I can only offer you my opinion based upon my personal experience, as they say, YMMV.

I have only once in almost twenty years not been able to book the hotel I wanted, when I wanted. In several of those successes, I did have to do a little extra work on my end. Let me relate two to you.

My wife joined me on a recent business trip to San Juan over Memorial Day weekend and the week after. I wanted to use points to pay for the weekend rather than pay cash or expense it to my company. This was three weeks before a weekend in which the hotel was sold out. I made a call to the property and asked for the reservation manager and explained my situation. Although the web showed no award availability, the manager immediately asked me to hold for a minute and came back with my reservation number. In all fairness, I'm a PLT and have stayed at this hotel before.

Last summer we wanted to go to Seattle for our 25th anniversary. We wanted to stay at the new waterfront property downtown, which was also very close to being sold out. We booked a room using points at the REN up the hill and then I called the PLT line and explained that we would prefer the waterfront property and I explained why. I was placed on hold for about 10 minutes while they called the property for me and not only did I get a room, but also a junior suite.

My points are this. As a PLT I know for a fact that I am treated differently than a GM or a SM. There is a difference whether I'm on an award or just staying for business. Two, sometimes you do have to make a little extra effort to get what you want. Do I mind doing this? No, because I think I know how the system works and I'm willing to use it my advantage, and I am treated very well as a PLT every Marriott stay. So what if I have to make one extra phone call.

Every program has it advantages over all the others, and most of us here have come to conclusion that Marriott works for us. Many of us in fact become quiet defensive when some one comes here (especially a newbie), and using at times harsh words is critical of the program, as you have already found out. I'm not taking you to task here. Only pointing out that without body language and voice inflection, the written words here can often be taken to have meaning, not originally intended.

With that in mind, there are two individuals who post here who we are particularly protective of. One is Socrates, who as an employee answers questions and provides invaluable insight into the Marriott culture on his own time. He does this at some risk should Marriott ever find out who he is. The one sure way to raise the ire of posters in this forum is to appear to be in anyway disrespectful of him/her. The other is Chris (Marriott Concierge). As an official representative of the company, Chris is here to help us with questions and the occasional problems. He does not set policy, he is only the messenger. We also tend to be protective of him as well.

BTW, welcome to FT and the Marriott Forum.