Marriott needs to pay off the $12B acquisition cost somehow...

My friend's property is actually pretty pro-elites & upgrades whenever possible.

They weren't mad at the elite, since MARSHA sold the elite a room. They were more pissed off at the MARSHA system for selling a room that wasn't available & then to do it at a cheap rate. They weren't going to walk the Titanium, so they walked the Expedia guest. In this case, the Expedia guest's rate was substantially higher than the elite's C&P rate, so they lost $$ when they had to walk the Expedia guest to a different property because the other property's rate was even higher than my friend's property & they had to pay that.

My friend's property gets a lot of elite business travelers & he said, while there are a few DYKWIA types, overall they really like the elites & recognize the loyalty to MAR, really try to upgrade them & provide other free items to the elites.

He said that MARSHA selling rooms they don't have has been an issue for a long time, they complain to MAR & nothing gets done, so there are times they end up losing $$. My interpretation of that is they're just as unhappy w/ MAR IT as we are!

Cheers.

I just searched for Marriott Osaka for a random date in September, and sure enough C+P was an option. First time I've seen this option since the merger. It's great to know that C+P will really show up when it's available, i.e. that this is not about my browser or some other technical problem. But I've booked at least 30 stays since last August, which means I've looked at over 100 hotels for various dates between late 2018 and early 2020, and I've never once been presented with the C+P option despite almost always looking for it. Maybe this makes sense economically to Marriott and/or to the individual hotels. But the practical effect in my case is that when the rates are too high I generally choose a non-Marriott hotel. Hyatt has recently changed its C+P schedule in a way that makes it far less attractive, but Hilton's C+P still works pretty well for me.

ugh. saw a C&P option for Sheraton Times Square a few weeks ago but now not seeing one listed. Wonder if the new peak/offpeak rates affected this.

Thanks Mr. Dang!
 

Thank you, Sir! I had scoured the internet to find the answer to this very question, and you have given me confidence! :)

I love some of the deals. San Francisco Marriott Marquis for late December.

Member rate $166
AAA/CAA rate $128
Points rate 35,000 (low season, point saver)
C+P rate $190 + 19,000 points

Who do they think they're kidding?

If you have a free night certificate, can you apply it to a Cash + Points rate? For example, I'm eying up a hotel this coming July and it's 150 euros plus 60,000 points. My thinking is maybe I can use a 50,000 night certificate, 10,000 top-up (when that becomes available) plus the 150 euros but is that something that's normally allowed?

I just tried it with a dummy reservation, and yes it allowed me to combine cash with a FNC. No idea how it will work with top ups. But please let us know if you try it. :)

Does anyone know if you should earn points for the cash nights on a "customize payment" reservation? Or is the whole reservation considered an award?

Yes, on the "Build your own Cash+Points combination," you'll earn on the night(s) you paid cash (i.e. $730 in example below).
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6570451901.jpg

Thanks ntamayo. I had a recent cash and points stay and had only received the amenity points, so I wasn't sure. I finally got the points for the cash night after submitting a missing stay request.

Just checking if anyone has any objections to this plan:


Day 1 - free night cert.
Day 2-6 - points (5 nights, 1 night free).
Day 7 - free night cert.
Day 8 - cash.

I have two free night certs

Day 1 and 7 cost the most in points, and Marriott's system auto selected them for the free night cert

Days 2-6, roughly the same points (Marriott gave the cheapest night for the 5tg night free)
​​​​​​

Day 8 cash rate cheaper than points

Book one reservation day1-7, Marriott system auto selected 1+7 using free night

Book day 8 (cash) separately instead of using cash+pts, so that there's no ambiguity on whether I earn points for this cash stay

Points plus cash - elite night credit?
 

Marriott allows guests to combine points and cash for a room, when choosing this option, does a guest receive an elite night credit?

Thanks.

Night, yes. Points no.

You are in essence buying the missing points, so its treated as a points stay