so 4 months ago and IHG 2 months ago. Last year it was Jan 12th when they finally announced the 2021 program (depositing nights etc)
Great idea to mention it before the forthcoming devaluation — it could be a good value play. It has been a long time since I used these since their value was diminished with the previous devaluation a few years back. ANYWAY, what is the expiration if I did buy a package this week — 12 months (assuming no further COVID extensions of course)? I didn’t see it in their T&C’s (via the link provided). Thanks!
Certainly may be.
12 months, plus they extend for another 12 months for asking.
Thinking of grabbing a cat7 or cat8 but usually travel holiday time and they seem to block out redemption