+1 Its amazing.

I think a better analogy would be if you logged into your bank account and saw a depsoit for $100 that you KNOW YOU DIDN'T MAKE. Are you going to call the bank and demand that $100 or change banks?

Wrong analogy. Marriott did let you finish the flight in business. If you managed to check-in while you were temporarily Plat or Gold, noone is going to take away your Platinum Arrival Gift and evict you from the upgraded room.

They just corrected the error in their system so you are not upgraded to business next time. Yes, that's very uncool.

Yep, it is much better......

I sincerely disagree with your earlier analogy either. My 48 stays with Marriott were not equivalent, in any fashion, to finding a $100 bill on the street.

Once again, I iterate that I do not mind being retained back to Silver this year because I am cognizant of the fact that I did not earn enough nights.

Neither of those analogies are really identical to this. Both are sorta close I guess...

Bottom line: Marriott has a history of applying their own internal unpublished edits to members' status levels every year. This has always been in favor of the member. I have personally benefited from generous extensions when I didn't meet the published level.

I don't believe any of us feels a sense of entitlement or expectation that this should happen to us personally in any given year. If I had 74 EQN on Dec 30, I'd find the cheap Fairfield and not leave it to chance.

I think where people are getting irritated is when Marriott goes ahead and then gives them that "mulligan" and then yanks it away later. We didn't feel entitled to the initial status bump, but we also don't feel like Marriott should reverse their initial decision. Worst case, they should have followed the exact published criteria to begin with.

(Disclaimer: they granted me Plat in 2010 even though I didn't fully earn it. I just logged in: I'm still Plat. I was fully expecting a drop to Gold this year and am thankful to still be Plat. But I admit I'd be irritated if now, on January 26th, Marriott dropped me a level.)

...they need to understand that, had they been allowed to retain their accidental plat status, another group of MR members would have had cause to feel slighted. Those who logged 50-62 nights last year did not receive plat status. That's right -- they stayed from 1 to 19 nights more than the accidental plats, yet they started the year at gold. I am not among them (I logged 96 nights in 2009), but I definitely understand why they might feel frustrated to receive lower status than those who stayed less.

I think it will be interesting to see how Marriott handles this correction. While the accidental plats may not deserve that status, it is only natural that they feel disappointed upon losing it. It's likely that many never knew of their short upgrade in status, but some did (those who checked their accounts on-line). I also wonder if any accidental plats were sent plat cards by mail (some of which may not even have been received yet). Because Marriott will have a tough time figuring out which accidental plats actually learned of their status boost, and might therefore be feeling disappointed by their demotion/correction, I think they would be smart to send an apology letter/explanation/gift to all of the accidental plats.

My suggestion is a letter that explains that the MR member may have noticed that during the first weeks of January, his/her elite status was not reflected accurately in his/her online account. It would also explain that the rollover nights program has given the MR member a head start of X nights towards 2011 status. It would also include a discount certificate (perhaps 20% off of a weekend stay) with the explanation that the certificate is intended to "make it even easier for the MR member to earn status." The certificate would not be an explicit compensation for the disappointment felt by those who have been demoted because it would go to many who have no idea that they had been elevated to plat. This communication would, I think, restore some good will among the currently cranky accidental plats.

Same here! I was indeed impishly happy before and a little disappointed when the mistake was corrected! But hey, life does go on and a silly status upgrade with MR is nothing in the grand scheme of things!

Me too. Back to Silver. BUT with 30 roll over days, and 21 upcoming Marriott Vacation Club timeshare stays (Las Vegas, Aruba, Hilton Head) during 2010 it looks like I'll make Gold for 2011.^

I agree. I am among this group. I had 55 nights last year and was already gold. So I had 5 roll over nights, no error bump to platinum for me. Someone who only had 35 or 40 nights was bumped to platinum, that wouldn't sit well with me. I am glad Marriott has made the correction, though I think they could have communicated this better.

I don't think this was something they foresaw. They probably applied the roll over nights as bonus nights and then the next day there was a collective "Oh crap" among those in charge of IT. Cleaning these up is probably a long process, running lots of reports, reprogramming, and manual data entry. Not a simple or quick process.

That ^*&^, who does he think he is, taking my $100!!

