This isn’t news; Marriott had announced last summer that the new Lifetime Plat Premier status (now to be called Lifetime Titanium) would only be offered once—with that sweep coming sometime this month or perhaps around the Feb 13 introduction of the new Bonvoy program. This Lifetime Titanium level was never to be offered again.

Chances are good that the bulk of Lifetime Titanium members are older and are expected to not be a significant proportion of Marriott Bonvoy elites in the coming years. So the fact that one can only attain Lifetime Titanium status based on pre-2019 qualifications might not make much of a difference after another 5-10 years or so. Marriott is counting on that, I’m sure, and has done the statistical analysis to feel comfortable with that.

Other than getting a few more points (negligible), having suite upgrade potential at Ritz-Carlton/Edition (which doesn’t seem to happen much anyway), and having suite upgrade priority over regular Platinums (which would happen with regular Ambassador and Titanium guests, anyway), I don’t think it’s going to be that big a deal in the end.