SanDiego1K, thank you very much for the summary; it's great. I would say you pretty much 'nailed' my thoughts.

I will probably overcomplicate this by going with Hyatt as #1 and Marriott #2 for a while. I'll see how that works and if it satisfies my wife's travel desires. When I first met her in 2002, a Motel 6 was fine. Unfortunately, I've given her enough of a taste of the 'suite' life that Motel 6s for vacation don't cut it anymore. Bad move on my part.

If we run out of destinations with Hyatts, I'll just opt to go with Starwood at some point and slog through rebuilding status. I would think that we could stick with Hyatts for at least 3 years; I'm in no hurry to get to Greece.

DOH! Fixed; my apologies. That was an unintentional oversight on my part.

Just note that Lifetime status won't kick in until after you have been in the program for 12 years. (You probably already knew this, but I wanted to let you know just in case.)

That means if you don't get the needed stays in a year, you probably won't keep your Plat status. (Yes, after your 12th year you will get it back when your LT status kicks in, but that is still 4 years or so into the future.)

Hyatt and Marriott/RC are the only ones with lifetime status right now.
Centaurus(?) is formulating a lifetime plan but their properties are Southwest Asia based for the most part. I'll take a pass on that. http://www.insideflyer.com/articles/...e.php?key=6717

Hyatt's lifetime is for 1 million BASE points (that's room rate only). It equals $200K spend. I'll be staying in hotel rooms on my dime for ~15 years as a pilot so that'd break out to $13.3K/yr spend if I only used Hyatt over 15 years. Not all that feasible of a goal but I didn't think I'd ever be LT Plat with Marriott either - rollover nights helped considerably. I've still got 3 yrs and 108K pts to go but I figure I can coast and pick up 108K pts in 3 yrs.

I cruised through the Aloft and Element near BWI shortly after they opened. Economy W came to mind. I don't think that either comps breakfast so although they're new hotels, that's a strike against them. Let's hope that they don't start remodeling old hotels and rebrand them as Aloft/Element. Fortunately, I should know that immediately from FlyerTalk.

I will say that the Newark Airport 4 Points still gives me nightmares. But the Newark Airport Sheraton was pretty nice.

The Element I've stayed at (DFW) has a nice breakfast spread - complimentary. Clean, real dishes and utinsels, some healthy-ish options along with all of the usual offerings. They also put out some hot breakfast wraps - both meat and veggie versions.

As far as I know, this is the brand standard...

Aloft, however, gives you bupkis.

Thanks; valid points. I've already factored that in.
I'm PP through Feb 2012.
I have 280 Elite nights this year (mostly rollover) so I'm assuming that I will maintain PP through Feb 2013.
That'd have me fall to Plat through Feb 2014.
I fall to Gold through Feb 2015 until LT status kicks in sometime in 2014.

I also have another 106K pts to accumulate but I figure that I can get those fairly easily. I'm keeping my MR Premier Visa as primary for a while and I can always buy 50K pts/yr at a cost of $625/yr ... not an option I'd execute. I'm more likely to just keep the MR Visa as my primary CC; that should net me enough points in the next 3 years to hit LT minimums.

Awesome; thanks for the correction. I only did a cursory look at both.

Not to sidetrack the discuss too much, but I just have to comment.

Given that Starwood comp'd me to their Plat status, I could still enjoy all the bennies of having top level status in a program. Given that I will keep Marriott Plat, I can actually have top level in multiple programs. And after 15+ years of primarily Marriotts, I did want to test the waters elsewhere.

Now I have top level in both programs (and points to use), it has been very nice. If/When my travel drops and I can't maintain Plat with SPG, I will probably go back to Marriott for most of my personal travel.

Now I realize the OPs situation is a bit different. LT status won't really kick in for a couple more years and SPG usually won't match Plat status if you've already had it once in the past. (Actually, I think they may have changed to more of a Marriott "challenge" format now anyway.) So I understand your point, but having a secondary program (and even a 3rd) can provide a lot of extra flexibility.

Well, as a Marr LT Plat (and I think maybe Hyatt also), my prime secondary program was to go to the other extreme: Holiday Inn/ICH.

Why? Travels take me to towns too small for a Marriott family property, and often a HI Express is the newest hotel in town or at a lonesome interstate interchange. Or, for the times when Manhattan Marriotts and similar are just silly-expensive, the HI chain fits the business budget, and i've come to enjoy the good locations of the HI Express on 5th Ave near the Library, and the one on 29th or so within easy walking distance of Penn Stn -- which I like for staying in Manhattan even when my flights are in/out of JFK or EWR. (There's an Indigo on W28th (across from at so-so Fairfield) that looks like a quiet place to stay......Add in some Crowne Plaza's with too-good-to-miss airport locations, such as FLL, or an intriguing historic property such as the IC on Michigan Av in Chicago (vs. a generic FS Marriott convention hotel acrossthe street)...... the HI/ICH points do add-up.

So, the HI system fills the holes in the the Marriott portfolio and my points portfolio...... I'll admit that the HI points are the easy "give-away" ones for friends and family......or happily, you can turn HI points into an Amazon.com gift card, so I don't feel any points go to "waste"........

Sorry for the thread revival but I just found/remembered an interest twist in all of this. When I was first flying with United, I never belonged to any hotel program/didn't realize I could get night stay credits for direct billed airline employee stays.
When I returned from furlough, I used my membership number at a couple of Marriotts and Starwoods. While Marriott didn't give me any night credit or points, they did give me lounge access. Starwood, on the other hand, gave me a night stay credit at the hotel that I stayed and charged dinner.

I have already double checked all of my hotel memberships and have a list of my membership numbers. I will have to see how often I'm able to get night stay credits with each hotel chain.
I currently have membership with Marriott, Hyatt, Starwood, Hilton, Priority Club, Club Carlson, Best Western. It'll be interesting to see which ones give me night stay credits - I understand that Hilton and possibly Hyatt and Starwood will give me night credits. I'm not sure on Priority Club or Club Carlson. I don't think we stay at Best Westerns and I can get a no questions asked status match anyway.

Why not Marriott Silver as your second choice?

OK, that right there was very funny.

Sure, I'll go for Marriott Silver if they've got a higher percentage of suite upgrades than Plat Premier.

I hardly ever get a room upgrade at a full service Hilton as Diamond beyond being on the HHonors floor but I have had some really excellent room upgrades at Hilton Garden Inn and even the "Suites" at Hampton Inn & Suites but even after upgrade it is still a Hampton or HGI as far as amenities if you want in hotel food/drink, care about thread count etc.

I am PC Platinum and it is pretty meaningless because the on premises benefits are minimal and the quality of the properties is much more variable than Marriott or Hilton.

A Hyatt with no status is often nicer than a Hilton , Crowne Plaza or Marriott with status but there aren't enough of them for me. Same with SPG.

Hilton has been my back-up for a number of years. I am Gold with them and I have NEVER failed to get an upgrade at one of their full service hotels or resorts.