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.
It’s been almost two weeks since Marriott announced their program changes that will take effect on Aug 1, 2018. One of the uncertainties that still looms amongst us is the transfer ratio of American Express Membership Rewards to the new Marriott Rewards program, assuming there will be one after the Amex MR transfer option to SPG ends.
Personally I’m content with the current 2 Amex MR to 1 SPG transfer ratio, which is effectively 2 Amex MR to 3 Marriott Rewards points. I’m not confident the new ratio will be on par or better so I have been moving enough Amex MR to SPG for a couple more Marriott Flight and Hotel travel package redemptions which includes a 7 night hotel certificate.
I have also recently confirmed a couple of these 7 night hotel certificates and I have a pro tip to help you redeem yours.
Marriott 7 Night Certificates
If you haven’t tried already, redeeming the Marriott 7 Night Certificate can be quite difficult, especially at popular resorts where rooms and award redemptions are generally high in demand.
In order to redeem the certificate, the 7 nights must be consecutive which means the nights cannot be split into multiple stays. Even if you only plan on staying 5 out of 7 nights, the room must be bookable on points for all 7 nights to apply the certificate.
Luckily for us, I’ve found Marriott relatively consistent in releasing award space for the nights the hotel has basic and/or deluxe rooms available to book on cash. I can’t imagine the difficulty of redeeming a 7 night certificate at a popular resort with a hotel chain like Hyatt where award nights are easily blocked out for months.
Despite Marriott being relatively generous with award space, you may still encounter limited award availability if you are like me who plans no further than a few months ahead. So when you don’t find availability at first, be sure to use this pro tip that has worked for me.
Searching for Availability
For this post we’ll use the Marriott Maui – Wailea Beach Resort (Category 8) as our target hotel to redeem the 7 night certificate. We’ll look for availability in early June with a preference to reserve for specific dates June 4-11.
Marriott Maui – Wailea Beach Resort
As we fill out the search criteria, Marriott has a handy Flexible dates selection where you can search by month and select how many nights for your stay. Just click “Flexible dates” when you are selecting dates and then set the search to “7 nights” before clicking “Find Hotels”.
Search Flexible dates
Select number of nights
Award availability for 7 nights
Here are the extremely limited results for a 7 night redemption at the Marriott Maui. We want to reserve for early June but the only available option is June 22-29. This shouldn’t be too surprising as we are searching dates that are less than two months out and during peak season.
Now before you move to another property, let’s run the “Flexible dates” search again but this time with “1 night”.
Award availability for 1 night
Here you see there are actually plenty of award nights available in early June but there are no more than 5 nights available in a row. You would not see this if you strictly searched once for 7 nights.
Target stay date June 4-11 (red box)
Our target stay date is June 4-11 and by searching the calendar by “1 night”, we see that we are only one award night away (June 6) before we can redeem the 7 night stay. Reservation cancellations happen everyday so there is a high possibility June 6 will become available when you check back on another day.
But then on the day that June 6 night becomes available on points, you cannot guarantee the other days between June 4-11 will still be available … or can you?
The answer is yes you can, and here’s the tip.
Pro tip Step 1: Book first the nights that are available
Hold reservations on nights where available (blue box)
Upcoming reservations
Pro tip Step 2: Wait to book the missing night(s), then merge reservations
Now you wait for the missing night(s) to become available with points. Depending on how far out the reservation is, you should check monthly, weekly or daily if you’re less than two weeks from the reservation date.
If you see the missing night(s) become available, reserve it asap. Then call Marriott Rewards and ask the representative to merge your reservations to complete the 7 night stay and apply your certificate. If your certificate is not the same category level as the hotel, make sure you upgrade the certificate before you request it to be applied to the reservation.
**EDIT** Additional Tips
You can attempt to call the hotel and ask if they would be able to open award availability for the specific missing night(s). Ask to speak with the in-house reservations team and mention you have existing reservations you’d like to merge but are currently split by the missing night(s). Having existing reservation numbers will shows you are keen to book if they are willing to provide the space. If applicable, you should also mention your Elite status which should help your odds for success.
If calling the hotel does not work or you don’t prefer to just wait for availability to show up, you can set availability alerts with Hotel Hustle by Wandering Aramean. You can set 5 active alerts with a free account.
Final words
The two times I have used this technique, the missing night(s) became available at a later date and I was able to secure a 7 night redemption. However, remember the tip doesn’t guarantee you the missing night(s) will become available, but it sets you up to guarantee a 7 night stay when the missing night(s) become available. Hope this helps!
We get a LOT of emails here at PointsNerd and most of them have to do with people’s specific issues in this crazy world of Travel Hacking but every once in a while you come across an email that really moves you. Those emails usually come in the form of success stories and this one is no different. What is different how this reader’s journey through Travel Hacking helped get his life back on track. I must say that we here at PointsNerd are extremely humbled to be part of that journey.
