So what if they were told you were coming? When Marriott gets down to that last unoccupied room and someone comes to the check-in desk with confirmation in hand, perhaps even a prepaid confirmation and perhaps with more status than you, what are they supposed to do? Why would they give preference to you over that person? And what if they turn that person away and you don’t show? It wouldn’t be the first time that friends/co-workers wrongly promised, “He will be here.” First-come, first-served in an overbooking situation.

Also, it's a good idea with any hotel brand to know what your options are in the case of overbooking, just as it is with an airline overbooking situation. Assuming you have some status with Marriott and had your MR number associated with your reservation, you were entitled to $200 cash plus two free room certificates, in addition to alternate lodging for the night. If you don't have status, you weren't entitled to anything other than comparable lodging elsewhere for that night, which you turned down. They went a long way to try to make things right for you, even though the execution left something to be desired.

It seems to me that you wound up with the type of overbooking situation we all dream will happen to us: Some inconvenience for one night and a resulting nice benefit eventually in hand.

And if you really believe that 80K has a value to you that is as low as $400, there is a lot more info out there about how to effectively use MR points.

As my final comment, your original post has been here for about 18 hours now. Unlike numerous other poor customer service issues related on this board, I don't see the masses coming to your defense, although I would imagine some will. Does that indicate anything to you as to how others view your experience?