yurtripper

Sure, but the great majority of posts are about the status of SPG Golds who matched to MR Golds, whether via a CC like Amex Plat or otherwise. I added questions to the Wiki to cover most of the options that are contentious (including those relating to challenge status), so if there's something you think has been missed then feel free to add your own question alongside it.

Troopers

Right. I'm expanding that group of SPG Golds matching to MR Golds to include all MR Golds without 50 nights. I wondering if Marriott will uniformly treat all MR Golds without 50 nights in the same way.

coltonatx

SPG Golds by nights do NOT deserve the same treatment as someone staying 50+ nights at Marriott or Starwood.
SPG Golds by Amex Plat do NOT deserve the same treatment as someone staying 50+ nights at Marriott or Starwood.
End of the story. People are cyring because someone might be taking your freebie away.

ny911

Thanks for the clarification!
Wish there is a firm answer from anyone here soon as I am planning to make a run before August.

RogerD408

Yes, a good time to be color blind. Use the nights and points from BOTH to determine status. We spent the time and money and don't bother with the games played to bump status (challenge, stays vs nights, CC comps).

garykung

For those of you who think Marriott is being unfair with SPG, can you can enlighten me why Marriott is being unfair?

I can understand the confusion. But still I have no idea why the big fuzz?

EuropeanPete

Meh, it's not exactly like all Marriott Golds have actually stayed 50 nights at Marriott hotels. Maybe time to put that high horse away for the weekend?

Stgermainparis

MSPeconomist

RogerD408

Both programs have T&Cs that allow bumping your status. This was deliberate and encouraged people doing things to book future nights. MR allows you to get LTP without EVER spending a night in a room, isn't that much worse than SPG Golds credit for up to three rooms and credit for CC possession (which MR does too)? Take the total business, whether by stays, promos, challenges, etc., and determine where you belong and forget about all status goals previously crossed. Someone that spread their business between the two programs just might be a much better customer than one that concentrated on a single chain. They know the brands, they know the differences, they know why they stay where they stay.

phltraveler

Getting MR LTP without staying in a room is practically very hard due to the points requirement.

Let's say that you used Rewarding Event is to bump up your night total to 750 without ever staying at a Marriott (it would be the cheapest way to get nights/dollar), and that the meeting rooms cost $500 each for those ten nights (pretty generous, $100-$200 is far more common). Let's also assume that all of those were charged wholly to a Marriott credit card and qualified under the 5 points on Marriott purchases criteria. 3 points per dollar on the rewarding events + 5 points per dollar bonus from the credit card = 8 points per dollar, 8 pts/$ * 500 = 4000 points per meeting, 4000 points per meeting * 75 meetings = 300,000 points. So even if you booked meeting rooms at the generous 10 nights/meeting at a high rate of $500 per meeting room AND you managed to book 75 rooms, you'd still be 1.7 million points short.

At one point per dollar on the MR visa, you'd just need to spend another $1,700,000 to get the lifetime platinum without ever actually staying at a Marriott! Or a mere $850,000 if you were to buy a combination of just airfare direct from airline/rental car/restaurant spend!

It's all fine and dandy that people are bringing up the Rewarding events (meetings booked) 10 elite nights as + credit card nights (15 account anniversary/1 for $3,000 in spend moved across the card) on the Marriott side, just as I think it's fine that people bring up getting the multiple room credit (e.g. book 3 Starwood rooms for the same 5 days, get 15 elite qualifying nights) because there are people that took advantage of both and it made it easier to get status in one program in a way that the other did not.

However, the mention of the possibility to get MR legacy LTP without "ever actually staying in a hotel" is kind of a boogeyman. It would require an insane effort and spend as to be unrealistic, those who could afford it could just rent the expensive rooms they wanted when they wanted to and get the luxury treatment anyways.'

We could also argue that both programs tested "loyalty" in ways the other did not.

SPG LT required minimum nights and minimum number of years at that level...but the ease of hitting those levels was easier, particularly if you were booking more than one room for family or coworkers/employees. They didn't care about how much you spent to get those nights, a $60 night was equal to a $600 night.
Marriott LT stopped requiring minimum years in 2012 (and even when it did, it was just X years of general membership and one at the given elite level to get it for lifetime) and went solely on points & nights. In general, Marriott spend was worth far more in reaching the criteria (10 points + 5 points platinum bonus + 5 points credit card on either the room or "qualifying charges" depending on the property) than non-room Marriott Spend (meeting rooms qualified at a max of 8 pts per dollar [3 for the meeting, 5 pts credit card bonus], airfare direct with airline/rental car/restaurant was a mere 2 pts per dollar, and overall spending a single point on the credit card - compare that with the 1 starpoint bonus [3 MR equivalent] on the SPG Amex for all spending!)

It's going to be somewhat apples and oranges. There are probably people who have SPG LTP because they take their family on vacation in multiple rooms or book rooms for their employees (there are even people saying as such on the Starwood forums here discussing the change of only one room qualifying at a time in new MR vs. old SPG right now) or had stays at a lower spend that would have put them way short of the lifetime points requirement in legacy MR
At the same time there are people in MR who qualified for LTP with over 100 credit card bonus nights or meeting rooms bolstering their night totals, and the promo bonuses in spring/fall bolstering their lifetime bonuses in just 5-6 years enough to hit LTP with not all of those years at LTP. (Marriott rewarded the stay activity [nights/points] beyond the qualification threshold to make a given rank in a given year to lifetime status in a way that Starwood did not, once you hit 50 nights, there was not much more of an incentive to stay at Starwood in terms of elite qualification).

It's somewhat apples/oranges, there is never going to be a fully equal comparison.

MSPeconomist

Agree, and I would add that SPG Golds by stays (with fewer than 50 nights) do not deserve the same treatment as someone staying 50+ nights at Marriott or Starwood.

sethMCOflyer

Agreed. There was a loophole for a couple years and now people are upset it's closing. I feel for those who had 25 nights at SPG properties and are upset there was only a 3 month warning period. I don't feel for those who earned SPG Gold from a Amex Plat card, it sucks, but they shouldn't have ever been able to get MR Gold in the first place.

Frankly for the 50+ night crowd this is a great thing since there will be fewer people they're competing with for lounge space and upgrades. It makes the status more valuable without having to add additional benefits.

paolo64

kaizen7

Normally hotel will honor the current status when member check in.

This is not actually normal since the date is not the usual qualification date.