aap

Glad I'm not the only one here who sees the flawed business model of SPG. Last week, I was in San Francisco for 5 nights with my wife, and split my stays between the Ritz Carlton & JW Marriott, and earned my Marriott points. Thank you to both of these properties for recognizing my platinum status and rewarding me with nice rooms.

I spent on average $255 per night + tax. Lots of nice SPG properties in San Francisco for about the same price, but not interested in starting from scratch. I hope someone from SPG reads this and rethinks their policy on how to acquire loyal, high-value business travelers from competing programs because the current platinum challenge is not attractive enough for us to leave our existing programs.

drspear

Same here, as IHG Platinum. Stayed in Four Points Lagos Nigeria for 4 nights, but I have to make 10 "stays" before any recognition at all.

So no incentive to not stay IHG at all.

Keyser

i don't believe spg ever matched ihg status....

QSYH

I still find it surprising that so many people are complaining about a program that is being OFFERED to you as a sign of goodwill to gain your business. So many people are assuming that they deserve status immediately. If you guys really want to think of it as a business perspective, think of how many people actually travel for their jobs. The ones that don't and request platinum status would gain status for a temporary time for free. It makes sense that they want to see a statistic side as to how many nights/stays you will be doing (90 days in this case).

I am almost positive that we had to start from scratch at a hotel or airline company in order to work ourselves up. Yes, many of you deserve the status considering the amount of business you bring but you guys remind me of DYKWIA.

You guys see a "flawed" business model because it's not fitting your preference.

donb25

Too late.

Shwuck

Actually it makes tons of sense... since Jan 1 is the start of the membership qualifying year, they should have started the challenge that day. No one had earned any qualifying stays in 2011 to that point. Changing the rules on April 1st is like the NFL changing the value of a touchdown after the first 4 games have been played.

schley

The NFL doesn't have a clause in the rulebook that says "the terms and conditions can change at any time" as loyalty programs do.

Consider your whining a victory if you must, but I certainly wouldn't have agreed with you if I was SPG.

mahasamatman

And yet they do change the rules without notice. It happened last year.

Shwuck

You can consider it whining if you want to... I consider it following FT rule #1: if you don't get the answer you like, hang up, call back and try again"

You may think I only won a 3 night allowance... I see it differently. In my view I won platinum status for my stay at the St. Regis Priceville on my honeymoon later this month, something I wouldn't have had had I not fought for the credit of the nights before April 1.

djohannw

The thing is that this procedure in fact discourages frequent stayers from accepting the offer - the ones that are actually targeted by it. I am in kind of that boat - so far I have completed the requirements for Platinum with Marriott for the year already, and my employer just stroke a deal with a SPG property at the place where I spend most of my time for work. I'm booked through June with Marriott already, but starting July I could try something different and stay with SPG, IHG or some other chain without "losing" anything except my Marriott benefits.

So here the problem starts: I am used to having lounge access at Full-Service properties and free breakfast with Marriott because of my statius. So why should I give that up without any "incentive" from SPG (I know that the free breakfast is not a SPG Plat benefit, but the hotel in question has a club lounge)?

I agree with the other poster here: If they would offer the status "from the scatch" once I am accepted for that challenge, I would stay 9 nights in July and August each with SPG and then on and off for the rest of the year - even the regular 50 nights this year should not be too unrealistic. However with no benefits provided during the first 15 nights this is not going to happen as the benefits of status make traveling substantially more comfortable if you have to sustain a dosis of 120nights+ per year. Not having them for an extended period is not acceptable to me and a disincentive to move business from Marriott to anothe chain.

Greetings - Dirk

schley

Which rule of the game was this?

PhillyPhlyer40

OT-IIRC, overtime rules. Instead of sudden-death, it was more aligned w/NCAA rules. Someone else may have better information.

BUT, they made the rules change in spring, NOT 1/2 way through an earning year...er..season!

schley

I purposely left it open to allow anyone who would find any rule change to simply say, "was it during the season?" Knowing full well there certainly wasn't one during the season.

Of course they didn't change the rules during the season, this is professional sports , not an airline FFP.

The erroneous analogy to anyone who thought it had weight to our discussion I would hope has come to their senses by now.

zemb

Does anyone know, how long it normally takes for the account to be upgraded to platinum?

I finished my 15 stays yesterday (friday) and already sent two emails to the platinum desk, but haven't received any answer until now. As I have another stay on Monday, I would like to make sure, that my status will be updated until then

Keyser

welcome to ft zemb....if you finished your 15th stay yesterday then i would give it a couple of days before it can hit your account....after that maybe you can get in touch with the platinum desk to ask them where you stand or how long it would take....