Reader Question: Odd Issue with Marriot Upgrade Awards?

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a case about an issue with Marriott’s Nightly Upgrade Awards.

Readers are encouraged to send us questions, comments, or opinions by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll cover them here several times a week.

You can access Marriott’s page for Nightly Upgrade Awards here.

READ MORE: Marriott Bonvoy Rate & Bonus Points Offers

Reader’s Question:

I am having a rather odd experience with Marriott and their nightly upgrade awards. I was wondering if you had heard of similar cases and/or possibly had advice on how to resolve this issue.

I have an upcoming reservation at the Domes Aulus Zante, Autograph Collection, in Zakynthos, Greece (May 1-8). The stay is seven nights and I have seven nightly upgrade awards in my account that I wanted to apply to upgrade our room.

Yet the Bonvoy App claims that the “reservation was not eligible for an upgrade”. Marriott Customer Support informed me that the hotel didn’t have any suites available, which is false. The hotel has plenty of rooms of a higher category, including suites, available during our stay that remain bookable.

I also contacted the hotel directly. A hotel representative attributed the problem to a technical glitch, but also claimed he was not able to do anything to resolve the problem. I forwarded this information to Bonvoy Customer Support and requested they resolve this directly with the hotel (I don’t seriously believe anything will come of this).

I have used upgrade certificates before with no issues. I don’t see any reason why I should not be able to apply them here. The entire reservation is a points redemption, but that shouldn’t matter and has never been a problem before.

Any advice you could share? Many thanks in advance.

I haven’t recently looked at these Nightly Upgrade Awards (remember when they were called Suite Night Awards?), so I decided to see if I could replicate the issue the reader is having with this hotel.

The hotel is only open seasonally and accepts reservations from May 1^st. I looked at what they had available for a night in mid-May, and they had 10 different room types.

I then decided to book the most standard room.

You can then see if you can apply one of these Nightly Upgrade Awards if you try to modify the reservation.

There is a note that you cannot apply them to this reservation.

And you are then basically presented with this “error” message, which is unclear as to why you couldn’t apply these certs.

The good news is that the reader is eligible for an upgrade at this property, even without applying one of these certificates, and I cannot believe they would be in a high-occupancy situation on their opening day of the season.

The property cannot manually use these Nightly Upgrade Awards for a reservation, but they can cancel an upgrade award that has been processed and redeposit it.

I don’t think much will come out of contacting Bonvoy customer support, as I don’t think they really know what’s going on with this property.

Conclusion

The reader brings up a valid point here (indirectly).

How can you know before making a reservation whether you can apply one of these Nightly Upgrade Awards to it, especially if you are booking a non-cancelable prepaid rate?

You can sometimes score a much better upgrade than you would otherwise get (based on status) by applying these towards your stay, but I don’t think you should use them for corner rooms, etc., unless you have no other use for them and they would otherwise expire unused.

Marriott should disclose during the booking process if the property doesn’t accept Nightly Upgrade Awards, so that members wishing to use them could make an informed choice.

What have been your experiences applying these Nightly Upgrade Awards? Please comment below.

Terms and Conditions of Nightly Upgrade Awards:

Nightly Upgrade Awards

Nightly Upgrade Awards. Nightly Upgrade Awards (formerly Suite Night Awards™) may be redeemed for advance confirmable upgrades for select Premium Rooms or suites on a per room, per night basis, subject to availability and the applicable terms and conditions set forth below for Nightly Upgrade Awards:

(1) Nightly Upgrade Awards expire on December 31 of the year following the year in which they were earned. For example, if 50 or 75 Qualifying Nights are achieved in 2024 and five (5) Nightly Upgrade Awards are selected as the Member’s Annual Choice Benefit, the five (5) Nightly Upgrade Awards will have an expiration date of December 31, 2025.

(2) Nightly Upgrade Awards may be used only on Loyalty Program eligible paid stays as well as Award Redemption Stays.

(3) A Member may request to use their Nightly Upgrade Awards on Marriott Websites or by calling Member Support.

(4) Nightly Upgrade Awards may only be used for Premium Rooms and suites as designated by the Participating Property. Some suite types may not be available for use with Nightly Upgrade Awards.

