superpilot21

The incentive to keep staying at Marriott after 'titanium' was to achieve a lifetime status so that when I am not working on the road as much later in life I can still get lounge and breakfast.

You can get a status match and start at the same level at a new chain.

Ideally I would love to have life time status at 2 or 3 chains when I stop traveling so much so that I can have my choice of brand on my own time without having to worry about giving up the little perks.

I gain not much but points continuing on with Marriott at this point. (sure the few things a titanium gets, but that isn't compelling enough)

If you had lifetime at OW then you could status match to skyteam and not worry about being at the back of the line etc. So i don't really get your point.

DaveMidknight

Does anyone know, when your lifetime years get updated. I reached 2 days ago my 50 nights to renew my Platinum for this years and should have reached my 10 years as Platinum, but my year counter is still showing 9 years.

Thanks

David

Hoc

Where is your year counter? I can't find it on the website.

Marriott Bonvoy Lurker II

Hi David,

We are advised that members' year count will not be updated until the year-end review is completed. Thus your year counter will be updated next year.

Best Regards,

Christina Zhou
Specialist, Social Media
Marriott International

[email protected]

jimdarcy

Antarius

^
This. I don't earn status for fun or for the luggage tags. Tthe whole incentive of staying is to enjoy the benefits earned

bgriff

iflyjetz

I was in your shoes a few years ago, and chose the exact same path as you're looking at taking.
I chose …. poorly. I was SPG LT Gold and only a couple years short of LT Plat when the merger was announced.


The only choices you have left for LT status are Hyatt and Hilton.
I am now spending most of my time/money at Hyatts although I doubt I will get LT status there.
Since you can get Hilton Gold by simply having the AmEx Ascend ($95/yr) or Hilton Diamond by having the AmEx Aspire ($450/yr) or charging $40K on the Ascend card, I ruled out going for Hilton LT status. And IMHO the sweet spot for Hilton is Gold.

I still stay at Marriott family properties (lifetime titanium) several times a year but I no longer look at them as my only choice. And frankly, it's huge to have options between multiple chains, as the best value (not best price; I value FS properties higher than limited service properties) in any location can vary between Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG If one is a 'slave' to only one brand, they will end up paying more and getting less value.
I'm currently based out of SFO and find myself staying at the SFO airport Hyatt Regency most of the time but I do shop between other brands and have stayed at other chains when the value has been better. I'm looking forward to getting based back in LAX and prefer the LAX airport Hyatt Regency but have stayed at most hotels near LAX depending on value.

Marriott Bonvoy Lurker

As far as we are aware, they have already been updated.

EXPLAT

So I sent this email to the Lurkers:
"I qualified for Platinum by 12/31/18 (booked a 3 night stay 12/29/18-01/01/19 to achieve my 10th year as a Platinum. If I understand correctly, under the new program, Platinum was the old Gold, and Platinum Premier (now Titanium) was the old Platinum but my lifetime status only shows Platinum. Shouldn't I have lifetime Platinum Premier (now Titanium) as this would be the equivalent of the old lifetime Platinum?"

Could this have something to do with my last night being on 12/31/18 which would not give time for the Platinum counter to increment from 9 years to 10 years on 12/31/18 since the next day was 2019? 12/31/18 was the night that bumped me up to Platinum for 2018.

Here's the statement from the Marriott benefits page:
"NOTE: Members who reach 750 nights and 10 years at Platinum by December 31, 2018, will be grandfathered into Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite status (notified January 2019). In addition, members that achieve Marriott Rewards Lifetime Platinum under the legacy requirements by year end will also be grandfathered into Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite status. And don’t forget that we’ll combine Lifetime activity across both Rewards and SPG toward qualification when members combine accounts. Beginning in 2019, qualification into Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite status will not be available. See FAQs for details."

CCIE_Flyer

Question: Did you hold Plat status going into and throughout 2018? In other words, did you final stay bump your status to Plat from some lower level, or did you currently hold it going into your final stay?

I've long held that, likely due to scripts poorly written by those with an incomplete understanding of the intended business outcomes, the years counter that went up in Aug '18 already incorporated any status currently held at that time. Thus, if one already held Plat (based on 2017 activity) in one or both programs, no amount of additional pre-Dec 31 activity will be incrementing years counters (unless said activity actually increased status in 2018 from, say, Gold to Plat).

I know that I personally crossed a Plat threshold in one of the programs following Aug account merging, yet to this day my year counter has never budged. And I don't expect that it will because I already held Plat in both SPG and MR as of the time the years counter went up, so 2018 was already reflected in the total.

I fully realize that this theory, if true, means that some folks got a bonus (those who held but did not re-earn Plat status in 2018 got a bonus year counted for the purposes of LTTE evaluation), whereas other folks got the shaft (such as anyone who purposely undertook additional stays in an effort to reach that tenth year that, unbeknownst to them had already been counted). I hope this theory is ultimately proven incorrect, but it would explain why pretty much no one posting here has reported a 2018 bump, yet Marriott's position is that those books have already closed. And it further helps to explain the significant number of FTers who reported that their own years counter seemed skewed high as of Aug '18.

Of course years counting has been deemed proprietary, so this or any other theory will likely never be either proved or disproved...

jimdarcy

EXPLAT

Yes I held Platinum status in 2017 & 2018, with year 10 being achieved on 12/31/18.

CCIE_Flyer

So the followup question(s) is whether or not you had manually tracked your elite years over the course of time? In other words, did you look at your years counter when that went live in Aug '18 and see a '9' and then conclude that you could earn your 10th year by Dec 31? Or is it possible that the 9 already included the status that you held in 2018, thus precluding you from earning another year in 2018?

EXPLAT

I had Platinum Status from 2017, and didn't earn Platinum Status in 2018 until 12/31/18 when I booked 3 nights to make sure I had enough qualifying nights. I didn't have a chance to look at the counter.