Over in the Hilton forum, I just learned that they've introduced a new qualification scheme: rather than qualify for the various elite levels on a calendar year basis, it's now based on a rolling 12-month window.

One of my little gripes with MR is that once I hit my 75 nights (usually around June or July), the rest of my annual stays are just points gathering. Nothing wrong with that, but with ~150 nights/year, I sure would like to be able to carry them over to help with qualification for the next year.

Is it possible that competetive pressures will lead Marriott to a similar scheme? After all, for those of us who hit the threshold early in the year, the incentive is to leave MR and go for status in another program.

Just an idle daydream.

Marriott used to have rolling tier qualification, probably about 3-4 years ago. They removed it because they said it was too complicated. Which it was since you would stay a few days at a Marriott but your status counter would go DOWN because you lost a week you stayed at a Marriott a year ago.

Hilton is implementing it with spiffy charts which allow you to see how many stays/nights/points you need in any given period to qualify/requalify -- if Marriott did that it probably would have worked. Maybe the competitive pressure will bring it back.

So does Marriott enforce an exact Jan-to-Dec calendar year qualification window, or is there something more to it? I hit 62 nights last year, but it's now well into January and my MR page is still telling me I need only 13 more nights to qualify for Platinum. Is it just out of date (my 2006 stays haven't showed up either), or do I still have a chance to rack up the missing nights?

I have the same question. Marriott bumped me to Plat last fall and my account still shows:

Of course I haven't stayed at Marriott 52 nights this year. So does Marriott now have the rolling tier like Hilton does?

See post #2 and post #23 in this thread.

Thanks for the link, but I'm still confused. The thread seems to imply that the automated qualification period is Jan 1-Dec 31, but you can apply 'manually' for an upgrade if you rack in enough nights across years... but this doesn't explain why the Marriott Rewards page is still telling me, in January, that I only need 13 nights?

To sum it up according to my understanding....Rolling qualification is only for the initial qualification. When you start with no status, you can earn status in this fashion: 27 nights in second half of 2005 and 25 nights in first half of 2006...Because this adds up to 50+ nights and it's within a rolling year you should get gold which will last you all the way through end of 2006 and all of 2007. However, if you want to maintain Gold in 2008 you will need to qualify by staying 50 nights in 2007.

As for why the page still says that...They could be having some sort of a database/backend problem and everything will straighten itself out in a month or so.

Thanks for the clarification, but I'm not entirely sure how this applied to my situation. I had no Marriott status before 2005, but I became Gold in December. I will, in all likelihood, reach 75 nights (in ~10 months) in early February -- so am I eligible for Platinum?

in your case, i would guess that you will get to platinum, but it is a guess

I was in a similar situatrion at the beginning of 2005 and contacted MR via the Web page. They extended my qualification period manually until the end of January but I had to contact them once I had stayed the nights to get them to update the status. Klunky, but it worked

My stays reset to 0 on Jan 1. I kept my status from last year. I had 3 nights this year and it shows I need 7 to reach Silver for this year.

So in my case there is no rolling tier. I called and asked several times in Dec. if there was a rolling tier and was told no.

I dont think there is any rolling tier, I suspect they are just allowing you a month or so in the new year to get your stays. Ultimately, if you do make it, the nights you stayed this year will also be part of your 2006 qualifying nights as well.

I hit my 75th Night in the past 12 months on January 15th (it actually only took the prior 10 months) and this would be my first PLAT status. Still showing Gold right now...I'll probably give Marriott two to three weeks to see if they are in fact performing a periodic review of rolling nights producing a PLAT designation online. I'll update this Flyertalk thread either way.

Ironically...when I checked in for Night 74 and 75 on Jan 13th, my account still showed 2 nights left for PLAT and the Renaissance front desk clerk actually mentioned, "congrats...you'll achieve Platinum after this stay". Between that date and the date these two nights actually posted is when Marriott reverted back to showing 75 nights for PLAT status. Confusing yes, but optimistic that the roving computer will catch my many nights in the 2nd half of the year.

Hit 75th Night on January 15th....recognized as PLAT automatically on January 30th.

Thanks for the reassurance jb2001!