Originally Posted by NJTraveler
In 1994, upon earning over 1.2 million Marriott points, I received a letter from the "Corporate Special Services" liaison that presented me with "Club Marquis Black Level Automatic Renewal status". (The Black Card is now equivalent to the Gold Card.) I have stayed at Marriotts on a fairly consistent basis since, though I'll be the first to admit that I don't stay close to 25 or 50 nights a year anymore.
Well, lo and behold, now I receive a letter saying that I have achieved "Lifetime Silver Elite membership".
What happened to the commitment given me in 1994? I was told "be assured that you will continue to enjoy these (Black Card) benefits for the balance of your Marriott hotel experience". I'm probably close to 2 million points lifetime by now.
I'll be contacting Elite Services to address this, but I'm wondering if other FT'ers have received the same treatment.
"Automatic Renewal" is a Marriott internally-paid-for status that sets an individual's account to that status for as long as the party inside Marriott continues to pay for it. This is known as a "referral". It's available for all three standard levels, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
As soon as the paying party inside Marriott ceases to pay for it (i.e. stops "referring"), it goes away, and normal nights earnings (or other achieved special status') take over.
Auto-Renew is handled through one channel (normal expirations/renewals, etc.), and Lifetime status is handled through another channel (a manual process done at Corporate), which is why you may receive a notice stating you've achieved a "Lifetime" level that is lower than your actual current "earned" or "Auto-Renewing" status.
I do not know why the Lifetime notices don't mention current higher status'.