stoddaj1

After being encouraged by a frequent traveler friend to switch loyalty from Hilton to Marriott we are rather perplexed. We booked a stay at the Orlando Springhill Suites last January for a stay in May, using our free night certificate. Upon our return noticed that 25000 pts were removed from our account. When calling the silver rewards line were told that the pts had changed to 25000 from the 20000 when we booked, meaning our cat. 4 certificate would not work. The kind man said this should not have happened as the reservation was made prior to this change, and that he would contact the hotel to have the issue fixed and points returned to the account. Two weeks later they were not there so we made another call. At this time we were told that we had made the change the day we checked out which was certainly not the case and we had not done so. Upon expressing this to the "gentleman" he told me that we most certainly could have done so in a very disrespectful manner. As I expressed my displeasure politely again, he interrupted me saying "one minute" and left. When he came back on the line he told me that Marriott Rewards would make a one time, good faith return of the points to our account but that this was a one time thing which would not be happening again. I expressed my concern that this would not be a good faith return of points because it was not anything that we did which caused the problem and that I wanted the record to state that in case anything ever happened again.

Needless to say we are not pleased and are wondering if we should have ever left the Hilton program for Marriott. We are very easygoing travelers and generally put up with many things which others would not, but this really bothers me. Is this the usual course of business? Should we contact someone to share our experience? Thoughts are appreciated from all.

sumayya

This shouldn't have happened to you at all and swift action seems to be lacking nowadays with Marriott Rewards. I,m also finding things very strange with Marriott Rewards. Booked a 7 night stay in New York Marriott Marquis and paid for 1 room and used points for the second room. All were under my name and I,m a Platinum Elite. My account shows the points earned but 0 elite nights added! Called them and they replied the most absurd one I ever expected. They said since 1 room was using points then automatically I would NOT get elite nights! Solution? Still more weird! Book the reward night under someone elses name which is not possible even. Losing my trust in MR

CJKatl

There are numerous threads reporting this, but I'm too lazy to look right now, so I'll repeat my rant here...

This is a known issue with MR, and has been for at least two years. If you catch it and call Marriott, they will correct the booking and only pull the points that were being charged at the time you booked.

But...

Although they claim their system will automatically catch and correct this, they've had two years plus to take care of this, but they don't. One cannot help but believe that they are intentionally pulling the additional points, hoping that guests do not notice or think they have to pay the higher points. It is very anti-consumer. It's slimy. It's wrong to continue to do business this way. How many points are being taken this way? How much obligation do they take off their balance sheet through this deceptive practice?

OP, you are right to have a bad feeling about Marriott because of this. I am usually understanding of what Marriott does, but in this case, it seems they are trying to be deceptive and have no interest on correcting the issue.

End of rant...

OP, one more thing... Go to the Marriott Rewards Insiders site and post your valid concern there, too. Marriott pays more attention to what's posted there than what's on FT.

ohmark

Somebody incompetently, IMO, credited the free night to your stay, and the elite night stay to the second room. (I doubt this is a system problem still, as the rep told you.) Took greater incompetence or a lack of customer service skills for the MR rep you spoke to not to recognize the problem immediately and fix it for you on the spot. The problem here was Marriott's, not yours. If you still haven't been credited the elite night, call back, and hopefully get a competent rep who actually enjoys helping people.

Here's a discussion of the problem on the Marriott Insiders website: http://www.rewards-insiders.marriott.com/thread/11012