CJKatl

Put aside that cc nights had value to Marriott, maybe even more value than BIB nights, this nonsense about BIB nights is being generated primarily by one poster, or in response to his nonsense posts. As ridiculous as it is to SPG members that anyone would think they got a majority of their nights from the three-for-one credits is how ridiculous the childish line that most Marriott members got theirs from cc nights. One poster peddles a misperception than most Marriott nights were not earned, which does not make it true for most Marriott members. Most of us got better deals from other cards used and were too busy staying in hotels to sit at home creating manufactured spend.

The posts where a single poster brags about his superiority because he qualified under SPG rules, but he still does not have enough points for a combined LTPP, remind me of the middle aged man driving a Lamborghini. We can all see there is some sort of compensation going on, but in the case of qualifying for status at the hotel, it's not clear why anyone would brag about his qualification for a hotel loyalty program. Obviously there is a misguided need to feel superior, which is likely to compensate for another inadequacy, and it must be especially hard when on the first announcement SPG members were treated as lessors on the LTPP qualification - since rightfully corrected - but bragging about his qualification for hotel loyalty status is just odd. What a strange thing to fixate on; something that just does not matter.

Please, please, please... the rest of us: stop feeding that argument. Ignore it. It's meaningless. Hopefully the one or maybe two posters bragging about this will just go away and the rest of us can discuss legitimate questions in the wake of this big change. How anyone got status is irrelevant and means nothing about anyone's worth.

FWIW I've got more than double the nights needed for LTPP under the old Marriott rules and only a small handful were from cc or rollover or points redemption, both of which were relatively new ways to earn points. My BIB far exceed the number needed for LTPP so unlike the person pushing the nonsense I am not scrambling to get more nights for LTPP. And from what I see on Insiders and FT I am typical of Marriott LTPs who have stayed in hotels for the majority of our nights credit.

UA-NYC

#FactCheck - not one time have I said "most Marriott members got theirs from CC nights". Or any other non-BIB night generating method. Case closed. It's disingenuous to say that. Feel free to respond head on vs. beating around the bush.

My point all along is that it's easier to rack up non-stay nights with Marriott vs. SPG. Not really in doubt. Not even getting into the argument of "what's worth more" (though I think it's quite the fallacy to say Marriott is benefiting more from any CC revenue vs. actual stays). My post above was in response to a poster who has basically insinuated that only 1/3 of Starwood LT Plat nights come from actually staying in the bed.

I doubt any Marriott member has more than say 20-25% of their LT nights as NON-BiB. What I HAVE said all along is that it could have been much easier/quicker/even cheaper to reach 750 nights and LT Plat w/Marriott than it is to reach 500 nights and LT Plat w/Starwood. And that's why Marriott's initial short-sighted decision to penalize SPG LT Plats vs. MR LT Plats was so stupid (and credit to them that they came to their senses in only a couple of weeks).

CJKatl

Why does it need to be said at all at this point? When the new program was treating SPG LTP as lessors by not allowing those with 750+ nights to qualify for LTPP many of us from both programs argued for parity. Marriott reviewed the situation and gave SPG members the parity which was fair. That is done. At this point why is there any need to mention BIB nights, let alone act as though there is some superiority attached to this other than to compensate for something else? Please, just move on and discuss things that matter instead of rehashing the silly argument that BIB were superior to BIB plus cc nights.

yyznomad

Well, you're right in that the BIB subject is immaterial, especially now that parity of the grandfathering rules have been somewhat achieved.

But have you read this entire thread and the others like it here in this forum? BIB is only one of many topics stemming from the program merger and LTPP grandfathering that are completely moot!

Canada101

"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our justice … Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out."
​​​​​​​
- Rodney King, May 1, 1992

CJKatl

I was not going to post about this again, but someone emailed me this... by the numbers pulled out of nowhere above it would be harder to qualify under MR than SPG. If using the higher number, 25% of stays were non-BIB, someone who stayed at SPG could have LTP in 500 nights while someone who stayed at MAR would only have credit for 625 nights (500 + 125) and would still be short 125 nights for LTP qualification. By your own numbers MR LTP would require more nights and would be harder to get. Including the time requirement someone who was going to stay fewer than 75 nights a year or who was going to stay in cheap hotels which would not trigger enough points to hit 2M in 750 stays would have an easier time qualifying in SPG. Someone who was staying in more expensive properties and/or more than 60 nights a year (again, using the assumption that an additional 25% would come from cc/rollover/birthday/other) would benefit from MAR rules because they can bypass the ten year wait, but someone staying between 50 and 60 nights a year and/or in less expensive properties would find it easier to qualify under the legacy SPG rules.

