It's not just you. I notice this more and more often as well.

I posted a long rant on the Marriott board about a customer service issue a week or so ago. (Disclaimer: I consider Marriott my single favorite major travel chain - counting airlines, cars, and hotels - and ordinary find their service perfectly acceptable.)

I was looking to book an award stay in April '06. All of the nights were available except one. Since the night in question was a Sunday night, and since this was a suburban Residence Inn that in reality is probably a ghost town on Sunday nights, I called customer service to find out if (a) there was some unique demand situation for that one night that meant that I really shouldn't get my award, or (b) there was a system problem of some sorts.

The agent started by saying "Award rooms are subject to availability." OK, yes, I know that, but can you look at this specific situation and explain what's going on? "The hotel has no award rooms available, including rulebuster awards. Perhaps it is sold out for that night." No, I already looked. There are rooms available at normal rates, and in fact I suspect that there are a lot of rooms available. This is a suburban Residence Inn on a Sunday night. I was calling to see if there was a system problem or if you could tell that there is some special event taking place there. I suspect a system problem because Monday night is wide-open for awards, and people don't typically travel to one-day conventions that take place on Sunday nights and Monday mornings before noon. "Award rooms are subject to availability." OK, I know... "The hotel has no award rooms avail...." OK, OK, I know!!! I'm looking for some thinking, some logic, some explanation as to what's going on! "Award rooms are subje..." Thanks...I'll try back later...have a nice day.

Fortunately, I'm an FT'er ^ , and we Marriott fans have some great support on that board. A well-informed poster (who I won't name here, because I don't think he acts officially for Marriott) sent me an explanation of exactly what type of glitch is taking place in the system and why, after a phone call to the hotel, I may be able to get my award. But it was very frustrating that nobody in an official capacity - either at regular reservations or on the Marriott Gold line - thought "Gee, that's kind of an odd situation. Let me look a little deeper into what's going on here and see if it's really a sellout situation as opposed to some sort of system-related issue."