Some great news coming in from Chase and Marriott. As originally promised as part of the loss of the Chase Marriott card on March 15th, 2018, Chase has begun depositing the Anniversary Free Night Certificate for a Category 1-5 stay.
If you recall, this was an added bonus that Chase had no obligation to provide but did so as an apology for pulling the card out of Canada.
How To See If You’ve Received a Certificate
Once you log into your Marriott Account, click your name (top right-hand corner). That will bring up the super menu. Once there, click on Activity.
Scroll down and look for your Unused Certificates.
What’s To Come
For those keeping track, Chase has now fulfilled 2 of its 3 promises:
- Refund any annual fees paid past the March 15th cancellation date
- Provide a free night certificate for a Category 1-5 hotel
The only thing still to be fulfilled is the 15 Night Credit towards Elite Status. Hopefully, that promise will be fulfilled in the near term. So far, Chase has over-delivered as they had originally promised the award night certificate and the elite night credits sometime in May.
I see no reason to doubt that you will receive your 15-night credits shortly.
Nice article. Thanks!
Do you think this certificate will get even more valuable in August when we can also redeem at SPG hotels? Any guess if they will maintain the Category 5 or will it be a Category 4 under the new chart?
Existing certificates will convert over to points as of August 1st. From the information I have, this means a Category 1-5 free night certificate will convert over to 35,000 points, the new standard rate for a Category 5 hotel.
Does it make sense to wait until August to use up your certificates? That really depends on whether or not you have your eye on a SPG or Ritz property. I suppose if I was pressed for an answer, I would say that it shouldn’t make too big of a deal whether you book now or after August 1st. In fact, if you wish, you can book using your certificate prior to August 1st for a stay sometime later in the year. After the rules are clear, you can either keep or cancel that reservation depending on what will be more advantageous to you.
Hi Brian, my understanding of the certificate conversion is that it will be converted to a points-based cert. That is, we would not get the actual points but rather the new certificate will be valid up to a certain amount of points. It’s possible that the new cert will only be valid for 25k points (old cat 5 rate). Although it would be really nice to get 35k points, as it is the new standard rate for cat 5.
How do I book a cat 8 or 9 hotel with this cert?
Can I somehow apply the points difference at checkout or maybe call into a rep?
Hi Chris,
You’re exactly right. Call into a CSR and explain you want to you use the certificate towards a Cat 8. They will collect the difference from your account. Easy as pie.
d.
Didn’t know about this, thanks for the tip!
Brian, Received the 15 nites credit today re visa card cancellation.
Good news.
Keep up the good work