Let’s remember how we got here folks....

As recently as 5 or 6 years ago you could book a truly flexibile reservation which allowed you to cancel by 6 PM the night before. The fact that such a rate like this cannot even be purchased is outrageous, truly outrageous.

This poster was quite ill, and it would have been unsafe for s/he to travel the hotel given his illness. In the old days frankly, you could call the hotel, explain this circumstance, and especially as an elite they would ask if you wanted to delay by a day, cancel the trip, etc. even if you were technically outside the 24 hour cancellation window (Circa 2015 or so).

Now, here we are in 2019, and these reservations need to be cancelled somewhere between 48-72 hours in advance. Hotels also routinely lie about these dates and timings, and often one has to be extremely pushy to get them to honor their own cancellation terms. I recently had that happen to me where a by the book cancellation was done at the Sheraton in Tampa, and I was still charged. It took nearly a month to have this resolved, and I was at the Platinum level at the time. Marriott was unwilling to lift a finger, whereas before Starwood would have at least contacted the hotel and exerted their influence to ensure this was handled in a time-sensitive manner.

This new Marriott when calling on the reservation line is rude, dismissive, and frequently unwilling to help you think creatively about solutions to your travel needs in my experience. It began to go downhill shortly after the merger, and has rapidly descended especially in the past six months. It saddens me, but this is where we are. And that is before even commenting on them adding Books of Mormon into every single Sheraton, Westin, and other hotels, a bizarre move for a publicly traded company. I doubt I will be staying at many more properties sadly.

i would do the AMex dispute, explaining you were told you could arrive late. The fact you even need to go that route is outrageous ,and sadly given the Amex/Marriott integration I am not sure you will get a satisfactory response.

To think six years ago this wouldn’t have even been an issue, and now you will likely be out $1100... I’m not optimistic they will waive this for you my friend, especially not with this new Marriott....