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-   -   Marriott Platinum Challenge General Discussion Thread (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marriott-marriott-bonvoy/1928977-marriott-platinum-challenge-general-discussion-thread.html)

ahhlun Nov 13, 2018 1:13 am


Originally Posted by Starwood Lurker III (Post 30423965)
You are correct that redemption stays would count if you registered for the promotion before October 12th.

Best Regards,

Christina Zhou
Social Media Specialist
Marriott International

[email protected]

I'm going to Maui for 7 night award stay which charges a resort fee..
Does that count then?

tygran37 Nov 20, 2018 7:50 am

I called Marriott up yesterday to verify that a 3 night award stay had qualified towards this platinum challenge and was told a couple things (after a lengthy put on hold time)...

1) they verified what Starwood Lurker said above that they changed the T&C on this challenge in October and that if you registered for the promotion before the change, awards stays *will* count. If you registered after the change they will *not*.

2) They also said that the system isn't automatically counting your award stays if you registered early enough and that you will have to call and have them manually add your award nights to the platinum challenge. If you don't call and have them manually added, they will not count but getting them added shouldn't be too much trouble.

Personally I have 6 nights completed (1 paid, 5 award) and they are verifying I will have a count of 6 towards the 16 night challenge.

Let the mattress running commence!

ftrichard Nov 20, 2018 3:17 pm


Originally Posted by Rusdude (Post 30354899)
Just enrolled - took a few minutes and CSR knew exactly what to do.

Quick question -- my 90 days extend into January 2019 (CSR said "by January 31") but how does the elite status expiration date is calculated for the challenge?

To get the status for as long as possible, am I better off waiting until 2019 to get the last few nights (to have status in 2019, 2020, and early 2021) or would the expiration date be the same regardless (e.g. early 2020)?

Thank you!

Does anyone have an answer to this question? I came to this thread looking for the same answer. If the last qualifying nights of the Platinum challenge are in, say, March 2019 does this mean the qualified period will run through 2020 and into 2021? Or is it a strict 12 months?

tygran37 Dec 4, 2018 9:54 am

Just a quick data point for you guys:

I have successfully completed the platinum challenge!

1) My account showed platinum nearly instantly and is supposed to be good into 2020.
2) I signed up for this in September before they changed the terms to disallow award nights.
3) As a result, my awards nights did count. I did a mix of paid and award nights.
4) I had to call to get someone to add the awards night and make sure they counted. I would recommend asking for a supervisor for this step as most (all?) front line phone reps have no clue about this.

gordonja Dec 7, 2018 9:20 pm

I registered for the challenge in September and completed 9 paid and 6 award nights within 90 days. I called tonight to ask for my status to be upgraded to Platinum and was transferred to the Loyalty Department. I was put on hold for a long time after explaining what I needed. Then the agent came back and saiid she had to submit a ticket. She gave me a case # and told me it would most likely take 3-5 days. We’ll see I guess.


AmsterdamExpat Dec 8, 2018 1:09 pm

I signed up for the platinum challenge today. My understanding is that I have 90 days to complete the challenge (16 stays). However, I also see some comments in this thread about the challenge ending as of December 31 of this year. Can anyone confirm if I have 90 days from today (so early March 2019) or do I need to hit the stays by the end of this month?

Thanks in advance.

ezak Dec 13, 2018 4:59 am


Originally Posted by AmsterdamExpat (Post 30513377)
I signed up for the platinum challenge today. My understanding is that I have 90 days to complete the challenge (16 stays). However, I also see some comments in this thread about the challenge ending as of December 31 of this year. Can anyone confirm if I have 90 days from today (so early March 2019) or do I need to hit the stays by the end of this month?

Thanks in advance.

Common sense tells me it should be 90 days from when you sign up, but Marriott has been changing the terms all the time, so it's the best to call them and ask. At this point there really are no confirmed rules...

ezak Dec 13, 2018 5:04 am


Originally Posted by gordonja (Post 30511439)
I registered for the challenge in September and completed 9 paid and 6 award nights within 90 days. I called tonight to ask for my status to be upgraded to Platinum and was transferred to the Loyalty Department. I was put on hold for a long time after explaining what I needed. Then the agent came back and saiid she had to submit a ticket. She gave me a case # and told me it would most likely take 3-5 days. We’ll see I guess.


Did you hear anything from them? I'm in the same boat and currently only have a case number, which they will (hopefully) respond to in 3-5 business days.

ezak Dec 13, 2018 5:07 am


Originally Posted by tygran37 (Post 30497902)
Just a quick data point for you guys:

I have successfully completed the platinum challenge!

1) My account showed platinum nearly instantly and is supposed to be good into 2020.
2) I signed up for this in September before they changed the terms to disallow award nights.
3) As a result, my awards nights did count. I did a mix of paid and award nights.
4) I had to call to get someone to add the awards night and make sure they counted. I would recommend asking for a supervisor for this step as most (all?) front line phone reps have no clue about this.

