As people are tired of hearing me say, I got comped to Plat. That year, I did 143 nights in Marriott, and I'll do about 125 this year. So, from their point of view, it was a good decision.

A colleague of mine, who I turned on to Marriott, actually had a longer history with Marriott and more stays planned. He was comped to Gold.

So it does matter who you talked to. I wound up sending my documentation along with the business case to SLC. I didn't demand any particular level, just asked if they could do anything. I was quite surprised when they came back with a platinum comp.

But it was definitely not a case of getting status just to have status. And as far as using up all the award space, there isn't much of a club in Fairfield Inns (where I do all my nights), and I have yet to do an award stay at a Marriott property