Originally Posted by
friedablass
So, just to clarify for myself how this would work when booking with points: 5 nights booked for 600k points (or whatever the exact amount is) and the full amount of points are deducted from your account. Do they also charge a 25% fee in cash against your booking in order to be able to keep that in case you ever cancel? If yes, do they refund this when you check in since they now see that you obviously didn't cancel? If they don't charge the 25% cash penalty at booking then I'm assuming they would charge it if you cancel any time from when you book up until 61 days prior and refund the points? And then if you cancel within 60 days or less they refund the points and charge 100% $$$$$ to your card?
If it were a point or cash penalty was something which was unclear to me when I booked as well. I intentionally booked with a card on file that does not have sufficient CL to cover 25% to see what would happen. My thought was - if they would penalize cash, they most certainly would do a charge on the card for 25% to hold and release later. If they don't, then there is no way they can guarantee to collect the 25%.
They did not charge anything so my assumption was cancelation penalty would be in points (which appears to be incorrect from reading here). How are they going to collect from me since I can switch my card out to a virtual citi card with a $25 limit or something of that nature before cancelling? Simply they can't. Maybe they send a bill 🤔. Will get interesting honestly if they try that. Only way they can collect from me is a point deduct.
I would for sure fight if they tried to charge cash rate penalty. Much like being able to book the award stay for more than 2 people fully in points was clear to me (and later told to be wrong) - the penalty being in points was also clear to me (although also apparently wrong).