Today’s email comes from a reader that goes by the pseudonym of Mr. Darcy. After reading his story, you’ll understand why he might not want to be directly identified but I am so happy that he reached out and took the time to share his story.
If you have a success story to share, please do so at [email protected] and we’ll be sure to get it up for the world to see!
Dear Jayce:
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog. You asked for success stories to share and I thought mine might be of interest. Feel free to use it if you want.
When American Express invited me to advance booking for Riverdance in Vancouver I immediately bought tickets for my daughter and I. A few days later WestJet had a great seat sale so I booked flights. We arrived on an evening flight, stopped at the Domestic Lounge at B15 to grab some supper (thanks Amex Business!) and stayed at the Fairmont Airport the first night (paid with points). The next day we moved to the Delta downtown suites to be close to the Theatre and Waterfront station for the next few days. We arrived at the Delta at 10:45AM intending to drop off our luggage and walk around until check-in time but our room was ready for us. (Thanks Marriott Gold!) Marriott Gold (or my charming six year old) also got us extra welcome cookies, our room upgraded to a suite, and free breakfast at the restaurant. We spent several magical days shopping, exploring Vancouver and eating great food. On our last day we got late checkout but still had several hours before our flight so we spent it back at the Priority Pass lounge at B15, eating, colouring and watching movies on our iPads. After four days of hanging out with me she asked if we could do it again the next weekend.
When my marriage ended two years ago I lost most of what I had been working towards. I didn’t know where I would be living, how much disposable income I would have, and most of all how much I would get to see my children. Divorce is terrible for everyone, but children are especially affected. They learn lessons about life, marriage and relationships that could be with them forever. I knew for my sake and theirs I needed to be emotionally resilient, a great Dad and model good life strategies no matter what was happening to me.
The desire to always be moving towards a goal is part of being human. The goal itself matters little as long as it appeals to us and we are moving towards it.
Part of my strategy was coming up with small goals that I could work towards so I could feel like I was winning at something again. I love to travel and had recently watched “Up In The Air” with George Clooney so I decided to pursue status with a hotel chain. I know it sounds silly, but from where I was at “Any status with any hotel chain” seemed a big goal. It gave me something to think about, to research, to move towards. Wyndham was the easiest to get so one business trip and one epic road trip with my children later I was Gold with Wyndham. Looking back on it Wyndham Gold seems such a small step, but it has a lot of meaning to me. I had to do all the planning, booking, packing, driving, herding, yelling, entertaining, washing and feeding for a nine day trip by myself for the first time. My kids were four and eight.
Skipping forward two years, my world is so different. When my loyalty programs started sending me 2017 year end summaries of hotel stays, I thought “You have got to be kidding me!” But after triple checking the numbers I realized I had spent almost three months travelling in 2017. Most of that was weekend trips with my kids, but also included ten days in London by myself, a week in New York, and five days in Montreal with my ex. I enjoy travelling with both my children and really love it when I can spend quality time with just one of them at a time doing things that they like to do.
I haven’t made incredible redemptions and I haven’t done much churning of credit cards. I get why some people would build spreadsheets of point values and spend hours researching the best redemptions. It’s another way of playing the game and I am grateful that such people exist and share their knowledge with us amateurs.
I’m in it for the experiences. All of them: I enjoy refreshing my Awardwallet app and seeing the numbers climb. I enjoy the treatment I get checking in at a hotel with elite status. I enjoy getting an E-mail with some great hotel promotion and figuring out what cool adventure I can do with my kids that will also fulfill the bonus criteria. Most of all I enjoy travelling like a pro with my little ones.
Yours is one of the blogs I visit every week to see what is new in the world of Travel. I just realized after meeting the minimum spend on my shiny new Amex Biz Platinum that I have enough points to take my daughter on a first class trip to Paris and take my son to Space Camp. These are things I would have only dreamed of doing a few years ago. While it helps to have good income and a great credit score, travel hacking is a game almost anyone can start playing and winning at.
I thought I had mastered Canadian geography in Grade 5. There are 13 US states that border Canada and I didn’t forget Alaska. I was an A+ cartographer, color-coding a map with all 10 provinces 3 territories and outlining every little island surrounding our coastline.
So imagine my fascination after stumbling on a news report 15 years later. RCMP cracking down on booze smuggling off the coast of Canada to France by the French islands of Saint-Pierre-Miquelon.
My reaction was “Google, are these French islands part of France France or just Quebec?”
Google Maps St Pierre and Miquelon off the coast of Newfoundland
The islands were in fact part of France. I had no idea. It became personal and I had to go check it out.
