I called the other day and asked to be setup for a platinum challenge (18 nights/3 months). I'm currently MR Gold. I went to check into another Marriott yesterday and was asked if the points were what I wanted for my arrival gift...slightly perplexed I just accepted the offer. After getting back to my room I logged onto my MR account and noticed that my status was upgraded to Plat!

Is this standard with the challenges- that they upgrade you for the period of the challenge and then you lose it if you don't make the 18 night requirement, or was mine just a fluke?

When we did a Gold Challenge last Aug. to Nov., we were upgraded to Gold right away. Had we not done the required nights (which we did), I believe that yes, we would have been downgraded to Silver eventually.

Thanks, brosnan6, for starting this thread. ^ I read it and called MR to find out about the challenge and they made me the same offer - asking if I'd like to be Platinum immediately. Happy day....I've got a week's stay lined up for next week! Just have to make sure I get to 18.

I wouldn't have known this before....but, I was told you have to be Gold to request a Platinum challenge. YMMV

Mr Sophie is currently finalizing a "challenge". His experience has been identical to travelingmore...

Marriott did this for me a few years ago. (They called it a Reverse Challenge at the time.) My understanding then was that it wasn't their normal mode for a challenge, but if a given situation warranted it, they would.

Over the last few years, they may have moved toward this being more of the norm, or possibly everyone here just happened to meet whatever their "criteria" is for a Reverse Challenge. And I don't know what the criteria really is. I can only say that in my situation, I had been a Plat for many years. Due to a job change at the time, I had a couple of years of less travel. I had actually dropped to Silver, but had a couple of reservations with more than the needed Challenge nights for Gold. So I called MR. They looked at my reservations, and said since I had been a loyal member for quite a while they would provide me with the Reverse Challenge. (With the understanding that if I didn't actually get those nights in with the 90 day period, I would lose Gold again.)

As far as the criteria goes, they initially were unwilling to let me do the challenge since I had initially earned MR Gold through the Air France promo (they called it "referral status". However, since then I have stayed enough to requalify for Gold on my own. I had to point that out to them (on the rolling calendar) before the supervisor would approve it.

My agent asked how long I'd been gold and mumbled something about a rolling calendar - then asked me to hold while she spoke to a supervisor. I do have quite a few nights reserved through the end of the year and should have no problem fulfilling the challenge requirements.

Does anyone know how long the Platinum status should last and when it would expire if I were unable to get to 75 nights?