TerryK

Marriott allows Point Advance for awards. You don't need to have points in your account until 14 days, or some time, before check in. Does this feature work for legacy Starwood properties? I was trying to book St Regis and Luxury Collection properties when a message popped up saying I need to earn additional points before check in. But then the app won't let me book the award. Does this Point Advance feature actually work for legacy Starwood properties?

Starwood Lurker IV

Hi TerryK,

Points Advance is not currently offered at the Participating Properties or Brands listed here:

● St. Regis®
● The Luxury Collection®
● W®
● Sheraton®
● Le Méridien®
● Westin®
● Design HotelsTM
● Tribute Portfolio®
● Four Points®
● Aloft® Hotels
● Element®
● Non-branded properties listed in Section 1.2.a. (https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/ter...ault.mi#redeem) (section xxxi)


Best regards,

Christopher Carman
SPG Champion
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

TerryK

Thank you, Lurker.^ So Point Advance is still applicable to legacy Marriott properties only. I suppose it is another IT issue where app shows that you can do Point Advance but errors out when you try.

hhoope01

I do believe that as the hotel chains are moved over to the Marriott reservation system, Point Advance reservations become available. I have one right now for a 4Pts and I do believe Sheraton has moved over as well. Not sure which, if any, other original SPG chains have moved over yet.

MaxFlying

Yes, this is correct. Available now for Sheraton. No to Le Meridien, St Regis, and W for certain. Haven't checked others.

TerryK

That's correct. It is based on Marriott system conversion. Properties on Marriott system allows PA not for those still on SPG system. It is not by brand as not all properties on same brand convert on same date.

hull22

I booked a stay for the St. Regis Maldives for next fall two weeks ago. The required points with only 440,000 for five nights at the time. I used points advance to reserve because I a 100K points short at the time. However, I looked at my reservation again this week. Magically, it increased to 1,7250,000 points required. I called support and emailed the hotel. There was nothing they could do as the system did not send me any confirmation email at the time. I was however able to find availability yesterday for 540,000 points for the same time period and "updated" my reservation to that points value, still using points advance. I'm just hoping that my reservation doesn't change again before I accumulate the required points.

Intl359Widget

They didn't acknowledge that it was a glitch in their system? That's a bit concerning...

hull22

Nope, somehow no electronic trail of the reservation. They keep taking about how the current rates are so high because of the high season. The hotel keeps requesting proof of reservation.

SeeTheLights

jr1202sr

Man this is scary. I haven't gotten confirmations for ANY of my bookings via points

Intl359Widget

Marriott is supposed to issue the certificate once the room is "paid for" which is probably what's happening.

margarita girl

What I do is send a confirmation email to myself and in the subject line I write how many points are required for the reservation. However, this won't help if Marriott requires "proof" of what you booked at. The other thing I've done is made the reservation using points (obviously you need the points in your account for this), which will trigger a confirmation email. Then I go back in and change the reservation to a Points Advance reservation. This would probably work as "proof" since your confirmation email would have the reservation number and the points required.

As a matter of fact, I think that's what I'll start doing all the time now as a "best practices" approach.

Handcake

I just booked 5 nights in Seoul for June and it sent me an email confirmation. This was for points I had and not a "future points" reservation.

nexusCFX

I use the print option to generate a PDF confirmation for point advance bookings and export to PDF. Has helped me prove the original rate in the past.