Originally Posted by rebadc
This gets back to my ***** about the Mega Promo where we are going to amass more points that we can not use.
Bottom line.
If you are a Plat and they have a room, they should give it to you.
I only hope that this might be the case with Platinum Premier, but as usual I have not received my card or any documentation on this newer level.
I'm not sure this is a fair comment. I recently booked a round-the-world trip. Even booking 11 months out the flights were difficult to schedule using miles, but the hotels were a breeze. In 9 different cities I am visiting, I made reservations using my Marriott points with no problems at all. In some cases, such as Hawaii, I even changed my mind about which property and twice cancelled one reservation to make another. I was never unable to reserve a room in any property.
Over this past New Years, we decided to go to down town Orlando at close to the last minute. I had to use an Anytime reward, which wasn't unexpected since it was a last minute request during a peak time, but again I was able to reserve a room and we had a great time.
I am sure there are times when an award night cannot be used. But to say that Marriott points are unusable seems blatantly inaccurate to me. I have used my points with some regularity and find Marriott to be far more flexible in honoring awards than any airline program I have encountered. While I would be the first to criticize the egregious attitude and behavior attributed to the employee above, I personally do not believe your characterizations regarding the program as a whole are fair.