Was deemed worthy of Platinumness sometime during the day Monday. Online it appears to expire at the end of the year, but I have not received the card to see what date is on it.

Seeing the other threads on rolling qualification, it seemed to make sense to bump this one as it has the most information that I've found. Perhaps making it a sticky (and changing the subject line) wouldn't be a bad idea, since the question seems to come up every couple of months. But that's just my two cents.

I really don't see how at this point anybody can doubt that Marriott uses a kind of rolling qualification. We have confirmation from quite a few people relating their own experiences, and no contradictions that I can recall.

I do agree that the title of this thread needed to be changed, so I changed it.

Bruce

As noted elsewhere, in CY 2005 I missed requalifying for Gold by only a few nights, and as a result was downgraded to Silver and received, in due course, my Silver Marriott Rewards card valid through 02/2007.

In March I applied for and received an upgrade of my VISA card to Premier Signature, and along with it on about 23 March the 15 bonus nights were credited to my account, bringing my "rolling 12 month" total to 62. The following Monday I showed as Gold again on the Marriott website. (Actually, I showed as Platinum for the first couple days, but that was soon corrected to Gold.)

I was not surprised, therefore, to recently receive in the mail an envelope from Marriott Rewards which (I could feel) contained a new membership card. I opened the envelope and indeed there was a Gold card, marked as valid through 02/2008.

This all tracks what Chris said above.

What's interesting is that the accompanying letter, dated early April, began:

Now, a couple years back I also missed requalifying by just a couple nights, and received a similar letter which essentially "waived" the missing nights, and gave me a complimentary rather than earned renewal. It may be that when the computer upgraded me to Gold based on the "rolling" 12-month period, it simply generated this letter rather than the "you've earned Gold" letter. Not a problem.

However, the letter also includes one extremely interesting sentence:
As I understand Chris' posting above, the reaching of over 50 nights during the rolling 12-month period would have qualified me for Gold for the rest of 2006, all of 2007, and up to 02/2008. The card Marriott sent me also says that, but the accompanying letter does not.

I don't think it matters to me, since I'll easily make the 50 nights this year at the rate I'm going, and indeed, if I can pick up the pace a bit may even be able to qualify as Platinum by early autumn on the rolling 12-month period, but the inconsistency is rather interesting. To someone used to the Hilton practice of sometimes giving cards indicating status for a multi-year period but still requiring requalification each year, this could be confusing.

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* Sic. While it did indeed tend to make me more nearly complete, a complimentary Platinum would have been even more complementary.

I think I am going to be in this situation.. I started with Marriott in April and got a special one time to Platinum for a number of reasons.. so in the period from April to December I will be at approx 66-70 nights. So hopefully, when I travel in the new year, I will get a jolt back to Platinum. We shall see...

Just wanted to BUMP this up!

I've been reading the threads about rolling qualification with much interest and the summary seems to be that Marriott will sweep every two weeks to upgrade people to Gold or Platinum based on a rolling year.

So my situation is that I'm Gold and just slightly short of my target on a calendar year basis. However, my current Gold, like everyone, expires at the end of Feb 2008. So I won't become Silver till March 1, 2008. Which if I'm reading right means will be the first time I will be considered for rolling year qualification for Gold again. Which means that my stays in Jan and Feb 2007 (which are over a year old on March 1, 2008) won't count .. It'll be March 2007 onwards.

Just wanted to confirm with the braintrust that with the current system, if your status is ABOUT to expire then Jan/Feb are 'dead' months, and that stays in that period don't end up counting for the next year rolling year qualification because you are still officially gold at that time.

(Hope that makes sense.. I know it barely makes sense to me, which is why I am posting it... )

I could be wrong, but I thought the rolling 12-month qualification only applied to the first time you were qualifying for a level. In this case, I thought that you'd have to earn gold over the coming calendar year (1/01/08-12/31/08), in order to get the level back.

Well, I thought the rolling window thing went out the window - (bad joke I know) a few years ago.

All I know is that I have done my time this 2007 calendar year since January 1, 2007:

January 1 - December 7: 146 nights.

December 7 - 9: 3 nights

December 10 - 14: 4 nights

December 17 - December 21: 4 nights

2007 Estimated Final Nights: January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2007:

157 nights.

This should be more than enough for well-earned PLT for 2008.

Pitflyer, you did your research well because your are absolutely right in your understanding.

Yes, you are. Please refer to post #23 for clarification from Marriott Concierge the official Marriott rep here on FT.

Not quite right. The rolling 12 month qualification is for the "next higher elite level" and not just for the first time they ever get that level.

So if a person were a Gold elite (achieved via calendar year stays or rolling 12 months stays), received 49 nights during the last 6 months of a calendar year, and then no stays recorded before March 1st of the next year, they would drop to Silver. Then if that person were to have a 1 night stay, sometime in March, they would have 50 nights within a 12 month window and would again be elevated to Gold status as that is the next higher level.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Hilton has a rolling year too (there's is public and used for re-qual also) so between Hilton's official one and Marriott's unofficial one there are interesting games to play to maintain status between the two.

I was doing some research on older threads and want to get opinions/official answers on this once again.

As a PLT, suppose I end the year with 74 nights. I'm supposed to drop to GLD, but not until 2/28. With the 12 rolling month window, can I requalify as PLT with one more stay on Jan. 2, even though I haven't dropped to GLD yet? Or do I need to wait until March 1?

(Assume for the above that I have no stays from 1/1-3/1 from the previous year.)

No, you have to drop to Gold first. BUT as a Plat who gets 74 nights by the end of this year, in all likelihood Marriott will keep you as Plat for the next year. This has happened to me twice in the last 6 years. One year I only had 35 nights, and last year I only had 61. Now I have been Plat for 12 of the last 13 years, and as primarily a leisure traveler I also book the majority my hotels 11 months out and have the track record of completing those stays, so perhaps longevity and pending future business have a bearing on that decision by Marriott.

If you want the official answer see post #23.

I read post 23 and it was not specific, thus my question. It says that the drop to GLD may be brief, leading me to think that it's not seamless, thus you must drop on 3/1 before being upgraded again. The question is whether the brief drop is the time to your first post 3/1 stay or just the time until the next 12-month sweep.

In either case, if it's not seamless, nights from 1/1 to 2/28 in the previous year would be lost. If I have 74 nights in '09 but 30 of those in the 1/1-2/28 time frame, then by the time I drop to GLD and the sweep runs, it's for 3/10/09-3/10/10, so those 30 nights are lost. The sweep only shows 44 nights, plus whatever I have for 1/1-2/28 of 2010.

So the question remains - is there a 12-month rolling check of 75 nights on 1/10/10 because the system knows I would be dropping to GLD, or does it not happen until 3/10/10 after I have actually dropped?

Correct it is not seamless. You drop on 3/1, and you get bumped back up on the weekly Monday rolling 12-month sweep. Your next post 3/1 stay has no bearing unless you need those nights to make the 75 nights in the rolling 12 month window.

Absolutely correct!

No.

It doesn't happen until after you drop to Gold on 3/1, then you would get bumped back up on the weekly Monday rolling 12-month sweep that happens on or after 3/1.


But as I said before I wouldn't get bent out of shape over this as you will probably be extended Platinum status for next year with 74 nights anyway.