Hopefully that puts to rest the notion that LT was more difficult to attain under SPG and drops the subject once and for all.

UA-NYC

I would have qualified for MR LT Plat in 5-6 years per my estimation. Rollover nights likely turbocharged that ability in recent years,

As I noted in my own case, had I only used the MR Visa for my hotel stays (and not everyday spend like I and many others did w/the SPG AmEx), I would have still earned 180 nights from the CC alone. That ignores rollover, promotion nights, meeting events, anything else.

Someone spending 50-60 nights a year still may have had an easier time w/MR than SPG - credit card gives a minimum of 15 nights a year, not too hard w/the $3K/night to rack up 5-10 nights more.

And, ignoring your false accusations towards me, the post I was responding to suggested it was a standard for SPGers to spend 250 nights, book three rooms at a time, and make 750. I have yet to see any SPG loyal on this board say they have earned more than my 50 nights from the multi-room booking benefit...Occam's Razor says that it might be a nice benefit once in a while on a vacation trip to book a couple rooms, or maybe book a few for a co-worker, but harder to do en masse.

We'll continue to agree to disagree on the subject since we don't have the data.

CJKatl

Not using the numbers you threw out as accurate likely estimates in the other post. Doing the math with the numbers you chose SPG was much easier .Now you are changing the numbers to fit within the conclusion you want, and granted, we do not know the actual numbers, but it is funny that the numbers you chose as likely point to SPG being easier. Bottom line: the qualifications were different, each chose what worked best and comparing one to the other is senseless.

UA-NYC

for a 75+ night MR Plat I actually probably under-estimated it...from the credit card alone that's probably 25%. not even accounting for rollover or anything else.

Of course, that's not "the majority of nights"...

born sleepy

So basically I should concentrate on getting MR Plat (75 nights) for the rest of 2018 and that will get me LTPP? I have over 900 SPG nights.

UA-NYC

kv99

I have 8 years as Plat on Starwood and I think I have one historical year as Plat on Marriott (though very hard to get confirmation on that from Marriott Rewards).

i also have 583 Starwood nights and 112 Marriott nights so far.

So since have 695 nights total, if I get 55 nights across the two programs and platinum on one of them this year, I should be LTPP right? Since I’ll be at 750 nights and 10 years (9 in SPG and one from MR).

to be sure is it worth me trying to get platinum in both programs separately this year? To do that I should not merge the programs until I hit plat on each separately right?

Finally i’m wondering whether to get a Marriott rewards card to get 15 additional elite nights. Would they count towards the 750 - I know on the starwood side they don’t)?

SHLTP

I don't want to say a Marriott or SPG LTP is more valuable or not profit wise. My guess is that higher demanding customers cost more (one head of recreation took my family for free snorkeling, took me running whenever I wanted, took my kid jet skiing etc. (I paid the jet skiing but they paid transportation and time which was a cost). As I have said before Marriott won by being more profitable.

And 1 person is not superior to another by any means. Nor one richer or anything like that.

But if you needed to hit a certain threshhold by end of this year, it would in most cases be easier and cheaper to hit Marriott LTP.

Quite obvious easier to hit Marriott plat. Again many Marriott people did 75 BIB and did not gain nights credit via their credit card but many did.

Factor in

1) Footprint

2)Preponderance of cheaper Marriotts overall for mattress runs

3) Marriott credit card nights for lifetime which SPG does not have
4) Marriott nights for $3000 spend which SPG does not have. On my kid's sport team I know 4-5 people who are Marriott plat. They put $100k business travel a year (33 nights) + 15 nights to start at 48 nights a year. They then stay 27 nights a year BIB and are platinum .

They are not particularly loyal to Marriott in the way that I or many other SPG plats I know are .

5) Marriott long term residences where i think you get 1 night credit for every 3 nights stay. Until recently SPG capped at 30 nights, now I think 90

6) Just look at rabidness if SPG plats .on the whole more rabid than Marriott guys at one has to really plan trips around SPG .

And do it for 10 years. SPG really becomes part of everyday life. I know many Marriott guys who for LTP in 3-4 years because of rollover nights and felt it was quite easy to get plat. They don't feel they had to work hard to achieve.

I appreciate how Marriott and CJKatl and other people for Marriott side supportive of giving 750+ SPG plats ltpe status .

We are on one program now do let's work together.

But again if you were to go for plat in one years (esp 2 w rollovers) you would most likely go for Marriott

UA-NYC

The new Marriott card won't give you the 15 nights til 2019.

You should be good for LTPP IF you get those 55 nights and Plat from one of them this year. BUT if I were in your shoes, I'd make sure I have in writing from MR that you DO have a Plat year in your history with them!

MSPeconomist