Qualify for platinum with both programs in 2018?
 

Does anyone have clarity on whether qualifying for Marriott Platinum and SPG Platinum is valuable this year?

That is to say, will it count for two separate platinum years on your lifetime total?

And if so, do they have to both be "complete" by the August date?

Yes, it does. It was confirmed that if you qualify for both, you get 2 years this year.

Marriott has confirmed if you qualify for legacy MR Gold this year it will count towards the ten years needed for ten years for LTPP, LTP or LTG in the new program. Legacy MR LTG requires fifty nights for qualification which is what Plat will require in the new program and legacy Gold maps to the new program's Plat50 status so you only need to qualify for legacy Marriott Gold this year to have it count towards as a year of Plat status towards LT status in the new program.

And you have until the end of the calendar year to qualify for either under the legacy rules. It does not need to be completed by Aug 1 or whatever date the new program winds up starting.

Note that if you are planning to hold Marriott meetings to get ten nights credit per meeting there is a rumor that the ten nights per meeting may be going away with the new program (except for the first meeting which the rumor holds will still count for ten) so you might want to be on the safe side and hold your meetings before Aug 1. If you are going to hold meetings anyway doing so quickly won't add any expense but would be better than not being able to do them if the change happens. There is a thread, with Wiki, that goes into details on how to do this.

It has indeed been stated quite clearly that you can earn 2 Platinum years with 50 Marriott-only nights and 25 stays / 50 nights at SPG-only hotels. And that you have all of 2018 to do it.

I am aiming for the same thing, but am a little skeptical of the IT implementation. Specially I might want to merge accounts to become Plat Prem, but before I've done all 50 nights at Marriott. I worry how they will be tracking legacy nights once accounts are combined.

So you're willing to risk not getting lifetime Plat Prem just to get annual Plat Prem a few months earlier? :confused:

Myself, I will wait until we have some datapoints, or very clear T&Cs, as to what combining accounts actually does and means, before I will combine accounts. I don't see the point of hurrying to combine accounts if lifetime status could be in question by doing so.

Where was it stated that the Marriott PLT threshold for this year was reduced from 75 nights to 50 nights?

It does not, but fifty nights gets MR Gold and MR Gold counts as a year towards LTPP qualification. This has been made clear by the SPG Lurker in the SPG Master Wiki, Question B10:.

Marriott has been extremely clear that combining accounts will have no impact on tracking legacy activity towards 2018 qualification. While the first poster raises a valid point that waiting will allow others to experience any IT glitches in the implementation the second poster is needlessly spreading fear that Marriott may not track legacy activity if accounts are combined. That has been refuted over and over again and should not be a fear. I would be more concerned that Bigfoot may stomp on your computer and you might lose your saved password.

I don't have the years for lifetime PP, no matter what I do.

Combining accounts does seem to be an area of concern that Marriott hasn't come close to addressing because they mis-judged the actual desire of people to combine Marriott + SPG nights into one elite status counter.

Sorry, but I disagree. We're not talking about the promise of reaching Platinum via 25 SPG stays.

We're talking about achieving two years of credit for lifetime status for 2018. If the IT doesn't work, I can easily see 90% of phone agents saying "but you are already Plat Prem sir" and not even coming close to understanding that an SPG Lurker promised us two years credit for lifetime purposes if we qualify separately during 2018.

Does it not occur to you that we still know so little about implementation of the merger because management are saying one thing and the back office guys are struggling to figure it out? It's July 16th and we still don't know if things happen on August 1st or at some random point during the month. Platinums were also promised breakfast at all brands, until we weren't...

You are conflating a few different things...

• A member can qualify for two years of elite status in the same year, including 2018, if the member reaches status in each program. This has been published in members.Marriott:
  Quote:

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  If you achieved Elite status in both Rewards and SPG in the same year, you’ll receive credit for two Elite years.

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• Legacy MR Gold requires fifty nights, but fifty nights will be Plat in the new program. LTPP is a status in the new program. One way to qualify involves ten years history of being Plat between the two programs. Because legacy MR Gold was the fifty night level, it will count as Plat for the history requirement needed in the new program for LTPP qualification. This has been confirmed by the Lurker in the quote above but is also on the members.Marriott site, in the FAQs:
  Quote:

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  We are keeping members “whole” in the applicable night tier in which they earned their Elite status. Example: If a member has 4 years of Elite status at the 50 night level (Gold Elite status) they will be counted in August and beyond as 4 years at the new 50 night level (Platinum Elite status). Only the names of the levels are changing. How we account for tenure is not changing.

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If it makes someone happy to act like Marriott will not follow their published parameters and change everything based on made up potential IT problems there's probably no way to explain why that's not going to happen. For those dealing with facts, the facts are listed above and clearly show Marriott has stated one can earn two qualifying years in 2018 by qualifying for status in each program and the Marriott fifty night level will count towards the years of history requirement. As a reputable company that does not act deceitfully yes, I expect Marriott will do what it has published and stand by these parameters. There might be glitches, but there will not be wholesale changes made because IT did not get something right the first time. This is Marriott we are talking about, not Madoff Investments.

This reminds me of Y2K when the chickens were running around with their heads cut off screaming we all needed underground bunkers with enough food to last for three months.

Thanks everyone!

I will attempt to dual qualify even though for me it isn't a Lifetime Plat Premier thing.

But 2 years towards the 10 year counter is one more than 1. And my travel behavior this year (perhaps with a couple of Marriott meetings) should get there.

Marriott online source please? Thanks.

