We have received several emails and messages from readers over the past 12 months whose Free Night Awards (certificates) were about to expire or had expired, and Marriott customer service refused to extend them.
Nothing prevents those customer service agents from extending them, as one of our readers found out yesterday after the 3rd call.
You can access Marriott’s page for Free Night Awards here.
READ MORE: Marriott Bonvoy Rate & Bonus Points Offers
Extended Certificate:
The reader’s certificate was from a cobranded card from Amex and was about to expire in two weeks.
Here’s what they messaged me:
Good old hang up and call again… 3rd try and this time made sure to call during business hours in north america (1pm ET). Got a Marriott Elite agent on the phone and he extended my 50K Amex free night expiring in 2 weeks for another year.
Honestly didn’t think this was possible so glad I tried again today the 3rd time. First agent said call back closer to expiry when I called last month.
The guy I got last week after 6pm said not possible. Today he had no problem finding the certificate and extending in less than a minute. Previous agent took forever to even find it.
This is fantastic as now I can use it somewhere and get some decent value out of it. Asia. Australia. Or Miami… or Key West… or NYC… lots of possibilities.
Conclusion
I have plenty of experience extending expired or about-to-expire hotel certificates from those travel packages that were a great deal before they were first “enhanced” before completely “axed.”
We have received many messages from readers who had their certificates expire or had to redeem them in a non-beneficial way. I wondered if Marriott had ended the ability to extend them.
But alas, that is not the case. You may have to call a few times to get a competent and sympathetic agent to do it for you.
