Wherever you go, there you are. Good for you, and glad I could be of help.

Apologies for the newbie question but I have searched and cannot find the answer to this, (I'm sure it has been asked many times before):

Do third party bookings e.g. hotels.com, priceline count for this promotion. If I book two stays at marriotts through hotels.com will I qualify for the cert?

If the stay qualifies for normal MR nights and points it qualifies for the promotion. There are numerous threads on when third parties stays qualify for nights/points and when they don't.

Only when your bookings are paid at check out at the hotel, in that case, the 3rd party site merely acting like a travel agency, then you would earn stay credit and points.

If they are prepaid to the booking site, NO, they do not earn anything. Though in general such bookings have lower prices. However with the LNF price guarantee Marriott has, you should use the lower price offered by 3rd party site to file a LNF claim against your booking made on Marriott site and get the benefits of LNF, plus fully qualify the stay credit and points.

You are right. They auto posted today. Well done Marriott.

How did I allow this to happen?

As a long term Marriott elite, I try to ensure I get good all round value from the rewards program. This does not mean the maximum value per point, although stays in both Moscow and Monaco have in the past produced excellent returns! Sometimes this means paying in cash when I would prefer to use points, and vice versa. Sometimes it's easy, such as registering for the megabonus promotion, something I've always done as soon as the email is received.

So what happened to my brain for the Spring Megabonus? I was sure I registered but it seems I didn't. I had 6 stays, enough for the 3 Cat4 certs.

Now I can already hear the hoots of derision from other FTers concerning the devaluation of the certificates, but I still value them. Certainly the latest recategorisation has reduced the number of establishments these can be redeemed at, but over 2/3rds of Marriott hotels still fall in this Cat1-4 area, and with hotel rates firming up, these certificates can be redeemed at rates in excess of �100/$150 per night.

Now as it happens following a family diagnosis we are now planning a visit "home" to Canada, where the nearest hotel to the family is a Cat2 Courtyard going for $170 night.

Yes, I know *sigh* the $170/night Cat2, who'd have thought it?

So those 3 nights of Cat4 certs are worth over $500. And I forgot to register... OUCH!!

I therefore rang the Rewards helpline to see if I could get round this problem, and spoke to a very nice lady who, alas, couldn't help. Failure to register shuts down the computer (and I should have registered weeks ago) so there's no means of awarding them now. It probably doesn't help that I was also 2 days after the end of the promo. But I am aware that there can be variances in the helpfulness of MR assisitants...

So here's the question. Can I now, 3 days after the end of a megabonus promo register retrospectively to get the 3 nights certs, or is that it?

I eagerly await the expert opinions and experiences of my fellow FTers...

no............

and you'll find same response from others who tried to register after the last day to register and WAY before the last bonus expired............
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...s-returns.html

I would certainly call the Platinum line and plead your case. You will likely get a "No", but what do you have to lose?

Did anyone get credited for the Spring Mega Bonus yet? I forget what the terms and conditions were for the posting. Standard 4 to 6 weeks after the promo?

I got all my points right after the nights posted. This would have been before the end of the promo.

Mine posted last week, but it was done manually as I was originally signed up for the certs but called in to get the points instead.

I called this morning and a helpful Representative was able to get my certs posted right away. He mentioned because I had requested certs instead of points, that they had to do it manually.

All done with a simple call. MR Rocks!!!