miloworld

Just logged in to find myself downgraded to GOLD, despite having more than 29 stays in legacy Starwood brands last year.

On hold with the hotline right now, let's hope they can fix it tonight as I have a stay coming right up.

sandyph

my SPG account is still Platinum this morning and my Marriott account is Gold.
so it looks like not combining the accounts is the key.

But still gonna wait for another few days and see, can't be really sure with the way Marriott IT have been behaving the past few months

skye1

Am in the same boat - requalified for Plat (SPG stays in 2018) and have had it so far this year, yet JUST dropped to Gold. On hold for 45 minutes to talk to a Marriott customer service rep who said all legacy Starwood statuses were dropped in March with the launch of Bonvoy. What??!!!

clbrovic

Was also downgraded to Gold after qualifying on SPG Stays. Called Customer Service last night and they didn't acknowledge any continuation of the SPG Stay qualification for 2018 even after I quoted them the paragraph number (4.2.b) in their Loyalty Program Rules. They agreed to open a case.

Today I got an email response to the case..."you must stay an eligible 50 nights in a calendar year".

I replied to the email and pasted in the text from Rule 4.2.b and told them I was confident in my stays meeting their requirement and expect the case to continue to be researched until resolved.

When I don't hear from them by tomorrow, I will get back on hold with Customer Service.

skye1

Will do the same thing. The key paragraph on legacy SPG stays, that Rule 4.2 b, is not in the current website version of the T & C's, BUT, this sentence is, at the end of it:
" * Achievement of Elite Status through Qualifying Stays at the Participating Brands of the legacy SPG Program ended on December 31, 2018."
......which one would think would suffice....

I like the certainty in your post "when" I don't hear from them.... (not "if") and "back on hold" ...(yep, on hold for quite a while these days)

Repooc17

I knew something like this might happen, so I qualified for Plat prior to August last year. I also merged my account to my new SPG number Marriott had issued before the end of the year.

Just my data point. I am still Plat, and should hit 50 nights for real this year.

cy1978hk

"it looks like not combining the accounts is the key" - Yes this is the key. I had 25 stays last year and I didn't combine my account. My ex-SPG account still shows as platinum status today but my Marriott account was dropped back to Gold. Luckily I cashed out almost all the points in that account so I won't be using it in future, except for just a few nights stay history that would contribute to the lifetime nights count if the accounts are combined)....

RogerD408

First, there are no more SPG accounts since Aug'18. And there is obviously something going wrong here as if your status was earned by stays and not nights, then I would suspect your new Marriott account (former SPG) would be the one to drop in status. What sounds likely here is that they have dropped the linked status match where your original MR account has earned Gold and was dropped to what was earned, just like your new Marriott account earned Plat via stays and still showing Plat. Had you combined your accounts then you'd still be Plat. I haven't seen anything that gave a deadline for combining accounts, but the T&Cs do say only one account is allowed, so technically you are in violation having two accounts even if they set them up. I don't see any advantage (other than gaming some promos) to having two accounts and if there are issues with account balances, then fully document what each should be and send that in for research (if you haven't already) and get the accounts combined. Especially if your status will get bumped due to the higher numbers.

Also, has anyone contacted the Lurkers for assistance? They do seem to handle these types of situations very well and know who to contact for resolution.

sandyph

The advantage is that I'm still Plat in my SPG (now Marriott) account after completing 25 SPG legacy hotels stays in 2018, unlike other people that combined their linked SPG and Marriott account and trust Marriott to be able to track the stays correctly.

The (matched) Marriott account hardly have any stay anyway (<10 nights overs a couple of years) unlike my (SPG) Marriott account. So I don't really care when that account get downgraded to gold.

RogerD408

I wouldn't give their IT group credit for targeting combined accounts that qualified based upon stays at SPG properties and not hitting the uncombined accounts. There's got to be some other underlying issue that's not obvious. They have had such a hard time with so many of the simple tasks this would be a stretch in my view.

Again, any contact with the Lurkers?

clbrovic

After no success with another regular Loyalty Rewards Associate, I asked if there was someone more senior I could speak to about the Stay rule. I was transferred to 'Elite Services' where they were 100% aware of the rules. After some frustrating phone disconnects and redialing, they were able to resolve my issues. My status was Platinum a few hours later.

martyYOW

I'm still Platinum as well (qualified on stays - was only at 47 nights last year). I'm wondering if it has to do with which account people chose to keep. I merged my Marriott account into my SPG (new number) account. Did members who dropped to Gold choose to merge into their old Marriott Rewards account?

Napstolean

I too was assured last fall that 25 stays would allow me to re-qualify for plat.

I was downgraded to gold.

I called and spoke with "titanium" customer support.

They stated the ONLY way to have qualified for plat this year was with 50 or more nights in 2018; no, there was no such thing as legacy SPG plats re-qualifying based on stays, and no, they didn't believe me when I recited the assurances I received from Marriott late last fall that 25 stays would qualify for plat this year.

I cannot stress stress strongly enough: AVOID MARRIOTT. The company simply cannot be trusted.

MSPeconomist

jn in ca

Has anyone who got downgraded from Platinum to Gold checked their lifetime stats?

I too had my legacy SPG account change from Platinum to Gold this week. However, I had made a copy of my lifetime stats page about a month ago. My # of lifetime Platinum years did not go down, in spite of the fact that my current status went from Platinum to Gold.