DalamarDark

Hey, I've seen people selling SPG and Marriott Gold for $280, only requires spg number and name to upgrade. Do you guys think the Gold status is worth it if I travel once every other month. I've never had gold not sure about if the benefits are worth the price?

I'm unable to post the link on here, But if you search ebay for Marriott Gold SPG Gold status Upgrade No ID or Password Required (till Feb 2019)
, you will see it.

I messeged the seller and they said they have the ability to invite people to be gold, it's very legal. So guess I'll try it out

sdsearch

First, are you sure those sellers are legit? (Do you care to provide any links?) Many such offers turn out to be nothing more than you buying an information sheet explaining how to sign up for a "challenge" to get status quickly (which we could have told you about for free). Ie, they're generally scams.

Second, it varies between Marriott and SPG as to how much Gold is worth it (no matter how you obtain it). At Marriott, Gold gives you either lounge access or free breakfast at several full-service brands (including Marriott proper). At SPG, Gold gives you near squat. Ie, SPG Gold is more similar to Marriott Silver than to Marriott Gold in benefits. SPG Gold and Marriott Gold similarly basically ends with name.

Third, Marriott Gold will not make much of a difference expect at specific brands. So, if for example, you're mostly going to stay at brands that give free breakfast to everyone anyone anyway (Residence Inn, Fairfield Inn, Springhill Suites, TownPlace Suites, etc), then Gold is not likely worth spending money for. Or, if you're going to brands that give free breakfast to no one (like Courtyard), then Gold is also not likely worth spending money for.

Gold theoretically gives you free premium internet at all properties, but in my experience it's not so premium, as normal browsing (forget about video) is sometimes way really slow on this "premium" internet. I'm so glad I'm getting it for free and not having to pay $ per day for such slow speed! And, in general, basic internet is free at most if not all Marriott brands as long as you book through Marriott.com.

mahasamatman

Extra points and room upgrades.

CJKatl

It all depends on how you personally value the services received.

For Example: Let's assume you always stay at a property with a CL. You use the CL for breakfast and we assign $20/day as the value there. In the evening, you have some finger foods ($15 value?) and take a few bottles of water/soda/juice per day ($6?). You are getting $41/day value from the lounge. Assuming three nights per visit, that's $123 in value/visit. You indicate six stays per year, which gives you $748 in value for the $280. If you stay with a second person every visit, like a spouse, that's $1,496 in value, which seems really good.

Of course, if your stays are shorter, not all your stays are at hotels with a CL or you assign more or less value to the breakfast of afternoon offerings, YMMV. If you are staying in Asian properties, for example, you might get more in the lounge, but food is often very inexpensive right outside the hotel. You might also get free clothes pressing, though, which would add value to being Gold. In six stays of five nights each in an Asian property, the clothes pressing alone may make being Gold worth it. (I'm Plat, so clothes pressing is included. I'm assuming it is for Gold, too, although I'm not 100% sure; just using that as a hypothetical.)

Keep in mind the cautions others have given you about whether this is a legit offer. If it is, run your own numbers and see if it's financially a good choice. There's no one-size-fits-all answer on this.

BrightlyBob

SPG Gold has no real value other than its match to Marriott Gold. The main benefits of Marriott Gold are extra points, space available room upgrades, and lounge access.

The extra points on Gold over Silver at Marriott are 25% bonus instead of the silver 20%. That's an extra half point per dollar spent which is worth about half-a-cent, so all but worthless as a means of recouping your outlay.

Room upgrades apply at all hotels, but are "space available" and are monumentally unlikely to be suites but usually larger rooms, concierge flor rooms, corner rooms and the plethora of room definitions hotels use to add a few bucks to the rack rate. The minimum I'd say is that you should avoid the dumpster views. As a Gold I probably scored a worthwhile upgrade half the time and suite upgrade once a year. And I stayed the 50 nights, there's no short cuts for us Europeans!

Finally, the real meat of Gold, lounge access. Here in Europe that's really valuable with typically hot and cold breakfast offerings worth say €10, evening food frequently sufficient to serve as a meal, but let's say €10 there too, and lengthy free beer and wine, say €20, finally add €5 for that grab and go water each morning and night. That's $50 per night, or $100 if travelling with your wife. Since despite notices to the contrary extra kids aren't chargeable, whilst they can't drink the alcohol, they still scarfe the breakfast and evening food and mainline the free coke, you can easily see a family of four getting $150/night value out of the lounge thus recouping your outlay in a weekend. I have at least 2 weekends away with the kids like that each year! It's worth remembering however this benefit only applies to Full Service brands with a lounge. Many don't have lounges in which case it's just the free breakfast but that's in the restaurant worth $15 per person. Of course this entire gene fit is worthless at those brands that include breakfast and at Courtyard which gives no-one free brekkie!

Just as an example of the value Gold can bring however, this year I'm redeeming for 10 nights at 2 different FS with teenage kids and I reckon the room upgrades will be worth about $20/nt and the lounge access at least $150. That's $2,000 - Gold can greatly enhance the value of a stay!

Handcake

I probably wouldn't keep my AMEX Plat if I didn't get SPG Gold which gives me Marriott Gold.

Sadly I don't do 50+ stays a year at any hotel. I am probably at about 21-30 nights, so this is a great benefit.

Marriott Gold gets me lounge access and free breakfast. Late Checkout. Those two things are very much worth it. If my Chase Marriott card gave me gold status it would be the only card I would need to use!

On a recent stay at the JW Hanoi with my family we ate breakfast in the lounge every day and hit it up for food 3/5 nights we were there. With 3 of us doing that, that saved me quite a lot.

Premier rooms with lounge access are usually a lot more than a basic room, so getting that for free is a great benefit.

SPG Gold is trash. If it didn't give you Marriott gold, it wouldn't be worth paying to get.

Xeno

What 'legitimate' vendor sells SPG/MR gold status without a challenge or stays?

awu25

You can gift SPG gold status to a friend when you hit SPG50. This in turn can be linked to Marriott account. Not saying it's legal to be selling the status, but it can definitely be done.

MSPeconomist

SPG Gold doesn't include room upgrades as a published benefit. You are only entitled to an enhanced room in the same category as what was booked.

OTOH you do get a choice of a welcome amenity, IIRC something like 250 points or a free drink.

Unfortunately (for Plats) Marriott Gold is almost the same as Marriott Plat which is the same as Marriott Platinum Premier, except that many hotels don't even know what PP means and try to insist that it's lower than Plat.

Kacee

Any purportedly objective "one size fits all" valuation of program status is meaningless.

It's all what you make of it.

sdsearch

So few extra points that a little spending on your Amex SPG card on something else makes up for it very quickly.

(I mention that because the Amex SPG card comes with SPG Preferred Plus status, which is the same as Gold except for those two benefits, except as noted above you may have overstated the second benefit.)

Meanwhile, room upgrades / enhanced rooms are, as always, "dependent on availability". And, of course, you're lined up behind all the zillions of different levels of SPG Plats for every upgrade / better room. (You can't even get to SPG Plat50 or Plat75 from a Marriott match, no matter how high a level your are Marriott. Marriott matches Marriott Plats or PPs to SPG Plat25 only.)

Happy

I want to know too.

Surprisingly all replies here have not addressed this most obvious part - since we know the program status is not 'sellable" i.e. neither SPG nor Marriott has a feature to let you pay for the status directly - so exactly HOW a vendor can "sell" a status?

Happy

4pm late check out could become handy in occasions.

CPRich

$685

$1,985

Kacee

TPG's gotta drive those clicks!