So I made a pre-devaluation reservation that was first night paid, 2nd and 3rd nights on points. The Mrs. and I decided we'd like to drop the first night...so we called up reservations, confirmed that dropping the paid night would not effect our pre-devaluation points reservations (multiple times in our conversation)..then went on our merry way. We would not have canceled the paid night if this was going to happen.

And of course tonight, I see an extra 10K points was taken from my account...

I called up reservations and customer care and they say I am out of luck since I "changed the reservation." Am I screwed here or not? I specifically asked to see if this would happen. All of these damn points programs are so complicated neither myself nor the agents can keep up.

Was it one single reservation? If so, I think they may be right, BUT the fact that they told you you wouldn't be affected works in your favor. Call back and escalate.

(This is one reason I don't ever do cash + points reservations, there's no benefit, and potential harm) I just do 2 reservations.

I agree with Vicki on this and esp. their assurances to you but also although I have never done a cash and points reservation, it seems to me that the latter is nothing other than a merger of 2 types of reservations -- what Vicki said you should have done in the first place -- and which I do.

However, agents sometimes do merge the 2 separate reservations of different rates and put it under one reservation and I see your reservation as no departure from this -- your cash portion was dropped, but your points reservation remained intact -- as you had believed, as you had been assured, etc.

I think all of us are under the belief here that if you changed one of your points nights -- other than just dropping one of them altogether -- you would be charged at the higher rate. But, you did no such thing. Your original points reservation -- and the rates that you had booked them at -- remained the same. Therefore, the 10,000 points should be refunded to you.

Good luck and let us know how it works out for you.

I played a few rounds of HUCA today and finally got an agent to give me 10k courtesy points. She could not give the rooms to me at the original rate...just gave me points to make me whole on the deal. Much appreciated.