NDS88

Currently at 60 elite qual nights, would love to get to 75 for plat + United silver status. Already have one Marriott credit card/received my 15 nights credit. Any clever ideas for Mattress run/other ways to get 15 elite nights credit? Is the deadline for reaching 75 nights 12/31, or sometime early 2017?

PetzLUX

12/31

What about this
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...-required.html

Cheaper than a mattress run.

Lani1

And faster

writerguyfl

"To achieve or renew Elite Membership status, [nights must be] stayed at participating locations between January 1 and December 31 of any given year."

Marriott Rewards Terms and Conditions: http://www.marriott.com/rewards/terms/elite.mi

darthbimmer

Are you at 60 nights as of today, or does that figure include all already-planned travel between now and EOY? If the latter, 15 nights is a lot to earn by mattress running! You may consider the meeting trick. But do also consider making up at least part of the gap by planning additional stays. It doesn't have to be mattress runs, per se. I've designed a number of "manufactured trips" over the past few years and I've enjoyed them all. These are trips where my initial motivation was to accumulate nights for elite status and/or promos but then planned worthwhile sightseeing around.

For example, earlier this year I planned a weekend trip to Sacramento, CA. It's barely 2 hours from my home so previously I'd only thought of it as a day trip. But going for a weekend made it a very relaxed trip, and we spent time doing interesting and unique things we never would've done on a day trip.

NDS88

All thanks for advice. Would love to use the mtg trick, so far I'm only getting quotes for full day mtg room at several hundred $. And I'm not in a super-expensive market either.

DELee

So switch markets. Seriously. If you're headed to somewhere for travel in the few weeks remaining in 2016, do some searching there. Even if the room rate for an hour meeting is $400, that's still cheaper than what 10 paid room nights would cost anywhere in North America at a Marriott property. For instance, I can find a meeting room for $250 at the SpringHill Suites in Hawthorne, CA which is about 4 miles south of LAX - make the meeting an hour or two. If you want to make it to Platinum with a little over 30 days left in 2016, you're gonna have to hustle.

David

ackpfft

Try and find a CY or FFI and stop by or call them directly.

After the traditional call and schedule via Marriott route increased their prices on me this is what I did. I think i paid $75 or so per meeting at a Fairfield. They were under renovation and didn't even have a place to meet

I was upfront about what I wanted. Once I found the right person to talk to - I was able to just call and have them charge my CC w/out even showing up for 3-4 meetings involving 2 different MR accounts. ^

Another option, though time is getting tight, is to try and apply for Marriott corporate CC. That will also give 15 nights. Got nights w/in about 3 weeks.

CALMSP

booking and paying for a full day room, what are the experiences some have had as you are not actually using the room or the facilities? Does the hotel give any grief on that or do you tell them, "okay, so i paid, thats all i needed, nothing further is required on the hotels part". ??

HeidiInTheAlps

you only need to pay for a half day rate... 30 min meeting, and you don't need to show up.

I did a few 'meetings' earlier this year, got plat before extended business travel, it was so worth it. I ended up paying around $100 per meeting.

HeidiInTheAlps

never showed up at any of my 'meetings'.

SuperFlyBoy

Whereabouts was this?

Kacee

Even if it's $400, that's cheaper for 10 nights credit than you're going to get anywhere in the U.S. mattress running.

VA1379

OP wrote his post in 2016. If you actually want to stay at hotels and spend the nights, you can hotel hop in the DC area until the end of the year. There are a lot of full service hotels with weekend rates of $60-80 or so.

Matt93

I inquired about booking a meeting room to get the 10 elite nights and here is the response I received. This is in Canada.

The 10 elite night credits are based on a total spend of $10,000. If you spent that amount at 3 points per dollar you would earn 30,000 points which would qualify you for 10 elite night credits.