May 9, 2018, 11:36 am
Last edit by: rny321
PATHWAYS TO LIFETIME PLATINUM PREMIER ELITE STATUS:
1. Legacy Marriott Lifetime Platinum - 750 [MR+SPG] nights & 2MM Marriott Rewards points earned - not available after 1/1/2019
2. New Combined Program - 750 [MR+SPG] nights & 10 years combined/total as Platinum members previously under MR and/or SPG as of 12/31/2018 - not available after 1/1/2019
From members.marriott.com:
NOTE: Members that reach 750 nights and 10 years at Platinum by December 31, 2018 will be grandfathered into Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite status (notified January 2019).
FAQ from members.marriott.com
Q: CAN I EARN LIFETIME STATUS UNDER THE LEGACY REQUIREMENTS (ACTIVE PRIOR TO AUGUST 2018) FOR LIFETIME ELITE STATUS IN MARRIOTT REWARDS, RITZ-CARLTON REWARDS OR SPG? IF SO, WHEN WILL I BE NOTIFIED OF MY LIFETIME ELITE STATUS?
A: Yes, in addition to earning based on the new criteria, members can earn Lifetime Elite Status under the legacy requirements through the end of 2018. If Lifetime status is achieved by legacy requirements, between August and December 31, 2018 you will receive notice of your updated Lifetime Elite status in January 2019. If Lifetime status is achieved based on the new criteria, you will be notified both in August 2018 as well as any time it is achieved through the end of the year.
Example: An SPG member has 300 Lifetime nights, 4 years of Gold Elite Status, and 1 year of Platinum Elite Status after August, 2018. Under the SPG legacy Lifetime requirements, this member would earn Lifetime Gold Elite status which would reflect in their account January 2019.
Q: IF I WILL NOT BE GRANDFATHERED INTO LIFETIME PLATINUM PREMIER ELITE, WILL I HAVE THE ABILITY TO EARN INTO THIS LEVEL IN 2018?
A: Yes, members can earn Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite in 2018 if they achieve 750 Lifetime nights and 10 years at Platinum Elite status. This requirement is only for 2018 and will not be continued in future years. Members will receive notice of this Lifetime achievement in January 2019.
1. Legacy Marriott Lifetime Platinum - 750 [MR+SPG] nights & 2MM Marriott Rewards points earned - not available after 1/1/2019
2. New Combined Program - 750 [MR+SPG] nights & 10 years combined/total as Platinum members previously under MR and/or SPG as of 12/31/2018 - not available after 1/1/2019
From members.marriott.com:
NOTE: Members that reach 750 nights and 10 years at Platinum by December 31, 2018 will be grandfathered into Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite status (notified January 2019).
FAQ from members.marriott.com
Q: CAN I EARN LIFETIME STATUS UNDER THE LEGACY REQUIREMENTS (ACTIVE PRIOR TO AUGUST 2018) FOR LIFETIME ELITE STATUS IN MARRIOTT REWARDS, RITZ-CARLTON REWARDS OR SPG? IF SO, WHEN WILL I BE NOTIFIED OF MY LIFETIME ELITE STATUS?
A: Yes, in addition to earning based on the new criteria, members can earn Lifetime Elite Status under the legacy requirements through the end of 2018. If Lifetime status is achieved by legacy requirements, between August and December 31, 2018 you will receive notice of your updated Lifetime Elite status in January 2019. If Lifetime status is achieved based on the new criteria, you will be notified both in August 2018 as well as any time it is achieved through the end of the year.
Example: An SPG member has 300 Lifetime nights, 4 years of Gold Elite Status, and 1 year of Platinum Elite Status after August, 2018. Under the SPG legacy Lifetime requirements, this member would earn Lifetime Gold Elite status which would reflect in their account January 2019.
Q: IF I WILL NOT BE GRANDFATHERED INTO LIFETIME PLATINUM PREMIER ELITE, WILL I HAVE THE ABILITY TO EARN INTO THIS LEVEL IN 2018?
