Sorry for the delay. Points you transfer to another person. Not points that are redeemed in any form.

So points transferred in do count? That would make sense, otherwise people could transfer points back and forth and both get lifetime points. (Though I wonder what happens if you earn Lifetime Something and then transfer out some of the points you needed to get it.)

TBH, wondering what happens is exactly the point. Applying an undisclosed rule after the fact is simply not kosher. They have T&C and those should be the rules. Period.

If they want to pull this when I'm at 489 nights and (supposedly) 1.5+ million points is dishonest. I understand the benefit was "secret" previously, but it is not now, and the page that talks about it says nothing about this "rule".

Certainly my behavior would have been very different had I known. Heck, I only transferred miles to my wife to get her AA miles toward her lifetime status. Otherwise there was no need to have her even become a member, much less redeem awards that I could just as well have redeemed myself. And that is the bulk of the 750k miles now missing.

Thanks to the resurgence of this thread, I found I was the victim of 80K deducted from lifetime miles for two years of Platinum rebuys.

Called to complain to a supervisor at the Platinum desk he:

1) gave me 40k miles (both lifetime and redeemable)
2) said if I got within 40k miles of lifetime Plat (I'm 115k now), they would comp me Platinum again for a year
3) conceded it wasn't disclosed

I asked for 80k but that was more than this guy could give (or so he said). but I figured I'm at least whole, with the extra points from Platinum over two years adding up to around 40k.

Thanks for the heads up, previous posters

The redeemable 40k miles are worth something, too, so it looks like you're coming out way ahead.

I was thinking the same thing. I would say getting everything you received without getting the 40K deposited into your account would have made you "whole" so to speak. The 40K to spend was quite a bit above and beyond and very nice of them to do that.

He "lost" 80K lifetime. He got back 40K lifetime, plus 40K redeemable, plus a year of Platinum (if he gets to within 40K of lifetime without being Platinum already, otherwise there's no upgrade involved).

Apparently, the two years of Platinum that he bought earned him an extra 40K points; however, the comparison is between what should have happened (bought Platinum without lifetime reduction) and what did (bought Platinum, had lifetime reduction) so those don't count. In a comparison with not buying Platinum they would.

Had I not bought platinum, for two years, I'd have 80k Redeemable points more than I did and 80k lifetime points more.

The benefit from Platinum (and the only reason I did it) was for the extra bonus points (which I thought brought me closer to lifetime status). Those were about 20k a year, 40k total.

So I now got back the 80k points I lost (40k in adjustment and 40k in bonuses in excess of what gold would give me).

Not sure what other benefits there are of Platinum except UA silver which I haven't flown during that time period.

To all FlyerTalk and all Marriott Rewards members:

I have done the buyback a few times and horrified to only learn this year of the deduction when the customer service representative mentioned to me that they would deduct points both from my balance and lifetime status. No publication from Marriott and no representative had ever told this to me before - both extremely misleading and unjustified to the customer!

I contacted Marriott today and the manager I spoke with was both rude and dismissive of my concerns, offering no help to make me whole or to escalate and have the policy changed. I am not giving up though and will be trying to escalate to the CEO and/or even file a class action lawsuit.

I implore anyone else also impacted to not let Marriott to step on you. The deduction is completely unfair and unacceptable, and Marriott needs to make us whole. Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to share their experiences with me on this issue or to work alongside me in ensuring Marriott rectifies this wrong!

Thanks,
tigrr49

Been like this for years. And they gave you notice so you had a choice. But your biggest problem with your class action BS is that you have no property ownership in any Marriott points.

First, welcome to Flyertalk!

Now to the other stuff:

The CEO has bigger things to think about, such as the upcoming merger w/ Starwood. You'll get nowhere w/ a class action, and the end result of your attempting to do so could be Marriott eliminating the buyback program entirely. They're not required to offer one.

As leeky mentioned, once you were notified of the deduction of lifetime points w/ this buyback you had the option to continue w/ it or decline it. I'm assuming you declined this time.

FWIW - I've always found the buyback to be a so/so proposition. If it gets someone lounge access (assuming they stay at full-service properties) & they think they can earn back the points that are being deducted from their regular account, then it might be worth it. Otherwise I don't see it.

Cheers.

Apart from Gold buyback, I agree with you, Sharon, buyback is pretty "meh" at the points offered.

Although 7,500 points sounds cheap for silver, silvers not worth much more than the 20% (2 points per $) extra points and since you get silver after 10 nights you'd need to be spending over $375/nt to recoup the cost before the status kicks back in.

Plat at 40,000 is a lot of points. Since the main benefits of plat are welcome points and an extra 25% (2.5 points per $ over Gold) there's no value for the $100/nt SHS/FFI/RI/TPS guest with their low welcome points and in the case of RI/TPS half pointearning ratios. However a FS/CY regular staying $150/nt one-nighters would see their buyback paying dividends after 45/50 nights. Of course if they have no chance of making Plat the proper way then they'll only have a few nights to accumulate their profits. For most FS/CY 1-night-stay regulars paying $300+/nt it's well worthwhile. I suspect there's few of them though.

It's Gold at 25,000 points that's the clear bargain here for a FS stayer that enjoys lounge and breakfast. Since most concierge access rooms are at least $25/nt extra and taking the view that a Marriott point is worth a cent the 25,000 buyback points are worth $250, so the buyback investment is repaid in 10 nights. Inescapably great value!

Public announcement?
 

Just curious, where/when did Marriott publicly announce this "feature" of the buyback program where you lose the points for lifetime qualification? I/we here know that's what happens. I've posted here "warnings" to members thinking of doing this. But don't recall if/when Marriott has publicly informed members of the fact.

Here you go. It's on the front page of the buy back program.

http://www.marriott.com/marriott/elitebuyback.mi

Points used by members to buyback their previously attained Elite level will be permanently deducted from their Lifetime point balance

BTW - those interested in doing the buyback this year, even w/ the deduction from lifetime points, the deadline is April 1 2016.

Cheers.

Interesting that our 2014 subject wiki (says originally posted by mariott.com) does not contain the disclaimer. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...ck-back-2.html