^

A little change of pace since most of the time it's usually the bad stories we hear.

My friend called me on my offer earlier tonight around 7pm and asked me if I could set him and his wife up with a hotel near Mohegan Sun Casino in CT. I told him I would look into setting him up with a hotel we've stayed at before. It's very pretty close to Mohegan Sun but I know those paper certificates are the only way to make a booking in a different name.

So I figured...Hotel with a spa during a Valentine's Day is probably going to be impossible to get.

Called up the Platinum Rewards line and asked them if they had expedited processing available for paper certificates. They do for 15$.

I double checked with my friend and called Marriott again. I was able to make a reservation for the hotel with a request for an upgrade, then transferred again to the Rewards line where I requested a paper certificate to be sent to my friend's house via expedited processing.

I then called the hotel and spoke to the Front End Manager and requested that my upgrade inquiry is honored. He immediately pulled the reservation up and blocked out a jacuzzi room on the Concierge Floor for them.

Total time took less than an hour; they had availability and they provided an upgrade when asked. Thumbs up from me, that's for sure. ^

Glad you got what you wanted, and I assume you booked them at the Mystic Marriott? (Great restaurant, Octagon, in the lobby Delicious steaks, nice wine list. Hotel staff always very acommodating and good treats in the Concierge Lounge.)

But may I ask....was this for a stay for next week? Marriott is charging you, a a Plat, $15 to expedite a cert for next week?

I booked a last minute award stay in Atlanta a week or so ago because the weather looked iffy and I did not want to be shut out...booking was less than 24 hours out and they had no problem getting the cert there, and with no fee. (Ended up not using it and the points were immediately credited back to my account.) Maybe because it was in the members name and went directly to the hotel, but I know Marriott is usually pretty good about waiving expedited fees for us Plats. I'm surprised you have to pay (especially if the stay is a week away).

Yes that's the property....The 15$ fee isn't a big deal when you consider that it's an award stay that's not going to cost 300$ or so


We didn't try the restaurant when we were there but maybe they will.

Marriott charges the $15 fee if the award request for someone else is less than 10 business days from arrival.

Quote:

Originally Posted by psychephylax

^

A little change of pace since most of the time it's usually the bad stories we hear.
. ^

What a refreshing post - perhaps we should all think to do more of these as surely some of us have GOOD stories about Marriott??????

Nice to hear things work the way they are supposed to and I do hope they work-let us know after the event please psychephylax that everything went as planned
As to posting more of the good news.I will be happy to be the first to report when MR does something right.However-I will also be glad to report,and encourage like reports,when Marriott Rewards/Marriott International fouls up.

There are only two ways Marriott will restore the once fantastic service that I(we) loved.Constant compliants/criticism when they mess up(as is being done here by many once loyal Marriott customers)AND not giving Marriott the buisness you once gave them-and letting them know why!

Glad things went or are going well. On the other hand, I seem to be always on the other end of things when it comes to redemptions. Just 2 weeks ago, after a one night stay, I asked the FD if they would use the Chase Cat 1-5 certificate in my account. They agreed and pulled the certificate but charged my card anyway. I stayed there again the following week and asked to have it straightened out. Another FD told me it was too old to fix locally and call the 800#. The 800# quickly called the hotel and promised to have it worked it out. Well I got the refund but now 20,000 points was pulled for that night. Too tired to argue...

Just found flyertalk today. Great site! I was doing a websearch on a $15 fee MR charged me today on a rewards reservation for tonight. My wife is flying into Pgh and the weather looks too bad to drive home so I made a her a reservation and wanted to use my MR points. Many times in the past, they said since I'm not going to be there, they have to use a paper certificate, and since it's short notice, they'd let the hotel know that the certif is coming in the mail, either by calling them with a certif # or faxing a copy of the certif. Well this afternoon, a snippy MR rep said he was charging me $15 to use DHL to expedite a certif to the hotel. I explained how they always do it for me but I guess he was the smartest guy there because he didn't want to listen to me. I have 2 MR Visas (1 is business), a Marriott Vacation Club property and use Marriott family brands exclusively. I was miffed at this never before charged charge and called MR back. THIS TIME, Tara was more like the reps I'm used to and was super friendly. She couldn't figure out why the other guy did it like that when she just usually calls the hotel to give them the certif #. She apologized and credited my $15 charge. I back to liking Marriott again. My point- it doesn't hurt to call back if you don't like what just happened! BTW, great posts. I'm going to like this website.

DivotMax welcome to flyertalk ^
When you get a moment please fill out a profile-it just is a help for us to get to know you.
Looking forward to your future posts.

DivotMax,

I would just do the award in your name online like you have in the past and call the hotel directly after the reservation is made and have them add your wife's name. This isn't correct per Marriott rules but I have never had an issue when I have done this.