Marriott Rewards (including Ritz-Carlton) - Platinum Challenge - 5 Nights Needed

I am a gold member currently enrolled in a platinum challenge (April 1 to June 30) and have 13 nights thus far. I travel fairly regularly, but won't have any business travel scheduled for the remainder of the month.

Is it worth it to spend the money for 5 nights to obtain platinum status through Feb 2014? Is there any other way to get credit for "nights" ie. meeting rooms? I live in California so the cheapest rate is a 2 hour drive away. Is there a way to pay for the room without actually being present?


If I don't pay for the additional nights, when is the next time I can do another challenge?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

make it happen. The 25% (gold) vs. 50% (plat) bonus, plus plat checkin bonus is worth it right there. My suggestion would be to make the res, go check in and then after the 5 nights go check out. You don't need to be there during the week. No other way to get eligible nights, meeting "nights" don't count. If you don't finish it, the earliest you will be able to try again is next year (not sure if it's 12 months from now or January, but I think 12 months from now).

yes, only the nights actually stayed will count.

however, shouldn't it also depend on whether the OP will cross the plat threshold during the remaining calendar year through natural stay patterns? qualifying through Feb 14 by the challenge of course could free up opportunity to level up in other programs too if OP's travel schedule allows it.

OP, I guess it comes down to how much is the 5 nights going to cost you? You're checking rather close to the 6/30 deadline.

I would have suggested doing some weekend stays at the cheapest Marriott brand you could find last weekend & this upcoming weekend, along w/ 1 weeknight stay. But if you can't get that, then how much are a mixture of weekend nights next weekend and some weeknight stays this week going to cost? Can you afford it?

In hindsight it would have been better to check sooner rather than close to the deadline.

What Plat gets you is 50% vs 30%, Plat amenity gift, room override & a bit of better success with upgrades. As Gold, you already have exec lounge access.

If you can afford it & plan on staying at Marriotts a lot in '12 & '13, then go for it. If you can't quite afford to do the stays in such a short period of time/$$wise, then stick w/ Gold & wait a year to do it again. I think it's 12-months from when you did the original challenge, although that one I'm not sure.

Cheers.