So for my birthday this year, I decided to explore France in North America. And since my wife has no interest visiting an island without a five star resort, I proceeded to ask my dad to join me.
Me: “Dad do you want to go to France?”
Dad: “Shuuure. Dad retired. You have points?” (aka “I don’t want to pay”)
Me: “Yeah we can use points to fly to eastern Canada and then we take an one-hour flight from there.”
Dad: “Nahhh. How that possible?”
Me: “There are two islands off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada that belongs to France.”
And without telling him it’s the only place in the world where he can’t eat at a Chinese restaurant, he agreed and I started planning.
Getting to St Pierre
There are six direct routes to get to St Pierre, for a territory of 6000 inhabitants, the number of options is actually quite impressive.
Via Air
The only airline operating flights to St. Pierre and Miquelon is their independent local carrier Air Saint Pierre.
Direct flights to Saint Pierre can be flown from Montreal, Halifax, St. John’s, Magdalen Islands (summer) and Paris CDG (summer 2018). After speaking with a couple locals about their new nonstop service to Paris in the summer, they mentioned it must be fully booked as everyone was pleased with the convenience of not having to backtrack with a connection in Montreal. Also, I guess the locals wouldn’t need to go through customs when flying to Paris direct!
Flights from Canada to Saint Pierre
Via Ferry
There is one ferry route to Saint Pierre and it departs from the town of Fortune, Newfoundland. According to Google Maps it takes 4 hours to drive from St. John’s to reach the port. You can park near the terminal for $10 a day.
The sailing takes 55 minutes to reach France and reading about the journey, the sea conditions are quite turbulent. If you tend to get sea sick, you should arrive early to grab a seat near the rear of the ferry or consider flying instead.
Currently the ferries do not support vehicles on board but the locals mentioned they recently purchased a couple new ships and vehicles will soon be allowed. The ferries will also have a new route in the summer from Fortune, NL directly to the larger island of Miquelon which has only one-tenth of the population of St Pierre but inhabits plenty of birds and sea life.
Prices are published on both the ferry and airline websites and prices seem to be fixed up to the time of departure. Below is a chart of their nonrefundable rates for a roundtrip ticket. A one-way ticket is also available for ~60% of the return fare.
From Newfoundland, you can visit Saint Pierre for as low as $115 roundtrip on the ferry. The flight from St. John’s is also quite affordable at $360 roundtrip but from Montreal it’ll run you $1,200. YIKES.
Although, if travelling with children or seniors you will save a bit of money per passenger as they have lower pricing for non-adults. Teen (12-17) / Senior (60+) tickets are available for ~20% less than the adult fare for air tickets. Child (2-11) tickets are ~50% less.
Ferry tickets are bookable online however airline tickets must be booked over the phone.
How I Planned to get there
Originating in Vancouver, I was sure to use and maximize the distance of my Aeroplan points to position myself in either Halifax or St. John’s and be one segment away from St Pierre.
After comparing itineraries and prices, we chose to fly into St. John’s, drive to Fortune and take the ferry option as we had planned on renting a car to explore the local landscapes anyways. Even with the combined 8 hours of driving to the ferry terminal, cost of gas, extra days of car rental to just park at the terminal, it seemed like the better deal. And so after confirming the Aeroplan tickets, I went online and booked the roundtrip ferry for 1 Adult $115 and 1 Senior $107.
How I Actually got there
In my preview post, I mentioned flying Air Saint Pierre and I did because on the day of sailing, our ferry to St Pierre was cancelled due to weather. I received the cancellation email with the only rebooking option to catch the next sailing 48 hours later which wouldn’t work for us. I checked the flight option from St. John’s which fit our original plans perfectly. I called my credit card provider, explained the situation which they interpreted as a trip delay claim which would cover the flight to St Pierre! So I called Air Saint Pierre to book a roundtrip ticket for 1 Adult $360 and 1 Senior $299.
While putting together the trip delay claim, I found out the ferry has been cancelling a lot of their sailings due to weather or mechanical issues, whereas Air Saint Pierre has a near perfect flight record. If you plan on taking the ferry to St Pierre, absolutely make sure you have travel insurance on your credit card. I personally have the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard which covered my travel insurance and foreign transaction fees. The Scotiabank Passport Infinite Visa would have been the best option with the insurance, no forex fees, and the option to offset the travel charges with Scotiabank Reward Points.
Conclusion
So that’s the gist of how to get to St Pierre. It’s a bit tricky piecing together separate itineraries but it was totally worth the hassle. The coolest thing is telling your family and friends you are taking an hour-long ferry ride or flight from Canada to France.
Prepare for weather delays when travelling around the Atlantic provinces, especially in the non-summer seasons. And booking on a credit card with travel insurance is imperative. For this trip, I had claims for lost luggage, rental car damage, and two trip delays!
