I’ve recently written about some problems related to our short trip to Toronto, Canada.
The first problem occurred when we were supposed to go on the trip a few weeks back. I was checking my British Airways account when I noticed that our flight to Toronto had been cancelled. This led me to ask British Airways- Where’s My 40,500 Avios + $143.79.
We then got rebooked for the following week. More bad luck soon followed. We had a cancelled flight in biz class and had to fly coach. I then wondered if I was owed compensation. (I certainly feel that we are…)
After getting rebooked on a flight for the following morning, I still had to deal with our hotel reservation and make a call to Marriott Customer Service.
A little about our hotel booking:
I had us booked for 3 nights at the Courtyard By Marriott Toronto Downtown. I had to book it as two reservations since I had a free night certificate from the Marriott Rewards credit card (which was redeemed for night 1). I then booked the other two nights using 25,000 points per night.
By the time we finished getting rebooked on a new flight, locating our bag and getting into a cab, it was close to midnight.
Even though it was very late (and I figured that our free night certificate was wasted), I decided to call Marriott Customer Service to see if they could help me out with our no-show.
I called up Marriott at 1-800-721-7033 and explained the situation. The rep was very friendly and said that I needed to be transferred and to mention that our flight was cancelled. I felt good when she said that the next rep should be able to help us out!
I again explained how we had the night booked and wouldn’t be able to make it since our flight was cancelled. I also asked if there was any way to get my free night certificate back. I was placed on hold so the rep could “see what he could do”.
A few minutes later, the rep told me that under the circumstances they could place the e-certificate back in my account! Score! I was glad that the free night certificate could be recouped.
I then thought of another idea related to my booking and had one more request.
I told the rep how we had another booking for two nights at the same property. My request was to see if the booking could be changed slightly.
Even though my free night certificate was good until next August, I asked if he could change the booking to allow for the e-certificate to pay for the first night of our stay. I figured it was better to get rid of the free night while I can and keep the points for a future date.
I was really impressed when the rep told me that this shouldn’t be a problem!
After another few minutes on hold, I was told that 25,000 points were redeposited into my account and the free night was applied to my stay starting the following day!
I thanked the rep for all of his help and was really impressed that I got my hotel situation sorted out. Talk about an awesome Marriott customer service experience!
Have any of you had a similar situation before? If so, did the hotel refund you for the night’s stay you missed out on?
