A few weeks ago, I notice that my MR status was listing as Gold, this despite the fact that I'm a Silver & I've done only 34 days this year.

Today, I get a MR Gold card in the mail and a letter stating that I'm now UG to Gold ( until 2/08 ). The letter notes that I do not have enough qualifying nights, but it also notes this complimentary UG as a gesture to "reward your steadfast loyalty to Marriott".

I certainly am very appreciative for the UG. I'm just wondering how often Marriott does something like this and how it targets their customer. My wife and I own several weeks of Marriott timeshare and in addition to utilizing some of these weeks ( for which we receive no credited stays ), we do several paid owner discount nights at some of the TS properties as well as many additional hotel stays, all of which are at Marriott. I'd guess that for the past 3 years, we average between 35 to 40 paid stays per year.

So does Marriott track activity over the years, or is there some other way that they might target a regular customer who does indeed do a lot of business with Marriott?

Like I say, I'm grateful for the UG and will obviously be sticking with Marriott for the long haul. The odd thing is that I might just do the 16 additional days that I would need to qualify for gold anyhow. We've got 11 days booked and I've got a couple of additional 2 or 3 day trips in the works.

How frequently have others encountered this sort of complimentary UG?

Barry

This happend to me this year, I had the same letter as you. The only thing I could think of is that they counted some stays from last year.

Anthony

I received a similar upgrade to platinum earlier this year. I suspect that having an upcoming multiweek reservation at one property at the time helped me get the upgrade. The upgrade gave me platinum about 2 weeks before I would have qualified on the rolling year qualification.

This could be based on rollover from last year. I got something similarly worded in the mail when I made Gold earlier this year based on rollover.

i got a similar UG last year to PLT.. i had 72 nights and then I logged in one night and i was magically PLT status.. would have been a better surprise if I didn't read about it happening to other people first!

please delete - repeated info

When I checked in to the ABQ Marriott yesterday the clerk stated "We have your gold number in your reservation." This struck me as odd seeing as how I only have 36 nights this year. When I logged on to check my account at Marriott.com it indeed indicated that I was now gold. Unlike you, I haven't received a letter from Marriott just yet. I do have reservations giving me over 60 nights by the end of the year, including one 12-day stay at a Courtyard in October so maybe that had something to do with it? Either way, it's a welcome upgrade.

Maybe it's due to Marriott using a rolling qualification year? That's how I got to gold & plat. Either way, don't complain!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509705