The Marriott suite at crypto.com arena is pretty nice, but I found support prior to the event a bit lacking.

Booking

As regular readers might know, I’ve been tempted to use hotel and airline points for various experiences. We’ve done a couple of excellent United Airlines events that were more social, we’ve done a Delta event that was more intimate, and now it’s Marriott’s turn. Right after we returned from our Tokyo trip, I had booked this Marriott Bonvoy Moment. Alex has been very interested in basketball and is a fan of the Lakers, so I thought this was a perfect chance to take him to a game.

Some events on the Marriott Bonvoy Moments site are true auctions, but the Lakers game was a simple purchase as long as there was availability. The price for the game was 75,000 Marriott points for two tickets. You can think of that price as roughly a one-night stay for the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver. The Lakers command a higher premium; if you’re just interested in any event here in the suite, you could opt instead for the LA Kings or Sparks, which might be half the price. Note you can bring a child as your guest, but the child must be at least six years old for this one.

The one slightly-surprising thing about the purchase was the lack of communication. I was supposed to have received my tickets days in advance but never did, and all I could find was a day-of contact and a link to Marriott’s general support prior to the event. Well, I called Marriott’s support and they were confused about how to assist and didn’t give any useful advice (check spam folders and just keep waiting) before hanging up on me. There was contact information for Rhys, the day-of contact, and eventually Rhys did help but I didn’t get my tickets sent over until the morning of the event. While Marriott offers these events, it feels as though they don’t have the same level of support required as United or Delta have to handle these events.

The Event

We made our way over to Staples Center crypto.com Arena where we found huge crowds gathered in front of the statues of former players. Alex wanted to take his picture in front of a few of them and then we were off.

As the Marriott event was in their box, we could use the side entrance that would give elevator access up to the floor we needed to be at. Wandering around a bit, we got to the Marriott suite in B16. For whatever reason, the scanner wasn’t working for me to gain entry but the attendant opened the door anyways and let us in when he heard someone struggling outside.

Just inside, we found that we were the last ones to arrive (maybe since we stopped by the team apparel store to buy appropriate clothing). The Marriott suite is decorated quite tastefully, with a comfy couch that was never used.

And a bunch of do not disturb signs from a variety of their hotels. I actually thought it was a quite cute display.

The food spread was pretty decent, though the blue mood lighting wreaked havoc on my (lack of) photography skills. I’ll have to apologize for the visually unappealing nature of the lighting. The food itself is pretty standard if you’ve been to any other box suite here. Expect a salad, fruit, a couple of hot dishes, some snacks when watching the games, and some cookies for dessert.

Also available are drinks. One fridge was stocked with non-alcoholic options and the other housed the booze.

While no one wanted to actually use most of the seating in the suite, Alex wanted to pose in front of the sign for a fun picture.

We then made it down to the box seats, ready to watch the game. There are a total of 12 seats here. In case you are curious, of the 12 attendees, three of them were minors and all of them well-behaved.

I’m glad they have the walls partitioning off each suite be made of glass to make it so no seat has unobstructed views. You almost can’t tell the glass wall is taking up half the view.

After halftime, a dessert cart came rolling around out in the hallway and we were offered any dessert we wanted from the cart. Alex chose a bag of gummies. I went with a slice of red velvet cake with a scoop of ice cream. I was thinking Alex was going to share with me, but he said he wasn’t hungry and so I was all on my own.

Towards the end of the night, we took one final picture to memorialize the evening.

Odds and Ends

The Marriott event came with access to the Hyde Lounge, but I didn’t bother checking it out, mostly because Alex was pretty settled in during the game and I didn’t want to interrupt his experience.

The same floor also is home to the American Express Centurion Suite. I could have accessed with one of my Amex Business Platinum cards, but again, I didn’t feel the need to as I already was in a pretty decent suite.

I ended up paying for parking at the venue. It wasn’t the cheapest option at $40, but surprise, surprise it somehow counted as a Resy restaurant on my Delta Reserve card and I got $20 off. I haven’t been the best at using those monthly $20 Resy credits, but I got this month covered.

Recommendation: I’m Hesitant to Say Yes

The event itself went pretty well once I had tickets secured, and Alex had a blast. So from that perspective I’d be open to attending another Marriott event. However, the difficulty in securing my tickets and the lack of help Marriott could provide until the day of the event holds me back from wanting to make another purchase. I know there are teams dedicated to this at both United and Delta, where it’s relatively easy to get in touch with someone before the event.

Have you done a Marriott Moments event before?