Will existing "Points Advance" reservations raise in price on March 5th???
Feb 9, 2019, 12:19 pm
#32
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: California
Programs: Marriott: Titanium, SQ: Gold, UA: Silver, Hilton: Diamond, Wyndham - Diamond, TR - Diamond
Posts: 233
Feb 9, 2019, 12:27 pm
#33
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: New York, NY, USA
Posts: 12,476
Feb 9, 2019, 12:30 pm
#34
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Albuquerque
Posts: 64
For the past six months, Marriott has sent out multiple emails where they themselves have mentioned booking rooms at the current rates. Marriott has actually advertised locking in rates before the changes go into effect so it’s not like we have gamed the system by prebooking rooms. They have also been able to monitor data from points advance bookings to see if it has been abused and if they noticed it was, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for them to terminate it any time without notice. It is unreasonable for them to change the T&C of the points advance program or the agreed upon rate at time of booking. This would be like an airline legitimately advertising a fare, allowing customers to book all their other travel arrangements for the next few months, the airline then changes their mind on the price then tells the customers they actually have to pay a price a thousand dollars more or have their reservation cancelled.
Feb 9, 2019, 12:30 pm
#35
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: California
Programs: Marriott: Titanium, SQ: Gold, UA: Silver, Hilton: Diamond, Wyndham - Diamond, TR - Diamond
Posts: 233
Points aren't really any different, but Points Advance is surely different in that it is a like a loan (unlimited?) and a benefit to everyone. If it goes away because people are expecting unreasonable things we all lose. I think it is unreasonable that I could manipulate the system and book hundreds of rooms using borrowed points. Marriott should have more well defined terms though.
Feb 9, 2019, 12:40 pm
#37
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: California
Programs: Marriott: Titanium, SQ: Gold, UA: Silver, Hilton: Diamond, Wyndham - Diamond, TR - Diamond
Posts: 233
Edit: Actually, maybe this can be done? Honestly I'm not sure about all of this. I'm a 1st year of any status Tit! Not enough experience maybe..
Feb 9, 2019, 12:48 pm
#39
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Albuquerque
Posts: 64
I have a non-speculative points advance reservation for 5 nights at Al Maha the week of thanksgiving. Cash rates are currently $2200/night. Marriott has advertised for months that I could “lock in” a Cat 7 rate by booking before the rates change. I agreed with Marriott through the booking process that I would pay 240k points 14 days or more before check in. I knew that I already had half a million MR and UR so if something happened and I was unable to accrue 240k MR, I could make the transfer a few weeks before the stay for the remaining points as a back up plan. Then a couple months after booking and 10 months before my stay, I’m told by Marriott that they’ve changed the terms that we agreed upon and I have 4 weeks to come up with the total amount due or they would charge me 100k more points for my stay.
I’m left with 3 options:
1) cancel my reservation
2) transfer 240k MR or UR to book the stay
3) allow Marriott to breach our booking agreement and charge me 100k more points for a reservation I’ve already made
For those that think Marriott is not being unreasonable, please let me know how Marriott is not being unreasonable. I played by the rules and T&C they set, I didn’t make 50+ speculative award bookings, I have had the full intent of carrying out my stay and all of my other travel arrangements are confirmed and paid for.
I’m left with 3 options:
1) cancel my reservation
2) transfer 240k MR or UR to book the stay
3) allow Marriott to breach our booking agreement and charge me 100k more points for a reservation I’ve already made
For those that think Marriott is not being unreasonable, please let me know how Marriott is not being unreasonable. I played by the rules and T&C they set, I didn’t make 50+ speculative award bookings, I have had the full intent of carrying out my stay and all of my other travel arrangements are confirmed and paid for.
Feb 9, 2019, 12:53 pm
#40
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 745
I have a booking at the St. Regis NYC in June. I need 50K points which would be easy to acquire by then. In fact if would have been easy to acquire BY NOW if I'd gotten even a couple of months warning. Instead I get about two weeks of spend on one card and four days on another before my Feb statements cut and my point totals as of 3/5 are basically fixed.
Feb 9, 2019, 12:59 pm
#41
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: California
Programs: Marriott: Titanium, SQ: Gold, UA: Silver, Hilton: Diamond, Wyndham - Diamond, TR - Diamond
Posts: 233
For those that think Marriott is not being unreasonable, please let me know how Marriott is not being unreasonable. I played by the rules and T&C they set, I didn’t make 50+ speculative award bookings, I have had the full intent of carrying out my stay and all of my other travel arrangements are confirmed and paid for.
Last edited by kalo93406; Feb 9, 2019 at 1:06 pm
Feb 9, 2019, 1:17 pm
#42
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 539
It's also interesting that some folks think that only consumers benefit from PA reservations and that Marriott is doing us a favor by having PA reservations. Marriott is obviously benefiting from PA, otherwise they wouldn't do it. After all, people still have to get the points they need which means buying the points, transferring the points from cc or partners (same as buying except it's CC company or partners doing the buying), or staying at Marriott. Having PA means people change their behavior and increase their Marriott activities to get the points they need; all of which benefits Marriott. If there was no PA reservations people would probably behave differently in terms of their hotel bookings.
Feb 9, 2019, 1:20 pm
#43
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,740
It did happen with the August changes though. You had to call in, and they would literally deposit the difference in points into your account to then order the new certificate. You could cancel the reservation to get the "free" points back, which is probably part of why this new policy is in place.
My recollection has been, in the past when the point advance bookings have gone up in category, you called and the CS deposited pts to your account and then ordered the certs. HOWEVER, when you canceled the bookings, you did NOT get the windfall points - the system returned the EXACT pts that paid from your existing balance, NOT incl the difference manually deposited. Been done this in the past years a few times - not a single time I received any "windfall".
Unless you actually have received such extra, I would say it would be just in your conjecture - the system does not work the way you described, at least not in the past. Point advance or TP cert booking without attaching certs and hotel category goes up are not something new or invented - it has always been fine by the mechanism you described, but at cancellation, the system is smart enough to only refund what is rightfully yours. No windfall.
Feb 9, 2019, 1:30 pm
#44
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: SFO/YYZ
Programs: AC 25K, AS MVP Gold, BA Bronze, UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 2,459
Did you receive the "free" points?
My recollection has been, in the past when the point advance bookings have gone up in category, you called and the CS deposited pts to your account and then ordered the certs. HOWEVER, when you canceled the bookings, you did NOT get the windfall points - the system returned the EXACT pts that paid from your existing balance, NOT incl the difference manually deposited. Been done this in the past years a few times - not a single time I received any "windfall".
Unless you actually have received such extra, I would say it would be just in your conjecture - the system does not work the way you described, at least not in the past. Point advance or TP cert booking without attaching certs and hotel category goes up are not something new or invented - it has always been fine by the mechanism you described, but at cancellation, the system is smart enough to only refund what is rightfully yours. No windfall.
My recollection has been, in the past when the point advance bookings have gone up in category, you called and the CS deposited pts to your account and then ordered the certs. HOWEVER, when you canceled the bookings, you did NOT get the windfall points - the system returned the EXACT pts that paid from your existing balance, NOT incl the difference manually deposited. Been done this in the past years a few times - not a single time I received any "windfall".
Unless you actually have received such extra, I would say it would be just in your conjecture - the system does not work the way you described, at least not in the past. Point advance or TP cert booking without attaching certs and hotel category goes up are not something new or invented - it has always been fine by the mechanism you described, but at cancellation, the system is smart enough to only refund what is rightfully yours. No windfall.
Feb 9, 2019, 2:10 pm
#45
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,740