MSPeconomist

rny321

Many of Marriott's responses to questions about lifetime status seem to provide a definitive answer to what status each of us will have until they mention the new program. Yesterday, I asked a Marriott representative the "lifetime status question" and was assured that I would be LTPP based on MR points and combined stays, which sounded great until the new program was mentioned.

Since I have already qualified for LTG (future LTP), where I spend and stay for the balance of this year will be a function of whether or not that activity would qualify me for a higher status level. Over the course of rephrasing the same question, I was eventually told unequivocally that I would be LTPP based on 2MM Marriott points and a combined 750 plus nights. The rep happily agreed to add notes in my account stating that I would qualify for LTPP. I am not convinced that Marriott would willingly honor an inaccurate answer, even if it was the reason for my decision to move spending to Marriott, but I felt better having notes added about future status.

margarita girl

The difference is so small between LTP and LTPP, I'm surprised Hilton can squeeze in there. So Hilton is better than LTP and not as good as LTPP?

I will be LTPP, but honestly when I realized how infinitesimal the difference was, I stopped caring. Wish I could gift my higher tier to someone who actually cares.

Plus anyone can be PP just by staying 75 nights/yr which I will easily achieve with Marriott's larger footprint (and credit card nights and meeting nights).

rny321

Since I will receive 15 credit card nights and commonly have about 15 award nights each year, the additional 2.5 points/$ in years when I have less than the 45 paid nights for Platinum Premier isn't a large number. For me, the biggest difference is United Silver, which has been part of the program for several years. If there ends up being a significant difference in upgrades, LTPP might be more important than I expect.

phltraveler

LTP and LTPP in the new MR program have minimal differences at this point. The overwhelming majority of people are going to balk on the 48 hour guarantee because the rack rates are ridiculous and 99.99% of people will either book a different Marriott or non-Marriott location with availability, travel on a different date, or not travel. 75% vs. 50% elite point bonus is nice if you're actively qualifying each year with real hotel spend but makes little difference on occasional leisure stays, certainly not enough for a lot of people to chase it. The Suite Night Awards are only for people who actively qualify in a given year, so none for lifetime, so no difference between LTP and LTPP there.

LTPP may be worth it later though:

1) In old MR, Plat Premier was an unlisted status that did code differently at the front desk (Platinum generally coded as P6, while Plat Premier Coded as X4. There is word that people who got Ambassadors in Marriott coded at M0. Before, neither Plat Premier nor Ambassador had any publicly known qualification criteria (Plat Premier was "top three percent" with no mentioned criteria, many believed it to be 120+ nights and some spend put through god knows what formula - I never found any consensus on the ambassador status, some people were really miffed to be Plat Premier and not get an ambassador). Now they're both going to be published levels at different qualification status. So while many hotels generally failed to recognize PP or Ambassador status differently than regular old Plat in old MR, now they will be published qualification levels, and hotels may give preferential treatment to higher status elites. This will remain to be seen. Particularly in regards to non-SNA upgrades (space available at check-in), Marriott may prioritize Plat Premier 100+ night + $20K over Plat Premier over Plat for suites.

2) In new MR, Plat Premier replaces old Plat, and new plat replaces Gold. I did get better treatment from properties going from Gold to Plat in the old program. Hotels are going to see both more plats and plat premiers under the new program. Going along with point #1 , the Plat Premier has a different level for active stay.

3) Marriott made LTPP grandfathered only in the new program. If there's barely any difference between LTP and LTPP, why limit it? LTPP doesn't get the SNAs anyways, so it's not like there's a substantial cost difference between LTP and LTPP status for Marriott. It's just 25% more points. Grandfathering only people with prior status creates a finite amount of LTPPs, which means come 2019 there will be a finite supply of LTPPs that will only decrease over time (people die and others might break MR terms and have their status revoked). Marriott has already set a line in the sand that this status is one thing and this status is another. Nothing prevents Marriott from adding benefits to PP (and therefore LTPP) and not adding them to Platinum in the future. Marriott has already indicated that RewardsPlus complimentary United Silver Elite Status will be for Plat Premier only, for instance. (Whether or not Delta, United, or both remain around for the Marriott crossover airline status is now questionable though). Nothing also prevents Marriott from removing benefits from Plat and not Plat Premier in the future either. I'm a cynic and I believe that MR will absorb the combined program, let any outrage die down,and at a later point will be differentiating plat/plat premier further.

Now again, the word is may. Marriott could keep the statuses minimally different long term, they could introduce even more levels above Plat Premier, they could backtrack later and eventually allow LTPP qualification after stopping eligibility in 2019. I strongly doubt these points, but they're all possible. There's a lot of maybes in the above though.

If I was short on the legacy MR Plat criteria of 750 nights and points were irrelevant, I would definitely consider "buying up" before the end of 2018 through Rewarding Events at $8/night. That would depend on how far behind I was - 10 nights (one meeting) is an easy decision. If it were 100, maybe not.

I'm kind of curious if rewarding events will be staying around because the new lifetime qualification criteria (for 2019 and beyond) is purely nights with no revenue (points) requirement, just total nights and years at status. It would make chasing lifetime status a lot more appealing, because you only need the credit card and one meeting [15 credit card nights + 10 nights from Rewarding Events meeting] to hit gold in a year, and credit card plus four meetings to hit Plat in a year. People have gotten nights posted for no-show meetings costing less than $80. At that price, anyone who is close to plat or plat premier in a year can just "buy-up" to the status that year, and part of that buy ups would be 5 suite night awards when hitting those statuses in a current year.

