I have been staying since January at an international Marriott.

The first 3 stays were posted within a week...then I don't know what has happened...

I am missing 4 stay requests for a total of about 46 nights and they have not posted. I have spoken to the front desk..and for over a week they can not seem to get it posted either...so I will have to wait until I get back to the US to sort it all out...

Marriott used to be the best program around (about 5 years ago) then they made changes to their plan. Increased the number of points for a stay...changed category of hotels...included blackouts, limited number of rooms available for reward redemption and added a 50% stay anytime feature.

I think what happened is the rewards program became too successful for them and their liability based on rewards outstanding became too high. so they looked for ways to limit redemption or increase the number of points you had to use.

I fear it will be a trend for all loyality programs. You will see increase in number of points required and fewer "standard" options. The corporations realize that if you use the points they lose reveune and they need to control the revenue loss due to loyality programs without appearing as ogers.

Sorry Marriott, you have been busted....