Originally Posted by
missydarlin
If I really wanted to game the system, couldn't I just hold several weeks paid bookings on basic rooms at these hotels under different names... then cancel them right before i was ready to book my FFN?
No because cancellation of a revenue room doesn't guarantee that the room will go back into base room inventory - much like airlines when a flight is "filling up" a cheap fare bucket seat that is cancelled won't necessarily go back into that fare bucket but possibly full Y.
I'm not that familiar with all the different hotel programs and whether they allow "speculative" booking of awards or not. I know that SPG does not allow booking of FWN (similar but more restrictive than FFN) until earned for anyone including SPG Plats.