All Marriott has said is come August 1st Rewarding Events will still be the same - not that it won't change after that date.

In old MR, the 3 points per dollar on meetings (8 points if the meeting was charged on MR visa) was kind of a disincentive on Rewarding Events nights in terms of qualifying for lifetime status, because then unless you had already hit the points requirement, it increased the average spend you needed for the other nights in order to hit the 1.2M/1.6M/2M points thresholds. The new one has no such limitation.

Also in regards to the credit cards, chase seems to be going hard on getting people to switch to the new MR Visa (upgrade offers of points, certs will only be good for 25,000 points on old card and good for 35,000 on the new one) which leads me to suspect when the new card becomes available they will stop accepting applications for the old one. And the new MR Visa just gives the 15 nights a year, no 1 elite night/$3,000 moved across the card like the old one. So at that point, beyond the 15 nights from the credit card each year (which, per the terms, doesn't stack - having an MR visa and SPG Amex won't give you credit for 30 nights, you only get the 15 nights from one card), the remaining "cheap" way to buy nights is Rewarding Events.

Question is if Chase will eventually drop the carrot (Upgrade offers trying to entice people to voluntarily switch to new card) and switch to a stick (discontinuing the old card/forcibly converting it to the new one).

Travelosopher

Medved

But CC nights are for Visa Marriott US residents only? Nothing for us here in Toronto.. with Amex available only .

If it is a published level and hotels are properly educated/trained I would not just give PP up. I'm in San Diego Westin in September -- only 5 suites out of 463 rooms making any suite upgrade mathematically close to impossible. If my PP beats regular Plats --- nice. There too many Plats now, suite upgrades are so tough to get especially at stingy props and/or with fewer suites. Personally for me the rest of PP benefits are appreciated but are not material whatsoever. Suites upgrades for me are No.1, amenity breakfast/access to club lounge is distant No. 2 for vacations only. My stays are longer usually (1 week +) and I feel claustrophobic in crammed 200 sq. ft. regular rooms. My company pays for regular rooms only, of course. :0

MSPeconomist

Vote

My first post, please kindly help me
--> I have been quite a loyalty to SPG.
Now SPG Lifetime Gold
- 750+ SPG lifetime nights
- SPG Member since 2008 with 10 years elite(I don't understand this)
- Less than 10 MR nights
- 8 Years SPG PLT(2018 included)
If this year I do 75 nights MR--> I will get +1 Platinum year toward the unified program --> 9 years
I am quite sad about my situation just 1 year short for the LTPP.
Is that anything I can do to get this.
BTW, I don't know why MR has to discontinueLTPP staus.

Medved

True. Depends on your luck and property. My biggest scores were 15 nights each at 2 nice beach resorts and 10 nights at now gone Westin Our Luckaya (Bahamas), plus maybe a dozen of over 6 nights stays at a big city property (there I would stay 3-4 times a year for 10 years). Not giving actual names as do not want other plats to flood them and ask for similar treatment . Many failures as well. But I don't have much experience staying over 5 nights in the same place except my 2 or 3 regular spots. 5 nights upgrades I have had a bunch. But this belongs to a different thread I guess.

yyznomad

It's like if you ask them a "yes" or "no" question, they still won't answer with a "yes" or "no".

rny321

I was in a hurry when I responded to this earlier. It was reasonable to allow SPG members a comparable path to LTPP. If the requirement had been 10 years of SPG Platinum status and 750 SPG nights, it would have be unrealistic for MR members to expect to earn lifetime status based on combined numbers. Once status could be counted across both programs, members who would not have qualified for LTP under the Starwood criteria by the end of this year were given the chance to add at least one year of status to their totals. By providing a path to LTPP that may have benefitted more SPG than Marriott members, whose years of status were irrelevant for lifetime status until a few weeks ago, other accommodations sound more reasonable.

I have no idea whether the notes added to my account stating that based on the criteria I outlined (>2MM MR points and >750 combined nights) will end up as reality, but I do believe that allowing some members to combine status and nights to qualify for LT status makes my request easier to justify.

margarita girl

I always got 15 night credits with the Cdn Chase Marriott Visa (now discontinued, but I assume something else will replace it).

In my experience length of stay and date/time of check-in will affect your suite upgrade chances a lot more than which Plat level you have.

yyznomad

Good post, @phltraveler
(I didn't requote your entire post)


Also, people's varying opinions of the "small/insignificant" differences between the LTP and LTPP levels really depends on what they value.

In addition, I have been part of programs where things look "ok" at a certain point in time, then at some other point in the future, the program is degraded for lower tiers and the highest tier either degrades less or has no degradation at all. So being on the top tier can also have its advantages there as well.

yyznomad

I've stayed at hundreds of SPG properties around the world (if I got my 1,725 SPG nights at only a few properties, I think I'd go insane) and I got upgrades as a SPG P/LTP out the wazoo. I will miss this the most about the new program... I expect it to be somewhere in the middle of the stinginess of MR and the "spirit" of SPG.