YES, YES, YES... It works even if you have the points in your account. It works in a house, with a mouse, in a box, with a fox... I have ALWAYS done points reservations this way for many, many years and have always had more than enough points in my account to cover the reservation. I just like knowing my points are still available to me if I need to go somewhere at the last minute and can earn more points for a later reserved trip if need be. You will get an email reminder about the points a week or so before the stay and if you do not do anything the points will be automatically taken from your account. I have always gone in and applied the points myself just to be sure it is done without any issues.

The easiest thing to do historically is call Marriott for the reservation and ask them to not take the points out. It takes the agent a little longer than it would take to make a regular reservation, but it is nothing the agent has not done before. Given the long hold times many are presently experiencing when calling Marriott the drain-your-account method may be easier.

Marriott has announced that we will still be able to make reservations without having the points deducted when the new program starts.