It wasn’t lifetime status, they were separate tiers that SPG had

For those that remembered the old numbers they used to start with letters and the letter would change when you reached a tier

standard —> A
gold —> G
Platinum —> P
VIP —> V

there we’re 2 more unpublished tiers (besides VIP)

Corporate —> C
Employee —> E

i actually had one of each of these, and they transferred to the new Bonvoy program. The only thing I can’t seem to find is exactly how the details transferred over.

as I mentioned I found that the corporate preferred levels changed to silver elite for 1 year and then got downgraded to a standard tier. My employee number seemed to just switch to a standard number. The thing is I haven’t had activity on them for 3 years now, aside from me logging in and checking on them, and the points are all still there. So I’m wondering if the points don’t expire on either of theses “transfers” because of their old SPG tier.