Free Upgrade to Platinum?
 

Hi all,

Can anybody give me a clue what I've done to be upgraded for free to Platinum?

Have been Silver (of my own accord) for maybe five years, got upgraded to Gold in about 2005 (for my "loyatly") but last year got given Platinum status which has continued into 2008.

I always stay at Marriotts, but my job has changed to being largely fixed in one place these days rather than travelling (or I'm using the points which doesn't count towards the nights total).

The only thing I can think is that I'm on the SMT of a company which collectively spends huge amounts with Marriott annually, but nobody in the company is a signatory for a special account or anything (although now I've written that, I *might* have signed a corporate rate off a couple of years ago) - but I am baffled.

It's very nice to get the (occasional) benefits of Elite Membership (and free brekkie!) but I'm just not sure what I did to get it!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this isn't a question I've asked Marriott directly. And am probably unlikely to do so!

Any thoughts? Do Marriott give tier upgrades?

Thanks

Did you book any meetings at a Marriott using the facilities? If so, it only takes 7 of those to get PLT.....If not, then I dunno.....

I feel your pain but I am probably shooting my self in the foot by saying this but I just logged into my account and now see that I am a gold and received a 2nd free night from the Marriott visa. Its kind of strange to be upgraded because combined with the visa stays I only did 33 stays in the past 12 months.

And those of us who are true plats wonder why there is no availability for an upgrade or we can't use other "optional to the franchisee" benefits because the pool of platinums keep getting larger. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for your good fortune. I choose Marriott for the vast majority of stays of my 100 plus a year nights in order to maintain status. But if this is really the case I could spread my year of stays over two programs, get mid-tier status, be automatically upgraded and then have top tier status in two programs. I'm cheating myself by remaing totally loyal. If Marriott wants to use Platinum as an incentive such as this, then they really need to consider lowering the qualifications for true platinum, or create another tier with different benefits for those who are truly loyal to the chain.

No meetings, no.

I can entirely appreciate Copilot23's perspective. I'm a BA Gold (for real) and I was as annoyed when I read the thread on Michael Winner! (qv) I think I would feel aggrieved as well if I'd spent my company's money on 75 nights and saw that other people were getting upgrades for apparently nothing.

That said, overall my company contributed over $4M in revenue to them last year, so I don't feel that aggrieved as I suspect we're probably paying for the privilledge of my upgrade... (I would love to say I get upgraded all the time too, but I've only managed one upgrade in my 30-odd nights last year, so please don't blame me in total!)

Just seemed odd that, apart from the company name in my profile and my position within it, there appears to be no solid link.

(Really didn't plan this to turn antagonistic, so apologies if that's the way it appeared).

Dave

No apology needed. It wasn't my intention to sound antagonistic. Marriott just needs to decide how it wants to reward those individuals who are loyal and differentiate it from incentives designed to increase enrollment in the program.

Tom,

Just for clarification, stays or nights? Marriott is night-based not stay-based, so you might actually have hit the 50 nights threshold.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer