kmersh

I am a Physician which means among many things that I am terrible at business, so generally a good business decision rarely makes sense to me, but I truly do not understand why have the label of one status but receive the benefits of another status.

VickiSoCal

What I am saying is, you only get the SNA for example, annually, if you achieve the annual nights. But a LT PP who is not making those annual benefits should be recognized in the system when you check in, for higher chance of upgrades and such. If such a thing still exists.

In addition there is the 25% higher bonus and the 48 hour guarantee for PP that Plat does not get.

CJKatl

Yes. This was Marriott's way of not giving MR LTP the same title as MR LTG.

• Marriott never promised any PP benefits which I have been questioning for months.
• Marriott did not provide benefits in the terms which are what dictates benefits, not a member's common sense.
• The site shows LTPPs receive P benefits.
• SPG Ps did not originally have a path to LTPP which would indicate it was never supposed to be much of a status.
• People presently working towards LT would be the most important group for Marriott to target but it never made sense that others might be getting benefits that important group was not going to receive.
• Each of us who has called and presumably spoken to different CSRs and supervisors has been given the same consistent answer indicating we do not get PP benefits.
• Nobody can cite a single source where Marriott indicates we get PP benefits.

Maybe eventually we will, but we need to face that maybe all these facts are correct. For two days I have asked if anyone can find a fact to the contrary to please provide it but have only gotten personal insults hurled towards me. No facts, just huffing and puffing about personal assumptions about the status names when we all know Marriott has a history of being casual and careless when assigning names.

phltraveler

The other poster points to T&Cs on the Marriott.com site now post-08/18 that are known to have other errors (such as one section 4.3.e.i referencing the benefits an ambassador provides as being listed in section 5.8, and then section 5.8 being entirely absent). Said other poster has made the point before that the differences between Plat and Plat Premier are pretty nominal anyways (extra 25% bonus points on base, 48 hour guarantee that virtually no one uses due to the $$$ of rack rates under it, theoretical benefits like upgrade priority that may not pan out).

I personally agree that it would make no sense to create a lifetime tier with no actual benefits whatsoever over the tier below it and that it would only result in ire from elites once the truth came out, particularly if those elites worked on their spend/stay to qualify under the lifetime criteria and then get nothing out of it. At a minimum, a lawsuit would be expected, and Marriott would burn a ton of good will.

CJKatl

My dad was a physician who often said the same about himself.

Marriott never promised additional benefits. They did not encourage people to do multiple stays or hold phantom meetings to make LTPP. The internet rumor took on a life of its own and became self perpetuating where posters and bloggers made claims Marriott never made. The purpose of using the name LTPP seemed from the start to be a way to avoid giving MR LTP the same title as MT LTG in the new program. The fact nobody else was originally in the status level was a big hint the status was not meant to have meat.

shotb83

Whether you achieved your status via nights or a challenge you still had Platinum regardless which was supposed to map to PP and if you reached it this year it should have been good for 2019.

Fair enough in the following years if you only stay 60 nights you will be Platinum but that is not what the status mapping said.

CJKatl

But what are the chances the marketing people are wrong, the loyalty people who wrote the T&Cs are wrong, the programmers are wrong, the CSRs and supervisors are wrong and nobody at Marriott put an apology up on Insiders? It would be different if you could point to a single cite where Marriott promised those benefits, but none exists. It would have to be such a huge coincidence for all those different sources to be incorrect, nobody caught any of the mistakes and they each tell the same story despite it being wrong. People are arguing the benefits showing are wrong but all the evidence consistently shows it might not be wrong and nobody can cite anything beyond their own perceived common sense which is not proof.

BTW the CSR I spoke with said she had gotten a few calls on this and people seem upset about it. I also submitted a written ticket and got an incident number so hopefully I will hear back via email.

shipitkthx

Also the T&Cs of the Ritz card clearly state that the status is good until the end of the calendar year after the end of the cardmember year in which you earned it. So if you earned old Platinum in a cardmember year ending in 2018, you should have Platinum Premier until 12/31/19

Tomphot

Same here, it also says I need 0 nights to attain Plat as I have 50 nights this year. I'm going to give it time, I'm sure the system is still being worked on.

phltraveler

The fact that there are tons of fires like missing points, years of status not being counted correctly, phantom reservations (both reservations that should be showing not showing and people reporting that somehow reservations that other people have made [with the other person's name/email on the reservation, but showing in when logged in for the person complaining MR account with the MR account holders credit card number) shows that there are other IT issues where a temporary "rank down" in status would not be the highest priority to address. Even if LTPP is temporarily treated as plat the person still gets welcome gift, lounge access, breakfast. Points could be adjusted retroactively after stay if wrong.

Loyalty people who wrote the T&Cs: We went over that the T&Cs contain issues in another thread.
Marketing people: Went out of their way to claim that SNAs would not be awarded at the 50/75 night lifetime levels and only for current status, yet did not for LTPP. Essentially we're saying that the marketing people didn't explain something that should be obvious by the naming convention: that lifetime silver, gold, platinum, and Premier Platinum give the benefits of those tiers for life once achieved. They disclaimed the choice awards like SNAs at 50/75 night levels specifically for this reason, so the lifetime earners would be informed that they didn't get those through the lifetime status.

Marriott insiders/Starwood Lurkers/MR twitter people whenever people complain about being plat when they should be premier plat for current status give the boilerplate reply of:

I received this reply personally when pointing out that I showed up as LTPP on my MR account but that the current status was Platinum. (They are copy/pasting this same reply to many people with similar complaints).

The one area that has any bearing is the T&Cs, and if it didn't contain other noticeable material errors/omissions, then the language on its face might be taken more obvious. People have pointed out that there are other IT issues, and marketing material (example: pre-08/18 Rewarding events) has been confusing in the past where it didn't match the reality of how the program worked.

In earlier conversations, months before merger, you pointed out the minor differences (25% extra on base points, 48 hour guarantee nobody uses, [temporarily, perhaps] the UA Status match to UA Silver elite) as Marriott throwing the old MR LTP crowd a minor bone with a status that was barely different. Now in the merger, one plagued with account merger and lifetime status calculation issues, I think you may be reading a little to far into things. Especially when the response to all LTPPs asking why they show as plat is to point out that there are "a few known account issues impacting some members".

No disrespect intended.

jeanie

Thanks for posting. I don't like hearing that, but since you submitted a written ticket about it, I bet you don't like hearing this, either.

Enough people were angry about the Travel Packages that Marriott finally let people downgrade the certificates for a 30K points credit. Maybe if we make enough noise, they will change this, too. These are their most loyal customers. The most important details for me would be to be recognized as a Platinum Premier by the hotel and to get the 25% point bonus. It makes no sense to have an honorary title of LTPP that makes no practical difference whatsoever.

The way it looks right now, the people saying it was ridiculous to spend money to get to LTPP might have been right!

Kacee

The problem with the current standard canned response is that it suggests Marriott is dealing with your particular issue, you just need to be patient, but doesn't actually acknowledge or commit that any particular problem with wrong status is going to be fixed. It is the worst kind of reassurance because it is actually no reassurance at all.

CJKatl

Nowhere are they telling you the link for P benefits is incorrect, but that was what I was told when I called and others are posting they were told when they called. You were not given any confirmation you would receive PP benefits.

jjj325

The Idea of LT Status means you do not go below that status. Example If I have LTP status and only stay at hotel in a year to qualify for Gold status, my status remains Platinum and does not get reduced to Gold. If I stay 0 nights in a year, I still get Platinum Status. This has been proven over the years. I have to agree with others LT status has no meaning if it is not Lifetime. Fortunately I was LTP Status in both programs and don't have the issue.

Venezuela-Miami

75% Points Bonus and theoretically possible suite upgrades at Ritz-Carlton (no Club access), those are the most important I am aware of.