Quite disgusted to find random reservations from more than 3 months from now STEAL all possible points & apply them to reservations automatically, and receiving new confirmation emails regarding those redemptions!!! communitymanagers, seems like there is a serious bug in the system!!!
Happen to anyone else?
Redeemed 25,000 point certificate for 12,500 point room. C
I saw it, and linked my thread here to yours!!!
There is a discussion going on in FT also about this.
Pay close attention to your point balances and # of certificates. I was able to get the points reversed, but the rep missed 2 certs that were auto-applied. I noticed it immediately and she was able to catch it very quickly and reverse those as well. Good thing, because without some serious digging, I had NO IDEA which reservations the certs were applied to. Didn't use my 40k 75-night choice cert though, and I'm sure I had reservations where it could be used.
It seems like it is grabbing the closest upcoming reservations and applying points/certs to those. Does not seem to be affecting pre-8/18 previously applied certs from legacy MR with older point values, but double-check anyway!!!
I also asked is this something Marriott is going to admit to and post on status . marriott . com, but I seriously doubt it. Just when you thought things were getting to a point of stability...
Thanks for addressing these concerns. Same thing happened here. Just noticed they deducted 140K points and 100K points for 2 stays in late Feb., plus 140K for April stay. Also changed reservations so no longer guaranteed nonsmoking room or king bed. Could be placed in 2 twins! Unbelievable! Off to a great start in 2019. First Marriott takes away our platinum elite 75 night benefit choice and now this. Now wondering why we went to extreme measures to hit lifetime platinum premier status with a corporation that seems to be getting everything wrong lately.
Also note other threads regarding this:
ready4atrip's thread: Confirmation numbers are different and reservations changed & eliminated!
j&c's thread: Points reservations for next month have new values! Ck yours
I guess I am lucky as I have all my 400K points still.
Hi Insiders,
We have reached out to our team regarding this and will get back to you with an update as soon as we have information to share!
Best,
Community Managers
PLEASE explain what is going on? We are LIFETIME PLATINUM ELITES and have never experienced such inept, detached customer telephone service, not to mention invasion of our account with ZERO prior notice of changes to be made.
We have been trying unsuccessfully since the merger to apply a pre-merger purchased 7-night Cat 9 Travel Package to a pre-merger Cat 9 reservation; each of 3 phone calls we are assured by the reps it's been attached, yet within several days of checking online, the cert is still not attached. Yesterday Marriott emailed unexpectedly stating they had cancelled our Travel Package reward order and credited us with a Partial Package Cat 6 at 165,000 pts. We paid 390,000 points (net 270,000 after 120,000 United miles.) Where is the 105,000 balance of our points?
How can Marriott devalue our obvious 30+ years of loyalty like this, and what is going to be done about it???? We are to travel Feb 16 and now have no cert to attach, a cert we purchased in good faith under Marriott's then terms of service. If Marriott is going to make these changes, they should at the very least reach out to their loyal members and advise in advance so members can adjust plans accordingly.
HELP!!!
Your issue with the Cat 9 cert is different, as you stated you tried to apply it "since the merger" - do you mean after 18 August 2018? If you tried to attach it after 18 August, I'm not sure you can do much about attaching that cert to a Cat 9 property that is now a Cat 7 property (if that's the case).
If so, there were several threads and comments on Insiders (and online in general) stating the potential extreme high risk you may be taking by holding onto Travel Package certs, especially Cat 9 certs since we knew before the program that there would only be 8 Categories in the new program. Your Cat 9 cert is now a Cat 6 in the new program (and this info was released I believe on 20 August 2018); there is no longer a such thing as a "Cat 9" cert. So, to use it, you have to call & ask for that cert to be converted to a new program Cat 6 cert, and then for it to be applied to any Cat 6 hotel. If your hotel of choice is now a Cat 7. It sounds like that's what Marriott automatically did - converted your Cat 9 cert to a Cat 6 cert, which is what it correctly maps to in the new program. If you have a confirmation email of the cert attached to the Cat 9 hotel prior to 18 August, Marriott can fix that and "should" honor that award reservation; however, if you held on to your cert without it being attached to a reservation before 18 August, it is now equivalent to a Cat 6 cert.
