Looks like it's Marriott for me. I already have 40k MR points so this will just add on.

As for the 8 nights mention above, I am not looking at nights but stays as the MR Plat Challenge appears to be 9 stays within 90 days. I'll have that easily and with the fronting of Plat (if it happens) I should enjoy all my early trips as well as plenty upcoming.

I was Marriot Gold for CY '11 and enjoyed the lounges and access for my trips. In '12 they soft-landed me to Silver. I do hope that they'll allow a challenge to Plat staring on Dec 30th. They also did have easy & reasonably priced availability for the locations I was visiting. Now it all comes down to the Challenge.