Adam1222

Well, reading the posts in the thread before yours might give you good reason. I apologize for assuming you were looking for information. As others have pointed out, you should not assume your upgrade requests have been deleted or otherwise held "hostage".

applesauce

Well aren't you a ray of sunshine. You provided precisely zero information at all.

260 posts in this thread, excuse me if I missed one. There's a single relevant post (#148) where anecdotally it worked out (if you were aware of it, not sure why you didn't link it, I e. provide information). Even so, it doesn't explain why the website and app disagree nor why one should trust the slow and usually broken site over the fast and usually broken app.

Four hours later the website is working for me again and I see the NUA request. The app no longer says anything about NUAs under the bell.

Anyway, I'll update this post on the outcome.

::edit:: NUA request was visible in the website once it started showing bookings again. App continued to show "not eligible." Ultimately I received a denial email. Stay booked 8/23 for a 6/24 stay. NUAs applied 1/24. Womp womp.

Adam1222

I'm sorry you didn't find the suggestion to check the website helpful enough.
See post #243.

phant0m

Denied again. Truly a useless perk. Hotel even shows all the suites I chose available for my stay.

diablo77

what hotel?

kaizen7

Bonvoy upgrading system including NUA approval is not transparent.

We can have a NUA refused when the hotel have all NUA options room/suite listed as available, then we also have NUA cleared when hotel show all room/suite was fully booked.(its rare but it does happen)
Likewise we can have hotel refuse to upgrade members when the app still list all of their room/suite available and also have hotels upgrade members when the app show no more rooms available.

With current system, I guess it would be easier for hotel to game the system and pretend to be full and refuse to upgrade everyone (just claim the IT glitch/web inventory not up to date)

phant0m

Edition Rome.

phant0m

The hotels have told me that every NUA is approved from Marriott corporate and they have no control.

Mr. BoH

This is half true. The NUA approval is automated by Marriott, but the properties determine which room type and how many are in the NUA pool. So a property could have 30 suites, show them as an option to select for NUA, but then only have 2 of the 30 in the pool to give actual upgrades. That’s how the NUAs get declined even when the property is showing suite availability. Or the property can just say none of the suites are in the pool and just offer upgrades like “higher floor” in the NUA pool.

This “feature” allows properties to make NUAs near-worthless if they want. Which many (most?) have done.

kaizen7

Also, property can override NUA.
System approved to the selected room/suite, then property can manually change it to different room/suite.

Lefleur

Just coming back to say thank you to the person who pointed out the little bell icon in the app to now request NUA. With 700+ nights with Marriott behind me, I can finally say I have ACTUALLY USED THIS BENEFIT NOW. My most recent stay was "upgraded."

(cue the confetti)

Should the room - which was not a suite but did have a really nice view -- really have fallen under a standard platinum "nicer room" benefit? Probably, but I didn't want to leave anything to chance at this destination. Would/should I have had that room anyways? Maybe, but I'd like to think it was because I applied the NUA So, thank you all.

The Narwhal

Thought I'd share my first NUA experience since it sounds unusual based on the comments here. I used it at The Josie Hotel, an Autograph Collection hotel in Rossland, BC. It's peak off-season there, so we got a great room rate to begin with and they granted my NUA request 2 days out to the Josie Suite, their largest, for 3 nights. Great stay, lovely staff. I'm sure it'd be a much different result during ski season, but we appreciated it and I feel like we got a lot of value out of it.

tstauck

Just checking, I used an NUA and received an email confirmation that it was approved, stated "oceanfront" room. The room I received was ocean view. Still a nice room but the view was over a noisy parking lot. I saw the oceanfront rooms and they were definitely just that, right at the ocean, bigger balcony, sundeck recliner chairs etc.

Does anyone know if a NUA is considered used if you don't get the confirmed room?

- TIA!

DallasEsq

Was ocean"view" one of the options you selected? I've gotten NUAs back when I didn't get in one of the room types I selected, but I'm not sure whether you would if was still among the choices you made. As far as confirmed rooms, I've been confirmed into suites (as an elite upgrade, not using an NUA) that were given away by the time I checked in and there is no recourse for that.

JW6130

I got upgraded to an Oceanfront Suite on the Club 91 level several years ago, and they refused to give us lounge access. I did get the Club 91 slippers, though. I'm surprised they didn't try to swap them out for the regular slippers.