CJKatl

Oy. You read it correctly. Although this is FT, please read things for what they are and try not to get caught up in the baseless scare tactics of other posters. As you pointed out, Marriott referenced the night level and has never said there would be a new, sudden, secret number of nights requirement. That sort of requirement is mentioned in no marketing materials, Lurker answers or anything else coming from Marriott. If Marriott called you Gold in 2011 then you were Gold. They are not going to go back and say you were not Gold that year because there is now new criteria being considered.

Even the one case where people believed Marriott changed criteria, linking accounts in the two program for status match, Marriott has been very straight forward from the time of the announcement in April that those status matches would not count and has recently confirmed this. If there was going to be some retroactive change in previously granted status it would have also been similarly brought forward and dealt with by now. Marriott is not looking to trick us. Frankly, it is sad that given how open Marriott has been and how good they are being about addressing concerns that anyone would peddle these scare tactics that paint Marriott as being out to get us.

tods27

I would agree on the assumption that Marriott has something that they can use to show status in each year, but I'm not sure what exactly that is. I do know that SPG didn't count years you were gifted status in some way, but they did count years you earned status from the CC (Gold status could be achieved with $30,000 spend on the Amex) towards years you "earned" status. I have noted this before and could certainly see Marriott using some similar logic to say that if you were "gifted" platinum status with 74 nigths that this would not count as a year that you "qualified" for Platinum status. Then again, they may not have tracked this and will just count it as a year you were Platinum. We will, of course, figure this out in August.

yerffej201

Does anyone know how Suite Night Awards will be given out in August? So if you already are at 75 nights for this calendar year, will you get 10 Aug 1? Furthermore, if you're already Plat 50 having selected 10 SNA's already, do you still get 10 for being marriott plat for a total of 20? Now that would be fabulous

CJKatl

The Marriott company has shown honesty and integrity for many years. It is inconceivable that the Marriott company would be silently sitting in wait ready to foist this on unsuspecting customers come August. How sad that anyone would think Marriott would do this. The language has been clear that they are looking at status and not night count for each year. If Marriott were going to use such logic it would be clear at this point. If they were to pull some nonsense as you suggest, present customers, future customers, franchisees and employees would revolt. The kind of baseless conspiracy planning being made up is contrary to anything the company has stood for or demonstrated in the past.

getagb

Nobody knows but it seems possible you'd get 10 SNAs in August if you have 75 Marriott nights, even if you already have some SNAs from SPG. I imagine the breakage on them will be pretty high so I imagine they will be generous with SNAs during the merger.

bhrubin

yerffej201

15 SNAs are still better than 10!

tods27

Given that SPG currently differentiates between earned and "gifted" status, I don't see this as a way of "pulling some nonsense" or a "baseless conspiracy". To be clear, I'm not talking about some conspiracy to mess with people, I'm simply noting that there are some areas where we don't have full information yet as to how they are counting. You assume that this is just a "night count" issue, but I was noting that there are other situations that could apply. They note "if you achieve" in the "What's new" web page and in the FAQ, they state:

We already know that you can't double-dip with the matched (i.e. not achieved) status in MR and SPG in a single year, so why couldn't there be some other situations that crop up? Do I think that this will affect a large group of members? No. Do I think that there will be a revolt if Marriott clarifies this and says that there are some situations that don't count? Not really. As I noted, this all depends on what information they are tracking in their systems.

CJKatl

From the first April announcement Marriott was up front about linking accounts not counting towards new status. There were a couple non-US execs that got it wrong but the marketing materials got it right. Many people posted about this, including me, and Marriott came back with a clearer statement. Marriott did not hide anything. If they were going to suddenly switch to number of BIB years instead of years at a status level they would have worded the marketing materials differently and been just as clear. The fact they were so clear about not counting linked status should make you comfortable there are no huge surprises that will pop up out of nowhere.

There is no reason to believe that status that was granted years ago will suddenly be taken away. Things like granting plat ten years ago despite someone only having 74 nights are settled matters. Things like that will not be reconsidered now. What a PR nightmare it would be for Marriott to pull such a silly trick. And how uncomfortable it must be to live a life where one thinks everyone is looking to play gotcha and one worries that a company may all of a sudden turn evil despite years and years of being honest and upfront. Anyone who truly believe Marriott is possibly so deceitful maybe should not do business with Marriott.

And we are only a few weeks from the merger. Certainly the IT is set and getting its final testing. If they are using years at a status level as a measure then they must know that data is available. They certainly knew this prior to announcing that would be used as a measure. Yes. Marriott has had IT issues at time, but the assumption they are mean, out to get us and incapable of knowing their own software and business is beyond the pale. Maybe Marriott is secretly planning to open a hotel on Jupiter next month. As unlikely as that seems it's probably more likely than Marriott suddenly changing to a nights BiB standard over what they've published and announced.

