Originally Posted by
noob23
It was like pulling teeth to get the challenge to gold, and they lady did say that they would only offer a single step up (ie nothing to silver, silver to gold, etc). A possible strategery would be to get the chase credit card for the 15 nights to silver and then try to get an agent who will give him the taste challenge.
I called on Monday pretending to be my friend to sign him up for the megabonus. He's French Canadian (lives in the US now) & his first name formal could be for girl or guy, although the shortened version of it is obviously male. But given his first name the agent just assumed it was female, hence me being able to be him (if you followed that!).
Anyway, while I was getting him registered for the megabonus she said something about he's at x & she could give him an elite night to get him to silver. I asked if he/I could do a gold offer & she said she didn't see that. Since I figured if we took the 1-night to silver that would screw up any chance of getting a gold later, I told her no thanks, just sign him/me up for the megabonus. He'll get to silver on his own pretty soon with upcoming stays/nights, and I figured once he did that & had some more stays booked then I'd call back in & try to get the upgrade to gold.
I did suggest that he get the Marriott Visa because of the 15 nights going towards Gold, Cat 1-5, etc, but (unlike many FTers) he doesn't like to have too many credit cards. I'm going to see him in a week & will walk him through the pros if he decides he can handle one more.
He's like a lot of my friends that travel, that sign up for programs & go for points but don't pay attention to promos, what bennies will get them, etc (which is one reason I don't worry about those who get comp'd status - for every one of those there's one that doesn't pay attention).
Anyway I'm trying to train him; we'll see how it goes. He did give me his account # & log-in info, so I'll log on to his account in the next day or so & see what promos there are/where he's at, so we can set up a strategy for him.
Originally Posted by
sockster
Just hung up w Marriott rewards. They give you 90 days to have nine separate stays OR 18 nights, and then you are upgraded from gold to platinum- it was simple to sign up.
Hmm, wonder if that's true with Gold. I need to check w/ my friend to find out his upcoming stays & then, if it does work, time the call to ask when he's got ressies/could hit it. Interesting that they went back to stays OR nights.
Hope your experience wasn't a one-off. I know it wasn't available on Monday when I called pretending to be my friend.
Cheers.