Originally Posted by
CPRich
Yes, I had thought about both increased bonuses and inflation on rooms netting more points per night for everyone. I still think the 2666/night is high, given that 2500/night was high just 3 years ago. But I also didn't go back to the 2000/night (750/1.5M) - putting it somewhere in the middle. I'm sure MR has more data points than I to find a happy medium. I'm at about 2280/night, so 1.6-1.7M seems right if I'm typical.
Either way, 2M seems high and I suspect points are back to the limiting factor for most folks, as it was pre-2009.
EDIT: Interestingly, CJKatl is at 2,667-2,695, so maybe MR is on target. Maybe my "typical" stays are on the low side.
In any case, it's a bit academic for me. I've moved from looking to hit Gold in a couple years to well in excess of Platinum in just three years due to the program changes. Now I'm interested in whether there will be anything special other than the status. I must admit, the metal SPG lifetime PLT card is a great little brand loyalty-building trinket.
All of what you have calculated is really interesting, and is certainly helpful. It would have been especially helpful to me, if I was not suddenly "across the LT Plat finish line."
My lifetime accumulated points is 2,634,248.
My lifetime accumulated room nights is 836.
My lifetime points to night ratio is 3,151.
I guess that means my average room rate per night is a bit higher than your projected average, and I would have been comfortably over the points threshold upon hitting 750 nights, at 2,363,250. Without doing extremely laborious research to determine all of my non-folio points (welcome gifts, bonuses, compensation, etc.), I can only guess at those points additions to my account. I would guess 20% as a reasonable number attributable to non-folio points. Subtracting 20% from my points/night ratio would leave 2,521, and then subtracting a further 33.3% (to reflect the Plat bonus of 50%*), would leave 1,681.51, which would seem to indicate my average rate of $168.15/night. What do you think, am I on the high side for average rates paid by elite members?
*I realize that the bonus was 30% up until fairly recently, but for the purposes of this exercise, "quick and dirty" is sufficient, and perfect is not a realistically achievable result.
I also agree with you, some sort of a memorable, hard wearing, long lasting, keepsake style LT identity card would not only be desirous, but it would also induce continued loyalty to MI, as would one or two additional benefits for LT members, at least for those reaching Gold and Platinum (as I have said before, I do not think much of a status which only requires as little as 10 nights per year on a continuing basis).