Unfortunately I find many reps are not up on the latest rules with their own program. I seriously doubt MR IT will be downgrading only the people that did a challenge a month before those that did not do a challenge. And that's presuming they haven't requalified in the mean time.

I have seen posts from people that are still on their challenge that was started before MR shut them down. Many have posted their request had been refused. Since some of them have been "manual" challenges, maybe there are a few rouge CSRs that haven't read all their eMail yet.

But yes, under the previous rules, starting a challenge in the first half got you less time IF you did not make the normal nights to earn status. The advantage of doing a status in the first half is if you want your status quicker and either will not be staying with MI past the end of your challenge. Or if you will be meeting the challenge but not staying at MIs past the end of Feb of the next year. There appears to be many "short-timers" that only want status when they expect to be staying and won't earn it normally showing loyalty to the loyalty program.