bobjob

I'm a frequent gift card user, and here's what I do. When I check in, I have them post a credit from the card against my bill, and I also give them my credit card for any additional expenses. When the expected balance would leave a balance on the card, this approach also has the advantage of being able to get the "remaining funds" left after the debit from the card.

On another note, a word of caution about the "free" hertz promo. Last year the promo provided $50 hertz voucher for each $250 spent in Gift Cards. Use of the voucher requires using the Marriott Rewards Group number which sometimes is FAR from the best available rate. In using the certificates, sometimes you are able to work around it, others not. Be sure to shop the rate to see if the voucher offers any real value to you.

nacho

I used to do that too but I was at CY Berlin checking in Saturday - doing the same thing told them to keep a copy of my card. The FD checked my card and said, 'you have a lot of $ in your card, but our manager now requires us to keep all the GCs and it won't be returned to you'. I said, 'I did it in June, and all you need is to take a copy and deduct whatever you need'. She insisted that's the way it is. Fortunately I had 2 nights so I got my bills settled on Monday with the manager.

I'm going to complain about to Marriott about this - this is absolutely unacceptable. I saw the Front Office Manager but I decided not to confront to him - I will go through Corporate instead.

So beware if you are intending to use your GC at CY Berlin.

mooper

Provide them with a copy (the card info) and walk out anyway. They will charge you, as they don't want your stay to be free. Keep your copy of the bill, and if the charge is incorrect, take it up with corporate after the fact.

mooper

An update/correction to my earlier reply: I now see that the main gifts.marriott.com page says that promo code HTZ needs to be entered at checkout. This means that the offer is not supposed to be stackable with other offers. I'm not sure how to explain your experience then of getting the cert one time but not the other, combined with the AMT promo. Dumb luck, perhaps.

Counsellor

I've never been able to find a use for the Hertz certificates that isn't more costly than other -- non-MR -- rates. I don't even calculate them into the "value" of the promotions anymore.

mooper

+1

nacho

I found out about this about a year ago when I was trying to see if this promo is better than the 10%, but then I found out that since you can only use it with MR rates which means there will be no cash back, plus Hertz is more expensive than Avis in general in my case.

So 10% bonus is by far better than those useless vouchers.

danola

Any idea when the next Gift/Travel/Vacation Card 10% discount promo will be coming out, I'm getting low and lots of trips coming up. Thanks to all respondents in advance.

mooper

They tend to be more common in the fall and winter. When and if they return, I will post details in the master thread linked in my signature below.

beofotch

Have there been any good Marriott Gift Card promotions lately? Would love to buy some at 80 or 90 cents on the dollar. I see this thread, other than first page, has been dormant for a while.

mooper

None I'm aware of. When they arise, usually someone will alert in the master promo thread and I'll add it to the list... but nothing has been on the radar for quite some time. (Check the "boneyard" post - the second in that thread - to see how sparse recent history has been.)

danola

As the economy continues to improve, you will see fewer promotions and for lower incentives....