Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. Yesterday, I was trying to use my Free Night Certificate from my JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Visa Infinite Credit Card to book a hotel in New York City and experienced some issues booking through the Marriott Bonvoy app. My Ritz Carlton Free Night Certificate is good at Marriott properties that cost up to 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points and the property I wanted to stay at cost 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points.
When I used the Marriott Bonvoy app to book the hotel, I assumed the app would use my Ritz Carlton Free Night Certificate to pay for the 50,000 point redemption. Unfortunately, the app used 50,000 points and I only realized it when I refreshed AwardWallet and saw that my account balance decreased by 50,000 points, but my Ritz Carlton Free Night Certificate was not used. I immediately canceled the points booking and went through the Marriott website on my iPhone. I repeated the same steps and when I got to the payment option, it defaulted to selecting my Ritz Carlton Free Night Certificate (the 50,000 point option was also shown). I completed the booking on the website and refreshed AwardWallet to make sure my point balance did not change, but that my Ritz Carlton Free Night Certificate was used.
-
- Marriott Bonvoy App
-
- Marriott Website on my iPhone
Here is the screenshot of the “Summary of Points” from the first reservation that I made through the Marriott Bonvoy app. I used 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points for the reservation and I was left with 56K points. It is a little confusing because it shows a “Marriott Bonvoy Certificate Number” on the reservation.
Here is a screenshot of the “Summary of Points” from the second reservation that I made through the Marriott website. I used my Ritz Carlton Free Night Certificate to pay for the room, so my points balance was not touched.
I’m not sure if this is an isolated event, but the next time you want to use a Free Night Certificate, I would recommend using the Marriott website on your phone or computer, not on the app. If you have had a similar experience, please let me know. If you have any questions about booking hotels with your Free Night Certificate, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
The app always uses points. There’s no option in the app to use a cert
Hi Glenn, that’s good to know, I never knew that. I think I can use Free Night Certificates with the Hyatt app and maybe the IHG app, but I’m not 100% sure.
Just as a data point, when booking a Marriott free night cert (online), the free night cert, in this case 35,000 points, is deducted from the total reservation. In my case, a 100,000 point redemption showed up as 65,000 points. That didn’t happen last June 2019. Maybe M is on the road to getting their act together??
Really? I’ve never seen that happen before. That would definitely be an huge improvement for Marriott.
Happened to me as well, even following the steps provided. But they could not have fixed it faster, situation very well handled.
That’s good to hear. I considered calling Marriott, but figured I could fix it myself online (and take a few screenshots for this blog post).
I have had a case where I used a certificate, then cancelled the reservation and the certificate was not re-deposited, i.e. it didn’t show back up in the app or in my account. Of course I didn’t see this until I tried to make another reservation. I had to call an agent to make the reservation and it take a bit of wrangling from the agent to get it to work. I guess the moral of the story is to monitor your account activity as these kinds of shenanigans seem to be rampant
Yes, I’ve heard of that happening before. Strange that the free night certificates do not automatically redeposit into your Marriott account. I believe it works smoothly for Hyatt and IHG free night certificates.
This is not just an app problem. I had a similar experience, but with a hotel in Paris, which decided to help itself to a week’s worth of points rather than use the 7 night certificate that had been attached to my reservation. It was a nightmare to sort out, with Marriott pointing fingers at the hotel and saying only they could sort this out and reverse the points grab, and the hotel saying only Marriott could fix it. It took almost two months of frequent phone calls to finally get it rectified – by Marriott. Marriott is so different – read so much worse – than Starwood.
Wow, 7 nights worth of points must have been a huge number, I’m guessing somewhere between 200K and 300K points? That’s terrible that you were out that many points for 2 months, despite numerous attempts to fix the issue.
bonvoy’d!
I was waiting for someone to day that :)
i can verify that using the website rather than the app won’t solve the problem. i just had the same issue when i reserved on the website — points were deducted rather than the cert. i called them, and (not surprisingly) the cert was applied but the points weren’t deposited back. finally the points were redeposited, but the reservation showed a points advance booking (points to be deducted 15 days before check-in). finally i canceled everything, got the cert back (long phone call) and booked with cash. glad to hear it’s not just me.