A: Yes, members can earn Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite in 2018 if they achieve 750 Lifetime nights and 10 years at Platinum Elite status. This requirement is only for 2018 and will not be continued in future years. Members will receive notice of this Lifetime achievement in January 2019.
SPG Lifetime Platinums Can Now Qualify For Lifetime Titanium Status
Jun 27, 2018, 1:22 am
#631
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: LAX
Programs: UA1KMM SPGPLAT
Posts: 480
I fully expect as an LTPP I will be excluded from any meaningful PP benefits that might be added in the future. Marriott will want to make LTP appear as a worthy goal so there is no incentive to add something to LTPP making it better than LTP. Already we are excluded from the SNAs or gift selection. It would be easy and would make sense for Marriott to similarly exclude us from other perks. While there is a business reason to reward those staying more than 75 nights, there is no reason to reward a closed group of people who are no longer staying much let alone make it appear that group is getting something that those who are working on LT can never receive. We are not PPs, we are LTPPs and already subject to restrictions on what we get versus PPs.
Jun 27, 2018, 3:26 am
#632
Suspended
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 301
You just don’t want to understand, so there’s no point in insisting and furthering your futile discussion.
Speculation and assuming unknown facts doesn’t prove your point.
There will be another explanation why we do not qualify for the next perk. LTPP is not PP, it is LTPP.
Jun 27, 2018, 4:42 am
#633
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: BDU
Programs: DL:MM, Marriott:LTT
Posts: 8,779
Nor does it prove yours. Here are facts that are known:
- LTPP will be closed to new members.
- People working towards LT status in the new program will be working towards LTP.
- It would be bad business for Marriott to make the highest status people can work towards something significantly worse than the closed status.
- LTPP do not receive all the perks offered to those that earn PP each year, such as the SNAs or choice of gift, so Marriott can easily bar LTPP from status offered PP.
Jun 27, 2018, 5:46 am
#634
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: CLT
Programs: Marriott Plat, AA Gold
Posts: 1,076
Yeah I don’t see them making LTPP any better, assuming it stays closed.
If so, you’ll then be pissing off a slew of LTP’s who by that time would have qualified for LTPP, just because they didn’t qualify by some arbitrary date.
If so, you’ll then be pissing off a slew of LTP’s who by that time would have qualified for LTPP, just because they didn’t qualify by some arbitrary date.
Jun 27, 2018, 6:01 am
#635
Suspended
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 301
Nor does it prove yours. Here are facts that are known:
- LTPP will be closed to new members.
- People working towards LT status in the new program will be working towards LTP.
- It would be bad business for Marriott to make the highest status people can work towards something significantly worse than the closed status.
- LTPP do not receive all the perks offered to those that earn PP each year, such as the SNAs or choice of gift, so Marriott can easily bar LTPP from status offered PP.
Items 1 and 2 are actually factual but very imaterial to the point you are trying to make.
“Fact 3” is not a fact, just your opinion based on your own assumptions. Whether grandfathering out lifetime membership in the top tier of a loyalty program is bad for business is a conclusion that is not logically premised on the previous facts you cited. Other loyalty programs have done it in the past without hurting the bottom line.
”Fact 4” is inaccurate and misleading. SNAs are not a benefit of any particular membership tier, rather they’re a reward for a milestone achievement. Also, the use of a “such as” descriptor implies that you’re giving one out of many possible examples. Yet, it is the only one you can come up with, and it’s wrong.
I understand the point you have been trying to make, but there’s no rational logic to it. It’s just your gut feeling. You can present it as such for the sake of a friendly convivial argument, yet your choice to offer it authoritatively as a definitive conclusion you genially postulate from logically sound inferences just leaves no room for an engaging healthy conversation.
