Happy

Yes, I remember this has been discussed in the past - that some hotels changed their categories before what the US has passed the midnight hour.

The explanation has been the changes are based on the local time the hotel is at.

Besides it has always been this way that the point requirement goes up regardless what it showed before. That is why when you redeem the points you have to call, and the rep would deposit pts into your account then order the cert, then attach the cert to the booking. Been ALWAYS like this, without exception every year, and also without exception some reps would have no clue. Now it seems the customers also have no clue probably many are from the SPG side where there was no such thing of PA booking.

Though we did learn something from the announcement of chart change - that it is the "CEC" agents who would handle the manual issuance of the eCerts. What the CEC stands for I have no clue but it is obviously enough that a specific group of reps know how to do it / authorized to do it.

For those of you if your stays are not in the immediate future, just relax. This is not IT mess from the merger, it is how always being done with PA bookings on hotels that go up in categories.

Finally, Marriott has STOPPED sending out PA reservation confirmation since long long time ago, before the merger. However there is a Print and Email buttons atop your reservation screen - that is where you can send yourself a copy as well as print a PDF for your file. Both features have been there as existing features, nothing to do with merger either.

You guys just need to learn how things work / system shortcomings. So you know you need to keep good records of your bookings etc and not relying on the emails coming from the program - because not just Marriott, but I often do not receive email confirmations from Hilton or Hyatt. When that happens, esp with Hyatt, it does not have the email request function, I just call the reservation and ask for an email confirmation being sent.

Happy

I applied points to PA that for sure I would stay at right after the new language was discovered on the chart of changes. However I do leave one PA that I am only 70% sure I would stay because it takes up too many points when I have the need to use them for an upcoming trip to Japan that did not exist just 2 weeks ago. So I leave that one PA as it is.

Finkface

Me too. I wasn’t going to take the chance so I applied points to my PA reservations at hotels where I knew the category was increasing.

azepine00

Never got confirmation emails for two reservations i made last night when hotels was still listed under old cat.. i wonder what they have in the system now..
interestingly SNA request email came in promptly

AbuCordoba

Due to the fear of the points advance system changing my bookings and having to spend hours chasing my ambassador I attached e-certificates to all my bookings and ended up going from 2,000,000 points to 128,000

Now i just need to keep an eye on the cancellation dates if anything changes so I dont get stung on them!

myperks

AbuCordoba

Whilst in principle I think Points advance is great as it gives people something to work for, my issue is it removes award availability and allows for speculative booking without any real consequence. I am not saying im not guilty of the speculative booking as its hard to firm up plans 12 months in advance and I am sure my plans will change but I have utilised my points as collateral for those bookings.

yorkboy24

SP03

RedSun

I would want Marriott to limit the numbers and the magnitude of point changes. Marriott creates the speculative situation by itself. The impact would have been much lower if the changes are only one category change, not 25,000 point difference. Also, the last two changes are devaluations anyhow.

Troopers

That's what happened to me. The add'l points needed for the PA was credited to my account.

Happy

Not only that, you would also need to keep a close watch on the points being returned when the reservation is canceled.

For those who have attached points to your "not so sure" stays, PLEASE follow the thread about Certs not returned after reservaion is canceled, due to some update done in Dec.
While that largely seems to relate to those FN certs, we still need to be watchful on getting back the points when a reservation is canceled because the Account Activities posting is totally screwy and could DISAPPEAR or change to something unrecognizable. It cannot be emphasize enough that you need to keep a good record of your ACCOUNT BALANCE and the in and out of the points you used / should receive back on cancellation.
As long as the balance shown is correct, I would not be bothered on how the account activities show. Unfortunately the only way to make sure that, is onto us - to keep good records of the balances before and after any activity that would affect the total.

Happy

OMAAT reported they received screenshots from readers showing their AMEX cards are charged with the deposits.

windymindy

You all may want to read this if you're seeing more points deducted out of your accounts than what was required on March 4th.

https://onemileatatime.com/marriott-...omment-4137173

kadabra9

Really should have read in more detail how the Marriott PA redemptions work. Silly me for thinking the process would actually be logical

I had originally booked a 5 night award at St. Regis Maldives when I found availability. Points were deducted, received the email confirm and everything. A few weeks ago, I stumbled into availability for St. Regis Bora Bora for next winter. I didnt quite have enough points in my account so I figured I would book using PA and then cancel reservation at St. Regis Maldives and use the points I got back to make up the difference.

I never received the confirm from Bora Bora, evidently because the reservation isn't complete until the points have been deducted. I assumed that the points would be applied once I had cancelled the reservation at Maldives and the points were added back to my account, but thats not the case.

I called in yesterday to discuss and the agent acted completely clueless, saying that my reservation is only showing the new category 8 rates, and that there is nothing she could do besides open a case. I have the confirm and cancellation numbers, but not the confirm email from Bora Bora. Again, wrong for me to assume that the reservation would complete once I had the required amount of points in my account.

There HAS to be a way to verify that I made the reservation prior to March 5th. I'm assuming that eventually they will be able to look at my account history and confirm that I made the reservation prior to March 5th and honor the rates that I booked at prior to the changes, especially since I have the full amount of points needed now (and did prior to March 5th).

Still, what a headache. I realize I should have been better prepared by getting my certificates prior to March 5th, but lesson learned.