Marriott clearly stated that if you attached your pre-18 August certs to a reservation before 18 August, they would be honored. Now, there was also a TON of issues surrounding that as well (and many Insiders went through a LOT of mess resolving their individual situations), but Marriott has honored those certificates as long as you made ZERO changes to the reservation, including room type change, number of people, dates, etc. (possibly after converting the reservation to points and raising the point requirement on the reservation, but a call - or several calls to get a customer service rep that knows hot to fix it - gets that reservation honored correctly.
I just lost 275,000 points for a vacation I had already paid for with points. The activity showing the previous redemption of 120,000 points is no longer showing up under my activity. Thankfully I had a older printed sheet showing the activity so I have proof. Also, paid for each night before the merger so I got the lower category for 40,000 points. Now they have readjusted the categories and telling me I have to pay 50,000 points per night
This is something different, and addressed in several other threads months ago, this happened almost as quickly as they said the old points values for redemptions would be honored. Back then, those calls to fix it might takes hours/days (I think it took me 3 or 4 (or more) separate calls to find someone that understood what I meant AND could also fix it).
This thread is describing only the scenario where points or certs you have available being automatically taken from your account and applied to Points Advance reservations or ones where certs were not attached.
Couple questions, where do I see the annual certificate? I have not used mine, but I am not sure how to tell if it has been auto applied. Secondly, are there still 7 night certificates available anymore? I am no sure how to find a way to obtain them.
I have a seven night certificate associated with a travel package. I'm not sure if there is a different way to get one but I do believe they are still part of the travel package.
Under "Activity --> Earned Rewards --> Unused Certificates" or in your "Overview --> Reward Certificates" (which just takes you to the Activity view) sections - If you don't see it and you didn't apply it (and you know you already had it), then it may have been already applied. Yes, there are still pre-8/18 7-night certs if you had any that you hadn't used, and also new program 7-night certs, which I'd hope that NO ONE ever gets, except in certain situations.
If you have "new" confirmation emails from yesterday or today for reservations you KNOW you didn't touch, then that was probably your points and/or certs being sucked out of your account and automatically attached to the 1st reservation(s) they could mate with, until you ran out of enough points to attach or certs to use. I had 8 reservations that were magically 'altered'!
Yes, I have a Points Advance reservation later this month for a hotel not even open yet (lol) and it pulled the points for it far sooner than expected.
Perhaps I am not educated in how that was supposed to work, but I thought I would be prompted at some point to make the call on whether I was going to pay or use points.
You won't be prompted, you are expected to either apply the points/certs yourself, or starting at potentially 14 days out, your points and/or certs will be (supposedly) automatically applied to the reservation, assuming you have them. If you don't, they may reach out to you to see how you will handle payment. They may pull your points/certs around 5-7 days out, but I've never had it happen. I've come as close as the day before check in finally applying the points to a reservation (2017).
If your 'later this month' reservation is more than 14 days out (which I'm assuming it is), the points SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN automatically applied to the reservation!
I had points deducted last night for a March point reservation....
Luckily my account thankfully is intact.
Ugh. I logged in this morning to make sure a reward associated with a reservation I cancelled was redeposited into my account (it wasn't) and noticed that 440,000 points were taken out of my account yesterday. I called and spoke with an agent who told me they were associated with reservations that I have in Park City in February. I explained that these reservations already have certificates attached and read him the email I received from a Ritz Carlton Representative stating just that. He was able to see all of the activity but doesn't have a solution because if he cancels the certificates the reservation will automatically cancel. What??!! I sent an email to the woman at Ritz Carlton who booked them for me originally. We'll see, I guess. Frustrating.
I am feeling kind of happy/ lucky. I didn't have any upcoming Marriott stays booked. I booked elsewhere while waiting for resolution to my walked on Thsnksgiving situation. Looks like it might have saved me some future headaches since I have 25 nights booked before the end of March.
I hope Marriott gets it together and everyone's issues are resolved quickly. What can I say, I'm a dreamer. lol
I had 70,000 points pulled for a stay in March (2 rooms, one night, 35,000 each). Seems to have happened overnight.
Me too. Points for reservations in March and April already sucked out of my account.
Yep - had the same happen to me. They took out another 100000 points for a reservation that was already paid for with points. I immediately called them to rectify the situation. I am now also taking regular screenshots of my account activity page so I can also look back what happened.
Yes, same here. Points deducted for several reward bookings in April, leaving my balance at minus 48,000!
