Trav1970

I have been expecting to qualify as a PP for a few years now. Never happened. I am starting to wonder if the reason could be that I don't carry a Marriott branded credit card. This is for the simple reason that I reside in a country where the card is not offered. I am lifetime Platinum, actual butt-on-bed count around 140 each year for the past three years.

Being lifetime Platinum anyway, why should I continue being loyal to the chain as my business apparently isn't sufficiently interesting to Marriott?

Has anyone qualified as a PP with pure nights without any additional points accruals through credit card, meetings, etc.?

txpenny

I don't know if 140 nights would put you in the top 3% or the top 3%, unless you are staying at high dollar hotels.

RogerD408

PP is a fleeting goal and has no real value other than the title. Being it's based upon a percentage and not any hard/fast goals, all it takes is one person earning 1 point more and you're out, even if you double your activity from the previous year. I made PP for one year. It was a year of budget travel (i.e. out of my pocket) and it was a year I earned top tier in four different programs. Fortunately it was the last year they offered the dining discount and that helped my travel budget quite a bit. So don't pine over not making PP, it's just a brass-ring reward that doesn't really make a difference.

Trav1970

In my experience, that's not quite true. I regularily stay at the same hotel as my colleague who is PP. More often than not he gets upgraded to a suite. I have never been.

RogerD408

There may be some other reason he's being upgraded. As a Gold I've been upgraded many times and I'm thinking it was due to my frequency at the property. I make it a point to meet the managers when I'm there and very pleasant with the FDCs so I suspect they recognize my name on a rez and I get benefits due to that. As has been posted, there are many FDCs that don't even know PP exists, let alone it's higher than Plat. Yes, there are exceptions going both ways, but just not worth the hassle to strive for it.

jjmoore

I have made PP for 3 consecutive years now, and have no Marriott branded credit card. The couple people that I know that are PP vs. PT (as well as myself) stay between 180-200 nights per calendar year. Not sure but I would dare to say that 140 nights per year may not be enough to get you into that top 3% of spending / nights ... whatever combination thereof that they look at to decide who is in and who it not.

As for the value of PP, I haven't felt a difference between PT and PP... though I am wondering if there is a push to recognize PP more now than in the past, as this year, I have been recognized at almost every hotel as a PP. I am hoping that this means better things will come for this status level... meaning some differentiation in benefits (kind of like what Global Services is compared to 1K on United Airlines).

Trav1970

Thanks.
Seems that I would be better off building status with another hotel chain too. Being LT platinum anyway it seems that my benefits with Marriot aren't likely to get any better or worse, no matter what I would do.

C17PSGR

The good news is that the SPG equivalent of a PP -- Plat 100 or something like that -- seems to offer tangible benefits. I believe Marriott is committed to keeping those folks happy at some level so hopefully this means that PP will have a tangible benchmark to meet and defined benefits.

jjmoore

This is, of course, a matter of personal preference. I would advise that if you do so, first evaluate the usefulness of points in a different program (I haven't found another program where the points are as valuable as MR). Second, if you do decide to make a switch, absolutely make sure you get a status match so that you get top level benefits right away.

There are no better points conversions than the MR travel packages... and top end hotels for 30,000 pts/night is a phenominal deal if you don't want to do a 7 night package. I don't know any other programs where the points go as far as MR.

Tanic

There is the Hertz Presidents Circle benefit which in the past I think was only Hertz Gold.

kennycrudup

Yeah, I was PP for two years only on stays (mostly in FI/CYs, for that matter) and w/o having the Marriott CC. But I'd made Plat for the first time late in 2009 and didn't get PP until 3 years of weekly stays later.

But I'll tell you what the others here have- PP is/was (and probably likely to continue to be unless the merger changes that) more of a "bragging rights" designation more than anything else. I liked my little gifts, but for all intents and purposes I was just another Plat.

mistaks

PP just means you spend too many nights in a hotel bed. There is nothing different from Platinum and I still have to fight for an upgraded room. Horrible status level that they should just do away with if there is nothing that separates it from other statuses.

nobbyclark

My PP status was purely from hotel stays. No Marriott credit card or meetings. I'm still PP this year even though I only managed under 50 nights in 2017.

swintec

But they never advertised it as being "better" than regular Plat so they are not really failing to provide a meaningful tier above plat. PP is what it is, the top X% of regular platinums, nothing more. Do i think they should have other, published benefits for those in this tier? Of course, but they do not, so I do not get my hopes up going into a stay.

txpenny

From previous posts, I believe downgrades go into effect at the end of February.