Just made Plat!
 

I keep a record of my stays (how sad is that?) and I knew that a stay last week put me onto 75 nights on a rolling 12 month basis. I know the program really runs on a calendar year basis, but the advice on this forum is that MRW sometimes use a rolling year to encourage members to chose Marriott, so I was maybe hoping that I'd get upgraded in a month or two.

My stay was updated at the weekend. I logged in this morning and, lo and behold, my status is upgraded to Platinum. How efficient is that?

My real reason for posting is to ask other members if they also feel an almost irrational pleasure at achieving a status level? The difference between MRW Gold and Plat isn't massive - so why am I so damned pleased about it? I mean, the first thing I did was to double check the Plat benefits. The second thing I did was to update my profile here. Is this truly sad?

Any psychologists out there?

Congratulations!!!!

Yes, that's sad!
 

Welcome to the "I spend WAY too much time away from home" club!

Congratulations :)

75 nights is a lot "away from home"- but one day I will have plat card in my walet as well :)) Unfortunatelly I've to pay for all my nights by myself (my work doesn't requirte my to travel)

Cheers
Chris

Congratulations!^

"Way too much time away from home" is right, but plat is a nice little payback.

Most of the time (but certainly not always), your status will be acknowledged and taken seriously. And the "override" benefit is a nice perk.

Sad, but true. I started flying and staying at hotels for work in late 2005. It definitely was a nice high when I made Platinum at Marriott. Getting the Platinum Arrival Gift was cool.

However, my real pleasure was with the airlines, rather than hotels. After completing the Plat Challenge on American. There are obviously a lot of benefits, but not having to stand there waiting for Group 5 to be called and praying that I would have overhead space (this was pre-liquid ban too) was a huge pleasure!

Uh ... what's the "override" benefit?

To bad
 

Sorry to hear you made the club - I have been there since 1999 and hopefully this year will be the year I don't re qualify.

I assumed cyberdad was refering to the 48 hour room guarantee.

Rats!

I was hoping Marriott was going to a Platinum override on awards, like Hilton has the Diamond Force.

In my dreams.

Indeed, I was referring to the 48-hour availability "thingy". I hesitate to call it a guarantee, even though Marriott promotes it as such. Its a nice "thingy", however....because usually it works.

Its sort of like the "Stay Anytime" award that frequently means just that.

The best part about Platinum is even if you don't have 75 next year, you are (by all rerports) still a Gold by virtue of a "soft landing" policy. I really cannot express how much I prefer just eating whatever they have in the club rather than going out, or even just downstairs, to eat by myself again.

Last month I got my project yanked away and given to somebody else, which means I'm rapidly going from over 200 hotel nights a year to very limited business travel. If I get something similar near home its an answer to prayer, but the really sick part is I'm already pre-morning the loss of my Marriott and Hyatt status (and I just burned most of the points anyway).

I guess nobody likes being ordinary, even if it takes a high price not to be. I guess what I really want is to mostly sleep at home but still get enough stays for Marriott Platinum. And Hyatt Diamond. And enough FFN's or points for a free week-long stay in Hawaii each year. On an out island. And a new Cadallac. It really is an addiction and withdrawl thing, and I'm disgusting.

It is nice to have status--there are definitely tangible benefits. I remember several years ago pre-*wood that I had status at Westin and we had circumstances that necessitated immediately booking a block of 5 rooms in NYC. All the hotels we could think of were sold out, but the manager at The Plaza fit us in (and I became a minor hero for a day or so). Just last month during the horrible ice/sleet storm in NY, my minor (Silver) Marriott status allowed me to use the Elite reservation line and get the last room at the Marriott in Saddle Brook (as others around me were resigning themselves to the cots being distributed in EWR). On the other hand, it also just plain nice to have hotel and airline people greet you with (hopefully) an extra smile and acknowledgement of your business. Long ago, before upgrades were considered entitlements and almost all were BUP's, I remember one of my friends (who was BA Gold) being so impressed because a GA came on board (unsolicited) to apologize they were not able to upgrade him from J to F. (I guess those days are gone). So...congratulations, and enjoy your time with your home and friends away from home!

Soft Landing
 

It is true that Marriott gives you a "soft" landing when you fail to requal. In 2005 I stayed at the Park Ridge, NJ Marriott for about seven months - and the first 80 days I was logged in under my wife's Marriott Rewards account, giving her Platinum status. Then the manager noticed it was under her name and mentioned that I really should be staying under my own account and he set it up for me right there on the spot, and I soon reached Platinum status myself.

2006 comes along and I am not travelling much because I got a client to let me work from home 8 out of the 12 months, and when I did travel I foolishly used Priceline in order to keep my costs down - and there were no Marriotts in the town anyway...

2007 hits and I am back on the road, still Platinum for the first month and then bam - I notice I am only Gold about a week later. I get home that weekend and have a Gold Elite welcome package from Marriott stating that even though I did not qualify, they were comp'ing me Gold level in hopes that I would come back.

A week later my wife's Gold Elite package came - and she has only stayed one night in a Marriott since turning Platinum.

This year I will have my 75th night in sometime around July 1st, and I will enjoy the increased 5% in points - but the hotel I am staying at gives me a Platinum gift on the first night of every stay anyway (Fairfield Inn), and upgrades me to a room with free wired access that is 100 times better than the free wireless.

Congrats, with as much traveling as we do to earn this our lives are so pathetic we have to look forward to little things like this. We're suckers for marketing.