Originally Posted by
hockeyinsider
It looks like you can fly from New York to Jakarta for under $660. You could book one of those $30-50 per night hotels for a month. If you stay there, you stay there. You don't need to physically check-out thanks to Marriott's mobile application. If you need 35 nights, $40 x 35 = $1400 + $660 = $2060. If I was short 35 nights for lifetime status, I'd totally do it.
Please forgive me for unpacking this nonsense...
First, if someone is 35 nights away from Plat why would they want to pay to be Plat? Obviously it's not a big enough group for Marriott to care. And even if such a person exists, he/she would likely have four CY meetings for $600 (price in suburban ATL) and save the extra money needed to get to Indo? And who has a month and a half to be away from home, family, jobs, etc, just to get Marriott status?
And yes, Marriott is a global company and program, and someone staying in Indo enough nights will be Plat Prem, getting lots of benefits, but obviously Marriott has determined that based on the low amount of revenue it does not warrant a US based Ambassador, which is based on US costs. It is simple, logical economics.
The minimum economic spend for the highest level makes sense. It ensures Marriott is allocating expensive marketing dollars to those who are worth it in terms of economic return.