I have no idea how the program will be 10 years from now. It may head the way you say it will or it may very well go, as some have speculated here on FT, on to a huge devaluation of the benefits of the PE tier, leaving the PPE level (with its grandfathered lifetime members) as the really meaningful elite tier. There’s just no way of knowing, much less of ascertaining it as a foregone conclusion.
Last edited by M.dA.R.; Jun 27, 2018 at 6:13 am
Jun 27, 2018, 7:07 am
#636
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Newton Centre, MA, USA
Programs: DL 2MM Gold, AA Plat Pro; Hilton Lifetime Diamond, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium (via SPG), IHG Plat
Posts: 2,192
While I understand your logic, I hope that's not the way the combined program functions. Marriott management has stated again and again that one of the reasons they acquired Starwood at a premium is to acquire the intense loyalty of SPG members. If they cheapen or otherwise dilute the value of their highest LT tier, this is counter to everything they are saying. I don't see a reason that they could not enrich LTPP status and still offer other perks for actively meeting the PP threshold each year as well.
Jun 27, 2018, 7:24 am
#637
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: BDU
Programs: DL:MM, Marriott:LTT
Posts: 8,779
I have no idea how the program will be 10 years from now. It may head the way you say it will or it may very well go, as some have speculated here on FT, on to a huge devaluation of the benefits of the PE tier, leaving the PPE level (with its grandfathered lifetime members) as the really meaningful elite tier. There’s just no way of knowing, much less of ascertaining it as a foregone conclusion.
BTW, what would keep Marriott from making the next great perk dependent on making 75 nights instead of being PP? It seems a little false to claim that is the reason LTPP does not get a benefit but think it cannot happen again. That is the reasoning used to separate LTPP for PP on one benefit and it can easily be used again. How can that reasoning do anything but support that Marriott knows how to not give LTPP benefits associated with PP? For example, if it were a meaningful perk they could say the 48 hour guarantee is only available to those who stay 75 nights. It's easy to do that.
Any huge devaluation of P and thus LTP would irk a more important customer group, those who recently made that status and those working towards the status, that fearing it is ridiculous. If there were some major devaluation, what would be the interest in keeping LTPP from also being devalued at the same time? Nobody will be working towards LTPP at that point and ten years from now even more LTPPs will be infrequent guests.
And it makes no business sense to court a group that will be less profitable over a group that will be more profitable. Call that an opinion, but if you think courting a less profitable group is more likely, hopefully you are not running a business.
Jun 27, 2018, 8:00 am
#638
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: CLT
Programs: Marriott Plat, AA Gold
Posts: 1,076
Agreed, nobody knows the future, but the notion that LTPP will be appreciably better than LTP still makes no sense. If it makes someone happy to spend time, money and effort to get LTPP before it closes, go ahead, but doing so seems based on irrational fears and internet chatter rather than any real benefits. It seems clear Marriott intends LTP to be the top dog going forward while still having a group with an "Emeritus" respect title.
Jun 27, 2018, 8:31 am
#639
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: BDU
Programs: DL:MM, Marriott:LTT
Posts: 8,779
Agreed to a point. There are people who are hundreds of nights and/or up to a million points away who are about to spend thousands on this which just seems unnecessary. I know, it's their money. While I would probably hold a couple meetings if I was twenty nights away, going to the extreme for something that will likely be nothing is what I question. Any future devaluation seems as likely to hit LTPP as LTP.
Jun 27, 2018, 9:21 pm
#640
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: LAX
Programs: UA1KMM SPGPLAT
Posts: 480
Agreed to a point. There are people who are hundreds of nights and/or up to a million points away who are about to spend thousands on this which just seems unnecessary. I know, it's their money. While I would probably hold a couple meetings if I was twenty nights away, going to the extreme for something that will likely be nothing is what I question. Any future devaluation seems as likely to hit LTPP as LTP.
