hhoope01

Not sure I had any "secret phrases" or anything. I'd just call the (Plat line at the time). I would state I wanted to make an award reservation for a family member with my points. I'd give them my family member's name and they would make the reservation. Now in hindsight, I don't know that I every really scrutinized those reservations to see what/how it was created (i.e. both award and reservation in their name, in my name with them added as a 2nd name on the reservation, etc.) And I don't remember ever having to call the hotel directly either. I just called the main elite reservation line. They took my points and made the reservation.

Now way back in the distance stone ages when Marriott had paper certs that they would send you (and you would then have to take with you to the hotel), I'd have to order the certs in my family member's name, Marriott would snail mail the certs to me and I would have to mail the certs to my family member. That was a bit of a pain back then. But once they switched to e-certs, the process, for me at least, became more streamlined and easier. But it is possible after the "great merge" either their IT systems are problematic or they have changed the system/process, but missed updating the T&Cs. In some things, Marriott has tried to adopt the SPG rules and processes and I couldn't tell you how easy or hard it was in SPG to order an award for someone else. I'm guessing that Marriott probably has quite a few "new" reservation agents that may or may not have been fully trained on their systems. So that could be an issue as well. (But I'm really just guessing a lot here.)

And while I know this isn't the same as what the OP is asking about, just for clarification, I'm not talking about using a CC free-night cert or similar (as those are basically already ordered awards in the CC holder's name.)