Marriott to Cancel and Refund Unused Travel Packages in March

Marriott quietly ended its Travel Packages yesterday. You can no longer buy Marriott Travel Packages and there was no official announcement or notification for Bonvoy members. The Travel Packages page now just says that “due to varying factors such as low volume in demand, we are no longer selling Travel Package Awards”.

However some people still a Travel Package Award that they purchases before they were discontinued. If you have one of these packages that is not attached to a Reservation yet, you should contact Member Support by February 28, 2022 to use it to make a reservation. If your Travel Package Award remains unattached after February 28, 2022, the hotel portion of your Travel Package Award will be automatically canceled and refunded in full to your Marriott Bonvoy Account in Points on March 1, 2022.

That’s when changes to the Marriott Bonvoy program are expected to go into effect. The current system in place for Marriott Bonvoy is an award chart with peak, standard and off peak pricing. In March, Marriott will get rid of the award chart and will transition to dynamic pricing.

If you have a Travel Package Award attached to an existing Reservation, Marriott will be honoring your stay and no additional action is required. You may modify or cancel a Travel Package Award redemption Reservation up until February 28, 2022.

Unused Marriott Travel Packages

Marriott is at least being generous with refunds for those who have a Travel Package Award. Members will receive a full Marriott Bonvoy Points refund for the Hotel portion of the Travel Package Award. 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. The airline miles portion of the Travel Package Award was deposited to you at the time of purchase of the Travel Package Award and, therefore, will not be refunded.

Here’s how it works:

• If you bought a category 1-4 certificate and 110K miles for 330K Marriott points you will get a refund of 210K Marriott points after 2/28 if you don’t use your hotel certificate.
• Category 5 certificate and 110K miles for 390K Marriott points: Refund of 280K Marriott points after 2/28 if you don’t use your hotel certificate.
• Category 6 certificate and 110K miles for 510K Marriott points: Refund of 420K Marriott points after 2/28 if you don’t use your hotel certificate.
• Category 7 certificate and 110K miles for 570K Marriott points: Refund of 490K Marriott points after 2/28 if you don’t use your hotel certificate.
• Category 8 certificate and 110K miles for 750K Marriott points: Refund of 700K Marriott points after 2/28 if you don’t use your hotel certificate.

So if you bought a Category 8 package and 110K for 750K Marriott points, you would end up using only 50,000 Marriott points after the refund of 700K points. That’s a good use of Marriott Bonvoy points.

HT: VFTW and Dan’s Deals