Hi,

I've been lurking on FT for about a month now, and I wanted to tell you all how informative it has been for me. That said, I was wondering if maybe you could provide some insight on some trouble I've been having.

My father joined Marriott rewards in 1985. That puts him at 23 years of membership. He only has 178 nights, but 365,853 lifetime points earned. At one point he was Marquis Black. He was laid off from his job in '95 and started a small business. Needless to say, most of his travel stopped. Just recently he has taken a sales job again and he is traveling more. He has already worked his way up to Silver Elite (in the first 2 months of the year), but considering his long history with the program, previous elite status, the fact that he JUST missed being made Lifetime Platinum during the 20th anniversary, and the fact that he has created a loyal customer in his son (I'm silver), I was hoping they would at least let him challenge towards gold. I called up the Silver MR line, and they referred me to the Salt Lake City line where they essentially told me that they cannot offer a challenge because he has never had "Gold status" with them before.

I guess its a question of "What have you done for us lately?"

I was wondering if anyone here had any tips for me to maybe help him at least challenge for gold so he can enjoy lounges a little bit earlier. He taught me everything I know about frequent traveler programs, so it would be a nice little gift to him if I could figure this out.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Sincerely,
Matthew Gulino

Welcome to FlyerTalk, Matthew.

The first thing you can do to help your father out is to get him to join FlyerTalk! If he has taught you everything about being a frequent traveler, then he will certainly be welcome here.

A challenge may be hard to find (as you have found out). He should apply for the Marriott Premier Visa card, which will give him a 15 night credit towards his elite status every year. Gold can be attained with only 35 nights with the Visa.

Thanks for the response.

Ok, perhaps I was being a bit generous when I said "everything I learned" was from my father...as I paradoxically mentioned in the original post, I learned a ton here.

I will certainly encourage him to join FT, but I wanted to see if I could figure out some help first on this particular issue. It would be rather neat to teach my Dad a few tricks he doesn't know

I mentioned the Visa cards to him. Unfortunately, he took on a lot of debt to finance the creation of his small business in the mid 90's. That currently is keeping him from applying at this moment, although that might become an option later on.

I would be specifically interested in hearing from other former Marquis club members who went "dark" for a good long period and came back. Maybe there is some precedence out there to provide me with some ammunition.

Regards,
Matt Gulino

This is going to sound harsher than I mean it to be, but can't he just earn gold the hard way like all of us did at some point?

That being said, it would probably be better for him to call or write MR than for you to do it as his son. Secondhand requests are always easier to deny. Tell him to think again about the Visa, as I don't think you need pristine credit to qualify for one of those. And if you really want to help him out then pay for some weekend/leisure stays for him that he can credit to his own account!