Wow, that sounds like a real headache. Sorry you couldn’t get the hotel booked with your free night certificate. Hopefully you have another opportunity to use your free night certificate before it expires.
Booked a travel package on my sons account. Got to the hotel and added my name to the reservation to get the elite benefits ( I was staying in the room). Marriott took both my sons travel package AND one of my travel packages from my account. They seriously have to get their issues fixed. There are just too many!
Oh boy, how is that even possible to use 2 7 night packages for a single 7 night stay and pull the package from 2 different accounts. Just wow!
Looks like they’re nowhere nearer to fixing the issue. The same thing happened to me in March of 2021. Of course I didn’t realize it until I went to book my next trip. I spent 1 hour 15 minutes on the phone today, only to be told that they’ll look into it and get back to me via email within 48 hours. Seems like it’s pretty convenient for Marriott to not fix the issue.
Hi Amy, I’m sorry that this same issue happened to you. Hopefully Marriott will fix this issue soon.
Just happened to me… Just used my points to pay for a one night hotel stay that was worth 15,000 points. Instead they tapped into one of my free rewards nights worth 35,000… Great.
Hi Cameron, that is strange. I wish Marriott would just ask you how you would like to pay: 15K points, use a 35K free night certificate, or cash.
This just happened to me. My fault for not noticing on the confirmation. I only noticed when I received my bill. When I called, they told me there was nothing that could be done. My free night expires in 8 days so it seems like I am out of luck. This is super frustrating.
Hi Michelle, I’m sorry this happened to you. Call Marriott and see if they can extend your free night certificate 6-12 months for you. Hopefully they will and you will be able to use the FNC for an upcoming stay. Good luck!
Hi there-
Sorry for the long story…
I realize that the original post was a few years ago. I am looking for advice on who I should contact next. In March of 2023, I booked a 1 night reservation at the JW in Vancouver using a FNA, valued to 85k. When I went on a cruise with 3 friends and did not look at my emails for the week, Marriott cancelled my FNA reservation and on the same day made another reservation using 74,000 points. Question #1, is this what they do when FNA ‘s are rejected? It was 2 months after the confirmation using the FNA was emailed to me. I never received communication that my FNA was rejected.
My 2 friends reserved a room at the same hotel and planned on paying by credit card.
Since I had a change in plans and was flying home on the red eye of my reservation date, I either would check in( under the impression that my free night award would not be refunded and never canceled the room,)or inquire if my friends could use the FNA and only pay for one night.
They asked for my ID, the assured us that the manager would work to gift them. I still did not know that it was now points I would be charged. Of course, I would gift them the FNA, but not the points, the equivalent of around $468 plus tax.
After numerous attempts to work this out and being told that my points would be refunded after my friend provided credit card information for the room charges, I received a new email telling me that since I “checked in” and later decided not to stay, my points would not be refunded and there was NEVER a reservation using points.
My mistake was never taking photos of the free night awards and confirmations. I did write it down. Not only that, the reservation made in March is no longer listed on my activity, the cancellation of that on their end on June 26th is no longer listed but the new reservation using points is listed.
Interestingly, I booked another reservation at the JW ESSEX HOUSE using a FNA after the first one. I was told that I needed to add 3,000 points, which I gladly did. This, to me, is proof that I had FNA’s in my account.
So, I did not stay at the JW Marriott Vancouver but was “ charged and now missing” an FNA plus 74, 000/points and my friend is paying for two nights using a credit card.
Who can manipulate my account like that? Was it the manager at JW Vancouver or somewhere in corporate? Who do I speak to next, or just let it go?
Hi Lynn, I’ve never heard of Marriott (or any other hotel chain) cancelling a FNC and making a points booking for the same night. It sounds like this issue was from a few months ago, so I think it is best to let this one go and focus on your next trip.