Originally Posted by
nacho
The main issue here is OP was TOLD that he is all set that his family members could stay using his points. From the hotel's point of view - someone attempted to check-in to a reservation that was made from and by another person. How could a hotel know that the person showed up was OP's family member?
It's still possible for Marriott phone rep to add a third party's name to the award reservation and for the hotel to let that person check-in. That's how this was done for many years, and it's how Marriott handled it last time I did this (not following its own stated procedure). So either the first Marriott rep failed to add the name to the reservation, or the hotel is not being completely candid here.