No, I have not had any success. I usually just move on since I don't have the time to continually follow up.

Incidentally, I was planning on staying at the same hotel in August. I just called up the hotel to ask my questions as well as yours.

You are correct that the hotel is booked out for November weekends. There are University of Oregon football games (18-20 and 25-27) as someone pointed out, as well as "some sporting event" on the other weekends (4-6 and 11-13). In addition, they just built a new arena.

It seems that you probably don't have a chance to book this hotel. Here is what the hotel agent told me that you can try: call the hotel the day of at about 4pm, when the cancellations usually come in. Make a reservation under cash to secure it (hotel can not reserve using points) then call Marriott line to switch pay to rewards reservation. The agent said that there is a possibility that the hotel may be sold out for points as there is a cap of how many people can stay with points. He did confirm that there are no black-out dates. Hope this helps...