Originally Posted by
VegasGambler
There is a lot of misinformation in this thread. The rack rate thing sounds like nonsense to me. Your friend never agreed to pay the rack rate (or any rate) and actually never did anything remotely fraudulent (checking in for a res where you are a registered guest is certainly not fraud) so the hotel is going to have a hard time claiming that he owes them anything. You, on the other hand...
You can book an award night for another person (it's explicitly allowed in the T&C). However they will not "inherit" any status from you unless you are a globalist making a GoH reservation. You just book it in their name. They will get the credit for the stay (not you).
Suite upgrade awards, however, cannot be applied to a reservation unless you are a guest.
The only fraudulent thing that's happening here is that you are applying the TSU, and you are trying to get credit for the stay when you did not stay. The booking itself is fine. (If you are receiving anything for it, that's selling points, which is expressly against the T&C, though probably not fraud since you never said that you weren't accepting anything for it. That won't stop them from closing your account if they want to, though)
You can also just transfer the points to your friend, although booking it for them is likely easier.
The fundamental point is that the booking is fine. However the person in whose name the reservation is made does not, and will not, show up. Therefore a no-show and no elite credit, etc. Any hotel can decide not to provide a room booked in one person's name to another, no matter what is listed in the notes on a reservation... Therefore if the third party still wants a room for the night, he/she will have to pay whatever the hotel decides to charge for the night. That often is "rack rate" for such walk ups.