I am grateful that I haven’t had the vanishing points/certificate experience described above. However, I am also thankful to o0o0o0o0o0o...points!, j&c, et al for taking the time to share. We have to be on guard with our friends at Marriott these days. With the prevalence of customer service problems in their call centers, ongoing technology issues, data breaches, and attentions now turning to the rebranding launch of the new program, we are indeed on our own. Keep your heads on a swivel folks! We have to look out for each other!
Coincidentally, I just booked my first 8 hotel nights of the year with Marriott yesterday - all paid stays. And, as I have shared my ongoing frustrations with the decline in customer experience in numerous other posts, I have now also made good on my promise to diversify as I booked 10 nights elsewhere too.
I did not lose any points but a certificate mysteriously vanished. I do have a reservation in February that used a certificate when I booked months ago - did so to take advance of the old redemption scale. I will need to call to see if they used a secondary certificate for the same reservation. It certainly is frustrating when Marriott (or any company) make a mistake, and the consumers have to spend all their time and effort to straighten it out! Not good!!
Good Morning, I can't find my certificate? Where is it shown in your account, or I should say, where was it shown? I had one, didn't use it, and now it is gone.
bayareawolf, see o0o0o0o0o0o...points! reply to your question on certificate whereabouts up thread....
Morning bayareawolf. In your account on the far upper right of the page after you have signed into the account you'll see your name. Click on your name and the window will open up with Overview etc. Select Overview, when that opens scroll down the page about 1/2 way just beneath your Elite status you will see "Reward Certificates".....they are in there if you have any, if not I do not believe you will see the "Reward Certificates", but not sure so maybe some others can enlighten us on that fact or not.
Thank you. There isn't one. I had one that I received on my anniversary in Mid October. I have not used it. I will have to check into it.
Thanks!
Similar things happened to my acct. Took 2 hours on the phone to get resolved. If only we could bill Marriott (no pun) for our time to fix all their mistakes...we could all retire by now!
I had made 2 cash/points rsvp for 4 nights each at the Westin Pittsburgh back in Sept 2017 (pre-merger so was SPG rsvp) for an upcoming stay in March 2019. It was a 5K/night and $75/night cash and points rsvp.
All of a sudden with no explanation they took out an additional 68K points for each rsvp. Well, I had already been deducted 60K for each rsvp at the time of booking (5K/night x 4 nights = 20K x 3 Marriott converstion = 60K).
I called them shortly after this occurred as I check my acct several times/day bc they can't be trusted anymore. First call dropped after 30 min with no return phone call back (pathetic). 2nd call lasted 1.5 hours while I was on hold most the time for the CSR to talk with her supervisor and the hotel to get it straightened out.
Think this is the final straw for me. My loyalty will be with whomever I can get the best deal and most convenience from anymore. I am done going out of my way to stay at Marriott's especially after 2 recent bad stays at Sheraton Boston and Shertaton Tampa Riverwalk.
I rack up a ton of pts on the Cap1 Venture and Spark credit cards (flat 2% return so much better than Marriott pts values end up being 90% of the time). I either use Marriott pts or pay the rate with my Cap1 card and redeem those pts for a free stay/credit. With the new Marriott program being devalued so much from the old SPG program I will be booking whatever hotels I can get the best rate etc with from now on.
Time to work on my lifetime status with Hyatt now! There are some steals out there with Hyatt with pts reservations. No need to chase Hilton since we can just buy our status with them with their top tier CC.
hmmm... this is scary!
I have a pre-merger 7-night Cat 8 (non-existent today) certificate attached for my Maui hotel reservation in May. The certificate was attached when the reservation was created July 30 last year... I checked my account, and it still shows all my points and existing certificates intact.
I'd like to foolishly assume that they are aware that the certificate was attached to the reservation, since I have an email showing the same, and don't grab existing points.
I'm going to keep a much closer eye on my account with all this sudden "shadiness" going on with Marriott. I'm probably going to end up giving Hyatt a try this year - only issue is they lack the Marriott footprint, and very rarely offer the rate I need to use when traveling.
It happened AGAIN!!!! 2 Certs and a ton of points cashed in AGAIN for reservations! Time to switch all reservations to elsewhere???
Did they ever credit you back the points on the reservation or are they tied up still? I have one reservation they took the points on, but I have not contacted them about getting them back into my account yet.