Also, Marriott's website implementation had an impact on tracking legacy activity (lifetime points not showing online unless you knew how to access the "old" site) for past couple months (it just cleared up very recently). So I don't see how Marriott can promise their star IT department will track anything correctly in the future. "Intend to track", yes, "actually track", that requires functioning IT.

+1 on all

Plus - given the ongoing IT issues (plus inherent IT weakness)...anyone actually think this calculation & display of dollar spend is actually going to be accurate?

I hate to sound obtuse, but it is fair to say there is more than a little contradictory info in this thread.

So let me ask a simple question: I had over 75 nights with Marriott last year. I am close to 75 nights this year. Is there any benefit to my moving some stays to Marriott in order to hit the 75 nights before Aug. 1st?

No. That's another one of the highly contradictory elements. Some FTers have reported Marriott to be non-committal about whether members will receive the 50 and 75 night gifts if they reach the night targets before August. But if you are currently Platinum from 75 nights, you will be Plat Prem at changeover and so there is no rush for you...

You might think that is clear, and it certainly is for any year before 2018. However, you might not have noticed that the past tense is used... "achieved"...

So for now we're relying on the word on the SPG Lurker, which I am inclined to believe but have my legitimate concerns about the IT implementation of it.

Another data point about "what management says will happen will happen" (but won't). The debacle about promising SPG Golds Marriott Platinum through the end of the year...

Exactly. The Marriott members website is useful, but is clearly intended for the 90% who just go about their business without caring too much about the finer details. Until there are proper T&Cs that cover all of the random and wonderful travel hacks we pursue, we can't know for sure.

The written materials always stated SPG Gold would be Gold in the new program, a few execs gave wrong information in the press and Marriott corrected that after taking time to see if they needed to follow what the incorrect execs said. The point is the company has been very careful since then about what information is released.

As for the poster asking if there is any advantage to hitting 75 nights by Aug, NO. Even if you put aside the nonsense about nights after Aug not counting as legacy nights as has been explicitly stated repeatedly, hitting fifty nights gets you a year counting towards LT status in the new program so there is no need to get to 75. None. This has been stated repeatedly and is in the written materials. You will get no additional year if you hit 75 nights that you do not already have at 50. Unless you refuse to believe Marriott and you are looking for potential problems that do not exist, you are set and get your year towards LTP or LTPP at the fifty night mark.

I thought the sweet spot was to go over fifty before the implementation of the new program to get ten and to go over 75 once the new program is implemented so as to get fifteen total for the year.

Only if you're on the SPG side of the merger... i.e. reach 50 SPG nights before the merger

correct. my bad.

The theory being floated is you will only get the SNAs when you "cross" the threshold. Now what IT will implement is unknown, what CSRs will have the ability to do is unknown. I am firmly in the camp to read, read, read all released material before taking any actions.
To the OP, if having the nights as Plat is a goal, then absolutely strive to make Plat in both programs before the end of the year. BUT, do keep current with the posts to find out what happens if you merge your accounts. Just like they haven't stated what happens to your legacy accounts, they haven't stated what benefits merging early will get you.

My understanding was that in order to have a chance of getting 15 SNAs this year, one would need first to hit 50 SPG (only) nights by the end of July and then go over 75 either when the programs are combined or later in the year (maybe after merging the accounts). I don't think having between 50 and 75 MR (only) nights on August 1st will do it.

Sorry to say, from what has been posted by the SPG Lurkers, you need to cross the 75 nights during the new program to get the 5 SNAs. Since you will start with 84 combined nights, no SNAs should be expected. NOW, will MPG change that? Possibly and probably should. I'm thinking it might be a good reason to call in after the programs have merged and you have merged your accounts. I see so many corner cases, many very valid, and I suspect MPG will be able to make appropriate adjustments.

I've seen comments like this sprinkled around Flyertalk. Essentially from people who called Marriott and simply didn't receive a clear answer.

Now maybe that's because the agents didn't know, or maybe because the IT systems will be set up to trigger the gifting options upon hitting 50 and 75 nights. I would be very surprised if this couldn't be manually fixed but let's face it, for the next few months Marriott is going to be swamped with problems, so anything you can do to have things happen smoothly and automatically...

P.S. Read the Starwood thread with the wiki containing the Q&A with the lurkers. Some things are made clear. Some other elements have no commitments made.

I see your point and agree with you, but when on another thread I wrote hitting fifty nights and hitting plat were "kinda the same thing" many legacy SPG members attacked and said kinda is different than is and hitting fifty nights and getting Plat are different. Apparently that is the world we are entering. Same would apply for 75 and PP.

Yes, it's a Simple Matter Of Programming (SMOP) and anything can be done. With the bean counters running too many operations the resources just aren't going to be assigned for one-off functions. On the MPG side, they will be looking at the combined accounts, some MR and some SPG numbers that I doubt will be maintained separately in the system. The SPG members may have already chosen their 10 SNAs, should they get another 5 just because they have more than 50 nights in MR too? And what about those that have already passed 75 nights? Should they get another 5 SNAs even if they picked the 10 SNAs (many hoping/expecting yes)? There are so many corner cases the cost of coding for all that would be immense, especially for a one-time run. I suspect this will be yet another "one-time exception" process where those that call in and make the request will be able to request what they want (and that would be much cheaper in that many will not bother).

Anything can happen and we won't know until it does. Even if it's not there day one, both programs have been known to backtrack to correct missteps in the past. Keep reading the releases and see how they apply to you and your account.