funkbandit

Are you really sure about this? I find it hard to believe that only earned years count. Say you had 50 nights in January and February 2015 and you would not make 50 nights again thereafter. Those nights would have counted towards elite qualification for 2016. So you would only have earned the status for 2016. If Marriott then gave you a courtesy Extension of your Gold Status for 2017 that wouldn't count according to your suggestion.
As an MR member in the example above you would have "felt" and been treated like a gold member for c. 34 months. I can't believe that Marriott would only recognise 12 of those months as gold status months (=1 year) in hindsight. This feels wrong and most likely is wrong.

Any call center Agent I have talked to recently suggested that any year you held an elite status for the majority of the year will count as a full year of that status (e.g. 7 months platinum will be considered a whole year as platinum). I don't know if this is going to be the way they will do it in the end, but it "feels" a lot better than taking years of elite status away in hindsight.

CJKatl

On first read my reaction to the post was the same as yours, but then on second read I think the point being made is...

Let's say the member hit 50 nights in Oct 2015.

• In Marriott terms the member would have earned Gold for 2016, which would be one year of status.
• The member would enjoy Gold benefits for the rest of 2015 and for the entire 2016 year and for a little bit of 2017.
• That is one year of earned eligibility, 2016.
• Some people are thinking the member was Gold in two or three calendar years: 2015, the year the status was attained, and 2016, the year of Gold, and the poster is pointing out there is only one year of eligibility earned, not two, in this scenario. Some seem to also want to include the few days of 2017 for a third year.
• If the member reaches 49 nights in 2016, including rollover, the member would not renew Gold for 2017.
• Suppose Marriott communicated in Jan 2017 that they gifted the Gold renewal for all of 2017 then there would be a new, second year of status which would be considered earned.

The poster is not suggesting in this scenario Marriott will go back and untake the gifted year. What is done is done. The concern is there are people counting a single earned year of qualification as two calendar years of membership because they include the year the status was reached and the next year for which the status was earned as two different years. It seems obvious but apparently there are people arguing that they were at the status in two different years under this type of scenario. The word earned is meant to clarify this point that even though two or three calendar years straddle the status it is a single earned year.

Complicating issue: In MR we think when someone hits 50 nights in Oct 2015 that person is considered to have earned Gold for 2016. In SPG parlance they appear to say that person earned Gold in 2015, so while we are each agreeing that is one year in Marriott we would call that person a 2016 Gold while SPGers seem to call that person a 2015 Gold. That seems to be adding to the confusion.

funkbandit

Thanks for your clarification on that matter.

sethb

An interesting case would be they earned Gold in 2010 for 2011. They didn't earn it in 2011, but they earned it again in January 2012 so they were Gold for all of 2011, 2012, and 2013 despite earning it only twice. Does that count as two or three years?

CJKatl

Two. Eligibility is based on earned years, not calendar years. Calendar years are irrelevant. And this is where I now realize MR and SPG members are using a different way of looking at what specific year is earned...

• In MR parlance the member earned status for 2012 and 2014. In 2011 one earns status for the next year and in 2013 one again earns status for the next year. Because the member earned status for 2012 for the rest of 2011 the member enjoys the perks of that status. But enjoying the status is based on earning in 2011 for 2012, not for earning status for 2011. In MR, one earns status for the next year but once a year starts you are unable to earn the status for that year barring some sort of explicit status granting or gifting that is for the particular year, although most are for the next year and allow a member to enjoy the benefits. The same would be true with 2013/14.
• In SPG parlance the member earns status in 2011 which gives the member through the next year. The member would again earn status in 2013 which would be good through 2014, but status is only earned twice.

"Earned" is when a member was granted the status, be it by hitting a certain number of nights, meeting a challenge, being gifted the status or just about anything other than a linked status match from the other program. The eligibility period earned may straddle two or three calendar years, but calendar years are not counted towards eligibility. Earned "years" are counted, which should probably be called somthing like "earned status periods" to avoid confusing them with calendar years or even a 12 month period because "earned" or "eligible years" could be from 14 to 26 months long but still only count as one year of status.

In the scenario you outline only two years are earned even though four calendar years are involved. And an MR member is likely to say 2012 and 2014 are earned while an SPG member may say 2011 and 2013 were the earned years, but either way it is only two earned years even if it allows status for a period covering three or four or five calendar years.

funkbandit

This doesn't come across right.
If you earned gold status in 2010 for 2011 you were gold for a fraction of 2010 (and Marriott is yet to announce how fractions of years will be recognized, but I digress) and for 2011 (and Jan-Feb 2012). So at a minimum, you would be recognized for one year at gold status (2011).
The person in the example above then earns gold status again in January 2012 (while still being gold) for 2013. Hence, this person will be a gold elite member for all of 2012. Why on earth would Marriott take that year away when counting/recognizing years of elite membership? I would believe that this year (2012) will also count towards lifetime elite status.
2013 would count in any way. Making it a minimum of three years of gold elite qualification towards lifetime status.

