Marriott Amex (UK) Free Night Award redemption

[momomo]

I’m having an issue redeeming my credit card free night award.

I’m looking to stay in Liverpool; the Aloft allows me to book a room using the award, but the Delta doesn’t (it doesn’t recognise the award, it only offers a pay-in-points option). Both rooms are under 50k pts (and I have enough points to pay the excess).

Usually, we’d prefer the Aloft, but we have a toddler in tow now and only the Delta caters for little people. I’ve tried booking the Delta with and without a child and no luck. Any advice? Or is this one for customer service?

[Rob]

Odd. I suspect you’d need to call unless a) the Delta offers rooms higher than a base room for additional points (is this possible on a voucher?) or b) you’re looking at a redemption with a cash co-pay for a bigger room (again, not sure if possible on a voucher).

[meta]

It’s maximum 40k (25k +15k) on the UK voucher. You can only book standard rooms with it, so if a more premium room is priced 39k and standard 35k, you can only book standard.

You also might be looking at a two-night or longer stay, so the overall pricing might seem like each night is 40k or below, but in reality it’s more hence you can’t use the voucher.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

For reasons that still baffle me, I managed to get the Ritz Carlton Budapest at a bizarrely cheap points price on a Thursday night and thys used one of my ‘free’ night vouchers from Bonvoy. If you must be in Liverpool, fine. But it may be possible to find an aspirational property if you’re flexible.

For ref, the RC Budapest upgraded me to a suite without the use of SNAs.

[momomo]

Closing the loop on this, I had to book via phone – the Marriott rep had no explanation as to why the Delta couldn’t be booked online.

To add some further detail: the Delta did indeed permit points redemption on different levels of rooms – so this may well have been the reason why the award couldn’t have been applied (thanks Rob!). And as per meta’s comment (thank you!), the customer service rep insisted that only a base level room could be booked using the voucher. (All rooms were <40k points, my fat fingers had previously typed 50 by accident.)

I’ve never been to Budapest, but we love Liverpool (and will be there to watch the footy)!