6x on Marriott Bonvoy American Express – how does it post?

[MF176]

Have recently got this card and prepaid my first Marriott booking using it. Transaction is circa £1k, and is showing on AMEX app as 2k points, rather than 6k. Does this mean it hasn’t tracked that it’s Marriott for some reason, or are the additional points added later?

My only reference point is the BAPP where it’s really clear on every BA transaction that it qualifies at a different earn rate, so I had assumed that MB card would work similarly?

Thanks for your help!

[meta]

It should track immediately, but some newer hotels are not set up as Marriott on the Amex systems. This usually means contacting customer services and sending them Marriott link for the hotel. They’ll then add points manually.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

I think mine works whereby points are credited for spend made by 19th of the month, even though the statement date is 25th of the month. So there’s a lag I have to account for. I was left shortchanged over the course of 2022 though – significantly at times when Marriott hotel apend did not track at the 6 points rate. I sent my workings via chat to Amex thinking they were just being polite taking figures and formulas off me in a chat. But about 12 days later I had a massive points adjustment applied to my card account. So they had done a heavy audit themselves and uncovered all the missing points.

[MF176]

Ok, thanks both. I will keep an eye on it and hopefully works out!

[WaynedP]

Always get a manual printout of your statement for each Marriott hotel stay from the cashier on checkout, even if that means the night before for some reason like rushed early morning departure.

Invaluable for retrospective points claims when MB IT fails and your booking mysteriously disappears from the app as if you’d never stayed.

[MF176]

AMEX live chat are now telling me that the transaction is only 2x as it was a hotel abroad, and the 6x excludes “foreign exchange transactions”?

Surely this just means the 3% fee doesn’t attract points, not the entire bill?

Otherwise the card is pointless for any stays outside the UK!?

[DJ]

It tracks in two separate activities:

– 2x Base points
– 4x Hotel spend bonus

It has been consistent in my experience.

[MF176]

DJ wrote:

It tracks in two separate activities:

– 2x Base points
– 4x Hotel spend bonus

It has been consistent in my experience.

Thank you. Even for foreign currency transactions? Is there typically a gap between the 2?

[Harry Hightower]

I’ve got it for charges at hotels abroad before (ie. non-GBP charges). It shows as 2 line items in “Your Rewards Activity”, one with 2x base points and one with 4x bonus, although they have the same date. “Foreign Exchange transactions” means buying foreign currency (cash) with your card, these are excluded from any points earning at all (in the “Which Card Account balances do not earn points?” section of the card terms PDF here). This isn’t the same as normal card charge in a non-GBP currency, which Amex refers to as a “Non-sterling transaction”. I think the agent is confused and would try another one.

[MF176]

Finally had the additional 4x bonus through on this one. Thanks all for your helpful comments.