Good afternoon everyone, if you are like me, you probably have a few hotel credit cards which provide free night certificates each year. Juggling and remembering to use the free night certificates can be challenging at times and you may forget to use one of your free nights before the expiration date arrives. This is the story of how my expired Marriott free night certificate was reactivated. For the record, I really dislike Marriott’s free night certificates because they only have a 6 month life span, compared to all the other annual free night certificates. I wrote about using the Marriott free night certificates here.
Here is a little background information first. The Marriott free night certificate posted to my Marriott account on August 4, 2014 and had an expiration date of February 4, 2015. I forgot about this certificate and found it in my travel folder in early March.
Since I have the Chase Ritz-Carlton Credit Card, I called that number and asked if there was anything they could do to reactive the Marriott free night certificate, since they are both part of the same rewards program. The main Ritz-Carlton customer service number was not able to help, but I was told to call the Ritz-Carlton Service Ambassadors at 877-231-7916. After a few moments on the phone, the excellent rep was able to cancel my expired certificate and…
…reactivate my Marriott free night certificate. I was also given 6 more months to use the certificate and have until September 9, 2015 to redeem the certificate for a free night.
Side note: I highly recommend that you call the Chase Marriott customer service number if you have a free night certificate that is *about to* expire. They have always been able to extend the free night certificate for another 6 months, but you can only do this one time per certificate.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
Yes, thanks Grant. I did this before and they extended my cert for 6 months. I think Marriott is the best when it comes to expired cert. Next time try with SPG or Hyatt. They don’t budge.
I have tried with Hyatt, but they are not very helpful in extending the free night certificate.
They extended my certificate for 30 days but told me they could only do it one time. I guess it depends on who you get on the phone.
Only 30 days is pretty pathetic, they should have given you a 6 months extension. Were you able to use the certificate within the 30 day limit?
I did this same thing just the other day. My Marriott free night certificate was about to expire, and I wanted to redeem it for a night 2 weeks after the expiration date.
I called Marriott and was transferred to Award Reservations. Once there, the phone rep confirmed I had a certificate but told me that I couldn’t redeem it for a night AFTER the expiration. I politely asked if the certificate could be extended and she replied that since I had no Marriott stays recorded this year, nor any activity in my Chase Marriott card that she couldn’t extend the expiration.
After a bit of polite cajoling I finally got her to agree to extend the certificate. She then booked my stay for the night I was requesting. Everything was very professional, and she did seem empowered to make changes to satisfy me as a Marriott Silver. I gave her lots of gratitude.
Just a warning, be prepared to defend your request if you don’t have ANY recent rewards activity.
I’m glad you were able to get some help after the initial rejection. Politeness goes a long way. Enjoy your upcoming stay.
I tried desperately to get a Marriott certificate extended when I was unable to travel for several months due to having a baby (cert was issued about 2 months before my due date and expired 4 months later so I really only had a matter of weeks to reasonably be able to use it). They were unrelenting and would not grant any exceptions even in those circumstances. Talked to multiple people and even escalated to supervisor. Have had years as a credit card holder plenty of activity/status. Made me think so, so much less of Marriott. A little bit of a bummer to find it has been so easy for others.
I’m sorry to hear about your struggle getting the free night certificate extended. I might have said something like “if I cannot use the free night certificate, I might as well cancel my Marriott credit card. Please transfer me to the Chase account closure department. Thank you.” That is a bit extreme, but I would save that in my back pocket for worst case scenario.
EDIT: better yet, you can try this line almost anytime “I was talking to a rep who was helping me extend my free night certificate but my cell phone signal died and I got disconnected. Can you help me?”
Any idea if they will extend the free night certificates that aren’t related to the credit card? Just had one expire from the MegaBonus promo. Guess I will have to call and see if I can get it extended….
I don’t have any experience extending those certificates but you can call and hopefully Marriott will extend them for you.
VERY USEFUL post, Grant; thanks! I never would have thought this hotel night cert extension could be done?
I used your info to send a secure message to Chase a few days before expiration, and get my wife’s Marriott free night cert extended for 6 mos more. No hassles, just a simple email back and forth!
I’m glad sending a SM worked to extend the certificate. Hopefully you can use the certificate over the next 6 months.
Currently fighting an uphill battle with Fairmont trying to get $50 expired dining credit reinstated for 2 months. Even tho I keep getting shot down, I have to respect their decision making process, which is much more fact based and consistent than the typical faceless YMMV chain . If I were running a business That’s what I’d want.
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I just called about a certificate that expired in October. He said it appears I am still using my credit card so he could re-issue it as a 1 time exemption. He also said within the last week they have begun honoring them for 1 year, not 6 months!
Thank you for the update Steph, I am glad you were able to extend your Marriott Free Night Certificate.
This is definitely a YMMV situation. I am a plat with marriott and had a hard time extending it. They said the extension was one time per member (I had done that before with different certs–not the ones I’d called about) and not one time per cert as was my understanding–and which you have stated here.
I would call back and see if the next rep can help. Did you call the Ritz Carlton number in this post?
my marriott night posted today and is valid for one-year.
Excellent, thank you for the data point. Glad to see the new free night certificates are good for 1 full year.
Glad I read this post because I was able to call in and get my expiring e certificate extended out. What they did was cancel the one in my account and gave me a new one so a 1 year extension from my contact date. (1 time exception)
I called into the Marriott rewards customer service line.
United States/Canada
1 801 468 4000 (8:15am – 9:00pm, Monday – Friday, US Eastern time)
Glad to hear, hopefully you can redeem your Marriott Free Night Certificate before it expires.
I have an unused Category 1-5 Certificate that expires today, 9/29/16. Tried to book the Residence Inn Midway (Bedford Park, IL) online this morning for a stay today, 9/29/16. Rooms were available, but certificate disappeared from my MR account. Called MR customer service for help making the reservation, she said certificate expired at midnight and refused to book a stay for today, and would not extend the certificate either. Tried Twitter and Facebook but they were of no help. I’ve used IHG and Wyndham Rewards certificates on their expiration date and never had a problem. If Marriott Rewards had honored the certificate that expires today 9/29 for a stay today 9/29, I’d be enjoying the day instead of wasting a day trying to contact Marriott or even asking for an extension.
Hi Vito, I’m surprised that the certificates expire at midnight the morning of. You would think that most certificates expire at 11:59pm of some time zone. I hope Marriott can help you out with reissuing your certificate.
I had something similar just happen. I had a ticket reservation with my first year certificate on the day of expiration. It was all set to go but I found out after my stay that points were deducted and they I had also recieved my following years certifcate. I called to inquire and it said the hotel used my e-certificae and points. Then just checking again now.. my points are back but now they’ve taken my new e-certificate.
Uh oh, looks like Marriott has some IT issues with using free night certificates right before they expire. Keep following up with Marriott until the issue is resolved. Good luck and keep me posted on the results :)
Grant I have a cert that expired in Sept. I do not have the Ritz card. Would you still recommend calling the Ritz number? I haven’t used my Marriott card in forever. Maybe not a bad idea to put some activity on the card first? Thoughts?
One of my Chase Free Ritz nights expired in October. I was able to get them to renew this for another year from today as a one time exception with a quick 5 minute phone call to Marriott customer service at 1-801-468-4000. Super easy!