I made a rookie mistake that I will share with you. I recently came back from my stay at the Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg Resort & Golf Club, a Marriott Resort. I went last weekend for 3 nights for my daughter Jessie’s swim meet. Last year, I used points for this stay. This year, I did not have the points in my account nor did I want to use other point sources (think Chase Ultimate Rewards) as the redemption rate was too high. So I paid for this stay. Gasp!
Anyway, my room was about $300 per night and I was looking forward to earning my 10,800 Marriott Rewards points on this stay. ($900 for the stay x 10 Marriott Rewards points per $ spent plus my extra 20% bonus (1800 points) for being a Marriott Silver Elite member)
When I went to check my account, it seems as if I earned Delta SkyMiles instead. Don’t forget, this is an option but one that I would have never recently chosen. After all, I don’t recommend earning miles instead of points on hotel stays unless you are in desperate need of miles. I earned a mere 2 miles per $ spent on the stay, so about 2000 miles which included my incidentals.
I called Marriott Rewards. I guess I was not as savvy back in the year 2000 because back in 2000, I apparently switched my Marriott Rewards profile to earn Delta miles on my Marriott stays. I must have needed miles back then, but 15 years later, I honestly have no idea why I chose this option. I guess I have not paid for a Marriott stay under my account since, so I had no idea that I would earn Delta miles in lieu of Marriott Rewards points. (At our recent Atlantis stay, we were under Rob’s Marriott account.)
I called Marriott. Despite their doubt, they were able to get my miles back from Delta and I received my Marriott Rewards points credit. Whew! The lesson to be learned from this is to make sure when you make a reservation, you know what points/miles you will be earning on the reservation. After the reservation is completed, it may be too late to change!!!
