I'm a relatively new Platinum Marriott Rewards member. I have a wedding to go to in Hawaii in September and would love to be able to use my Marriott Rewards points. So, I clicked on "Browse Hotel Rewards" and looked for places in Oahu. All of the resulting rewards had "requires upgrade fee of USD X plus tax per night", where X was between $90 - $120. What does that mean? Does that mean not only do I have to use points to reserve that room, but I have to pay an additional $100/night?!? That doesn't seem like much of a deal to me. Can anyone give me some insight to this?

Yes & no. I'm hoping (after the normal weekend lull) others will chime in & give you better input.

I used to reserve rooms (before Plat) w/ award at the Grosvenor Square Marriott in London & think I had to pay 50-70GPB to secure an exec room (and they never told me about the exec lounge, btw - but the room was fab; it did include bkfst in the rest though, even on the weekend). The exec room I got was like a mini-suite & given UK/US exchange rate it was worth it to me, even though the room was 'free'.

My understanding is as Plat you get upgraded to 'best available' but quite frankly who knows what that means in Hawaii (or any Marriott for that matter). I've been Plat last year & this & it's all over the place.

My guess if is you want to definitely 'secure' a fab room, you might have to pay the $$. But you might want to call the hotel & chat w/ them re: what you'd actually get & then determine if it's worth it to you. Certainly worth the phone call.

Cheers. Sharon

tx_chava,

Welcome to Flyertalk!

I assume the hotel you are looking at is the JW Marriott Ko Olina, which is a fabulous choice (although the info I am giving you applies to any Marriott upgrade on an award reservation).

Basically, when you reserve a room on an award, you are reserving a standard room..... garden view, mountain view, quality room, whatever they call it, it's a non-view room (especially at a beach resort). From there, if you want a pool view, or a partial ocean view, or an oceanfront view, that's a premium. Usually you can use points (5000 per night per level of upgrade.)

Some rooms, like an oceanfront at Ko Olina, are considered 4 levels up, therefore an upgrade to that room will be 20k Marriott points per night or $120 (for those holding previous reservations, this level has recently gone up from 15k/$90 per night so be sure you are charged according to what level was in place when you reserved).

Understanding that you are Platinum and may be entitled to a better room, you may STILL find yourself with a not-so-perfect view IF when you check-in, the better views are sold out.

The best way to ensure the view you want is to actually reserve that view prior to arrival (like NOW!).

Then, when you arrive, your options are a bit more open. You can use points, pay the fee, or hope to be given the Platinum upgrade. Either way, you know there is an oceanfront (or whatever view you specified) room waiting for you.


Having stayed at the Ko Olina just a few weeks ago (and having Plat status as you do), I booked the upgraded room to what I thought was going to be a pure oceanfront room. I was a bit disappointed when we arrived and were given a room overlooking the pool, partial ocean view, and the industrial park down from the hotel with it's many smokestacks and concrete structures. (Oh did I mention it also overlooked the timeshare construction site, with several cranes atop a half-complete high rise?)

For this they were asking an additional $120 per night or 20k points?

Well, a chat with the Manager ensued (we had other problems as well......MANY bugs in the room upon arrival, and the room was a smoking with 2 double beds, both of which go against our Marriott preferences which BTW were guaranteed.)

He agreed that calling this an oceanfront room was really a stretch and was sorry to hear that we were displeased. To his credit, he rectified the situation more than adequately for us, and we will most definitely return to this location.

I do not mean to say that we did not like this hotel. To the contrary, it was beautiful and we loved it and would consider no other Oahu Marriott.

Just be forewarned that the upgrade might be disappointing, and prepare in advance to reserve the view you really want (and be ready to have to pay for it in points or cash).

And, if by chance the room you DO want is just a standard and you don't want to pay for an upgrade (yet no regular room availability shows), I would call the Marriott Platinum line, or better yet, call the hotels reservation desk directly, and see what kind of room they can offer you. September would seem to be relatively slow and I would be surprised if you couldn't secure a regular non-view room during that time.

Have a fantastic time....it's a great hotel.

It's a similar situation at most resort hotels, especially the ones in Hawaii. I booked the Marriott in Waikiki in January 2006 and they pretty much had award availability at all the appropriate levels -- the standard, parking lot facing room. The upgraded garden view room. The double upgrade ocean view room. The triple upgrade deluxe ocean view room. The quadruple upgrade deluxe ocean view suite.

In my case I reserved the standard parking lot room and will hope I can at least get a garden view as a Platinum. My own feeling is that unless you are _willing_ to pay the upgrade fee (the hotel might comp you part of the fee, or upgrade you past that level as part of the platinum grade -- as happened to me at the JW in Oahu) then you shouldn't book the upgraded rooms, since you are guaranteeing yourself that level of room way in advance, when the Platinum upgrade is supposed to only be a day of arrival or slightly before type upgrade.

We just returned from JW Marriott Ihilani yesterday and had a wonderful stay. We had a $289 MV rate with breakfast and were upgraded to a Deluxe OV room. We did not call, write, or anything in advance; just showed up and they upgraded us.

Now, one must keep in mind that your odds of getting upgraded on an award stay is much lower, even for Plats. IMO, paid Plat and Gold reservations will come first, and some hotels have a policy of not upgrading award stays at all - specifically the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort and Spa will not upgrade award stays. It is usually noted in the description when making the reservation as shown below:

"MARRIOTT REWARDS REDEMPTIONS*STANDARD RM ONLY*MX OCC 4 GUESTS*NOCONNECTING RMS*NO ROLLAWAYS ALLOWED*NO UPGRADES*SEE RATE RULES"

this is all great advice! Thanks Flyerwife for all the detail! I am definitely going to give the Marriott Plat line a call and see what they can do for me.

As a Platinum, my experience is that I have been upgraded 100% on award stays, including resorts and international hotels. Soemtimes I have enven got a suite. I would not pay for an upgrade on a reward stay unless I absolutely had to have a particular category of room.