I recently wrote about Hyatt’s terrible cash and points program change. That program has become exclusively cash only or points only because the combination of the two rarely makes sense. Still, if someone wanted to use points and cash, that option is readily available.
Contrast that to the post SPG and Marriott merger where I have yet to find a property where cash and points is available. The reason may not exclusively be from lack of availability. The reason is because Marriott’s website and app make it impossible to search for points + cash availability like SPG’s site used to.
Here are the direction’s form Marriott’s site:
Now, let’s search for properties in NY:
We get 199 results!
Pick a hotel, any hotel. Like a quick handed NY street hustler, you’ll soon find out that the joke is on you since none of the hotels I checked had a cash and points option.
Even the Renaissance NY Hotel, which I wrote is Only 57th by Name, does not show a cash and points option on a cold Tuesday in the City.
I’ve tried places around the globe and still no luck. Maybe I’m the only one with this problem. Maybe someone can help. Or maybe this whole cash and points thing is a myth across all brands.
I see availability for HNL hotels in February
Lol well that’s not helpful. Am I supposed to search for places that have cash and points first then make my plans? Supposed to be I choose where I want to go and then see what dates have the option. This is turning it into an airline points booking where you fly to SIN not because you want to go there but because you found SQ suite availability.
Yes availability is shitty with the marriott brands. however i did find alot more availability for C+P on the SPG hotels, at least the ones that are still showing on the purple spg sites.
I got redirected to Marriott even with spg searches. Point is, where’s the availability calendar?
It’s Marriott, which means that it’s not supposed to offer anything that the customer would actually find helpful or worthwhile. It woulda been nice to be wrong, but they’ve put in some serious overtime to erase value, so not really surprising.