rny321

When Marriott bought Starwood, it placed a Starwood exec in charge of the Loyalty department. Although there are some differences, the new program resembles the Starwood program. Even under the initial iteration, nobody had either annual or lifetime status taken away and some like SPG Golds were matched to a better annual status than they had at Starwood. At the same time the company didn't feel compelled to offer certain new benefits, like SNA's or Ambassadors to MR Platinum Premieres. Since MR had a 750 night tier, it would have been difficult to match them to the same level as the company's 500 night and lower points tier. Because SPG's highest status level required 500 nights, the initial offer was to match SPG LTP to the same level as the MR members with 500 LT nights. Although anyone joining SPG knew there was no 750 night tier, it was a good business decision to extend to former SPG members the opportunity to achieve LTPP before the window closed.

Those of you who will not become SPG or MR LTP, which is equivalent to the prior top SPG LT level, by the end of the year can still do so. Since executives from both the Marriott and Starwood side should know which of their customers are truly high value, as opposed to those who simply think that they are, my guess is that some exceptions will be made for those individuals who merit one. Although I believe the most likely exceptions will be at the annual level, maybe one of you could come up with a proposal that would give the company an incentive to grant you LTPP. Perhaps those who were close to qualifying, could achieve LTPP after several years at the Ambassador level.