canadianidol

Does it matter when you reach the $30K spend to qualify for the SPG Gold status? For example, my anniversary date is end of July. If I meet the $30K spend in Feb, when will my SPG Gold status last? Should I defer meeting the $30K spend in order to maximize the Gold status validity? Does Marriott Gold expire the same time as SPG Gold once they are linked?

RoutingWonk

Amex sends the information to SPG at the closing of your monthly statement. Starwood has a fixed status period, so if you earn status on your December 2017 statement you’ll keep your status until the end of February 2019, if you earn it on your January statement then it should expire in 2020, but if you expect to keep hitting the $30k threshold each year then it’s irrelevant. I don’t know when Marriott’s status year end is but since they’re lining up the two programs, I expect it expired at the same time.

The only thing I’ve found that’s time sensitive is the free weekend night at $40k. You have 12 months to use it from the statement when you earned it so earning it closer to your anniversary date makes it more likely that you’ll have 2 (2017 and 2018) to be able to use together.