No upgrade
 

Although I have received upgrades, I have never been able to use any of my "10 free suite upgrades", although I have requested them on many stays this year. I have 76 nights at Marriott this year. It is my opinion, that the upgrades are unusable and they should be able to be interchanged for points or nights instead.

I think 2019 will be the last year I strive for Titanium Elite... the benefits just aren't there anymore.

Lifetime Plat here and Titanium for the past 7. Almost all business trips.
Terrible year for upgrades . Only was able to use 1 SNA.

That was at a Wesrin. In prior years in Europe and Asia I was about 90% successful while my US stays have been wildly unsuccessful.

The two core problems are:
- Marriott’s wording on suite upgrades isn’t a tight as e.g. Hyatt and so hotels can play games with suites and largely get away with it
- There are too many Marriott elites eligible for suite upgrades - particularly in the US I imagine most hotels have more suite eligible members staying than suites every night (and that’s before considering paid suite bookings)

Nothing is likely to change until one of these two things changes!

Does it count if it was a Starwood property at the time? It was a few years ago at the Westin Palace Madrid and we had booked a high end room (don't remember which exactly) and we were upgraded to the Presidential Suite which was very nice. It was our second stay at that hotel in a week, the two stays being interrupted by a trip to Seville.

It was especially delicious because during our first stay we went to have a look at the Ritz which was recommended by a friend. No sooner did we enter the lobby then we were ejected by Security. It seems that my shorts, which I was wearing due to the extremely hot day, were verboten at the Ritz. Upshot was the we had a lovely view of the Ritz from the balcony of our Presidential Suite. We enjoyed the upgrade and the irony.

No. 1, Marriott needs to enforce the rules more strictly.
Send survey for every stays and check if the room inventory really sold out at the dates members stays and not being upgraded.
While nothing can be done when the hotel are genuinely full, most of the time is the hotel just cant be bothered to upgrade members due to their own laziness or greed.

I stayed at a hotel which was full during some event in the city (non Bonvoy) and yet they still manage to give elite upgrade.

Then I also stay at St Regis Bali which was fully booked as well according to Bonvoy website. I didn't get upgraded on arrival, the staff apologise for the non upgrade.
And on my 3rd day they told me that they have a villa is going to be checked out and they can move me there.

No.2 Can't do much as Bonvoy members are concentrated at US and those popular hotel will always be inundated by elites.

I have about 1,000 nights at Marriott brands (not counting any Starwood).

My upgrades over the years
- Large 1-bedroom suite at the Mayflower Renaissance in DC
- Al Davis Suite at the Napa Marriott
- Harry S Truman Suite at the Marriott downtown KC
- Large boardroom suite at the Tyson's Corner Marriott
- Boardroom suite at one of the suburban North Dallas Courtyards (I forget which one)
- A handful of 2-bedroom upgrades at Residence Inn (maybe 4 or 5 in 20 years)
- A few junior suites or other unusually-large rooms that could be legitimately considered an "upgrade", but aren't true suites.

All one- or two-nighters.

I've long since accepted that Marriott has never really been an upgrade-based program. They have, however, almost always done a good job of getting bed/smoke to my liking, giving me high floors, "desirable" non-suite rooms, good views, proximity to lounge, etc.

I know I could flip to Hyatt for a really good suite rate if I hit Diamond (or whatever they call it in their new system), but there aren't enough Hyatts around the world to cover my stays very well.

Hilton is also a crap upgrade program. I have more total upgrades with them - lots of solid 1-bedroom and boardroom-type suites as a Gold/Diamond in the early 00's. But absolutely nothing from them in many years, and it can occasionally be hard to be my desired bed type even as a Diamond. I sometimes book a suite on a NOR1 offer and consider that a "win" that I can do that on an award stay, but I know there's nothing free from them - ever.

In my opinion, Marriott does members a disservice by mentioning upgrades at all. They create expectations that are almost never met and never have a chance of being met except maybe (??) at the Ambassador level.

None of the chains are particularly good about upgrading in North America anymore. I used to do pretty well as both Hilton Gold and Diamond "back in the day", but their program devalued in so many ways that when I retired and had to choose one, Marriott was obvious. Marriott gave the occasional suite upgrade in the pre-SNA days, but lately it's been pretty slim. I had one request clear in the past year - documented in the thread for that purpose - and am finishing the year with 7 unused. So far my 2020 travel plans with over 45 days in Marriott's include only one full-service hotel where an upgrade would be worthwhile.