The 1st time, yes, everything was handled in one call - was fortunate enough to get someone that admitted it was a known problem and she'd already dealt with it before, so I got the 2 certs & all points back during that call. Today however, took multiple calls, 2nd call was dropped, 3rd call supposedly got most of the points back and both certs, but not all points back - have a case open. I just wasn't able to look in my account at the time to see if I could find the issue myself.
One thing I did learn is that reps are looking at 2 or 3 different systems, and those systems may not reflect the same info (attached certs vs. no certs vs. 'created' but not attached certs). It may come out in the next several weeks or so that Marriott was hacked, or this was from the same breach and did more damage than they thought, because I had FOUR certs attached to one reservation, and the rep said "That's impossible" - although she could clearly see it. It's possible this could be from major programming errors, but issues this egregious would be pretty bad!
So, people that were missing points last year, check to see if you had "Points Advance" reservations that sucked up your points/certs automatically. This issue may go back a bit farther than we think!
Actually, according to the UK site (which differs from what the US site states), all of my points are back, but I am still missing 2 certs in every system. However, I cannot see "My Trips" right now, so I can't even look to see if I can find the reservations that have those 2 missing certs attached!
Also had a credit card used for a reservation automatically saved in my account, which I didn't do either. communitymanagers, this could be related to the data breach and Marriott could be hacked a bit more than they know (or have publicly admitted up to this point). Seems like multiple issues are going on!
Customer Service reps have admitted however that this is a known issue in their system...
I did not try to get my points back yet, but I did try to get the certificate. They said it was held up a the "property" even though I cancelled the reservation within policy. The rep put in a request for the property to release the certificate back to me.
Thanks for the update.
Thanks Platpboy4ever. OMG....and I thought this was just happening to me. I will now spend hours reading the comments from you link. Quite frankly, the few I did read makes me think I was right and the Marriott person I was speaking to convinced me that I had not lost anything. I am soooo upset. fortunately I knew what my point balance was before we took off for Christmas vacation or I would have been in a serious mess. BUT once again I cam convinced that I need a method of sorts to track all my points and certificates. The need to set up some sort of accounting system for points. Just freekin amazing.....So unfortunately, I have no idea what is truth or fiction. Or even how to access an accurate account of my activity....If there is something out there please let me know. Again Thanks. .
So, a couple of updates. I got sick of being told how points advance reservations work (that the points and/or certificates are taken out upon making the reservation, that I must have attached the certs upon booking, magical call disconnects, the hint of not being believed and the tone of some reps in having to deal with this, etc). If you get a rep like that, simply immediately escalate it to a case and asked to be transferred to a supervisor (who may also treat you similarly) so you don't spend hours on the phone trying to explain this. This way, you get a case number that has to be evaluated in 3-5 business days (even though you will probably never hear back on that case - I guess you are expected to constantly call back for status even though you are told "You should hear back from us in 3-5 business days"???). And then, immediately call back if you don't get results on the initial call and hope to get a rep that has dealt with this before and knows how to handle it.
I also could not see my reservations once this happened, which had to be a separate case. So in constantly being asked "which reservation(s) did you apply points to and/or which reservations did you apply the certs to" (when I started the entire call by stating (multiple times) that this isn't something I'm doing, it's happening automatically and it's happening to several members, i couldn't even look at my reservations to investigate for myself. All I could do was state the hotels (from memory, since I wasn't in my account during the call) that I received email confirmations for all at the same time. I also could not see my reservations in the App.
I also had not been able to see the "change password" portion of your profile and whatever else is in the top section - this is what I see:
So, if you had any account weirdness happen to you, change your account password NOW. I'm not saying this will fix it, but may help prevent it if it is a data breach.
I (once again) have all my certs and points back in my account. The one "good" thing about this is that a reservation I hadn't attached a cert to (that I needed to call to do) automatically got its cert attached - however, it was the reservation that "impossibly" had FOUR certs attached to the same reservation and 3 of the certs had to be removed.
I have had exactly the opposite happen, i am trying to redeem points against a booking made in April last year, I have the points but when i try to use the points in the booking i get a Marriott SPG T and C page. This has been with Marriott support since 14th September 2018, still not resolved currently!
Also i have noticed that points bookings do not have the correct redemption value, for example i have a trip for next year that was booked for 640000 points that now somehow shows just over a million points!
Again as per other conversations on here i am getting sick and tired of the lack of response with all aspects of the Marriott.... being charged for no shows when the booking disappeared from both the web and app. Constant issues getting anything resolved and woeful IT issues!
