dsquared37

A difference without a distinction in my book.

That would, on the face of things, fly against what Marriott has in their records: Agents see MR Gold for a number of years, a closer look, upon request, shows MR Gold via UA Rewards Plus but, in the system, it shows as MR Gold.

Those "who wish to enjoy the benefits of Marriott Rewards Gold Elite status" are able to do so because they are MR Gold. Your reading of this is quaint at the minimum.

GoPhils

CJKatl

It was the same quaint reasoning they used to not recognize SPG linked accounts.

OldSchoolConsultant

I recently made Lifetime Platinum on Marriott. So I have just a little over $2M lifetime points. I want to book a Starwood hotel for vacation in late July. This will require transferring Marriott points to Starwood. Will this impact my Marriott lifetime balance? Obviously I don't want to do anything to screw that up before August 1st.

dsquared37

And yet you've stated other forms of matching, aside from SPG linking and UA, which you claim are exactly the same, will likely be allowed. Talk about quaint. Oh, and completely illogical.

edcho

Transferring to and from SPG does not affect the lifetime point balance.

OldSchoolConsultant

Ok, that's what I assumed. Just wanted to check before I did something that could jeopardize my lifetime status given the stakes.

funkbandit

I might wager a guess:
Any year with MR/SPG elite status will count towards lifetime no matter how it was attained on a stand alone basis (BIB, credit cards, challenges, gifts, buybacks, etc).
The only status years that will not count are those that Marriott/Starwood granted in a way of reciprocal grant after the merger. And there's a reason for it: Stand alone MR/SPG status will be double counted towards lifetime eligibility (e.g. you can collect two plat lifetime eligible years in the 2018 calendar year). If reciprocal MR/SPG granted status would count as well, any status member could claim double counts, so MR would need to increase the eligibility thresholds for lifetime elite membership to account for this. The downside would be, that you'd need even more years to attain lifetime status if you have just recently joined or will join in the future. This is why MR wouldn't require more elite years for lifetime elite status.
The beauty of the aforementioned approach: counting years would be an almost straightforward exercise for MR and members.

CJKatl

I do not claim SPG and UA linking are the same but they are similar in that an entity other than Marriott made the status determination and Marriott extended the benefits based on the other entity, not on any business done with Marriott. Other methods, like a challenge, soft landing, etc, Marriott decided the eligibility parameters and actually granted the status instead of granting benefits because of a different entity's qualification. The difference is stark and logical. Even you concede that by offering no explanation to the contrary but attacking me instead by repeating quaint over and over in various posts.

If you qualified for SPG Gold Marriott gave you benefits. If you qualified for UA status, Marriott gave you status. Your contract for qualification was with SPG or UA, Marriott and the other company had a contract with Marriott that allowed benefits. In the other methods Marriott directly granted status. Big difference. In the latter you had a direct contract with Marriott. You fulfilled your requirement through a challenge or getting the required cc or whatever so it makes no sense Marriott would change that contract now. With the SPG or UA status match there is no contract where the guest did something with Marriott in exchange for status, the guest gave something to SPG or UA. That is a huge difference.

Again, Marriott has not stated anything that would indicate they are going to take back a previous decision to grant status. They have decided not to honor the SPG status match based on the guest not qualifying through Marriott but having qualified through SPG. Thinking that within the next 45 days Marriott secretly intends to redefine past status that the company granted is contrary to the honest, upfront way Marriott has always conducted itself as a company.

sdsearch

But, since you didn't specify SPG in the thread title, I have to add:

Transfers of some other kinds, like to someone else's Marriott account, do affect (reduce) your lifetime balance!

OldSchoolConsultant

And that's why I started the thread - I've seen other posts about things which do reduce lifetime balance. Like what you noted and also the purchase of status with points.

beachfan

OldSchoolConsultant

But nothing else does, correct?

dealhunter999

Greetings!
Need advice on how to proceed in following situation:

SPG: 334 nights, Lifetime SPG points: 200,000 (approx, includes 50K credit card points)
Marriott: 692 nights , Lifetime MR Points: 1,484,000 (currently lifetime silver)

Questions:

• What will be the best strategy to get the highest lifetime status with the above data in new merged program? fyi, I will be not travelling this year except 4-5 days hotel stay.
• Is lifetime platinum status possible in this scenario?
• I was thinking of adding another 100K MR sign-up bonus points by applying for MR Premier credit card to reach lifetime gold MR status (500 nights,1.6 million points). I can do this by end of August or before.

Thanks!

dsauch

i am going full throttle on MR credit cards personal/business to get to 1.6mln points, you should do the same - you will be lifetime plat in new program