"United Airlines' Marriott code UAL is an airline employee code. United employee IDs are company-issued physical badges. Properties near United hubs (Chicago O'Hare, Newark, Houston Bush, Denver, San Francisco) regularly handle United crew and employees. FlyerTalk's airline code thread: "Airline codes are more likely to be checked than random corporate codes because the front desk knows what an airline badge looks like." No UAL-specific denial documented. Airport corridor Marriott properties: moderate enforcement."

"I swear the front desk employees are trained to resist and encouraged to lie. They try to save the rooms for members with higher status or complainers. I've booked King rooms and they'll assign me a double or a queen. The first rep will tell me they're fully booked and there's nothing they can do. But once transferred to a manager, King rooms magically appear!"

"I work for the front desk, at a Marriott, & have for the last 8 years .... So when it comes to room upgrades; it goes based on AVAILABILITY... sometimes no matter the tier, if we have it available - I will upgrade the guest. Now of course, higher tiered members get dibs on the upgrades first but after we go through the higher tiered members, Ambassador, Titanium, Platinum - then we go through the other ones. I cannot express this enough : BEING NICE & POLITE AT THE DESK GOES A LONG WA"