A not so happy LTPP with Amb.
o0o0o0o0o0o...points! Cancelled 2 certificate reservations on 1/4. Certificates STILL have not appeared in J's account even with cancellation email saying they would. I SOOOOO don't want to call but this is just 1 of many reasons I need to.
Did fill out Support Help Form with dates and data. Tried to submit but received
"There was an unexpected error submitting your request. Please send the Community Manager a direct message." C
j&c, I get that message EVERY TIME I try to use the Insiders Help Form, so I just DM the community managers since it never works. I will generally try the Charlie Brown tactic hoping that the next support thing I submit will work, but Insiders continues to pull the football away like Lucy!
Since you have the cancellation email, and hopefully you have the initial confirmation email as well, you may be able to get away with a 5 minute call to get the certs re-issued. I couldn't see my reservations when I needed to call, and I wasn't going through the 8 or so reservations where points and/or certs were auto-applied to attempt to figure out which ones pulled the 2 certs and which ones pulled points. Hopefully it doesn't happen again, but once again, I cannot see my reservations, or "Overview" data today. Seems like it sporadically allows me to see different tabs on different days, as today I can see "Activity".
Wonder what's going to happen around Jan 23-26th when the new "Marriott Bonvoy" website potentially launches - fingers crossed that even more website/account issues don't pop up!
Close Bonvoy launch guess, as it came out today it'll be Feb 13th...I was about 20 days off... oh well...
Another update - (still) can't see ANY reservations in my account, nor can I see anything on the "Overview" page, nor can I see the top half of the profile page (where you change your password and whatever else was there that I cannot remember). Nothing new there...
...However, I've now also learned with the system updates, apparently some customer service reps are being migrated from the "old" system(s) to a "new" system, so they can only see reservations about 30-60 days out apparently - if it is one of those newly 'migrated' reps. Other reps however can still access the old system, so apparently if reps are migrated from the old systems, they no longer have access to them! This may mean they can only access a reservation a couple months out IF you give them the confirmation number.
They are also getting a LOT of complaints of members letting them know they can close their accounts because they are leaving for other programs (transferring points to frequent flyer programs to empty their accounts as quickly as allowed so they can get usage from the points). If it wasn't too bad before, it definitely getting a LOT worse, according to some reps themselves who are sick of getting yelled at and treated horribly over the phone!
Rut-Roh!
Thanks for sharing!
It would be interesting to know which kind of members are closing their accounts. Long-time Lifetime Elites? Recent members? The leisure travellers? The business travellers? (Probably the latter.)
The one thing that would be very interesting is how many of the customer service reps are quitting!!!??? They are just as frustrated as we are, because they are in the dark in some cases, know of some of the issues members are facing and knew how to fix them before, but really don't know how to fix them now and/or don't know how to do them in the "new system". So, to a lot of the members on Insiders, I'd say simply be careful in how you deal with the reps - some are starting to snap on customers and that is inexcusable, but we also should not snap on them - they are corporate Marriott issues, not individually the rep's issues. Yes, some may not be trained enough, some may be incompetent, but there are also some that have just been used to doing things a certain way for years and are being roped into the new program just like we are. I was on the phone yesterday for more than an hour, 3 separate calls, and the 3rd rep I got went above and beyond trying to fix issues, understood those issues, but could not fix them - and found issues within her "new system" as well (not being able to see beyond my Feb reservations, but able to look them up by confirmation number in her system. She also tested looking up my reservations via Google and hitting the Marriott page publicly and searching for confirmation numbers didn't work either, so there are definitely upgrades going on that are breaking things that even the reps know 'should' normally work! Since I cannot see my reservations, she emailed me the next few reservations, and was willing to email me any reservation that I wanted (after she got the list from the other co-worker that was still on the old system). She was just as frustrated as I was and genuinely felt terrible, and we laughed about it because there was nothing either of us could do about it!
