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PSA: Track Existing Marriott Reservations & Rebook When Points Price Drops (or Switch to a Free Night Certificate)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Long story short, I had a 1 night reservation at a Marriott property that was charging 60,000 Marriott Points / night.  A few days ago, I checked the current rate of the property and the price dropped from 60,000 Marriott Points / night to only 50,000 Marriott Points / night.  I was able to rebook the reservation and use one of my 50K Free Night Certificates and received a refund of 60,000 Marriott Points back into my account.  In this post, I wanted to remind you to keep checking existing reservations to see if the rate drops and show you how to rebook the reservation when that happens.

Here is the Summary of Points section from my original reservation (left) and my rebooked reservation (right).  As you can see, my original reservation was for 60,000 Marriott Points and my rebooked reservation is with a 50K Free Night Certificate.

After researching your original reservations for price drops, the easiest way to rebook your reservation is to log into your Marriott account, go to the My Trips tab, and click the View / Modify button next to the reservation you want to rebook.

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Then click the Edit Room button.  As you can see, my original reservation was for 60,000 Marriott Points plus $34.49 (resort fee + tax).

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Under the current booking section, you should see rooms available and their current rate.  You should be able to select the same exact room type, just with a lower price.  Click the update button to make the switch.  I forgot to take a screenshot of the next step, but it should show that you are getting a points refund or show you the ability to switch to a free night certificate if you have one available that would work for the rebooked reservation.

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After updating the reservation, my new reservation shows 0 Marriott Points redeemed, but it does show that I used a 50K Free Night Certificate instead.

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On the Latest Activity page, you should see a refund of the original points used for the reservation.  I now have 60,000 Marriott Points in my account that can be used toward future reservations.  Marriott Points are preferred since they do not have short expiration dates like free night certificates that usually expire after 1 year of issue.

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Instead of going through the rebooking process, you could cancel the original reservation, have the Marriott Points refunded back into your account, and then booked a new reservation with the free night certificate.  You could also do the opposite order of booking a new reservation with the free night certificate, then cancelling the original reservation, and then having the Marriott Points refunded back into your account.  The reason I did the rebooking process for the same reservation is that this reservation is linked to other 1 night stays at the same property and I didn’t want to mess that up and need to call Marriott to relink the reservations.  Whatever way you decide to do the rebooking process is up to you.  If you have any questions about the rebooking process, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!


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6 thoughts on “PSA: Track Existing Marriott Reservations & Rebook When Points Price Drops (or Switch to a Free Night Certificate)

    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Isaac, you will only get points back if you rebook your reservation. I believe almost all points reservations are changeable and cancellable as long as you are outside the cancellation period (usually 2-7 days before checking in).

      Reply
        1. Grant Post author

          Hmm, you could contact Marriott and tell them the rate has dropped and see if they will be able to give you the difference without cancelling your existing reservation. Worth a shot :)

          Reply
          1. Issac Reisman

            Ha, with Marriott customer service these days I have a better chance of getting elite benefits recognized then this, and we know eb recognition these days

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