Originally Posted by
arlflyer
It seems like some posters are willing to disagree on the "should" part (though I personally find it clear), but as far as the "is" goes, the working hypothesis that I have based on what I read of the T&Cs and what posters have experienced is that MR applies the overruling principle of continuity. That is to say, of the stays known to them, which, in the best reading of the data that they have available, is continuous? So, hence, in a nested stay, the shorter is credited because they presume that the longer was non-continuous (and thus the guest did not "stay" in the room all nights booked) by virtue of the existence of the shorter, nested stay.
First, I think we need to agree that the definition of "should" must be unambiguous because some people here take "should" to mean their own wishes rather than the intent of the T&Cs (which I agree with you are clear to me). For a FAQ to be useful then we need to agree that "should" means the intent of the T&Cs as people like you and I read them. Maybe we cannot even agree on that... it is the internet after all.
Second, I think the root of the problem is not Marriott's intent or its reading of the data as you describe. You're looking far too deeply into this (laudable though it is to try and make sense of nonsense). My reading is that the root of the problem is nothing more complicated than Bonvoy's long-standing terrible IT and its inability to deal with some slightly complex situations. Case in point: I booked two rooms on two reservations at the same hotel (one for cash for two nights and one for points for one night - we both checked out on the same day). Nothing posted for either stay. The hotel confirmed that stay postings are automatic and they fixed it by submitting a missing stay request for the two-night cash stay but what it highlighted is that even nested stays like this at the same hotel (but under different reservation numbers) confuse Bonvoy's systems and in this case nothing at all was posted for either reservation (the points stay should have given me the welcome bonus if that was going to be posted alone).
What's required is an IT fix that identifies nested stays and awards the correct nights and points rather than just rejects the second stay that posts (that will be the longer stay the member wants posting).