Marriott Free Night Certificate Extension
Marriott has been making many moves as of late. They have given some of their credit cards more valuable free nights, increased annual fees, launched two new credit cards and are soon to be going fully dynamic. Most of that is a bag full of bad so I wanted to share something good with you. Our MtM Diamond group member Ivan shared some encouraging news about Marriott free night certificate extension rules.
Update 10/28/22: With how many positive data points we have here and in our Facebook Groups and Diamond Lounge I think that we can call this confirmed.
Marriott Free Night Certs Can Be Extended Two Weeks Before Expiration
Throughout the years it has been very YMMV (your mileage may vary) when it comes to free night cert extensions with Marriott. That changed for a while during covid, when they were extending pretty much everything for a few years there. As the world started to open back up, and people started to travel more, the Marriott representatives started cracking down on extensions. Ivan and his wife each tried a few times earlier in the summer and was told it wasn’t possible.
He decided to give it one more try, since the certificate was expiring in the next week, and called in fully expecting to be shot down once again. Surprisingly enough, the agent said that the Marriott free night certificate extension terms had changed and they would be willing to extend his free night cert for another year. The agent said that if it is within two weeks of expiration they will extend the certificate for a year. I am not sure if this is a one time thing per certificate or what, but that is what I would plan on. I am also not sure if they will do anything for recently expired certs at this point. If you try please let us know what they say.
Expiring Marriot Free Night Cert: Final Thoughts
This is only one data point of course, but the fact that the rep said that it was their new policy makes me think it isn’t just a runaway rep. If you have one expiring in the next two weeks give them a call and see what happens. Please share your data points in the comments so we can see if this is in fact a hard and fast rule.
If it is actual policy then this is very customer friendly change by Marriott, surprising I know! Maybe it is to distract you from the fact that very soon the certificates will be worth a lot less when prices go fully dynamic. At least you can top them off a bit now though.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Data Point, after a few calls I learned that chances of getting expired certs reissued or points for them is slim to none. Getting certificates extended however requires someone from the loyalty department, so if you’re speaking with a regular CS rep they can’t do it and might not transfer you unless you ask specifically for loyalty department.
Tried today 2/27 but no luck extending a certificate expiring on 3/1. Rep told me that they only extend in specific circumstances (serious illness, death, member of military). Will try again tomorrow and see if I have better luck with someone else.
I have an 85K Cert through AMEX that expires tomorrow 12/15/22. I called this evening, 12/14/22 to see if they would extend.
Call 1: Told me to call AMEX
Call 2: Immediately told me it was not allowed
Call 3: put me on hold and extended a year
i have 4 50k fn from chase card which expire 12/15/22. called customer service 5 times today and they were only able to help me extend one fn. Does somebody have any luck extending multiple fn?
If some have already been extended a few times already that could be why.
Never been extended before, they said they can only offer one time courtesy:/
Sorry to hear that 🙁
After calling them like 10times, one super nice agent helped me extend all 4of them! Thanks Mark!
Awesome news Rachael!
Called and went to the wrong bucket of associates. HUCA and just asked for an associate, followed above comments on what to say, waited a few minutes, extended another year out. Thanks to the M2M crew for this tip!!
Awesome – glad to hear it Matt!
I called to have my 85000 point cert extended. They said they were unable to do it because it was a sign up bonus, not an annual free night, so it was coded differently. They said otherwise certs can be extended as long is it is within a month of expiry, they have not already been extended and not more than 1 year.
I could not do it. Rep said this is just blog and official rule did not chage.
Was it within 2 weeks? That is the first negative DP I have seen so within 2 weeks I would call again.
Yes… expired date is next Wednesday.
Do you have official article about this new rule?
Nope but we have reports of multiple reps saying it is a rule and dozens of positive DPs. I would try again – you’ll get someone to do it. Just had another positive report today.
