As Golds on award stay at JWM Hong Kong for 5 nights this past January, got room upgrade but no restaurant breakfast. Lounge only breakfast only however Lounge foods were pretty good enough - far far better than the Conrad Hilton we spent the next 4 nights, where we are also HHonors Golds . Despite Conrad gave us a better room upgrade (frontal harbor view King bed), I much prefer the JWM lounger would would take the JWM any day over the Conrad at the same location. The Conrad Garden Cafe buffet breakfast was pretty underwhelmed - yes, lots of food options but the quality of them especially the Oriental offerings, were very mediocre. The Western offerings were your standard fare, with egg dishes that could be made to order. I am sure JWM's would be much better given the JWM lounge is much better than Conrad's.

Got the buy back email this morning. Did Gold Challenge in 2012, earned it by Dec. In 2013 mostly were award stays, only a few nights pay stays. No full service Marriott stays in sight for the next several months so most likely not to do the buy back.

No, you can only buy back the status you had last year, gold in your case.

I (Plat) have only stayed one time at Rive Gauche. Didn't get any upgrade and for lounge access Gold is enough.

Status will last until Feb 2015.

Thank you. Lounge access for those days and would be enough.

Got the email too... ugh Silver. Things were good as Gold.

Guess I still have a month to decide. But those points could be a free night.

Just checked and I have been downgraded to Gold. Guess I will not take the deal as I don't think my travel this year will cover the 40K pts of cost.

2014 Status Buyback is back!
 

I calculated my break even to be somewhere around 94 nights. 2.5 pts/$ @ $120/night + check in bonus of 125 per night, prorated for my normal 4 night stay. It comes out to an additional 425 points earned per night.

I'm assuming they wanted to set the price to make it of no interest pretty much everyone. If you're staying enough nights to make it worthwhile, you wouldn't have lost Platinum in the first place.

This is my situation, but on a smaller scale. I have been at various times silver, plat, and gold since 2008. Most recently I was silver in 2013 by staying 11 nights in 2012. I only stayed four paid nights in 2013, which left me five nights short to renew silver in 2014. (I did stay another 12 nights on awards and certs in 2013.)

I just received my silver renewal packet for 2014, and was quite happy about that. Not a big deal, but it was the fris time I can recall a loyalty program being loyal to ME!

Really? I finished with 11 nights this year, and Marriott still gave me Gold. In fact, in the 8 or so years I've been travelling for work, I think I've only officially qualified once, but have been given gold or platinum every year.

One additional benefit of Platinum is the UA partnership for automatic silver. For many this may not matter, but this status is important for me (at least the extra free bag is worth something)

is tomorrow the day I find out if I loose my gold and have to buy it back?

I lost it between the past Sunday to past Tuesday already. I was check-in to a Courtyard on Monday and I say "I will take the points" and the person give me a "strange look" and the say "ok" very slowly. When I login on Tuesday, I noticed I am Gold. And off course when the stay posted, I did not get the Platinum per stay bonus points.

Does anyone know if accounts have been reset to reflect the new status? I am still showing as Platinum.

Marriott undertakes the busts during the last week of February so if you didn't make the required stays last year but your status still reads Plat/Gold, then that's your status for 2014...

Earlier this year I called to check my lifetime balance (this was before it was available online). The representative told me that points used to buy back status will come out of the lifetime balance. Not sure if I would have gotten the same tip from a different rep, but it's something fellow FTers may want to be on the lookout for and ask about when buying back for 2015, just to be sure.

Not according to the figures shown in my account.