Originally Posted by Kacee

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.