More fun: Spent about an hour on the phone with a rep that basically stated everything I was describing was my fault. I was simply calling to try to get the issue of not being able to see my Overview page, reservations, and top half of the profile page resolved. I was trying to get her to escalate the problem, and she continued to try to resolve it herself - after I described how points & certs were snatched out of my account, twice, in one week, automatically. "Sir, you redeemed those points and certs, I can see in the system that they were redeemed". Welp, I'm not the one that did it! Was then told that a travel agency was attached to all of my reservations - again, something else I did not do. For anyone unfamiliar, an IATA # was attached to all my reservations, like they were made through a 3rd party. I didn't have any reservations that were made 3rd party - made on marriott.com almost 100% of the time. I asked the rep to look through my reservations to see if it was attached to all of them, and that "all" turned into "just one" - which that got into another conversation because I couldn't trust what the rep was saying as I was getting conflicting information, from her!
She couldn't remove that number, and said the only way I could get it off was to rebook the reservation, which I agreed to do, and she was willing to do that, but the rate was higher. She then said she couldn't honor the original rate, to which I asked her to escalate it - which she agreed to do, but never did. Needless to say, the entire call resulted in a waste of time.
The end result was that I just canceled the Marriott reservations and booked outside of Marriott to end the confusion with that set of reservations. communitymanagers, there are members attempting to get legitimate problems resolved, and based on poor customer service (and other issues/problems), are moving business elsewhere. Is there a better system available besides "Hang Up, Call Again" hoping to get a better customer service rep? As great as you have been, we all can't send all problems to you and expect you to be able to handle them all in a timely fashion. Any explanation to the original titled issue communitymanagers? It would be nice to know if there was (another) data breach or what happened with various members accounts, as well as why some customer service representatives at this point don't know about this happening???
I believe there is a solution....First I believe Marriott has the technology to do this as well as I am told that they have the capability to check every reservation with the Marriott that dealt with you and can see all that happened, however there are some reps that are seemingly unable to accomplish this. I also do a fair amount of dealings with Disney reservations and after every call you are asked to rate the representative that helped you. So you can answer the basic survey questions but if you had issues you can on the same survey complete a detailed issue. This is attached together so that it can be tracked back to all that happened and any problems. As a result - I find it amazing that I have never had issues with Disney cast member as they know you will be able to report all that happened and it is directly traced back to them. I use to rate Marriott right up there with Disney but unfortunately, they need serious help as this seemingly is a hill too steep for many of them to climb. So Customer service is gravely lacking.
It seems to me, after reading the T&Cs, Marriott has a different expectation regarding redemptions than is being practiced by some. From what I see, some members are making advance reward reservations without attaching points but having sufficient points, possibly waiting until their plans firm up. I have no problem with this approach, but it seems Marriott’s expectation is that points are attached earlier than later, going as far as the member buying the necessary points, if possible. Here are the current T&Cs. Note the properties not participating in this part of the program.
Members who seek to make an Award Redemption with an insufficient Point balance may make the Award Redemption and either (1) purchase Points (as described in Section 2.9) to make a valid Award Redemption, provided that the aggregate amount of Points purchased and/or received as a gift by the Member is less than or equivalent to 50,000 Points per calendar year; or (2) the Member accrues sufficient Points to use Points for payment of the Award Redemption no less than fourteen (14) days prior to Member’s arrival date.
3.6.a. If a purchase of Points is not an option, or if a Member does not have sufficient Points to pay for an Award Redemption with Points fourteen (14) days or less from Member’s arrival date, Member will forfeit the Award Redemption part of the reservation. The Award Redemption may be canceled by the Loyalty Program or the Participating Property and the reservation will be converted to a cash reservation at the best available rate.
3.6.b. Points Advance is not currently offered at the Participating Properties or Brands listed here.
● St. Regis®
● The Luxury Collection®
● W®
● Sheraton®
● Le Méridien®
● Westin®
● Design HotelsTM
● Tribute Portfolio®
● Four Points®
● Aloft® Hotels
● Element®
● Non-branded properties listed in Section 1.2.a.
Good to know, but does not explain the points deducted from my account on January 3 for rewards reservations at an Autograph property (not included in the list above). I was left with a points balance of minus 48,787. To add to the frustration, today a free night certificate expiring in April disappeared from my account. Hour plus on the phone to get it reinstated.
OMG.....Sounds like a nightmare...please let us know how and when it gets resolved.
That's old - Points Advance is offered across the portfolio now, including legacy SPG properties. And, you've always been able to make a Points Advance reservation (since it was made available), whether you had the points and chose not to use them, or didn't have enough.
And it is also using your 1-night certificates as well. It may even use your 7-night certs, but I'm not sure I have any Points Advance reservations for a 7-night stay for them to be automatically used up.