I think this should clear things up a bit. I am currently silver and a few night from Gold. I inquired as to whether or not I'd be bumped if I came in at 48 or 49 nights. They responded with this which clarifies many of the questions on this thread.

A few key points:

- Looks like Silver is ALWAYS calendar year
- When reaching Gold/Platinum for the FIRST TIME it is trailing 12 months

Read the below email for more detail . . .

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Elite nights and status for Silver members are calculated by the number of nights achieved from 1/1-12/31 of each calendar year.

As of August 17th, 2005 for our Gold and Platinum members, initial Elite level achievement is handled differently. To achieve Gold or Platinum, a member only need stay the required number of nights in any rolling calendar year. As an example, let's say that you had 30 nights from September 1st, 2004 to December 31st, 2004 and 45 nights from January 1st, 2005 to September 1st, 2005. As this would give you 75 nights in a rolling year, you would qualify for out Platinum status.

As always, any Elite status you earn would be valid for the calendar year you achieved the status in, as well as the next calendar year. In order to maintain your Elite status for subsequent years, you would need to stay the required number of nights during a fixed, non-rolling calendar year. Please note that the Elite night counter will reset every January 1st of each new calendar year.