CJKatl

BTW, for years I worked for a large company and would developed training modules for customer software so if someone got stuck using our software they could click a button and I would show them how to do whatever via a short recording. When our software was changing, I would be brought in around six months ahead of time. At that point, the new site had already been developed and gone through some testing. This was a small part of my job. After my involvement there was more testing, with various tweaks along the line. My point is anyone who thinks Marriott does not already have the software developed for the new combined program has never been involved in this type of project and has no idea how a big company runs. The thought that Marriott may suddenly find out their IT might not a certain data point defies reality.

RogerD408

Not to argue the point, but we have years of experience that typically the first response is to support the error as being correct and it sometimes feels like bashing your head against a wall to get someone to look further.

In my own experience, I was denied bonus points because the property miss-coded the stay as ineligible. When I called in the CSR stated she had been there for many years and they would have never offered such a bonus. When I asked for a supervisor, she said she was a supervisor, so I asked for HER supervisor/manager. She then went away for several minutes and returned stating she just returned from maternity leave and hadn't caught up with her emails and found the bonus offering and will get it to post. No apology, no recovery points, nothing. This is not the only time I've had to push for what was due and others have reported several such cases. To go into this final merger believing everything will be fine and you don't need to take any precautions is not wise. Great if it works out, but some preparation, some caution, and lots of reading seems to make sense. That's the advice I'm trying to pass along.

Ord Liza

I agree with CJKatl except for one thing. A few weeks ago, I called Marriott twice for my lifetime status information (twice just to see if I got consistent answers) and I was given numbers that made it clear that they were counting years of status no matter how those years were achieved: challenges, roads to, etc were all counted. I called a third time because the two answers I was given, while both obviously counting the different methods of achieving status, varied slightly from each other. The third time, I was given a significantly (significant for me because it impacts the goal of 10 years) lower number of years and was explicitly told it was because they were not counting years where status was achieved through buy backs, tastes, and achievers. The agent who told me this acknowledged that this seemed problematic and suggested that I write to Marriott. I have done so and have not heard back.

To those who say this is no big deal, I respectfully disagree. If Marriott suddenly decides to differentiate years of status based on how they were achieved, I think this will impact a lot of people. Almost every time I did not re-qualify, I received an invitation from Marriott to re-qualify through some alternate means that required fewer than the stated nights. It would surprise me if this didn't happen to many other members. To those who say that, because SPG only counted some status years, those of us who have accumulated Marriott status years should not be surprised or upset if Marriott decides to do the same, again I respectfully disagree. SPG made it clear up front that certain types of status were going to be treated differently; Marriott never did. SPG members could make informed decisions about accumulating additional nights even after they had achieved "status" if they wanted their status to count as "full" status under the SPG terms and conditions; Marriott members did not know that an issue existed that needed to be addressed.

I hope the agent who gave me this information was confused and I hope this issue is clarified by Marriott in the very near future. Waiting until August to tell us would stink because many of us have decisions to make prior to August about where we put our stays.

yurtripper

I don't want to beat this to death, as we've moved on by now, but you keep repeating claims that aren't true. Bob Behrens, the MR VP, explicitly stated that SPG Golds could expect Platinum from August 1st, and Flueck went on record as saying that Behrens was THE guy to ask for information on such questions (thus contradicting his own advice on the TPG video). So it wasn't just random non-US execs saying this. Plus, the information on status conversion was confusing and contradictory from Day 1, which is why they ultimately had to insert a clarifying addendum in the status conversion table and also update the FAQ to make this explicit. If it was all so crystal clear right from Day 1, why did it take several weeks for the Starwood Lurker to be able to answer any of the related questions in the Wiki?

And why are they still telling SPG Golds via email, several days after these clarifications were made, that they can expect Platinum status from August 1st?

Clearly, they didn't get their s*** together, either on this issue or those related to LT matters... and they still haven't IMHO due to them sending out contradictory emails as described above.

CJKatl

There is a giant difference between miscommunications and having to press for what was promised versus a wholesale change in announced parameters at this point. In the three issues above, being vigilant and pressing for what was promised paid off, and each of us always did this. But there is a difference between these glitches, which shouldn't have happened but were corrected, versus those that think Marriott is going to suddenly change things like no longer counting Plat years because they have changed the requirements and a retroactively going to change status for past years.

And again, many of us recognized that execs were stating incorrect information from the day it was stated. Yes, miscommunication is bad, but at a minimum you had marketing materials and the head of the program giving the correct information. I never understood how anyone believed that the parameters to stand by the erroneous information given by the execs. but even at the time it was given the information was clearly wrong or, at a minimum, contradictory so as to be questioned. My posts here back that up, as do my emails to the Australian journo who is now very irked that Marriott gave him the wrong info. Links to his original article which now has a blazing anti-Marriott heading and his correction can be found here: https://www.ausbt.com.au/

GoldenItalianBoy

Will successful Marriott Platinum Challenges (achieved with less nights than normal) be honoured?
Thank you.