I have something that has been wearing on my conscience for a few weeks now, and I feel like I have to come clean on it. I even had a nightmare about it two nights ago, which finally caused me to take action and fix the problem.
Remember how I stayed at Marriott Sao Paulo Airport a few weeks ago during my quick trip to Brazil?
Well, how do I say this? I… I… I… didn’t collect points for the stay. I was so lazy that I didn’t even put my Marriott Rewards number on the reservation. That’s mainly because I didn’t know what my Marriott Rewards number was and couldn’t easily find it. And I was too lazy to call up Marriott to figure out what it was, since I couldn’t figure it out through the online form.
I TURNED DOWN FREE POINTS.
Take away my blogger license (and ideally Christopher Elliott’s license to use the internet at the same time), I’m not worthy.
I don’t know why I turned down the points, exactly. Over the years I’ve done hundreds of stays at Hyatt, Starwood, Hilton, and IHG properties, while I’ve done maybe two or three stays at Marriott properties. And it just seemed like it wasn’t even worth the effort.
Fortunately I corrected that yesterday since my conscience was wearing on me, and I retroactively requested the points.
To be honest it was partly motivated by the fact that I realized I have several upcoming Marriott stays, both at Frequently Traveler University in Seattle this weekend, as well as Frequent Traveler University Advanced in Chicago this summer.
It’s one thing to stay at a hotel without a loyalty program, but have you ever voluntarily not added your loyalty program number to a reservation? Make me feel better and let me know, please!
Lucky,
Shame, shame. You are slipping up in your old(er) age!
Yeah. Booked a paid ticket on LAN and the TA wouldn't take my number. Told me to do it at the airport but couldn't figure out how to get the automated kiosk to take it.
I also don't bother on airtran, even though I buy fix on them once a year.
Yes, all the time.
"Hmm, should I pay $150 for this room on the hotel chain's cite and get $10 back in points and a mediocre breakfast I could get for $10, or get the room on Priceline/Hotwire/Hotel Tonight/Travelpony, forfeit benefits and points, and pay $75?"
But then people will do strange things so they can have a shiny plastic card with the name of a precious gem or metal on it...
There is a great little iphone app called "Rewards" by a company called Touchmeme, believe it costs $.99. It is nothing fancy, but it lets you enter frequent traveler rewards for a number of programs or you can create your own. It also lets you enter notes, like your log in info for each site and it comes with the phone number for the programs.
I've found this works create for keeping track of all my reward numbers.
Haha same here
I always look up my award account number by searching "Marriott" in Mail on Mac. unfortunately Marriott Rewards' promo emails only show the last four digits of the acct number.
1) Awardwallet mobile app in a pinch
2) did you register for MegaBonus? I'm staying a night at a Marriott now and have a night for Seattle, getting a free night out of it.
Yes, the deadline for promotion registration was 31-Mar-14. Contact Marriott Rewards customer service tomorrow, they may be able to manually sign you up for the Spring 2014 Megabonus. (I have no personal experience in this area, but have heard that others have been successful. Generally I find the MR agents to be quite helpful when it comes to promos - for example, registering for offers that were different than the one I was targeted).
I forgot to claim points for dining at the Hyatt Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi earlier this year. I have my Hyatt (and all other programs) number stored on my phone but it chose that moment to start a software update. Alas, no retroclaim possible for dining.
Yep! I just stayed at several chain hotels in Europe (Holiday Inn Express, Best Western, Novotel and Ramada) that I have loyalty program numbers for. I don't think I added my number to any of my reservations! I may go back and do that retroactively now also...
Its post like this is why I love this site and why I come back multiple times a day. Thanks for sharing.
AwardWallet lists all your account #s and you can even order a wallet card that shows them -- a limit is something like 30-40 accounts so may not be enough for Lucky! :P
@ Ivan Y -- Hah, except the issue is that my Marriott Rewards number wasn't even linked to my AwardWallet account since I hadn't used it in so long.
One more shocked you didm't have this easily accessible. I have an evernote note with all my various loyalty numbers listed. Accessible from all my devices and about the quickest way of referencing things.
I have to say I'm pretty assiduous about point collecting even if I think there's no hope of me ever having enough to redeem them. My potentially least useful points balance is the 621 Deutsche Bahn bahn.bonus punkte, which I've just...
One more shocked you didm't have this easily accessible. I have an evernote note with all my various loyalty numbers listed. Accessible from all my devices and about the quickest way of referencing things.
I have to say I'm pretty assiduous about point collecting even if I think there's no hope of me ever having enough to redeem them. My potentially least useful points balance is the 621 Deutsche Bahn bahn.bonus punkte, which I've just discovered I can redeem for an attractive red and white polka dot beach ball or a travel monopoly set.
ditto awardwallet. i confess, i let a gimmicky app get the best of me. i was flying back home the other night and due to work being crazy, opted to stay in a hotel near my office rather than sleep at home. i thought to give Hotel For Tonight a try since i had $25 credit from a promo code. ended up sleeping at a hilton but not getting points or my HHonors gold privileges...
ditto awardwallet. i confess, i let a gimmicky app get the best of me. i was flying back home the other night and due to work being crazy, opted to stay in a hotel near my office rather than sleep at home. i thought to give Hotel For Tonight a try since i had $25 credit from a promo code. ended up sleeping at a hilton but not getting points or my HHonors gold privileges because i booked through a 3rd party. and i'm not even sure i saved that much with the discount. d'oh!
Awardwallet, my friend.
And yes, I have done it for a family trip some years ago -- flight miles/not hotel points. Flying international economy for a party of 4. I didn't know much about FF at the time but set up an account for myself. Got like 12,000 miles after and I was wondering what to do with it. Years later, after I understand more about FF, I could've kicked myself for not having...
Awardwallet, my friend.
And yes, I have done it for a family trip some years ago -- flight miles/not hotel points. Flying international economy for a party of 4. I didn't know much about FF at the time but set up an account for myself. Got like 12,000 miles after and I was wondering what to do with it. Years later, after I understand more about FF, I could've kicked myself for not having the rest of my family register for it!
These days, i create a FF account for everywhere I stay (except boutique hotels) so there's no excuse for not putting the number there if I have it! :)
Did you forget to register for Megabonus? A second stay before the end of April earns you a free night certificate for Cat 1-4 which is good for 1 year. There are some decent properties in that range.
@ Erik -- Grrrr, I did. Is it too late?
You are crazy, but you have been crazy for a long time. :-)
I was reading some trip reports on FT and I found your username. I than searched for the threads that you started and found some gems: "6 transpacs on 5 days", "flying undercover as a no status passenger on economy" and "almost being pulled from a flight by some FAMs". All this as an underage.
Your great writing style and...
You are crazy, but you have been crazy for a long time. :-)
I was reading some trip reports on FT and I found your username. I than searched for the threads that you started and found some gems: "6 transpacs on 5 days", "flying undercover as a no status passenger on economy" and "almost being pulled from a flight by some FAMs". All this as an underage.
Your great writing style and perception to details were all already there, as well as your kindness and friendly interaction with others.
The only downside is that you are obvious getting old: young Lucky wouldn’t feel exhausted with the Brazil Madness MR.
Was too lazy to retroactively add my Thalys # to my AMS to CDG train ticket the other week. Too much of a hassle.
Sometimes intentionally don't add my JetBlue #. Their program is so convoluted and I don't think I'll ever in a million years need JetBlue miles (whenever I want to fly them, they're sub-200 bucks JAX to JFK...not a good use of points).
They could/should have looked it up when you checked in.
Hey Ben- if u have a Marriott cc your rewards # is on the card.