nacho

A bit OP but DCC is not as easy to avoid as you wrote. I was DCCed in an outlet shop in the US - I was given NO choice in picking currency at any stage and I got this "I accepted that I'm DCCed" receipt and discovered I was robbed!

2 weeks ago in Oslo - I was shopping at COOP and used my Swedish credit card, this time I was able to pick, and I picked NOK as it's the local currency, but then the receipt said "I accepted that I picked SEK......". Fortunately it was only for some small snacks, otherwise I'll be even more annoyed. I know that there's absolutely nothing I can do as the cashier wouldn't understand what on earth DCC is.

Both purchases were made with the same master card, fortunately I didn't use my Citi Visa issued in Asia because Citi charges me 1.65% extra if I got DCCed even without the intention of doing it.

CC issuers here don't understand what DCC means and they honestly don't care.

Fortunately Marriott hasn't imposed DCC on their own GCs.

xychromosome

Tried using my $50 'thank-you' GC at the Atlanta W last month. Initially it looked like $50 came off my stay total according to my credit card activity, but then the next day the $50 was added back making me think the GC didn't work and the hotel just charged me the $50. So I tried using it again at the Westin in Pittsburgh yesterday and they couldn't get it to work. Is it worth going through the Bonvoy customer service machine to figure out how to use this $50?

Happy

Did you tell the cashier you wanted to be billed in USD, local currency? And make sure the cashier understood your intent?

If you are waiting for the cashier handed you some device to select an option to pay, like you may have had such exp in other countries, you would be unfortunately NOT to have such chance - because most US merchants POS dont seem to have such accommodation.

Many registers have NO option to select by the customers, from what I experienced in Canada and Europe, as well as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The selection is made by the cashier. Need to be very specific to tell the cashier that it must be billed in local currency. In Poland the cashiers do not have good English but they all understand when I tell them, in Zloty, even give them a written chit to show. Not being DCCed anywhere EXCEPT at a train station with a grumpy old lady who at first did not even want to take our CC payment, but we did not have enough Polish money with us.

I actually have never done a self-selection at the register, for as how long as DCC exists. Always stressed to the cashier to use local currency. A couple years ago in Dubai the waiter took the card and the girl at the register did DCC me. In US we can call our banks to complain. In this case I actually took the trouble to ask a rebilling from the merchant, doing it "for the team" of the DCC thread in Credit Card forum. The outcome? Far more involved and lots of time on my part, with multiple failures of Chase rep who handled this (it is handled by dispute instead of the front line). The final outcome, the overbilled amount was less than $3, and the merchant was willing to refund that when being inquired by Chase - but the Chase rep was extremely imcompetent, resulting a $40 CREDIT to resolve the issue, on a <$50 bill.

Last Spring despite we specified to be billed in Euro for our Budget rental car at Catania, Sicily - the final invoice had that dreaded DCC clause on it. I asked the counter agent to correct it - she said it was system default but she could take care of this. The reprinted final invoice no longer had the DCC clause and we saw that being billed as Euro on our Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Here in US, when anyone is being DCCed aboard, just call the bank and ask to speak to a supervisor - they all understand what have been going on - and refund the overcharge on the spot while you are on the phone. Banks eat the overcharge - cheaper for them than going back to the merchant to get it rectified. A friend was DCCed by a rental car company but I forgot it was Avis or Hertz - for about $10ish. He called Chase and the overbilled amount was refunded on the call.

margarita girl

You can go here to check the balance on your gift card.

https://gifts.marriott.com/

I register all my cards to be safe and to make sure I don't lose track of them.

Happy

Have you checked the GC balance on Marriott GC site? This is just like a E-GC, can be registered under your name online, as well as balance checking online. Why dont you check the balance first?

That is the ONLY WAY to know if the gift card has been used or not.

It will also tell you WHERE the GC is used. If W took the money, then charged your CC another $50, then you should dispute the $50 extra charge with the bank, giving the proof of payments made up with CC and GC.

howtofreetravel

Really worth it to call for 10 dollars?

Happy

Have you read the OP's post or the $10 is a typo of yours?

The gifted eGC is $50 value, not $10.
W took his eGC, but later also charged his credit card again for $50.
He should find out whether W has used the GC by way of check the GC balance on Marriott GC site. If W took the $50 GC and later charges his CC AGAIN for another $50, then he has a ground to dispute that charge with the bank.
He literally has no idea whether the GC is used or not, just assumed his CC being charged then the GC was not used - only to find out the next hotel could not use the GC.

The correct steps would be
1) check the GC balance when he saw an additional $50 charge on his CC a few days after check out.

2) if the GC balance is zero, and shows W has used it - then CALL the hotel and ask to talk to the accounting dept - explain to the hotel what happened - mistake can be made and the $50 on his CC was wrongly charged when the account dept did not see the payment portion made by the eGC if that was not done at the time of check out due to lack of knowledge of the FD. But the account dept should be able to locate where the $50 eGC is applied, therefore refund the $50 CC charge.

3) if W has not used it, and the eGC balance remains a full $50. Then it is the 2nd hotel has no idea how to apply the eGC. It really is NO DIFFERENCE than any other eGC or the legacy physical GC - it needs to manually entered on their payment screen by choosing gift card payment, use the full digits of the card and enter the PIN. Marriott actually has Help Desk for the FD to call to figure out how to post gift card payment. Ask the FD to call Help Desk if they dont know what to do, preferably to inform the FD you would use an eGC as partial payment, at the time of check in, and have the payment processed the night before checking out next morning, so to give the FD enough time to figure out how to make it work.

When I used up a legacy physical gift card of $990 value last year, each time at check in I told the FD this and showed them the print out of the bal of the card registered under my name. Almost every property had a bit of trouble because the legacy card did not swipe, but once they got the info on how to manually enter it in the correct screen, it went right thru, on the spot. They even can print out the balance status of the card after taking their money.

mrboom

Regarding above, sounds like another example of poor service at a W.

I am a bit irritated I did not receive a gift card so I reached out to my Ambassador to see if they had sent one and I did not see it. Negative. I was told that I had not been selected and that maybe i would be in the future.

Disappointing that lifetime titanium with Ambassador is not worth $50 to Marriott. Seems like Marriott is sending the wrong message

margarita girl

lbbzman

SOME Ambassadors. I wish we could stop saying that Ambassadors aren't receiving GCs because they're receiving surprise and delight. That is just false.

Cheers,
LBBZman

margarita girl

Correct. I didn't get anything yet either, but I haven't redeemed for points from my account. I do have a 2 night award stay at St Regis FLR coming up, but I booked it as 2 one night stays so am not expecting to get anything there either. (Booked before it moved from a cat 7 to a cat 8 so can't change it either.)

And only SOME Elite members are getting the gift cards. Just go back through these pages and many aren't getting anything.

I'm just saying that you should be asking your Ambassador where your Surprise and Delight promo points are, assuming you've redeemed for an award stay.

uxb

Happy

I read a blogger finally received a boatload of points credited back to his account on the Ambassadors promo - it was months later after his award nights stays - but it happened, just not timely as it should have been, causing a lot of grief among the top elites.

AND, some very lucky one got this!

https://loyaltylobby.com/2019/07/17/...-60000-points/

Oxon Flyer

Must be just a remarkable coincidence that this “very lucky” person has just written a book about living in hotels and plugs loyalty programs ....

PTahCha

OMG - totally my mistake. I was thinking of the old school Bonus Bucks paper certificates, and somehow pushed the same thinking on the gift cards.