I have been a MR member for many years and almost always stay at Marriott properties. I am not a road warrior so stays are not very frequent. Nevertheless, I just hit 77 nights through a combination of rollover nights, bonuses, Premier VISA card, etc. Much to my surprise, I am suddenly MR PLT, having never been higher than silver before. A few questions, if you don't mind:

1. Is the lifetime status program documented?
2. Does MR have a lifetime Gold status?
3. I think my total nights are almost 500 (tried to check but the MR site seems to be down for maintenance). Do bonus nights count toward to lifetime PLT? If not, my chances of reaching the 1000 level in my lifetime are slim.

Thanks for your help.

There are a ton of lifetime status threads here but I've got time tonight so I'll post specific answers to your questions.
1. Yes; you can google it and find all details on marriott websites.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.

Here are the general requirements:
12 years in the program
At least one year at the level you obtain (silver, gold, plat)

For lifetime silver (pretty worthless status): 600 nights, 1.4 million points
Gold: 800 nights, 1.7 million points
Platinum: 1000 nights, 2.0 million points

The only way to check your lifetime points is to call Marriott. I've kept track of them since calling quite a while ago; that's why I've got a running total on my signature. I should call again sometime to double check my point totals.

I use the Marriott Premier Visa as my primary card; that gets me more than 30K points/yr which is a big help on the points side of the equation.

Gold's a pretty decent lifetime level to hit; it gives you the bulk of what is offered by being a Plat. Since you've hit Plat, you're eligible for LT Gold.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I am LT PLT on AAdvantage, which has been very useful, as my flying winds down. Very glad I made it before the recently-introduced changes. Time to work on MR LT status (GLD would be sufficient).

Tried to do a search, but didn't see any threads on this (though I'm not very good at using the search function)...anyway, I understand that going through a third-party to book stays for any chains will not earn any points/miles. But I thought I read somewhere that a stay booked through Costco Travels or AAA will earn points? Can someone please clarify/share experiences? TIA

Didn't want to start a new thread, so figured I'd post here. I don't stay in many hotels and don't have much of a desire to accumulate points in the various hotel programs. I have an upcoming stay at a Ritz, and occasional hotel stays in the different programs. I have miles on UA, US, and AA, with my UA account being supplemented by Chase UR, US by SPG, and AA by SPG.

Given that I have no desire to maintain hotel status or points, should I go with the miles and use them to replenish my UA or US account that is running low? Is there a benefit to accumulating Marriott points and transferring later?

Yes, more MR points you accumulate, better is transfer ration (for instance 24000 MR -> 10000 UA, but 56000 MR -> 30000 UA)...

For regular stays, doesn't setting 'miles' as the earning preference get me a 1:1 MR to UA ratio, which is higher than the two you posted? Or am I misunderstanding?

No; it's a 5:1 ratio. You want to earn points and convert to miles. For Ritz Carlton, for instance, you earn 10 MR points but only 2 UA miles per dollar spent. Most Marriott properties earn 10 MR points per dollar spent but you earn 5 MR points (or 1 frequent flyer mile) per dollar spent at Residence Inn and Towneplace Suites.

Relevent Marriott webpage: http://www.marriott.com/marriott-rew...ints/points.mi

If you set your status to Miles can you still get the megabonus?

I understand from reading this that its better in the long run to have it set to points but i only intend a few stays to get a few points needed on united to get me a free reward flight and hopefully the megabonus too...