Neither of those analogies are really identical to this. Both are sorta close I guess...

Bottom line: Marriott has a history of applying their own internal unpublished edits to members' status levels every year. This has always been in favor of the member. I have personally benefited from generous extensions when I didn't meet the published level.

I don't believe any of us feels a sense of entitlement or expectation that this should happen to us personally in any given year. If I had 74 EQN on Dec 30, I'd find the cheap Fairfield and not leave it to chance.

I think where people are getting irritated is when Marriott goes ahead and then gives them that "mulligan" and then yanks it away later. We didn't feel entitled to the initial status bump, but we also don't feel like Marriott should reverse their initial decision. Worst case, they should have followed the exact published criteria to begin with.

(Disclaimer: they granted me Plat in 2010 even though I didn't fully earn it. I just logged in: I'm still Plat. I was fully expecting a drop to Gold this year and am thankful to still be Plat. But I admit I'd be irritated if now, on January 26th, Marriott dropped me a level.)