Thanks Bruce, I will take advantage of the next miles promotion since I am earning points now. I sure am glad I learned that.

After you sign in click on the my account drop down menu and select promotion central and then select current progress.

Did just that, and it just shows that i'm registered, but link for current progress. Then again, i'm targeted for 2-for-1 free night, not the bonus points.

I think I have the Visa thing nailed. I use a Corp Amex and when I check in I give them my Amex for the room and parking but ask for other incidentals on my Visa since I can't expense snacks (which is true). I have 6 stays and 10 nights so far and every one of them is showing on the tracker. This has the added benefit for me if simplifying my expense reports. The only issue I see is you need to be sure to have something charged to your room. Should be easy enough with the little shops in most Locations. I did have one very nice girl in Jax want to comp me my drinks and such. I had to make sure to buy a pepsi when someone else was at the desk. ;)

In a word....no. This is not an accepted alternatively flavor of the Megabonus.

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?

Master-billed stays do not recieve points or nights.

3 more nights after this week..and another 50k..Saweeet

They do for points on the incidentals that you charge to the bill if you personally pay at checkout. But I can't remember if the item is reflected as "Non Qualifying Stay" on the statement or something to that effect, hence the question.

50,000
 

3 more nights after this week..and another 50k..Saweeet

How/why is that if may ask?

b/c I already have 22 nights. Sorry..didn't mean to infer 2 sets of 50k...

"another" meaning 25k for gift cards....

Going way over night requirements
 

Is there an advantage/additional points that can be awarded by going well over the nights required for the MegaBonus promotion? Say, 40 or 50 nights during a period that gives 50K for 25 nights?

Just curious, since I'm now at 23 nights for the Fall MB.

Thanks,
--woodstock

I can confirm the "VI Incidentals 'Trick'" is in full effect; got my 50K pts this morning off of ~$22 of beer and wine over two stays.

Switch to the miles promotion once you got the 50k points.

Megabonus credit for overseas stay
 

The method others have described for securing Megabonus credit when required to charge the room to a non-Visa corporate card just worked for me at a Marriott property in Paris. At checkout, I asked the desk clerk first to charge the room to my corporate card, and then to charge the incidentals separately to my personal Visa card. The Megabonus credit showed up in my account today. I'm happy!

Where do I go to sign up for the fall MegaBonus? I'm not seeing it on my promotion central...

JUST completed this one...it was looking iffy there for a couple of weeks!!

How long should I wait to send an email? I stayed at the Renaissance Yangtze last week in Shanghai, and checked in with my MR Visa. I then payed for the hotel at checkout with my Amex, and my incidentals LAST with my MR Visa. The normal points have posted, but the stays in my megabonus have not yet posted. How long should i wait before sending email?

Thanks

Does Advance purchase rate nights count for this promo? I had two nights not posted.

I suggest you call MR and talk to a human. I had a stay in Kuala Lumpur that was dorked on many levels - no enuf points, nights didn't credit - and the nice people at MR squared it away for me over two days of calling. I donno how it got dorked up, but they fixed it. I'm now 2 nights away from the total 50K, which I will clock the nights of 26 and 27 DEC....

Why? What is the advantage of mile promotion?

the registration period is over... i wanted to friend to sign up too but it was to late for her already.. Chat advised to send email to rewards.procedures and said maybe they could help.... anyone tried that ?

My advanced purchase stay did not post either. Anyone have any experience with AP stays?

Bobette

I had advanced purchase nights that were paid with visa and didn't post in the megabonus promo. I called MR Plat line and the night posted the next day.

I forgot to search for & read this thread beforehand :( , so I paid for my stay at the Ren of Charleston SC last week with a Premium Pounds + a GC. I was worried because they've stopped processing GCs thru the Visa system. I checked today & had normal points but NO MegaBonus credit, so I phoned MR. The lady agreed to give it to me "because it's Christmas!"
If I stay before 15 Jan. 2012, I shall do the 'last few dollars on MR Visa' trick ;) !

Strange situation.

My travels (and thus hotel stays) have suddenly dropped off a cliff, so I'll not make the "nights" goal for the MegaBonus they have me signed up for.

However, I will have a few stays yet during the period, so I called the Platinum Customer Service number and asked the person who answered (after getting through the robot) whether I could change from the "25 nights" to the "stay twice, get one free night" offer so I could salvage something from the promotion and my stays. The CSR refused, said Marriott was losing too much money allowing Platinums to change promotions and they had made a decision that as of December 1st no one could change promotions. "You take what they give you."

I'm not sure whether this is one of those "hang up and call back later, hoping to get another CSR" situations (judging from the accent, this may have been a call center, not Marriott). I'll probably try a day or two later to find out. However, I'm wondering if anyone else (who is Platinum or PP) has tried to adjust the goal (s)he was given to one more appropriate for his/her travel pattern, and been refused.

I sure hope this is not another of those "enhancements" apparently designed to alienate Marriott's frequent customers . . . . :(