One of the best uses of Marriott points has heretofore been using them on 7 night travel packages. For anywhere from 200,000-300,000 Marriott points, you could get a 7 night hotel stay AND 50,000 – 100,000 airline miles
Here is the current chart for Marriott Hotel + Air packages for United miles (which get an extra 10% miles; so 55,000 miles instead of 50,000 miles)
This used to be one of the best ways to get the Southwest Companion Pass without flying, though Southwest stopped counting airline miles earned from hotel transfers in 2017.
If you didn’t want to spend 7 nights at one property, there were also 5 night packages available, though those became harder and harder to book.
Marriott changing the chart
Unfortunately, like all good things it appears that these hotel + air packages being super valuable has come to an end.
(SEE ALSO: The 5 awards most likely to devalue)
Marriott announced yesterday that they were changing the chart for these hotel and air packages. Here is the new chart
The 10% bonus for United miles will remain, so if you choose to redeem in United miles, you will get 55,000 or 110,000 miles in addition to the 7 night stay. Since the categories of the hotels are changing slightly, it’s hard to do a 1 for 1 comparison of the old costs and the new costs, but it’s clear that they are higher now, much higher.
What happens now?
As of right now, you CAN still book hotel and air packages under the old prices, but there is no definitive end date. So if it’s been something that you’ve been meaning to do for awhile, now’s the time! It’s not clear yet what will happen to certificates booked under the old categories. There has been talk that they will be “converted into points”, but to date there has not been any definitive guidelines, so YMMV for sure. I’m not sure I would speculatively book anything that you couldn’t use / book soon.
Planning on booking any Marriott hotel + air packages? Leave your thoughts in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Have a old category 8, have been trying to call Marriott, Just got the certificate about a month ago. Not able to find out what this will convert to under the new program. Have called Marriott but they have no clue and the wait time to talk to a rep is crazy. Hopefully Marriott will give out some details soon for individuals that already have the certficates.
I called earlier today to book a cat7 + 120,000 miles. Got thru in 2-3 minutes. She also verified the property I am interested in will be Cat 7 in new program.
I booked a category 8 Five Night Travel Package with 132k United miles this morning (I am a Vacation Club owner). I saw the new Seven Night Travel Package prices and thought it best to pull the trigger now rather than later. I was no longer able to find the Five Night Travel Package values on the Vacation Club owner’s website. I called in and the representative was able to find the Cat 8 certificates with 132k United miles at the former cost of 300k Marriott points. I made a reservation which I plan on using unless it becomes advantageous to cancel and claw back a greater value of points. At this time, I felt this might be the best strategy.
I booked a category 5 internationally for 7 days about 11 months in advance, during Dec 24-31, 2018. Hope the certificate is honored at the previous valuation!