Marriott Ambassador vs Platinum Premier
 

I had been Platinum Premier for the last few years until this year. When I log on to Marriott, status shows as simply Platinum. However, I had received notice that I now have Ambassador Program status.

I was wondering exactly what had happened. Was I downgraded? Was I upgraded?

I called the Ambassador line and spoke with a representative. She portrayed it as an upgrade. In fact, I received a follow-up email from her:

"Hello Mr. [ ],

It was a pleasure speaking with you this afternoon!

This is to follow up our telephone conversation wherein you asked me if your status had been downgraded.

As I stated, the Marriott Rewards Ambassador program has replaced the Concierge Elite program by name only and the services and benefits are the same!

As to your question regarding the Platinum Premier status wanting to know if you had been downgraded in status, please be aware that a Platinum Premier status is a guest who is the top 3% of most engaged guests. Therefore, since you are a Marriott Rewards Ambassador member that status is the top 1% of the most engaged members. There are only 5,000 Marriott Rewards Ambassador members in our entire company and you have achieved the highest status with Marriott!

If I may be of further assistance, please let me know. I look forward to working with you in the future!

Regards,

[Marriott Ambassador]"

Fast-forward a couple of days later, and I was interested in signing up for the complimentary upgrade to Gold on United afforded Platinum Premier members. I tried signing up, but the website rejected me and stated the member number was not a premier number. I called the Ambassador line and explained the issue. After a considerable time on hold while the representative checked with the Rewards people, she informed me that, Ambassador or not, I had been downgraded to my Lifetime Platinum status (so much for having "achieved the highest status with Marriott!").

All well and good, I suppose (I had snuck off last year to renew my Hilton Diamond status, after all), but a little misleading, to say the least!

Anyone else granted the Ambassador Program status with a downgrade?

I am guessing that "Ambassador" = last year's "Concierge" experiment. Concierges were assigned to some Marriott Rewards members, but not based on status (at least not during the pilot). I have been PP for several years but did not receive a concierge. Others with lower status did. It is possible that the number is very small (perhaps the 5k you cite), but this small number seems to have been chosen randomly in order to see how well the program works. I imagine they are comparing to see if assigning a concierge resulted in more stays or spend.

If she says Ambassador is Top 1% and there are only 5,000 of them that would mean there are only 15,000 PP.

i am sure there are far more than 15k pp

Its funny because assume there are more than 15k people who are PP. But we still don't know what qualifies one as being a PP.

As a PP i don't have a clue what the requirement is..

I've been PP for the past few years and have not got the ambassador/concierge service. You think Marriott would roll that out to all PP's, to show that PP actually has benefits.

...she is incorrect.

Maybe this explains the thought process behind the Plat Premier level.

Other than the Platinum Premier code that desk clerks rarely understand, the only benefits to being Plat Premier are the annual gift and a purportedly designated reservation number. I have almost never used the reservation number (I just book online) but I suppose there is no need for that number since I have an Ambassador. In fact, when I dialed the number a few weeks ago for some matter, my Ambassador answered suggesting that Marriott has some linkage in the system recognizing my phone number and routing it to her.

And ... perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't believe there are 15,000 plat premiers -- otherwise, why would desk clerks never recognize it.

Wasn't Ambassador the SPG equivalent to PP? The CSR might have been newly confused. I've been PP since 2006. I was selected for the Ambassador program but never used it :)

I wonder if Marriott Ambassador shows they will keep the Starwood Ambassador level when they merge the programs?

That will be interesting to see. Looking at the requirements, Ambassador falls somewhere in between MR Platinum (75) and MR Platinum Premier (? but rumor is north of 150 nights). It definitely looks like SPG treated(s) their Ambassadors better than MR treats us PP's :(

Hmmmmm. All I got was a little metal luggage tag and a personal rep..

I take that back. I did two personal trips, One to JazzFest and one to Key West. Both times I used the personal rep to book and both times I got crazy nice rooms. Presidential suite in Key West.

When I book online (like 99% of the time), I get the standard, 'Thank you for being a Platinum member'. Which is fine. Next time I go out of the country, Ill have my rep do the booking and see if I get the star treatment. In my experiences, international sites kick it up a notch for Plat, PP and Plat for life.

Side note, I was also quoted the 'top 1%' by Marriott on the phone.

Well, if you believe published reports there were 54 million members of Marriott Rewards at the time Marriott bought Starwood, which had 21 million members in its SPG program (source: Marriott-Starwood Merger: How Reward Points Will Be Affected | Money).

If 3% of the 54 million members are platinum-premier, that's 1,620,000. If ambassador is the top 1% then there are 540,000 ambassadors. Both of those numbers seem incredibly high.

So, surely it's 3% of elite members. But how many elite members are there?