I recently booked an award at the Ritz Carlton in Kapalua for December. It looked like a normal reward booking when I made it, up until the point AFTER I confirmed it, when the confirmation said that my credit card had been charged almost $800 as a deposit! I tried to make another booking to see if this was disclosed anywhere in the process. The only place where it's disclosed is if I click on the tiny "rate details" link. I'd expect major terms like that to be disclosed more transparently; for example, the hotel has a 21-day cancellation policy which is disclosed without clicking on rate details.

Is this a new thing? I don't anticipate spending $800 at the hotel, so will I just have to wait for a refund at checkout? Not happy about that.

And here's a strange twist: I just checked the Chase website. It's been 9 days since I made the reservation, and as far as I can tell the prepayment hasn't even been charged.