Jun 27, 2018, 10:13 pm
#641
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: BDU
Programs: DL:MM, Marriott:LTT
Posts: 8,779
Why? From the get I wanted to make sure I had lounge access as part of my LT benefit. So long as I get that as an LTPP, I do not care what LTP gets, even if it identical to what LTPP gets, nor do I really expect any other meaningful perks. I just don't get the concern with what anyone else is getting that consumes some people. Why would it matter if it's a hollow distinction so long as you get what you want/need/expect?
Jun 27, 2018, 11:35 pm
#642
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: LAX
Programs: UA1KMM SPGPLAT
Posts: 480
Why? From the get I wanted to make sure I had lounge access as part of my LT benefit. So long as I get that as an LTPP, I do not care what LTP gets, even if it identical to what LTPP gets, nor do I really expect any other meaningful perks. I just don't get the concern with what anyone else is getting that consumes some people. Why would it matter if it's a hollow distinction so long as you get what you want/need/expect?
Jun 27, 2018, 11:41 pm
#643
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: BDU
Programs: DL:MM, Marriott:LTT
Posts: 8,779
You do realize 1500 is not an impressive number around here.
Jun 28, 2018, 12:56 pm
#644
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 1,620
I was talking with the General Manger of a property that the wife and I stay at frequently over the years about the merger, the new Marriott Rewards Program, etc.
He too was confused as to why Marriott Corporate decided to freeze the Lifetime Platinum Premier Tier going forward and decided to investigate it and get to the bottom of it.
He spoke with corporate and got two different answers depending on whom he asked which only served to sort of confuse him more, as he said I am sure somebody knows the official reasoning for sun-setting Lifetime Platinum Premier, but nobody I can ask does.
The two answers he was provided are as follows:
My Wife is a Lifetime Marriott Rewards Platinum and has been for a very long time now, he said don't expect much difference when she becomes Lifetime Platinum Premier, which is fine by us.
He too was confused as to why Marriott Corporate decided to freeze the Lifetime Platinum Premier Tier going forward and decided to investigate it and get to the bottom of it.
He spoke with corporate and got two different answers depending on whom he asked which only served to sort of confuse him more, as he said I am sure somebody knows the official reasoning for sun-setting Lifetime Platinum Premier, but nobody I can ask does.
The two answers he was provided are as follows:
- They are freezing the Lifetime Platinum Premier program because Platinum Premier is designed as an annual program with incentives like Suite Awards to drive revenue and we do not consider it to be Lifetime Tier in terms of perks nor revenue.
- They are freezing the Lifetime Platinum Premier program because it is essentially most (if not all) of the benefits of the current Platinum and we did not want to remove benefits from those who were already Lifetime Platinum, so we felt that we needed to create a Lifetime Platinum Premier tier for them and then end enrollment as of the new program.
My Wife is a Lifetime Marriott Rewards Platinum and has been for a very long time now, he said don't expect much difference when she becomes Lifetime Platinum Premier, which is fine by us.
Jun 28, 2018, 6:55 pm
#645
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: YVR
Programs: AC SE 2MM; UA MP Premier Silver; Marriott Bonvoy LT Titanium Elite; Radisson; Avis PC
Posts: 35,255
He asked about ranking in terms of value to Marriott (I admittedly got a little confused by this as there are Xs or something like that), but they said Lifetime Platinum Premier would be a new category below annual Platinum Premier and above annual Platinum.
My Wife is a Lifetime Marriott Rewards Platinum and has been for a very long time now, he said don't expect much difference when she becomes Lifetime Platinum Premier, which is fine by us.
My Wife is a Lifetime Marriott Rewards Platinum and has been for a very long time now, he said don't expect much difference when she becomes Lifetime Platinum Premier, which is fine by us.
P6 Platinum Elite
X4 Platinum Premier Elite
X5 Platinum 5 Star
Y1 Basic
M1 Silver
X1 Gold
As for "better" treatment as a PPE over PE, having perused the MR forum, there has been anecdotal evidence of PPEs getting more upgrades as a PPE (compared to their PE experiences) and overall "better" treatment, however you want to quantify that. So going forward, who knows.