Using Premium Pounds on an M11 rate
 

I need some input from some of the more experienced folks around here. I am planning on a trip to Maui in Feb and have looked at booking the Ren Wailea. I used the M11 code and knocked the rate down to $259 a night. I was wondering if I could do the following to sweeten the deal?

1- Use 4 Premier Pounds for the 8 nights that I am staying there
2- Pay for the rest using Gift Cards - so that I can rack up 12 points /$

Thanks in advance!

Asked and answered numerous times.

1. Official answer is no. YMMV.

2. Yes.

"9) This coupon is not valid toward any rate that requires ID or membership. Premium Pounds Coupons may be used for all publicly listed and available room rates and packages, excluding catering, group and contract rates. Premium Pounds Coupons cannot be used in conjunction with any other certificate stays or reservations made using a travel agency."

I believe very strongly that M11 rates are "publicly available" and have won this argument many times. You have to be willing to battle, however. And you may lose.

Bruce

I just always have a copy of rate rules with me. If it does not state 'id required at check-in' then I see it as a publicly available rate. Membership in MR is publicly available to all guests of Marriott and requires no payment for membership. Who then using a PP/BB would not be a member of MR?

Why cant they just add a line to all rate rules that states 'use of BB/PP allowed' . Would solve all of this wasted time in knowing which rates work.

I have used dozens of them with M11 rates.

What is the key to a successful challenge? how did you argue this? what did you say for a successful challenge?

I just used a Premium Pounds Coupon at the Renaissance Schaumburg, IL on a M11 reservation with no questions asked. This is a new property and it seemed they were excited to see this coupon, it might have been their first one.

I used a £100 PP coupon in NYC in October. The rate I booked was via code D59 which was supposedly a MR Member Special Rate. The coupon was accepted without question.

Thanks god I am not a lawyer;)
I failed to convince Marriott Caracao to accept my PPs on M11 rate.
Again, YMMV, since marriott Aruba accepted it twice without question.

Basically, I say what MADflyer did. (And, incidentally, I am in Madrid right now myself.) Membership in Marriott Rewards is open to anybody. Therefore, the rates are "publicly available." At some point, the hotel just gives up arguing with somebody as relentless as I am and a long-time Platinum member besides. They get reimbursed without any problem, so why not?

Bruce

As for reimbursement, if what a Managing Partner told me is true (at a Renaissance prop) then the Hotel doesnt get back 100% of the amount but something like 85% of the value of the BB or PP.

Seems good enough reason why they wouldnt want to allow them to be used where they arennt suppose to be.

"9) This coupon is not valid toward any rate that requires ID or membership."

Until Marriott added this sentence to the T&C, M11 rate was eligible for BB use per reasons you quoted (MR membership being publicly available). Now it isn't, as being MR member is membersip.

The problem is that the second sentense of the rules contradicts the first sentense. What if a rate is both "publicly listed and available" and "requires ID or membership"?

I don't think there's any contradiction there at all. A rate can be public listed and available to a guest with the proper credentials.

That's what I wrote. The question is whether a PP Coupon can be used for such rate.