I can't locate any reference to "earned" status years on the MR members website. Where does it come from?
In Starwood's program, members could gift gold status to other members. Would those status years be taken away because they weren't earned?
Will Marriott nix years of complimentary status extension?
Will Marriott de-recognize status buybacks?

I believe Marriott will take a simple approach and at least recognize all full years you were gold elite member (regardless of how the status was attained) as eligible towards lifetime status.

dsquared37

If true then Marriott Gold through UA Rewards Plus (UA 1mm) would be a qualifying year towards this benchmark.

CJKatl

I am using the words achieve and earn as synonyms. Achieve is used more often on the member.Marriott materials but both mean you hit the fifty night mark or were awarded status by Marriott by meeting a challenge, being gifted the status, etc. Marriott told you you were at the status, it showed on the site and the hotels recognized you as having the status.

It is earned/achieved years, not calendar years. The person hits or earns Gold in 2011 and now has his first earned year. There are fifty nights. That extends through 2012 but the member does not hit fifty nights in 2012 so he does not earn another year. In 2013 he gets a few days of carry-over status until everything resets. Suppose with rollover the member earns Gold on Jan 22, 2013. This is his second earned Gold which will give Gold for 2014. There are now two years of earned Gold. While these might stretch over five calendar years there are only two years of earned Gold. That is why the word earned is being used over and over and over and the word calendar is never used.

Do you really think Marriott would allow 100 nights to be stretched into five years of eligibility? In your example the member earned two years of Gold. Simple.

If, different example, Marriott said in Jan 2013 that they were going to gift Gold to the member because he came close that gifting would be the same as earning. As I said many times in the original post, They are not going to go back and retroactively decide that gifting does not count, or a birthday gift night does not count, etc. What is done is done. If they gave you Gold you were Gold, but there are people who think that if your Gold went from Nov 2011 through 2012 that you have two years' credit for one earned year and that is not the case.

CJKatl

dsquared37

Yes, in the first quoted post you stated, as is widely known, that SPG matches don't count. However you implied most everything else would, which would include UA Rewards Plus. I'm not trying to cause a gotcha moment but your wording does leave a very open maw.

I spoke with Marriott today about this very question and was told I had 5 years of Gold/Plat that would be eligible for LT consideration but, truth be told, I'm not convinced they had complete knowledge of the situation and requirements. I would love this to be true because my 5 years of SPG Plat plus nights would put me over the threshold as of Jan 1... I just don't trust anyone right now.

CJKatl

I will admit the reason I originally put "most" was to be fuzzy about UA nights without explicitly mentioning them. I have not followed the issue closely but thought it was still an unanswered situation. Gifted nights, soft landings, etc, are situations where Marriott explicitly awarded the status where UA matches are more similar to the SPG-MR status match where one qualified for something else for reciprocal treatment by MR. Members should be safe in the situations where Marriott granted the individual member status through a challenge or soft landing or nights from things like ccs or megabonus.

cmh flyer

In my case, I didn't know how many years of MR 50 nights/yr gold status I had, so I called MR and they told me I had 10 years. I believe however the 10 years included 2018 based on the assumption I did 50 nights this year. I would think their count is accurate, no? Perhaps they have already figured out the years of status for all. In fact, I called to find out my lifetime points, and they also offered the gold status year info.

There were some past years where it looked like I would not make the 50 nights, and I was offered a challenge to do X number of nights within the last couple of months and that way I made gold status with nights just short of 50 for the year.

Now if I happen to end up with only 9 years of MR gold status, the tally of my years and nights would both carry forward under the new program, right? So that once I earned the new program requirements in a couple years, I could achieve the new program LTP status? Is that how it works?

sdsearch

Unfortunately, at least in my case, it only shows a useless (for merger purposes) "elite years" total of 5. It doesn't explain which calendar years those were (so I can see if they counted linked-from-Marriott years), nor does it explain how many of those were SPG Plat (which counts in the merger toward the new LTP or LTPP) vs SPG Gold (which doesn't count in the merger toward anything I consider useful).

Whether that's because I don't have enough lifetime SPG nights for any current SPG lifetime status (it only shows me a progress clock for LT SPG Gold, not LT SPG Plat), or whether it shows only that useless "elite nights" total to everyone, that I don't know.

So I guess I have to keep waiting for the Lifetime Master Statement which I requested by phone Sunday morning. (I've seen in other threads that it can take up to a week.) Hopefully that will have more (merger-relevant) detail about those 5 years.

RogerD408

If you drill down on the SPG dashboard page it should tell you what you need to get the next LT status. If you have reached LTGold, then it shows how many nights and Platinum years to make LTPlat. If you haven't reached LTGold, it should show what you need to reach that (nights and elite years). Don't expect anything right now to address what's needed for the new program.

dsquared37

I sure hope they are correct because which path I take to LTP is dependent on getting accurate answers. And yet I don't have faith in their agents at this point.