holtju2

It is not guaranteed. You can put in a request up to 5 days before your stay that the property may or may not confirm.

You can contact SPG by Chat, Twitter, or by phone 247. I have more bad stays with the Marriott than I have had with SPG and I have had around 600 nights with both (award nights included).

I just hate that Marriott Rewards customer service is only open during regular business hours and closed on Sunday. I presume that this is due to religious reasons being a Mormon run hotel company?

hhoope01

I definitely agree with you on the limited hours for customer service. While I'm all for religious freedom, personal choice, etc, if you're going to be in the service industry, customer service should be based around your customers, not just your staff.

But with all that said, I've actually had more issues over the years with Starwood hotels not following their own rules than I have had with Marriott's. (I've had more than one hotel not honor the SPG 4PM guaranteed late check-out benefit. And to compound that problem, the SPG Plat line doesn't seem to know their own rules very well, including their supervisors.)

And my experience has been that Marriott hotels are much more likely to go above and beyond the base T&Cs and provide extra benefits. (i.e. I'm almost 100% at suite upgrades on CYs this year with about 50 nights, I also tend to get offers of both points AND choice of an item out of their store area or get 2 choices.) And BTW, my luck with suite upgrades at Starwood hotels (outside of the King Edwards in Toronto which isn't even a Starwood anymore) is almost nil. (Most of my stays are Westins and Sheratons in NA.)

So after being an SPG Plat for the last 4 years, I actually moved most of my business back to Marriott this year (with some stays at Hiltons due to my company's getting me comp'd to Gold there).

turbov6

I had a very similar experience receiving a rejection email followed by an acceptance email a couple hours later all in the same day for The Taste of Gold promotion.

I accepted the offer for Gold Status 7 days ago, however my online account still isn't showing Gold status yet. I have attempted to follow-up with Marriott twice since then (replying to the email with the offer) however they have gone unresponsive.

Does anyone know how long it takes for the account status to change online after accepting an offer for the Taste of Gold promotion? The email said it should take effect in 24-48 hours.

Flapster

When I did the challenge, the new level showed up pretty soon afterwards.

Happy

If it is done properly i.e. not fouled up at Marriott's end, the status would change within 24 hours.

I had the foul up by Marriott - the email was never responded so I called, the rep on the phone said he did not see ANY such offer attached to my account so he did it over the phone and told me I was all set and to expect an email confirmation in next 24-48 hours. The email never came. When I called back I was told my account was on the 12 nights instead of 6 stays. I told the rep that wasn't what I was told. The rep had to dig deeper and found the discrepancy. He then went to confer his supervisor, came back to tell me there was some miscommunication (from whom?!) but now my account was back to 6 stays - though it had to be MANUALLY done once I complete the requirement to call back and he would personally be responsible to monitor my account to ensure the Challenge is indeed successful.

I eventually called 2 days later just to make sure there were indeed proper notation in my account for the subsequent correction of the initial SNAFU. I was lucky to get a very helpful rep this time. She took it upon herself to verify everything and promised to send me an email confirmation to the effect. She even told me that all outgoing emails have to go thru another dept for "scrutiny to make sure everything going out is correct." (her words) so expect a couple days delay. The promised email did come and gave the correct starting date of the Challenge (by that time I already had my 1st stay).

So I would suggest you to call if you haven't received anything the next 2 days after you have accepted the offer.

beckoa

Seems I made it due to a few good LNF rates in HNL with hotel hopping and one last one in ANC (a bit of a mattress run) to seal the deal. Just waiting for the last one to post- too bad its all been CY so far- hope for a FS property or two in 2013...

Flapster

Couple of quick questions:

1. How come some people are offered stays and some are offered nights? Is it at the discretion of Marriott?

2. How/where do you get certificates for stays? Is that if you choose to earn miles rather than points?

Dolphinyong

1. The recent challenge mostly based on stays, some do still report about nights...No harm to make a request.

2. If you mean cat1-4 free night cert by registering for Megabonus, then yes, you have to set your earning preference as earning points...

Flapster

Thanks.

1. No complaints from me. I registered for the gold challenge and got 'nights' offered to me. Made it quite easily, and am now pushing for platinum (was late to the party!).

2. Is it maybe just for US residents? I am earning points, and registered for the Megabonus (have made it, 40,000 points). Saw no mention of free night certificates? Anything I can do to follow up on this?

Happy

Points are more valuable than free night cert which is limited to cat 4 and capped at 3 in total. Points dont expire versus certs expire in a year (better than before when they expired in 6 months!) Quite a number of PLATs here wish they could switch their cat 4 free night cert offer to point bonuses. If you can amass boatload of points the travel package redemption offers the best value.

opusone

has anyone used gift cards for the challenge?

BKKLEE

no problem PROVIDED the hotel you're staying at is a participating property....

nabright

I am gold at the moment and am thinking of doing the platinum challenge. I have 28 nights this year. If I fail the platinum challenge can I still buy back gold

BKKLEE

this question has been asked, and answered before.............in the pastyears members were able to buy back status for as I recall 25,000MR points, but just because this ability was available before does not mean it will be available again after the close of 2012............ from other posters here on FT, MRs was no longer offering gold/plat challenges - have you found out from MR differently???????

Goonerfish

I bought my gold status back a few months ago and it cost me 40k points. Apparently the 25k deal was only during that promotion period early on in the year.