Just curious, does Marriot ever grant Platinum Status based on the per night or total spend in a year ? Or is it strictly based on stays/nights ?

To my knowledge it's all stays. The only way to spend yourself to status with Marriott is through the branded credit card where you get 15 nights annually and one night per $3,000 spend. So, for spend only platinum you'd need $180,000 spend in one year on the credit card. I guess it would really be $177,000 since I've been getting a night for my birthday the past couple of years.

Of course, if you spent one year with the credit card and did not spend on it and if you took those 15+1 nights and banked what you could for the next year with roll over (15+1-10=6) then added the new 15+1 you'd have 22 nights. At that point you'd need only $159,000 spend on the credit card.

If you are going to chase status with Marriott you benefit from the credit card. Last year I was Gold and ended the year with 72 nights between stays, credit card spend & bonus, and birthday. So I rolled over 22 nights this year. I also status matched to HiltonHHonors to Diamond so I plan to spend many nights checking out that status. Since my Marriott stays will be minimal this year I'll still have Gold for next year based on spend and the few stays.

I like the Gold status with Marriott Rewards. I haven't seen a lot of upgrades, but the lounge access is always nice. I'll compare that to my experience with HH Diamond this year and make a decision on a path forward. No matter which way I go I'll still have Gold with MR for next year since the MR CC is my daily spend card right now.

Just get the Ritz card and spend 75K a year and you will have Platinum every year.

75K on the MR card with the 15 night bonus would give you 40 nights credit towards status, that also counts towards lifetime totals. The Ritz card doesn't give you night credit, just status, right? If you also have 35 nights/yr from stays or roll over that gets you to platinum. Might work better depending on your individual situation.

If earning lifetime is not a goal of yours but status is, The Ritz would be the lowest spend to earn Platinum as mentioned, it is 75K. It grants gold immediately upon signing up so you can enjoy lounge access. If you dont make the spend you will keep your gold status given that you have spent 10k in the year regardless of actual stays.

Whether this is convenient for you its up to you to decide.

Rexkramer please see below:

https://www.ritzcarltonrewardscard.c...rds.php#status

"Achieve Platinum Elite Status when you spend $75,000 each account year."

In Marriott, there's very little difference between Gold and Platinum.

Note that, in contrast to what is said in the first line of the quoted post, Marriott status is based on NIGHTS NOT STAYS.

PP status is at least partly spend based, but it first requires Plat for several consecutive years.

I think a lot of people would disagree with you on that.

Over Gold, the key extra benefits Platinum gets are:

-United Silver Elite Status
-Twice the bonus points of Gold Members (50% vs 25%)
-Welcome gift

Both the bonus point differential and the welcome gift can really add up over time.

Agreed. I earn over 25k points/yr from the Welcome Gift.

Also, the Plat Override and 48 hour guarantee come in handy for me a couple times a year. It was once the only way I could get a room in NYC and another time in SF. It also got me into the Downtown PIT Ren once.

Gold gets you CL access and free high speed Internet, so Golds do get a great benefits, but Plat is better, not the same.

as welcome gift is 500 points, or less, depending on hotel brand earning 25, 000 points would work out to 500 nights in FS Marriotts in a year. Amazing !

It would work out to around 50 FS stays per year, which might be doable for a PP/LTP.

You're right - my math really bad today !

to many drugs over 3 weeks of continuous surgeries

Thank you. Most of my stays are one night, so fifty unique stays per year is a very conservative estimate. It's easy, elementary school level math.

1,000 points at RC

Not necessarily the lowest spend:
The $800 mentioned in the thread title might actually be somewhat more depending on circumstances, but it's guaranteed to be a lot less than $75k!