I wanted to make reward reservations for 4nights at a cat-7 hotel. I only found 3 nights available at the standard reward rate so I booked them. Today I found the 4th night available, also at the standard reward level. So I booked it immediately.

I called Marriott Rewards, asking them to combine these 2 reservations into 1 ( for a total of 4 nights). They said they could not do it for me?!

My question is: in this case, do I pay 90,000 (3nights) + 35,000 (1night) = 125,000 points? Or do I pay 110,000 points (4nights)? These 4 nights are consecutive.

You helpful opinions are greatly appreciated.

Go to your original reward reservation for 3 nights and modify the dates of the reservation to include 4 consecutive nights. You should be able to do this if there is standard award availability for the 4 nights. Then, you can cancel your reward reservation for 1 night.

I tried to do that first, but it said 'to change the dates, cancel your reservation first and then make a new one'. I didn't do it for fear I'll lose
everything.

Why not try making a brand new reservation for the 4 nights you require and then, when you have the confirmation, cancel the 3 night and 1 night reservations.

I think I got the last room. So when I try making a brand new reservation,
I don't see any room available at the standard reward level. I don't dare to
cancel the current reservations first, for fear I'll lose them too.

That's funny -- I had a similar situation and a call to the Plat reservations line solved the problem.

Here's the scenario:

I have an eight-day rewards stay scheduled at the Ren CC in London. Origininally six of the days via a standard award, and 2 required my anteing-up for a Stay Anytime Award.

The reservation was booked in late August or Early September, 2006 for a stay in July, 2007..

It was awhile back (December, 2006 I believe), that I related the story on another thread having to do with Standard Award availability and someone more knowledgeable than me suggested that I try going in with a "dummy" R3Rewards stay for the same dates as a way of checking availability.

I did and found Standard Award Availability available at the hotel on my reserved dates for all eight days.

I called the Plat line which changed the Rewards codes (Cat 7, 6 Day Standard; 2 Day Stay Anytime to a Cat 7 7-Day Standard and 1-Day Standard.).

The Reservation remained intact AND retained the original confirmation number.

They then switched me to the Marriott Rewards line which reinstated the points used the first time around back into my MR Account. and that represented a net credit of over 50,000 MR Awards Points.

Don't have enough points to carry two sets of awards simaltaneously until correcte?

My understanding is that though there's a reservation, points aren't actually subtracted until check-in (if you try to check in without sufficient points you'll be charged and if you simply don't show up without canceling by the deadline your credit card will be chanrged for the guarantee + tax).
Since there's Standard Award availability I fail to understand why the same principle/procedure would not work for you.

All you're really doing is changing the Award Code from a Standard 3 and a Standard 1 to a Standard 4.

Although your situatio and mine are slightly different the principle is the same.

Give them a call.

(And remember the FT Mantra: "If you're not happy with an answer or explanation the first time around, politely terminate the call and try again later.)

You won't have any problems. I've done this in the past. If you can't make a new reservation for the 4 nights in a row, don't risk to cancel and rebook. You're set as you are.

By the way, there is a recent thread in which somebody explained that you can use a hotel certificate for non-consecutive nights like when you pay or use a Stay Anytime reward for a night in-between. That was pretty interesting.

When you book, mark the box that states that you already have a certificate and no points will be substracted. You can make as many reservations as you want this way, overlapping or not.

I would recommend to avoid making reservations and changes on the phone when possible. The only very few times I had problems with my bookings were due to operator mistakes or missunderstandings. There is little or none they can offer you besides what you see on the screen. Go safe online.

I'm surprised that Marriott Rewards Rep. said they can't combine the two reservations for you. They have done that for me before. I would suggest calling back and talking with someone else. They should be able to help you. I guess its possible that calling Marriott Reservations rather than the Marriott Rewards desk could help as well, but I would think either should be able to combine your reservations.

This time they still could not combine the 2 reservations into one for me. But they said they'll put a note that these 2 reservations are really 4 consecutive nights (not 3+1), and that I would be charged 110,000 points.

Not the best outcome I'm looking for, but I guess I'll have to take this.

Very very surprising, Marriott has done this for me before without any issues...

FYI with out going into technical details on how they were able to modfy an existing reservation there is no way to "combine" two different reservations in the system

This was several months ago, but one thing I can state without equivocation is that my first time around. the 6 std. days, 2 anytime days were booked as an electronic award for 237,500 points. (BTW the MR Plat line did the booking, not me, via the website.)

At the time I had 261,000 points in my MR account so it left me with a pittance of points.

As I posted, later on, I discovered that 8 days at std. pts. were available so I called the Plat Line again.

And once again, (with the MR group doing part of the processing) the adjustment was made with the new Award (185,000 std. pts.) also posted as electronic.

I don't know how they did it, but they definitely did, the whole deal took perhaps 10 minutes on the phone.

The difference (apparently an important one) was that in my case the duration (8 days) of the reservation never changed.

But, the outcome was that two dats requiring anytime points were changed, seamlessly, to two days requiring standard points.

From my posted account history debiting the revised point total, crediting the original point total (note same processing date)

12/19/06 017 1 NIGHT CATEGORY 7 HOTEL
(35,000)

12/19/06 077 7 NIGHTS CATEGORY 7 HOTEL
(150,000)

12/19/06 067 6 NIGHTS CATEGORY 7 HOTEL
140,000

12/19/06 A27 2 NIGHT ANYTIME & BREAKFAST
97,500

:

If I cancel a reservation, does the room go back to the inventory immediately? If yes, is it a good idea to try canceling both reservations and make a new reservation for 4 consecutive nights? I can try doing it after midnight so that no other people are competing with me.

yes it goes back into inventory but that doesn't mean the yielding factors will allow you to book it