OK, suppose Marriott agreed to send you $100 for staying 75 nights. You stay 43 nights and they send you $100. Do you believe that $100 is yours?

Suppose Marriott accidentally debited your Marriott credit card for $100 instead. Would you agree with their right to keep the money?

I gave up being amazed by the sense of entitlement years ago - I'm now numb to it.

Your assumption was correct as applied to me. I jumped to Plat, shouldn't have, and promptly booked ten nights during the Megabonus period that I would have given to Starwood otherwise.

I'm with you - no one is entitled to status - it is Marriott's discretion to give whatever they want, provided they don't promise something and then not follow through. *However*, you are missing a critical aspect here. In law, there is a concept called detrimental reliance (see Promissory Estoppel subsection). Giving status and then taking it back, as long as the effect was just to make the person feel good and then let down, is one thing. Perfectly fine, innocent mistake, no harm done. However, what if that person spent $2,000 on hotel stays *purely* because of the status, relying on the status as a primary factor in the purchase decision, and then the status was retracted? Now they have spent $2,000 on rooms they perceived had a higher value. If Marriott refunds these with no question, then they make the person whole again, but if there were Advanced Stay rates or gift card purchases, they'll need to make policy exceptions to refund. However, what if the person purchased airfare to go along with the stays they paid for? Even if they room fee is refunded, they might be stuck with the airline tickets. Detrimental reliance. Marriott needs to be careful with this. Not quite a victimless crime nor a matter of whining customers who feel entitled when the situation involves spending real money based upon the reasonable assumption that the status was real.

+1

I fall into this category. I have yet to lose my Plat Status this year, but I did pay for MORE THAN GOLD stays last year, and I have booked stays and flights based on my Plat Status this year. Marriott will have a battle with me if they pull my status back to Gold in the coming weeks/months. They will also lose all of my business.

I did post about my good fortune earlier in the year, so this is not new territory for me. I'm watching my account on a daily basis. I hope they do what's right (or at least what I feel is right :-) and maintain my status for the year.

The only way this would apply is if they pre-paid for their hotel. And I'm guessing that anything spent on airfare is irrelevant, because while the erroneously upgraded status might have guided the choice of hotel, it is unlikely to have caused someone to take a trip that s/he would not otherwise have taken.

In the (I'm guessing) extremely rare cases in which someone actually pre-paid her/his reservation, the loss is pretty small. As upgrades are not guaranteed, the only benefits s/he could have been counting on are the points earned bonus, CL access if available at the location, and the plat arrival gift. So...if anyone actually booked a pre-paid room during their week of ersatz platness, it wouldn't be too hard for Marriott to make her/him whole. And I'm guessing we could count the number of people this applies to on one hand.

Whether likely or unlikely, someone who purchased a trip relying on their Marriott status and the value it would provide for their hotel stay as a primary factor would have a clear case. In my batch of reservations, one such trip (to NYC) was made because the appeal of Platinum status made the weekend stay appealing enough for me to buy the airfare for me and my wife. The hotel room was purchased on a 21-day advance rate, so I'd also need to have my prepayment refunded to be made whole. I also made several other reservations on other dates that I can cancel without penalty (trips I was already taking, but would have used Starwood instead), and will do so if status is not returned. I am *not* making an argument on moral grounds, nor saying I am going to fight with Marriott about it; I'm merely pointing out that some may have a legal basis for a claim.

Delta made a similar error (in their case, release of a promo link - not false status) last year, and I raised a similar concern. They made good on the error by honoring the promo for anyone who signed up before they caught it. To protect themselves, Marriott would be wise to either revert back the errant statuses, or at least agree to change back any downgraded status, upon request.

That's going further than Marriott has to. It does more than make you whole, because it provides you with status beyond the trip in question. To make you whole, Marriott only needs to give you 500 points (or cheese and 375 ml of crappy wine) and give you 25% more MR points for your stay (the difference between the gold and plat point bonuses). These are the only differences between gold and plat status. You were already (and are still) entitled to a room upgrade if available due to your gold status. Same goes for access to the (probably closed on weekends) CL.

It strikes me as odd that a 25% MR point bonus, some under-ripe brie, and a half bottle of plonk could induce you to take a trip you would not otherwise have taken. I guess we must value these "benefits" differently.