Marriott Bonvoy Lurker II

If your reservation is booked under an eligible rate/package and meets the terms of Q1 promotion, you will receive the bonus credit.

If you have an upcoming stay, please feel free to reach out to us with your booking details and we would help check on its eligibility.

Best Regards,

Christina Z
Specialist, Social Media
Marriott International

[email protected]

Kacee

People need to be very careful in their reading of the lurkers' posts and adjust expectations accordingly. Specifically, note the exceptions carefully:
Prepaid FHR reservations book through amextravel.com (i.e., Expedia), and per Marriott that is a legit ground for a property declining to treat it as an Eligible Stay. The property may nonetheless extend elite benefits and grant stay and points credit, but the property will not be required to do so.

ElevatorEnthusiast

I'm not convinced this is correct - both post-paid and pre-paid FHR stays are booked through "amextravel.com" and "Expedia" - there really isn't any difference in the booking channel. As a result, if post-paid stays count, I don't see any reason why pre-paid stays wouldn't count. Granted, I haven't had an FHR pre-paid Marriott stay (I will in May, though), but it seems like the datapoints suggest that you're likely to receive points, etc. with pre-paid stays, as well.

Also, the T&Cs that are currently posted do not mention amextravel.com anywhere, so perhaps they got rid of this language for this reason?

eponymous_coward

My experience/data point: booked St. Regis Mumbai through FHR to use the $200 AMEX Plat FHR credit for a January 2022 stay, gave my Marriott Bonvoy # at time of booking, points and elite night credit awarded, recognized as a Platinum, upgraded to a suite, even was able to use the rest of my $300 annual credit for items on my bill (used the Bonvoy Brilliant to settle the bill).

Kacee

That's not correct. If you book through PTS, it will not book through Expedia. That's why the Lurkers have stated that if you book through PTS, you will have an "Eligible Rate." Also, IME the pay at property bookings do not say "Expedia" whereas the pre-paid rates do. I specifically cancelled and rebooked a Hyatt stay after seeing the "Expedia" language in my reservation. Rebooking to pay at property removed that language.

Ancedotal reports that "my stay credited" really don't prove anything, except that a stay may or may not credit depending on the property. There are plenty of reports in this thread of properties not treating prepaid FHR as an "Eligible Rate."

ElevatorEnthusiast

I don't see "Expedia" anywhere in my prepaid booking - just "American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts Pay Now". Yes, I know this is a different rate name from the post-paid stays.

I'm not saying that I would make a 10-night prepaid FHR stay to get me over a status hump. However, if prepaid stays really weren't credited in a systemic way, there would be way more reports or complaints on this thread. I scrolled back to 2020 and only saw one person complain about the RC Philly (even then, it was a "we don't know how much your rate was" not "we won't give you credit") and one who was worried about a stay at the RH. If people weren't getting credit, there would be a much bigger hoopla on this forum. Sure, you probably wouldn't win in a court of law, but if I had the choice between a prepaid FHR booking (sometimes, I've seen that Pay at Hotel isn't an option) or a non-FHR booking at a Ritz, I would pick the prepaid FHR booking and be confident there is a 98% chance that my stay will credit.

eponymous_coward

The very obvious use case is “I’d like to use my AMEX Platinum $200 FHR credit that is ONLY usable as a prepaid rate, and I’d like to use it at a hotel chain that AMEX partners with, to the extent of offering cobrand credit cards and extending non-useless status to AMEX Platinum cardholders, it would be sort of nice if Hilton and Marriott didn’t penalize me for giving them money through their partner’s distribution channel, instead of spending it at a different chain since I won’t be getting any points or status benefits.”

I can tell you right now that I would have probably just gone to the Oberoi instead of the St. Regis if this thread and other FHR threads were full of examples of Marriott giving the finger instead of recognizing status and awarding points. And you’re going to a lot of trouble to entice people, you’re making your partner’s charge card attractive by extending benefits and doing marketing, why fall down on the last step JUST because the rate is prepaid? The whole point of that $200 is to tempt you into spending more money at higher end properties. Why wouldn’t you want to want to get your elites spending CASH (not points) on aspirational high end properties?

FTR: during my stay in Mumbai I used $200 FHR credits at the Four Seasons and at the St. Regis (just to see two different FHR experiences in Mumbai). I got a slightly better view at the Four Seasons, I got a suite and welcome amenity of cake and tea at the St. Regis plus a letter from the GM welcoming me as a Platinum. Guess who’s getting my money next time once I come back?

raiz

For those on FHR prepaid stays, did your check out folio reflect the room rate? Checked out today and my folio shows only the incidental charges. No mention of having paid the room rate.

raiz

Just received this response back from the property. Booked as an FHR prepaid in order to utilize the annual statement credit.

Your reservation as you mentioned was made by American Express with Agent Travel Expedia so your reservation was prepaid and that kind reservation is not eligible so you should receive points just for additional charges, around 60$. If you received only points for that it is seems like everything is correct.

I don't see the point in Amex to offer a pre-paid option at all if this is the case. Or at least a disclosure these rates are not eligible for stay credits.

WrightHI

As said before in this thread, it’s not that simple. Based on posts from the Lurkers, Marriott has two relevant rules that point in opposite directions: FHR stays do count for points/nights credit, and bookings through ineligible channels (eg Expedia) do not. Which rule controls for any given prepaid FHR booking is opaque. Lurkers have been willing to check bookings in advance, which seems to be the only way of clarifying before a stay.

eponymous_coward

From my Marriott account:
01/06/2022

Hotel Stay*
The St. Regis Mumbai
01/06/2022 - 01/08/2022

+5,247 Points

(2,831 Base + 1,416 Elite + 1,000 Extra)

01/09/2022

Bonus*

2000 PTS ON STAY INCL FRI/SAT NIGHT

+2,000 Points

That was on a stay where the FHR credit knocked out $200, it was prepaid.

I received stay credit for the stay in my Marriott account as well.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

raiz

Just to update here.. Points and stay credit posted this afternoon.

Adelphos

Did you do any other intervention (Call Marriott, talk to a lurker here, etc)?

My experience is that FHR bookings, whether prepaid or not, are currently intended to earn elite credit nights and points and such at Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt, and in most cases, end up doing so without too much hassle.

raiz

Contacted the hotel manager via email. Their response I posted a few posts up. Two days later everything credited - Total 7 days after checking out. According to the hotel, the rate did in fact show as an Expedia rate on their end even though booked under FHR.

ElevatorEnthusiast

DP: Prepaid FHR stay at Ritz-Carlton Residences Waikiki posted less than 24 hours after checkout. The base rate used appears to be $100 or so less than the base rate I paid (presuming this is due to the resort credit, which I'm fine with).

I asked at checkout if they could see my base rate for points posting, and they said they couldn't and to not expect points on the base rate. My assumption is that this got escalated (not by me) and someone at the property intervened manually on my behalf due to the quick turn-around.

Overall, I consider this to be a win!