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One of the biggest issues that travelers can face when making plans to use their miles and points is that, quite often, they can see availability for the flight or hotel reservation they want to book but they don’t yet have all the miles or points needed to make the reservation.
This issue can be avoided, to a degree, by transferring in points from other sources or by purchasing more miles or points from the airline/hotel….but what if you don’t have points to transfer in and what if you don’t want to pay for more points?
Marriott has the answer.
Booking Marriott Reward Nights With Insufficient Points
Marriott has a very generous policy that allows Marriott Rewards members to make a booking with points that they don’t yet have.
The best way to illustrate this is with an example.
Let’s say that I want to book the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua (Maui, Hawaii) for 7 nights at a cost of 60,000 points/night.
The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua – image courtesy of Marriott
Marriott offers the 5th night free on bookings of 5 nights or more so I would require a total of 360,000 Marriott Rewards points to book this trip:
The problem is that I don’t have enough points to book this stay….but that’s where Marriott helps out.
At the top of the booking screen Marriott acknowledges that I don’t have enough points for the reservation but offers to let me make the booking anyways as long as I “earn or purchase additional points at least 8 days prior to check-in”
How cool is that?!
When I click though to make the booking, the reservation screen shows the points breakdown for the stay and highlights (again) that I’ll need more points:
The wording this time seems a little more ominous as it doesn’t mention anything about being allowed to make the booking without the points banked…but a box right next to this breakdown puts my mind at rest:
All I have to do is make sure that I earn the extra points I need for the say and make sure they’re in my account no more than 8 days before check-in.
Not Just For Ritz-Carlton
This isn’t just a rule for Ritz-Carlton properties, it works at regular Marriott Properties too.
Let’s say I wanted to be extravagant and book two rooms at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House (London) for 7 nights.
Grosvenor House – image courtesy of Marriott
A single reward night costs 45,000 points so, with the 5th night free, I would need 270,000 points per room or 540,000 points for the whole booking:
I don’t have anywhere near enough points to book that and Marriott let’s me know…..
…but is more than happy to give me more time to earn the points I’m going to need:
What’s more, Marriott doesn’t seem to mind how short of points I am – there doesn’t seem to be a limit on how many points I can be in deficit. Here’s one of the more outlandish reservations I tried to make 🙂
As far as I can work out Marriott is happy to give me time to earn as many points as I like.
This Works On Cash & Points Bookings Too
Travelers who aren’t sure that they’ll have the time to earn all the points they’ll need for a reward booking can mix and match Marriott’s rule that allows you to buy more time with a cash & points reservation.
Here’s an example using the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo.
Ritz-Carlton Tokyo – image courtesy of Marriott
If wanted to book a 14 night stay it would cost me either 840,000 Marriott rewards points (70,000 points/night and 2x 5th night free) or I could choose a Cash & Points option of ¥506,520 & 532,000 points:
Despite using the cash & points option I still don’t have enough points for the reservation….but marriott doesn’t really care…..
…I’m still given until 8 days before check-in to find the extra points I need.
Bottom Line
I love this option that Marriott offers and I really wish a few more hoteliers would follow suit.
I’ve just made use of this Marriott policy for a big reward booking for next year where I really want to be sure that I’m not going to miss out on the reward night availability that’s currently showing on Marriott.com.
I have all our flights booked with miles and, if I want to keep the cost of our trip to a minimum, Marriott points are my only option for the hotel stay. Right now I don’t have enough points for the booking but, thanks to a few reservations I have in October and December, I know that I’ll have earned the required points for the reward booking well before the 8 day deadline comes around.
This Marriott policy has allowed me to lock up the reward nights so I’m not at any risk of losing the rooms we need and also given me plenty of time to make up the points to complete the reservation.
That’s how you take the stress out of reward bookings 🙂
