We’ve all been there before where the system uses the wrong free night certificates instead of the one you intended. Time to take matters into your own hands.

Earning multiple free night certificates

When you’ve been in the game for a while, you’re inevitably going to rack up free night certificates. All of the major hotels chains have them.

• Hilton has Free Night Rewards, which you can use at any hotel that has standard points availability.
• Hyatt has three types of free night certificates:
  • Category 1-4 Free Night Awards, earned via credit cards, their brand explorer benefit, or via milestone rewards.
  • Category 1-7 Free Night Awards, earned via milestone rewards.
  • Ultimate Free Night Awards, earned via milestone rewards.
• IHG has two types of free night certificates:
  • Anniversary Free Night, valid for up to 40,000 points or you can top off with more points as needed and obtained via credit cards.
  • Anniversary Free Night (legacy), valid for up to 40,000 points but cannot be topped off. This is only available for those who have the no-longer-available IHG Select credit card.
• Marriott has a variety of free night certificates, where you can top off each with up to 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy points:
  • 25K Free Night Awards
  • 35K Free Night Awards
  • 40K Free Night Awards
  • 50K Free Night Awards
  • 85K Free Night Awards

If you have multiple credit cards, it will be easy to rack up many of them, each with their own expiration date. It’s also important to note that some certificates have a shorter expiration date than others (such as Hyatt’s certificates earned via milestone rewards).

Making sure the right one is pulled

You’d think the system works perfectly and knows which one to use. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. No one knows the “correct” order to use up the certificates but you. Maybe Certificate A allows for more expensive hotels but expires soon, while Certificate B allows for a smaller selection of hotels but expires in nearly a year. You want to stay at a hotel that both certificates could be used at. Which one is the system supposed to pull?

So here’s a tip. What could you do to force the system to pull the right certificate from your account?

• Take inventory of all the free night certificates in your account. Take a screenshot of all of them.
• Use up the other certificates you don’t want to use on dummy reservations. Important: keep note of cancelation policies.
  • This might require you to book hotels that cannot be used by the one you want to use.
  • Example 1: you have a Hyatt Category 1-4 and a Category 1-7 certificate. You want to use the Category 1-4 certificate and do not want the Category 1-7 certificate to apply. To get around this, book a Category 5-7 hotel temporarily to use up your Category 1-7 certificate.
  • Example 2: similar scenario but with varying expiration dates. You can choose a later date that will use up the one you don’t want to use first, make a dummy booking, and allowing you to use the one you want on the proper hotel.
• Once other certificates are used up, book the hotel you originally intended and make sure you’ve used the right one.
• Go back and cancel the other dummy hotel reservations. Make sure you get your certificates back.
  • I’ve heard of others having a problem with certificates returning to their account after canceling. Personally, this has never happened to me. But that’s where the screenshot can come in handy. You’ll have to connect with customer service to get it back at this point.

Is there any recourse for using the wrong one?

Unfortunately, not officially.

Now, if you happen to catch that the wrong one is used before your stay, you might be able to get someone to assist with swapping the one you used with the one you intended. You can try doing it yourself, but I’d only recommend doing that if you see points availability currently available before you cancel. You’ll also want to make sure you haven’t crossed the free cancelation period before you do cancel so you don’t have an unexpected charge show up. Only then can you safely swap on your own without penalty.

What about if you don’t see award space available or the cancelation period has passed? You can try calling up the hotel chain to ask for assistance. I have had success from chains in the past for this same scenario. Of course, it helps to have elite status as you might get better soft treatment than what’s explicitly written in the terms.

If your stay is complete and you realized it too late, I find you’re going to be out of luck. The certificate is usually considered redeemed at this point and cannot be modified. Even if the wrong one got pulled without you knowing, don’t expect to be made whole. Ultimately, it’s your responsibility to make sure the right certificate is used, as frustrating as that can be sometimes.

Suggested reading:

• How to Emulate Hotel Elite Status
• How to Book Award Travel Like a Pro
• Keep or Cancel: How to Handle Too Many Credit Cards