Originally Posted by
RetailTherapy
Thanks - this is what I thought. I figured that RC would also be following the absurd rule of requiring a points upgrade to be applied to a points reservation like Marriott, so that's what I was getting at. I've done it before (because I remember having the discussion with the spouse within the past 12 months about whether I wanted to burn the extra points or not) and have had no luck in the past few months finding that option available.
However, I called RC yesterday to inquire about a few dates and the associate spent a great deal of time drilling into my head that I would never, ever receive any kind of free upgrade from RC. If I wanted club rooms, I needed to pay cash for them and that points are, never were and never would be an option for anything other than a standard room. Yeah, crystal clear way before the call that I'll not get anything free from RC, but according to her, there is no other option other than full rack rate payment for club rooms. This seems like a recent change.
Yeah, it seems pretty strange they would tell you that using points isn't an option. I guess it used to be but not anymore. However, you can still get non-standard rooms at an RC using points (ocean view, suite, etc.). Not sure why they would exclude club rooms.
You could always get RC gift cards with Marriott (or AMEX) points & use them to pay for the club room upgrade.
Our stay at the St. Thomas RC is in a couple of weeks. They sent out a link last week for me to fill out any additional amenities I wanted for our stay. One of the options was to upgrade to a club room. Since I was interested, I didn't select the option, but it was an option. Not sure if I could have used points or cash. But, when I originally made the reservation, booking a club room with points was available. I have a bunch of RC gift cards I got with points so I'm not concerned about eating & drinking in the club. Rooms are rooms for us. Yeah, an ocean view is nice but we usually don't spend too much time in the room so the point difference/expense isn't really worth it to us.
It does suck the RC doesn't consider Marriott status as it is part of the Marriott system. As a LT Plat, I would love to enjoy some of the RC perks