Another DP: My son had two 50K certs expiring 11/30/22. He called on 10/20/22 and was told that they will look into it and get back to him in a week. Marriott sent an email in couple of days and the certs have been extended till 10/20/23. I am not sure if calling two weeks before expiry is relevant other than adding extra days to the extension.
I also would like to know if they will do anything about previously expired carts.
Programs almost never reinstate already expired FNAs. It would be nice if they would, as we’ve got 20+ expired nights that we couldn’t use thanks to covid between my wife and I.
Love this sunset shot at the Marriott Waikoloa!
I just called Marriott to try to extend my 35K certificate that was due to expire a week from today. After being put on hold for about 5 minutes, I was told it was extended until a year from today, making it a 51-week extension. I did not ask about and was not told anything about a policy for extending certificates that are due too expire within two weeks. Thanks to Miles to Memories for suggesting this strategy!
Awesome – glad to hear it Steve!
No luck — it expires 3/7/2023 and we wanted to use it on 4/7/2023. Titanium elite with Bonvoy card and still a big NOPE.
You should call back within the last two weeks. As stated in the article the policy does not allow them to do anything with the certificate until then.
Data point: Confirmed that this worked successfully on 10/11 for a certificate expiring 10/14! Extended out a year from now. Also, my representative shared that this is the policy going forward. MAJOR thanks to Ivan for sharing and Mark for publishing this article!
Awesome news Jacob!
I had a Marriott free night cert that was going to expire earlier this month. They extended it for 1 year from the date I called them (about a week before it was supposed to expire). If you get resistance, keep calling Marriott Rewards until you get a nice rep.
Thanks for the DP Michael
Just wait till they stick it to you next year when the redemptions cost excessively more to redeem and you can’t use them anywhere lol
Gotcha
Marriott doesn’t do charity or give anything away typically
That will likely have a lot of truth to it, sadly.
You’re writing this article based on one data point? Really?
There are tons of data points that suggest that every Marriott rep will tell you something different about their “policy” about these certificates. And I was on the phone twice today with Marriott and was denied an extension both times. I hope you are right, but I’m doubtful.
Got another DP with a rep saying it was policy now. Were your certs expiring within 2 weeks? If not then you were wasting your time by calling in.
Glad Ivan had some luck, my spouse called yesterday (Oct 9) for a cert expiring Nov 4, Marriott rep grilled her on why she didn’t use it. She explained that we actually had plans and booked with it early summer but family member got covid during the trip and we had to end the vacation early and cancelled the reservation (this truthfully happened to us!). Rep also noted that there wasn’t much spend from the Amex card showing up in the account, and the certificate is meant for people that use the Amex card (???!!!) Finally the rep agreed to open a case for her, and escalate to a supervisor. If this extension request doesn’t go through, maybe we will HUCA in the two week window to see if that matters.
Yeah I would try back in the 2 week window – have 3 positive DPs already on that time frame.
Edit to above post I wrote: Spouse received an email from Marriott Customer Care 10/11 regarding the call and escalation to supervisor done on 10/9 (prior to seeing your article) for certificate expiring 11/4: Per the rep: “I researched this, the AX6 -Free Night Award up to 35,000 points expires 12 Months after the issue date, regrettably, it cannot be extended past the expiration date.”
So, she will try to call a week prior to expiration, and hopefully have better luck as some of you have had.
Thanks for the update. Let us know how it goes when she calls back in
Update from 10/22- Data point: Certificate expires 11/4/22, called 10/21/22 (2 weeks out), spouse called in and requested extension. Explained to rep that this was due to family member getting covid, requiring our previous cancellation of reservation with certificate. Marriott rep put my spouse on hold several minutes then came back and said they would make a one time exception because of loyalty (platinum at Marriott) and extended her cert for one year. So while I can’t say for sure if this is a general policy now, or if covid matters, or even if status matters, but definitely we got better results for us within the two week window before the cert expires.
Appreciate the update and glad you were able to get it bumped out a year!
Curious if anyone has had luck getting previously expired certs reissued.