I have said this elsewhere, and am starting to sound like a broken record, but I feel like Marriott generally does a poor job of finding non-upgrade ways of making elites feel valued in those lower tier hotels. Across many years as a Hyatt Diamond, I almost never got a room at a Hyatt Place or similar property that didn't match the preferences in my profile (bed type, high floor, away from elevator, etc.); the same was true at Hamptons and HGIs when I was a Hilton elite, though that's been a while, and at pre-merger SPGs.

Really, the fundamental thing I want as an elite is to know I'll never get the worst room in the property. Bonvoy is the first program where I haven't felt confident of that.

At Courtyards and the like, I end up on the first floor of two or three floor properties about 50% of the time, and am usually in the lower floors of taller hotels. The Courtyard Atlanta Downtown put me in a glorified closet without a desk while putting my lower status coworker staying on the same rate in a nicer room on a higher floor.

My question is:

Has anyone ever used a SNA request, but, been granted a higher level suite than they let you select with the upgrade claim?

...I ask, because, I'm going to the same hotel (W South Beach) where they upgraded me as a Platinum to a suite at an any higher price point than they let you use a SNA for...damn, I loved that suite.

Of course, though more typically in the SPG days

and with legacy Starwood properties too, for obvious reasons

I’m @ 50%
 

As a lowly Platinum with exactly 50 nights in 2019, 25 have been in a suite, pretty much across all brands and 13 nights at Courtyard and lower properties where suites are generally not available. To be fair, I do try to cultivate relationships with GMs in advance, always ask politely at check in and have been proactive with the chat function on the app the day of travel. I think that is a fair reward for my loyalty.

It's been a good upgrade year for me since I managed to use all of my upgrades. Other years have not been as good.

How do you find the contact for the the GM? What do you say on the chat on the day of?

Since I've spent most of the last year at the Same Sheraton, they've upgraded me 98% of the time, I think I had 3 rooms out of 40+ that were not Suites. Plus the couple of times I booked rooms for my colleagues they put them in suites as well.

One comment on SNA, being 100% or 0% is totally based on availability 5 days out. It all done by computer, my ambassador can't affect it. If they room type is available you get it if it's not you don't. My general experience has been if you don't clear at 5 days you probably are not clearing. A good example, at the Brussels Marriott last year I put in for the one Suite they had. 5 days out got the message 'we will keep trying'. These were the last 5 days of the year and they were expiring. I immediately added the Jr Suite to my upgrade options and it cleared in 15 minutes. Other than competing against other's with SNA's it's just a measure of actual availability. That being said there are also suites that are not in the SNA pool, as I've gotten those UG's as well.

Went to one of the Marriott properties in San Antonio on the Riverwalk. I could see I was pre-upgraded to a suite when I checked in on the app. When I got there they further upgraded me to the Presidential Suite (which was physically 4 hotel rooms long. This was a 3 night stay, so more than the typical you are here for one night so 'why not' upgrade.

At the same time I've had to 'push' for some suites like the NO Marriott, were they still had the suite for sale, but it turned out it needed to be cleaned and was showing out of service to the front desk.

Many times I've had the front desk apologize that the suites were sold out that night, which I do appreciate because it at least tells me they know my status entitles me to upgrades.

Years ago, I would have said Marriott was the best at getting the basics right (decent room, correct bed type). But Courtyard has spent much of its existence as a brand as an oddball exception in the middle of Marriott's brand stack when it came to providing elite benefits. For years, us Marriott long-timers knew that status didn't matter at CY or Ritz Carlton. Ritz, okay, I don't like it but I kind of understand it. But Courtyard? Why? So for years, it was my brand-of-last-resort. I assume it's because the brand was likely originally built out as a purely business brand where most guests had corporate contract rates that specified their room types and breakfast benefit. But even today, it seems embedded in their culture: they mostly don't care at all about your Bonvoy status. I occasionally run into an exception but it's still a brand I avoid, favoring an HGI or Hyatt Place whenever those are a viable alternative.