Originally Posted by
r0m8470
It's not quite the top up. It's the ability to use, bc the cert is limited to the base room.
On my case, I have 2 - each is good for 85K even w/o any top up.
The base room is 69K or so thereabout - no issue to use the cert.
'Upgraded room' is 79K or so thereabout (no extra cash needed) - my cert can well cover that. After all, it is worth 85K each. But - one of the program rule limits the use of such cert only on the base room. So no joy in using it for the 'upgraded room' even though at face value, it is enough to cover it. Seems silly ....
I wish Bonvoy just go the Hyatt route. The WoH is so much easier to use IMO. Too bad their footprint is much smaller.
Yep. A Free Night Award (FNA), such as from a credit card anniversary, can only be applied to the redemption rate. Any excess points above the redemption cannot be applied to a points upgrade for a better room (such as a "superior" room instead of a "classic" room).
In other words, an 85K FNA is not a the same as 85K in your Marriott Bonvoy account. The former is only good for up to 85K toward the redemption rate. The latter is far more flexible.
The rule made more sense when there were categories. A Category 5 FNA paid for a room at hotel up to Category 5. There was no reasonable expectation that if you used a Category 5 FNA for a room at Category 4 hotel, you might somehow be able to get a better room at that Category 4 hotel. But now that FNAs are denominated in points instead of categories, it's reasonable to expect 35K to be 35K and 85K to be 85K, except that it can't be split across more than one night. Unfortunately, that's not how it works.