Marriott Will Extend Ritz-Carlton Upgrade Certificates

November 6, 2020

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The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card issued by Chase has a number of very useful benefits (it’s why I got the card earlier this year) and among them are the upgrade certificates that allow cardholders to upgrade select paid stays three times a year. The Covid crisis put paid to most people’s chances of using their certificates this year but it looks like those certificates will now be given a second lease of life.

Towards the end of October, Marriott updated its Covid-19 FAQ page to announced that it would be extending the expiration date of all unexpired Free Night Certificates from 11 December 2020, but there was no mention of what Marriott had planned for the Ritz-Carlton upgrade certificates.

Since then, neither Chase nor Marriott have publicly confirmed whether the expiration dates on the Ritz-Carlton upgrade certificates will be extended, but the Marriott Bonvoy Twitter team has now told me that the certificates will be treated in the same way as the Free Night certificates.

When I first asked the Bonvoy Twitter team if Ritz-Carlton upgrade certificates would be extended, the reply wasn’t the one I was hoping to read:

a screenshot of a chat

Fortunately, and without any prompting from me, the Bonvoy Twitter team then got back to me with considerably better news:

a screenshot of a message

What this means is this:

On 11 December, anyone who has a Ritz-Carlton upgrade certificate that has/had an original expiration date in 2020 or which will expire before 31 July 2021, will have that certificate’s expiration date extended to 1 August 2021. As with the free night awards that are having their expiration dates extended, the Ritz-Carlton certificates will have their expiration dates extended automatically so, if you hold one (or more) of these certificates, there’s nothing for you to do.

I still have the three upgrades that I was given back in February when I exchanged my legacy Chase Bonvoy Visa Card for the Ritz-Carlton Card…

a screenshot of a website

…so this move from Marriott will see me give me a further 4.5 months in which to use those upgrades. I highly doubt that I’ll get the opportunity to use all three (it’s unlikely that I’ll even have the chance to use two), but if I can find a good (low) cash rate with which these certificates can be used, I may well get to use one in Spring 2021.

Bottom Line

Marriott has confirmed that Ritz-Carlton upgrade certificates that have (or had) an original expiration date in 2020 or which will expire before 31 July 2021, will have their expiration date extended to 1 August 2021 on 11 December.

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