Originally Posted by Marriott Concierge
When you achieve an elite level the status is good for the remainder of the calendar year, plus one more full year. For example, if you had 75 nights from 5/1/05 to 5/1/06, you would be a Platinum member for the remainder of 2006 and all of 2007.
Once the Platinum level has been achieved it must be renewed with 75 nights in the full calender year. Referring to the example, you would need to stay 75 nights in 2007 or your status would be Gold for 2008. <snip>
Chris
__________________
Chris Janecek
Marriott Rewards
[email protected]
As noted elsewhere, in CY 2005 I missed requalifying for Gold by only a few nights, and as a result was downgraded to Silver and received, in due course, my Silver Marriott Rewards card valid through 02/2007.
In March I applied for and received an upgrade of my VISA card to Premier Signature, and along with it on about 23 March the 15 bonus nights were credited to my account, bringing my "rolling 12 month" total to 62. The following Monday I showed as Gold again on the Marriott website. (Actually, I showed as Platinum for the first couple days, but that was soon corrected to Gold.)
I was not surprised, therefore, to recently receive in the mail an envelope from Marriott Rewards which (I could feel) contained a new membership card. I opened the envelope and indeed there was a Gold card, marked as valid through 02/2008.
This all tracks what
Chris said above.
What's interesting is that the accompanying letter, dated early April, began:
Dear Mr. Counsellor,
I'm delighted to inform you that as one of Marriott's most valued guests, we've upgraded your Elite membership in Marriott RewardsŪ from Silver to Gold.
We understand that your travel schedule this past year may not have allowed you to make the required number of stays needed for an automatic upgrade. However, we wish to reward your steadfast loyalty to MarriottŪ with this complementary* upgrade to Gold Elite status, and hope you will continue to make Marriott your first choice when making your travel plans.
Now, a couple years back I also missed requalifying by just a couple nights, and received a similar letter which essentially "waived" the missing nights, and gave me a complimentary rather than earned renewal. It may be that when the computer upgraded me to Gold based on the "rolling" 12-month period, it simply generated this letter rather than the "you've earned Gold" letter. Not a problem.
However, the letter also includes one extremely interesting sentence:
Your Gold level status will be renewed in 2007 if you personally stay at least 50 nights with us during 2006.
As I understand
Chris' posting above, the reaching of over 50 nights during the rolling 12-month period would have qualified me for Gold for the rest of 2006, all of 2007, and up to 02/2008. The card Marriott sent me also says that, but the accompanying letter does not.
I don't think it matters to me, since I'll easily make the 50 nights this year at the rate I'm going, and indeed, if I can pick up the pace a bit may even be able to qualify as Platinum by early autumn on the rolling 12-month period, but the inconsistency is rather interesting. To someone used to the Hilton practice of sometimes giving cards indicating status for a multi-year period but still requiring requalification each year, this could be confusing.
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* Sic. While it did indeed tend to make me more nearly complete, a complimentary Platinum would have been even more complementary.
