I had a colleague make this awful discovery a few months ago. He had only recently joined the company so he wasn’t aware of the corporate travel agency being linked to Expedia. We had been working at the same client location together for a month when he asked me if I had delays in receiving my Marriott points. I told him that I get them 2 days after each of my stays complete. He said he hadn’t received his points in 3 stays over 3 weeks.

Digging deeper, it was discovered that he was booking his hotels through the corporate travel portal. Since we have the option, I told him to stop and book the hotel direct using the app. Only use the portal for airfare and car rental. Direct always turned out to be anywhere from $5-$20 cheaper a night, plus we could use the client company’s corporate rate and do even better. Plus, if Marriott ran a promotion rate for additional points, there could be the option to use it provided the numbers are still in guidelines.

He did try to state his case with Marriott, but he was not successful. Since I had already told him, he didn’t pitch a fit, just disappointed that he missed out on all the points. He did get the credit for the nights as a consolation. We later discovered that some rates in the portal did show “Loyalty points included”, but again booking direct still showed a slightly cheaper rate.

My spouse works where the travel is booked by an internal travel staff. The most he can do is give a window for when he needs to depart/arrive, airport preference, and the normal profile info. They can still get points, but they have to make sure the hotel is aware of their loyalty number when they check in. It’s in the company profile, but never carries through to the hotel.