Sorry this is long...but gone around and around with SPG on this.

I'm a lifetime Marriott Platinum, and for about a year I've been staying at SPG properties off and on but all paid. I made a reward reservation for 3 nights at the Prague Sheraton.

My travel plans and only needed the first two nights. So I call SPG Platinum and request the drop the third night. Apparently what they normally do is create a new reservation then cancel the old one. But the hotel was at capacity the second night, so she couldn't make a new reservation.

She said that's normally not an issue, and she would call the hotel directly to get an override. A few minutes later she says the hotel refused and said I could cancel (for free), but can't change. I failed to understand why, so I had her escalate the issue. A few minutes later she said she talked to the hotel again and revenue management and both said no.

I was not happy at this point, so I asked for specifically why this was denied. With 900 nights at Marriott and many reward stays with them, I've never had this issue with a chain before. Yes, I realize SPG is still operating independently. The lady then came back and said the hotel has a rule that when they are at 95%+ capacity they only sell 3 nights blocks or more. That made no sense, since I'm not requesting a room...just dropping the third night (which was not at capacity and I did a dummy booking through the SPG site for that last night and it worked.)

The SPG platinum desk had the hotel email me, and I got an email stating (with no reason) that the reservation could not be changed. Three more emails later, and she would not offer a reason.

I was already in Prague staying at different hotel, so I physically went over to the hotel to see what was up. The front desk people were quite nice, but said they were powerless. Understood...front desk is not reservations. But I talked them into escalating the issue. He made two calls, and said the request was denied. I asked why, and he said they didn't tell him why. So I asked him to call again and get a reason. He had the same 95% 3-day block excuse.

A couple of minutes later, he said someone told him I could cancel the 3 day reservation and make one for two nights. If I did it back to back, I could get the room inventory that I cancelled. So I used one of their business computers and started that process. He then comes back two minutes later, and said no that actually won't work. 3 day block would be enforced.

The front desk guy was VERY sympathetic and said if this was happening to him, he would be really pissed. But he'd give me the best possible room for my stay. He was great!

Now one night of SPG points down the drain is not going to kill me. BUT, it's the whole principle and terrible customer service that I'm really upset with. SPG Platinum says the hotel must do an override, yet the hotel says only SPG can modify a reservation...the hotel can't. Finger pointing galore.

What should I do? I'm not going to cancel...I need the room and other properties like the Marriott are sky high. Is this 95% 3-day rule real? SPG permits that behavior? I'm very disappointed with how I'm being treated. Do I have any recourse with SPG to get the third night points back if I check out after 2 days? I have an email trail from the hotel that shows they are unwilling to do anything.