So this is a nice surprise, but I have no idea how it happened. I've been a Marriott Gold for several years now, but never say near enough to even think about Platinum. So far this year I've only stayed about 18-20 paid nights, but I also have the Visa platinum.

I signed up for the double night bonus, which my last week stay qualified for. So the Marriott web site shows I have 39 nights this year, with 36 more nights to maintain platinum status.

Earlier this week I signed into my account and it now shows me as a Platinum member. I thought...cool..but why/how?

I've heard of challenges before where if you stay a certain number of nights that Marriott will grant you higher status on the assumption you will continue to book nights the rest of the year. But I never initiated any such request.

Is Marriott so hard up now that they are upgrading gold members to Platinum?