OliverB

I have a 5 nights point booking confirmed but the points haven't been withdrawn from my account as of yet. The reservation requires 250,000 and I have 241,000 points... I'm 9K short.

I have attempted to purchase points through Marriott's website at least three times in the past two weeks. Each time I receive an email informing me of the following:
"Your recent points transaction could not be completed. The transaction was cancelled and your credit card was not charged. Please try your transaction again or contact customer service."

I've just spoken with a Bonvoy rep. and it seems Marriott's system is down at the moment, so he can't even find my account to resolve this.

There is a deadline approaching... in one week the entire points structure is changing and the reservation will surely increase drastically in terms of the number of points needed to issue the certificate. I need to resolve this ASAP.

It was suggested that my account had already maxed out points transfers and this includes points purchases as well. This is incredibly frustrating because I didn't actually receive any new points in my account... a few weeks ago I transferred 100K points to my partner's account to book this reservation. This was a big mistake, apparently. That account did not have sufficient points to complete the booking and could not receive any additional points, so I basically had to have the 100k points transferred BACK to my account, so that I could complete the reservation in my own account. I basically sent 100K to the other account and then had it sent back to my account. So no new points received, just shuffled around... I was also completely unaware that the 100K annual cap included not only transfers, but points purchases as well.

Anyhow, I have no clue how to move forward and I'm very anxious and frustrated by this with the deadline approaching and travel plans already booked. It was suggested that I use points dot com booking to purchase additional points because it doesn't get flagged by Marriott's system... I've never done this before and it seems extremely unfair that I should need to pay additional cost vs going through Marriott directly. I will attempt to purchase this way if it's my only option, but I can't even resolve this with a representative now because of tech issues, which seems to be a regular thing now w/ Marriott Bonvoy...

The last supervisor that I had on the phone offered to deposit the 9k points into my account to solve this problem, but he couldn't do so because he couldn't even locate my account as a result of the server issues or whatever it is that's going on. I spent over 2 hours on the phone this morning to end up here on Flyertyalk forums...

Is there a Bonvoy representative that could help with this and perhaps just put the points into my account so that I don't need to worry about this?

Does anyone have any other advice or suggestions to resolve this?

OliverB

To add insult to injuury, I've just spent some time on points dot com and they don't have Marriott as a partner anymore, so that's not even an option.

platbrownguy

if you have amex or chase points just transfer them. No cap, no fuss. Not the greatest use of points but it's not that many points

OliverB

I have neither at the moment - just bonvoy branded amex. I was told by a different supervisor that there are separate limits for purchase and transfer so I should still be able to buy the points through Marriott. If the system weren’t down (yet again) I might be able to try doing so over the tel. I have little confidence it would work given everything I’ve run into so far. My last attempt at doing so (via tel) was unsuccessful, but it’s unclear if that was a result of the system being down or issues related to my acct. I don’t have the time to open up a case and let Marriott investigate. Hopefully when the system is up and running again, I can get a helpful supervisor on the horn who will just add those points to my acct for the inconvenience. It’s still stressful to have this unresolved…

imbisibol

At least book 4 nights for now?

myperks

would (normally) be the same since 5th night free on award stays...

HHonors OUTSIDER

Did you try this website:
https://buy.points.com/marketing/mar...age/index.html

Or were trying to purchase during booking??

Bradhattan

Caveat: I don't know the hotel game....

Could you book a night or two locally, perhaps starting tonight, and select a room with extra points earnings to earn the 9K?
Just a thought.

Good luck!

MSPeconomist

IIRC the current promo earns an extra 1,000 points per night, but the rates that earn extra points tend to be expensive compared to normal or AAA etc. rates at the same property. It will require more than a night or two, probably four, to earn 9,000 points at a cheap rate, assuming elite status or extra points from a Marriott credit card.

For example, here's a quick back of the envelope calculation: 4 nights at $100 per night is $400 eligible spend. If you earn 15 points per dollar, that's 6,000 points plus the 4,000 promo points gives 10,000 points (a bit more than needed).

OliverB

Update: I was finally able to get a certificate issued after spending 2 more hours on the phone with Marriott this morning. Unfortunately, it cost me about $25 more than it would've had I been able to complete the transaction online, since I wasn't able to take advantage of the bonus points promotion being run. Despite being assured that Marriott would refund the difference, I'm now told that's impossible. Additionally, there's still no explanation or resolution with regards to my account not being able to receive points purchases, so that issue still exists. I'm just thankful my reservation is now completed and I'm looking forward to ditching this mess of a loyalty program along with all of my Bonvoy branded personal/business cards as soon as possible. Thanks for all the feedback!