I just had a new experience. I made an award booking at the Hotel Victor in February. I printed out the booking, and on reviewing it, saw that the reservation was nonrefundable. I had blitzed right past that on the confirmation screen.

I was checking on award space before I checked on flights. I didn't want to be pinned to specific dates 5 months in advance. Fortunately, I reached a very good agent who called the rooms manager at the hotel. He agreed to allow me to cancel since the request was made within hours of my booking.

The hotel in question is the Hotel Victor. I worked with the agent to find some dates when I could make a nonbinding award reservation. In doing so, he found several periods when they were binding. I was very surprised to find award space (albeit binding) during the Miami Boat Show.

As an aside, the Victor has no Friday or Saturday night award space available during the window of time I checked. It does have availability during the week. And since it is a resort, it is not bound by the 3 night minimum weekday stay for FFNs.