Hey FTers,

I'm planning on heading to NY to see the ball drop on New Year's eve (an item that has been on my bucket list for some time). I'd like to use the free night award certificate I get from my AMEX SPMarriott card in October but know that if I hold off booking till then there will likely be no decent hotels left in the NY area then. However, I have a decent number of SPMarriott points saved up and can afford to "buy" the night right now.

Would it be possible to pay for the night now using those points then swap the payment method to certificate once I receive it, locking in the room right now? If so, would SPMarriott refund the point I've originally paid for the night?

Safe Travels,

James

Unclear what the situation will be in the new system, but currently rewards availability is not the same as cash availability. Once your cash reserved room goes back into inventory, there is no way to know if it will be available for points.

Just to clarify I intend on spending 35,000 Marriott points to book the night then swap it over to the Marriott certificate once that gets issued in October. Would that be possible since I'm going from one award instrument option to another (i.e. points to certificate)?

Safe Travels,

James

The question is whether they can swap the certificate without canceling and rebooking the reservation. Marriott is making changes to their computer systems during the merge. Even if it has worked in the past, it might not work in October.

Would you decide not to book the room if you knew that the certificate couldn't be switched out and the points redeposited?

First yes you can make the reservation using points today and switch to a cert later. But you can also call Marriott and ask the agent to make an award reservation for your stay without taking any points out of your account.

This is a nice benefit of the Marriott program as you don't have to have points in your account at the time you make a reservation and if you do they can still make the reservation without taking the points out if you don't want the points taken out. Just make sure to call in and get the cert applied to the reservation at least a few weeks before your stay.

That would work under the current system, as does booking with zero points and attaching the certificate later. Why not just wait to "pay." I think the lit on the new program says the certificate must be attached two weeks prior to the stay.

Will the book-now-attach-cert-later work if sufficient points for the award are sitting in your account?

Or would the OP need to book a dummy award stay to consume the points, then book his NYC stay without a cert attached, and then cancel the dummy booking to get the points back into the account?

I know you can book before you have the points - that's a great feature of the MR system and one that appears to stay with us going forward. But I don't know if the system will let you select an option to attach a cert later when it sees you have the points now.

If a room sells out for NYC New Year's, then I would *not* count on being able to cancel it later and quickly rebook it with a certificate. You want to get it booked right now without the certificate attached.

YES, YES, YES... It works even if you have the points in your account. It works in a house, with a mouse, in a box, with a fox... I have ALWAYS done points reservations this way for many, many years and have always had more than enough points in my account to cover the reservation. I just like knowing my points are still available to me if I need to go somewhere at the last minute and can earn more points for a later reserved trip if need be. You will get an email reminder about the points a week or so before the stay and if you do not do anything the points will be automatically taken from your account. I have always gone in and applied the points myself just to be sure it is done without any issues.

The easiest thing to do historically is call Marriott for the reservation and ask them to not take the points out. It takes the agent a little longer than it would take to make a regular reservation, but it is nothing the agent has not done before. Given the long hold times many are presently experiencing when calling Marriott the drain-your-account method may be easier.

Marriott has announced that we will still be able to make reservations without having the points deducted when the new program starts.

OK, I have to admit this got a laugh out of me.
And while I don't "always" do this, there have been a few instances in the past where I had the necessary points, but didn't want the points taken out for a particular reservation. So I also have done this before in the past.

No idea how the new plan would work - but under the old plan I've done it. Not only a 1:1 exchange, but I've done it when I knew the hotel will going to cost more (moving from category 5 to 6) - booked it with points before the change, and once the certifcate posted called and changed it to the credit card certificate.

Thanks for the advice on this. Called in the reservation and they were able to book it without taking out any points from my account. I get a certificate from my Canadian AmEx SPMarriott card (signed up in late September 2017 so I anticipate getting the certificate around then).

In case you're wondering, my certificate will be applied to a NYE stay at the AC Hotels Time Square (going rate is $1000 USD/night). I'd be surprised if anyone could find a more valuable use of that certificate. I know this booking is quite a bit in advance but hotels in Manhattan are selling out for NYE (go figure!)

Thanks again!

Safe Travels,

James

You don't even have to call any longer. When you book an awards reservation online they now give you the choice of issuing the certificate now or waiting. You simply click a box saying you don't have the points to do it now, and that the certificate will be issued 14 days prior to the stay. This works, even if you have ample points in your account. I just did it for one night at a Category 4 hotel and I have over 650K points in my account at the moment.

Worked for me as well. I made a couple of reservations recently and even though I have more than adequate points to cover them in my account, I simply choice not to issue the certificate now. It is nice to have this flexibility.

--Jon

P.S. I also enjoyed CJKatl's Seussical description.