lifeisart

I just got my points deducted for this stay that I booked when it was 60K points a night and I was charged 85K points.

My original reservation was for 60K points.

The Marriott customer service said they won't change the amount.

Is there anything I can do? I had these points in my account since I made the booking last year. I didn't know this would happen.

Anyone experienced this before? There is zero customer service from Marriott. (I am a Titanium member coming from SPG.)

Thank you.

bhrubin

Send a message to the Marriott Bonvoy Lurker team here on FT and ask for their assistance. You also can just hang up call again (HUCA) and likely will find another agent who knows better.

Typically, they just gift you the difference in points to make up for the increased points cost in such cases.

Good luck! It should work out just fine. Just another artifact of the new changes and the sloppy IT...and untrained customer service agents.

Traveler56789

so you made the reservation with point advance?

i had this happened with several reservations. They will credit you 25k points. My ambassador helped me do this four separate times. I suggest calling them again and explain the situation

Tokaitalbo

Do you have the original reservation email that showed 60k? Can send customer service an email with that information and another attachment showing the 85k deduction. I’m sure someone over the phone can also take care of it if the right person is over the line.

Traveler56789

just an FYI, often times marriot doesn’t send a confirmation email for points advance stays. So they key is to have the person on the phone look up the date when you made the reservation to prove that you made it before the category change from 60 -> 85k points. I forget the exact date when the switch over happen (I think it was around March 5?), but the approach above is how I was able to convince my ambassador to credit me the points. It did take some digging on her end to figure out how to find the date in which the reservation was made

bhrubin

I also think this is one of the many perks we get as Ambassador guests that isn’t so easily achieved by those with lower status.

lifeisart

Thank you for all the comments.

I was very shocked when I originally spoke to 2 people (including one who said she is a supervisor) and they both said they wanted to help but couldn’t and this has been the way for months and I needed to read the terms and conditions, so it’s my fault and nothing they can do for me.

I did call back again and spoke to a woman who quickly told me that I should have been charged the original price and that she would manually credit the difference in points. She said it’s confirmed now but it would take awhile to show up in my account.

Any ideas how long it will take?

I really appreciate this 3rd agent’s willingness to help. And I am absolutely floored by how the previous two agents behaved. It astounds me that Marriott agents and supervisors don’t know their own policies and are quick to tell its guest that they are the ones in the wrong. Such a big departure from SPG days.

Fingers crossed the points will arrive in my account and I don’t have to play phone agent roulette again.

Thank you everyone for your help.

lifeisart

Yes, March 5 is the date of change.

Artemio

It was instantaneous for me about 2 months ago. But I would wait until Tuesday before calling back (week end isn't finished yet )

By the way and for others who might get into this points difference case, mentioning "KM article 6115" helps a lot to get this sorted out easily.

GVA

Wasn’t there talk that after September 13th even old points advance bookings would no longer carry the old points rate and revert to the current rate (i.e. agents couldn’t by means of new policy manually add points to compensate) ?

I know I firmed mine about 10 days prior to that date in order to avoid any problems and was lucky to have a very helpful agent the first time calling.

Lobonomnom

They said they would honor the pre Sept 13 rates as long as the points advance reservation was made before Sept 13. The pre March reservations should be honored at the lower cat rate then too. If you make a reservation now the rate can change based on peak/off peak or if they raise the category again.

The reps will honor the earlier prices. You just have to be patient and find a rep that actually knows what is going on. They issue you the difference in points to confirm the reservation but it seems if you call on the weekend or evenings you’re less likely to get a rep that knows how to do it.

BA_Jfan

Menus seem pretty meat & sea food heavy. Any vegetarians have a good experience here? I don't do camel milk either.

margarita girl

I did! They have a separate vegetarian menu too. Everything was excellent.

3rdworldresident

Hello guys,

Any advices on ground transportation from W Dubai The Palm to Al Maha and from Al Maha to St.Regis Abu Dhabi?

What is the standard price range? I don't need any luxurious vehicles, just the cheapest standard option.

Thanks in advance.

ps. Sorry if this was discussed somewhere upthread.

cager

To get from the W to the Al Maha, you can take a standard Dubai cab (probably around 200AED), or you can take a Careem (owned by Uber, I would recommend you download the app and use this option).

The tricky part is getting from Al Maha to the St Regis in Abu Dhabi... I would look into pre-booking a private transfer, which you should be able to find on Tripadvisor or through a Google search... It will likely run you around 300AED