(5) Nightly Upgrade Award use is based upon availability of the requested suite or Premium Room. Checking for availability begins three (3) days before arrival. If availability is not confirmed three (3) days before arrival, availability is checked each day before arrival up to 2 p.m. local time of the Participating Property one (1) day prior to arrival. If at that time Nightly Upgrade Awards cannot be confirmed, the Nightly Upgrade Awards are credited back to the Member’s account if they have not expired.

(6) Nightly Upgrade Awards may be used only when there are enough in the Member’s Account so that one (1) is applied to every night of the reservation. One Nightly Upgrade Award is required per room per night.

(7) Nightly Upgrade Awards are required for each night of the stay including any nights that may be designated “free”.

(8) Nightly Upgrade Awards may not be transferred or given as a gift or used as part of a multiple room reservation; however, a Member may use Nightly Upgrade Awards for additional single-room reservations during a stay as long as the Member is present for the stay and the other reservations are under the Member’s name.

(9) Members who book separate reservations for consecutive nights that precede or follow a reservation that has confirmed Nightly Upgrade Awards will be required to change rooms to the confirmed room type on any night(s) where a Nightly Upgrade Award is not used.

(10) If a Participating Property offers multiple room options for a Nightly Upgrade Award, once the suite or premium room option(s) is selected, the selection may be changed until 2 p.m. local time of the Participating Property one (1) day prior to arrival so long as the Nightly Upgrade Award is unconfirmed.

(11) Nightly Upgrade Awards have requesting, booking, cancellation, and modification policies that are in addition to – but completely separate from – the booking, cancellation, and modification policies for the reservations on which they are used.

(a) Requests to use Nightly Upgrade Awards on a reservation may be made up to 2 p.m. local time of the Participating Property one (1) day prior to arrival.

(b) Requests to withdraw the use of unconfirmed Nightly Upgrade Awards may be made up to 2 p.m. local time of the Participating Property one (1) day prior to arrival.

(c) Confirmed Nightly Upgrade Awards may be canceled up to 2 p.m. local time of the Participating Property one (1) day prior to arrival only if the entire reservation is canceled.

(d) Once Nightly Upgrade Awards have been confirmed, the Member must cancel the entire reservation to receive credit back for all Nightly Upgrade Awards. Cancellation of a confirmed Nightly Upgrade Award reservation after 2 p.m. local time of the Participating Property one (1) day prior to arrival will result in the forfeiture of all Nightly Upgrade Awards applied to the entire reservation.

(e) Nightly Upgrade Awards cannot be applied to a reservation once the reservation has been checked-in to a Participating Property.

(f) If a Member departs a reservation early, any unused Nightly Upgrade Awards confirmed for the stay will be forfeited.

(g) If a Member wishes to extend their stay and has enough Nightly Upgrade Award(s) to cover the extension, the Member must book a separate reservation for the additional nights and request to use Nightly Upgrade Awards on Marriott Websites or by calling Member Support; the Nightly Upgrade Award request cannot be processed at the Participating Property. Nightly Upgrade Award use is based on availability of the requested suite or premium room. Checking for availability begins three (3) days before the start of the separate reservation, and up to 2 p.m. local time of the Participating Property one (1) day prior to the start of the separate reservation. Members who book separate reservations for consecutive nights that precede or follow a reservation that has confirmed Nightly Upgrade Awards may be required to change rooms.

(12) Not all Participating Properties participate in Nightly Upgrade Awards. Nightly Upgrade Awards are not redeemable at the following brands: Ritz-Carlton Reserve, The Ritz-Carlton Club, The Ritz-Carlton Residences, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, participating Design Hotels, Marriott Executive Apartments, All-Inclusive Resorts, Homes and Villas by Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Grand Residence Club, Sheraton Vacation Club, Westin Vacation Club, and at The Phoenician Residences, a Luxury Collection Residence Club, Scottsdale. In addition, Nightly Upgrade Awards are not redeemable at properties that do not participate in Marriott Bonvoy.

(13) Nightly Upgrade Awards will be placed in the Member Account within 48 hours of when a Member selects an Annual Choice Benefit of five (5) Nightly Upgrade Awards.

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