smgainey

I wish they would've emailed the terms and conditions of the new program to us (a long with the conversions for the 7-night certificates). I'm sure they weren't finalized on Aug 18, so they could've given us the information ahead of time.

Mister Nice

Yes BUT then you might have booked away from Marriott/SPG It was VERY WELL PLAYED by Marriott. Create buzz and excitement, let there be a little confusion( no big deal), spring the new program in Mid August with most of the answers to questions created by the confusion. So, by my thinking, folks would play out the string and stay loyal while waiting for answers and clarifications. If they are unhappy on 8/18 , well at least their loyalty remained for 2/3 of the year - especially during the busy summer travel season and they have probably booked any Thanksgiving , Christmas, and New Years holiday travel. I can't see folks who stayed loyal and booked till this point of the year converting to a new loyalty program - but I could be wrong. Tip of the cap to Marriott.

yeunganson

There seem to be a non-published tier that I got into after the merge. We don't have this on SPG side. It's had no metal and just called 5 star...



I am assuming the five star is like Platinum in status level.


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phltraveler

You're very lucky. Plat 5 Star existed before this program merger. Rumor is that it was given to certain hotel owners or friends of (Bill) Marriott.

Plat 5* was above Platinum Premier in the legacy program (which was invite only with no published criteria, but the top 2-3% of marriott members by some unknown criteria to determine).

FlyinHawaiian320

May need to file my question under "wait until IT issues get sorted out" but did anyone only get the "Choose Your Gift - 50 nights", despite having stayed more than 75+? Wondering if it's an IT issue the 75+ night gift option doesn't appear yet.

Mister Nice

hhoope01

Supposedly a 5 Star Platinum is an very special level above pretty much all other elite levels. My understanding was that Mr. Marriott himself, or now maybe Mr. Sorenson's approval was required before someone would receive 5 Star status. Basically, you had to be on Marriott's BOD or a close personal friend, etc. So maybe if you keep your head low they won't catch this. I'm guessing suite upgrades might be a tad bit more likely with this level.

porkie

Congrats on this one, I've seen a 2-3 reports here on FT earlier where people claimed being bumped into 5-star. Can you share a bit more about your spending pattern and history? Do you have lifetime status or consistent high spending for multiple years in a row?

alrvd83

yeunganson

I had to reach out to my extended family in China to make sure I wasn't used as part of some "deal" that I don't know about... (which happens time to time - kids are just an extension of tools of their family)

Let's start with the most likely answer - it's an IT glitch and I lucked out. It seems the status needs to be renewed year after year (ie non-lifetime) so maybe after Jan 2020, it will go away. I am a dedicated SPG member for slightly more than a decade. 13 years of only SPG Plat so that pushes me to lifetime status. I only breach $ 20,000 per year on SPG hotels during an rare exceptionally travel intensive year - most times I don't make it to $ 20,000 per year. I will proudly claim that i was behind the idea of the Suite Night Awards. I was also part of a of dedicated group of SPG members that help design the new SPG AMEX card, and lobbied for the SPG Lifetime status program. I also write letters to Starwood to provide feedback on improving the program and how I feel of some of the aspects of the merged program and sometimes post long discussions / opinions on Flyertalk. I completely buy into the North American ideal that ordinary people can bring about changes and even do extraordinary things (because our society allows it). I don't personally know Chairman Bill Marriott or the CEO or the directors. So that is the strongest case that it's an IT glitch.

The second possibility is Marriott Intel figured out some of my relationship with extended family in China. I do know some work in public service (ahem ahem communist government) and shall we say makes decisions on hotel licensing related matter and health and safety of food and such. A year before this merger I do hear about the ahem.... lobbying efforts of hotel reps including Marriott and I told these extended uncles how much I am a loyal SPG member (and rarely stay at a Marriott). I called my dad to reach out to these extended uncles to see if they have a hand in this. If they did.... it is a "oh sh@#! moment" because its a trojan hourse and I will need to perform reciprocal favors like hosting his children on their visit on my dime (Westin Whistler is going to cost me an arm and leg - unless I accept the humility of Bank of Dad).... Alternatively, it is possible Marriott did this so I would call my extended family to initiate a positive conversation on behalf of Marriott - which is sort of working because I am calling them due to a positive surprise. This just gives too much credit on Marriott and their Intel.. so I put this scenario as possible but remote.

I will say this. A society without strong rule of law, business is relationships and personal relationships are sometimes mixed together in a stew of complexity, corruption and toxicity. In North America, we have rules, we don't need to take bribes or give bribes, we got it good.

fdem

porkie

Based on this I lean to believing that it's not a mistake and it has to be related to either your input into developing SPG earlier (it's possible that they had a list of such people that they couldn't reward in SPG as there never was a higher, invitation-only tier there) or (probably more likely) it's somehow related to your family situation.

Your spending and loyalty probably wouldn't be a reason on it's own as there is quite large number of members that spend significantly more on FT and none of them have reported anything like this.

Either way, unless you are really curious I'd recommend keeping it quiet (just in case it really is an IT glitch) and enjoying the benefits, I spoke to club staff at the RC HK a while ago about this tier and was told that once 5-star member makes a reservation, GM of property is personally notified about it and this person is treated as VVIP being eligible for upgrades to their signature suites etc.

Congratulations and I'm definitely looking forward to reading your trip reports

dsquared37

I had this on my account as well for a short duration prior to it's disappearance.

C17PSGR

Curious whether anyone else stays as an unexpected 5 Star. There seems to have been some glitches on Ambassadors as well, for people who didn't qualify and the status is getting updated.

sdix

It's always Marriotts "intent" to provide the very best unfortunately it's up to the discretion of each individual property and the person checking you in who probably has no clue as to what the benefits are. There needs to be a central system tied to the reservation system that does the upgrades and takes the mystery out of checking in. Can't be hard to do.