Did you call the 800 number or did you use a call center abroad? The rep I spoke to wouldn't transfer me to supervisor and now it's a pending ticket.

And thank you for the report, too, as it's really reassuring... Without your post I'd be seriously worried about this now.

tygran37 Dec 13, 2018 7:13 am


Originally Posted by ezak (Post 30530541)
Did you call the 800 number or did you use a call center abroad? The rep I spoke to wouldn't transfer me to supervisor and now it's a pending ticket.

And thank you for the report, too, as it's really reassuring... Without your post I'd be seriously worried about this now.

I called the regular Marriott 800 number. Asked for a supervisor. I did a bit of complaining about the number of times I've had to call on this (which is totally true).

Had to wait a few minutes for a supervisor then another 15 or 20 while he did some research and he fixed it while I was on the phone with him.

Good luck! You should get it, it's just WAY more difficult to get them to follow through then it ever should be.

ezak Dec 13, 2018 12:44 pm


Originally Posted by tygran37 (Post 30530835)
I called the regular Marriott 800 number. Asked for a supervisor. I did a bit of complaining about the number of times I've had to call on this (which is totally true).

Had to wait a few minutes for a supervisor then another 15 or 20 while he did some research and he fixed it while I was on the phone with him.

Good luck! You should get it, it's just WAY more difficult to get them to follow through then it ever should be.

Thanks! Hope I don't have to call again, but if I do I'll do what you did and ask for a supervisor directly. Gosh, can't believe how many hours I've spent on calling Marriott this year.

Ausriver Dec 13, 2018 4:43 pm


Originally Posted by AmsterdamExpat (Post 30513377)
I signed up for the platinum challenge today. My understanding is that I have 90 days to complete the challenge (16 stays). However, I also see some comments in this thread about the challenge ending as of December 31 of this year. Can anyone confirm if I have 90 days from today (so early March 2019) or do I need to hit the stays by the end of this month?

Thanks in advance.

I have been told very clearly when signing up at 1st Dec, It will take 24 hours for the challenge to active, a stay checking out on 2nd Dec will count, I will have up until 31st Mar 2019 to complete the challenge.

Boatie Dec 17, 2018 7:17 pm


Originally Posted by Starwood Lurker III (Post 30423965)
You are correct that redemption stays would count if you registered for the promotion before October 12th.

Best Regards,

Christina Zhou
Social Media Specialist
Marriott International

[email protected]

I am currently a MR Silver Elite. I've called Marriott 800 three times today and received different three different answers about the Gold and Platinum Challenge.

I KNOW I will have over 16 nights by the end of March 2019 and would like to sign up for the MR Platinum Challenge. One CS told me I can only sign up for the Gold Challenge because I can only sign up for the challenge for the next level status (Silver to Gold) and not straight to Platinum.

Another CS told read me the T&Cs in it's entirety and in her opinion I am eligible to enroll in the Platinum challenge as a Silver Elite member. However, if I don't achieve 16 days in 3 months, I will only receive the regular member status based on the nights I actually achieved.

Where can I find the Marriott truth? I've not been able to locate any information on the website.

gordonja Dec 20, 2018 2:52 pm


Originally Posted by ezak (Post 30530533)
Did you hear anything from them? I'm in the same boat and currently only have a case number, which they will (hopefully) respond to in 3-5 business days.

I am finally Platinum! After 5 days I had not hear anything back on my “case”, so I called again. It was a long phone call where I was told first that award nights didn’t count. (I said that I had evidence that they did count, so I waited 15 minutes on hold for the CSR to check and tell me I was right.) Then I waited another 10 minutes while the CSR double checked that I had enough nights. (I did, but he thought I didn’t.) Then I waited again while he talked to a supervisor. He came back and told me that his supervisor said I just had to wait and my status would upgrade automatically at some point, but there was no way to know when. I begged him to fix it, given how long I have waited on each call to Marriott this fall, how I have been transferred from person to person, and how I just didn’t have any confidence in what I was being told (since more often than not since the merger, information has been incorrect!) He put me on hold a final time for another 15 minutes and was able to convert my status to Platinum. All in all, just over 1 hour for the call. Not bad, compared to some of the experiences I have had with Marriott this fall!

Viajero Millero Dec 20, 2018 10:28 pm


Originally Posted by Boatie (Post 30547111)
I am currently a MR Silver Elite. I've called Marriott 800 three times today and received different three different answers about the Gold and Platinum Challenge.

I KNOW I will have over 16 nights by the end of March 2019 and would like to sign up for the MR Platinum Challenge. One CS told me I can only sign up for the Gold Challenge because I can only sign up for the challenge for the next level status (Silver to Gold) and not straight to Platinum.

Another CS told read me the T&Cs in it's entirety and in her opinion I am eligible to enroll in the Platinum challenge as a Silver Elite member. However, if I don't achieve 16 days in 3 months, I will only receive the regular member status based on the nights I actually achieved.

Where can I find the Marriott truth? I've not been able to locate any information on the website.

From my research at the beginning of the challenge you must be status-less in other to enroll. Just a basic member.


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