I have a quick question on how to get the stays when paying with an AMEX & Visa card?

Here is what I did - but did NOT get the 4 nights counted towards the MegaBonus :(

- checked-in on Monday at the hotel using my AMEX
- got the bill under my room when I woke up on Friday morning
- went to the lobby, got a twix bar, and asked them to add it to my room
- they added it to my hotel room (shown on the bill), and I asked them to just charge that item on my Visa card
- I ended up having the bill with room charges + snack; room charges are on my AMEX and snack on my Visa card
- but the nights did not qualify for the stay

What should I do differently to have the nights counted towards the MegaBonus, while having the room fees charged on my corporate AMEX?

Thank you!

You did it the opposite way than what you should have. The bill has to be CLOSED OUT to a Visa card. So you should have checked in with your VISA card, bought the Twix bar, then got the bill under your door that shows the charges will be posted to the VISA. Let's say the room and tax was $150 and the Twix bar was $2 for a total of $152. Go to the front desk, have them charge the $150 to your AMEX card, and then have the remaining charge ($2) closed out to your VISA card. Did this the exact same way last Friday morning at a Springhill Suites (with the exception that it was a Mastercard instead of an AMEX) and my points and free night certificate just posted to my account today.

Thank you for the quick reply. So let's say they initially charge $152 on my visa, and I go to the front desk to have $150 charge to my AMEX. Wouldn't that cause to have the bill closed on an AMEX? Or they have to charge $150 on the AMEX, and then I have to hand over the Visa card again to 're'-charge the $2?

Thank you again for your help.

I have had limited success using the above method. Out of four stays using that exact method, only two were automatically counted towards my MegaBonus promotion. For the other two stays, I had to contact Marriott to have the nights show up in my promotion tracker.

My theory is that whoever checks you out has an option in the system to mark either of your cards as the primary card. Some folks might think "this guy checked in and closed out his folio using the Visa, so I'll show him having paid using a Visa", whereas others might think, "this guy paid $500 using an AmEx and only $2 using a Visa, so I'll show him as having paid with an AmEx." Does anyone know if that might be the case?

That would be completely unnecessary, overhead manual step for "someone" to be doing after each guest checks out.

Its automatic, except that depends on how exactly your folio closes out which is the manual step of when someone buys something to be put on the Visa.

Strange. My approach does not include anything at checkout. I give both cards at check-in. I ask for the room to go on my Amex and incidentals on my visa. I then make sure to have an incidental charged to my room.

My receipt at checkout shows both cards with a very small charge to my visa. A few days later I see the stays on the promotions page.

I'm trying to get the 50,000 points for about $30 worth of snack purchases.

Saturday I'm staying on a certificate. I'm wondering if I can get that stay to count too? I'll be checking in with my visa since it is personal, but no charge for the room. I'm crossing my fingers that night counts too.

Add the candy bar to your room charges, pay for the room with the Amex and be sure to tell them you are paying for the candy bar with your VISA after you pay for the room charges with your AMEX. That closes your account out with the VISA and it should post fine.

The VISA payment has to be the last transaction performed.

by certificate I assume you mean an award night, whether with points or from one of MR's bonus programs.......... if so, your answer is NO, they won't count

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

For award: I tried it a couple of times and so far it is NO. Their system is now smart enough to Idenditifiy that out.

Right, that makes sense.

I'm just wondering what I could be doing wrong. All four times so far I have used the exact same method:
- Provide my Visa at check-in
- Incur some incidentals during the week
- At check out, use my AmEx for the room charge, and THEN my Visa for the remaining amount

That should work, right?

Yes it should work as long as the bill is being closed out with the Visa. Just make sure to tell the front desk what you are doing. we have had no issues. The post are automatic, so if it's closed out correctly by the hotel it should not have a problem posting.

The "incidentals on VI" just worked for me; it hasn't been blocked. (It might not work outside the US, evidently.)

So I just checked out this morning, and here is how the bill looks like:

- On the bill header, the Payment field shows my AMEX
- On the details section, it shows in the following order:
AMEX - $400.00
Visa - $1

Do you think it is going to work? I am just suspicious about the AMEX card in the 'Payment' field of the bill header. But I specifically asked to close the bill with the Visa card... Any input would be appreciated, so I can call them

Pretty sure that header needs to show Visa, and since that was the last card used I am unsure why it didn't.

I'm attending a convention at a Marriott property. The room rate is charged to a master bill and paid by the organizer. Will charging a candy bar to my room bill which I will pay with Visa treat this as a qualifying stay?

Is the bill considered "closed out" when I pay or only when the master bill is paid?