There used to be a button when you were booking online where you could assign the points/certificates right then,
OR there was another button -
to NOT deduct any points and assign the points at a later time.
Even if you had the points available.
That is the feature that is no longer available.

Now you must trick the system to think you have no points before you make a reservation, and it will then give you the option to assign at a later time.
Or call an agent and hope they will help you.

I always have a ton of points and I still use this feature frequently
- reserving a room and assigning the points later.
I do this mostly when booking 8-12 months out to things like sporting events, graduations, vacations, etc. I know I will be attending. And I know the available rooms will be gone before the event I am attending.

I do not want to use my available points at the time of this future reservation.
I know I will be accumulating more points before then.
And I want to save my points for reservations I will be making before these future events.

So why did Marriott take away this option during the online reservation process?