There have been mixed reports on the success of the partnership. Many long-time high stay Marriott elites have been quite unhappy due to the crowding in Marriott lounges with UA faux-elites and (with the botched merger helping) there have been reports a very significant number of the long-time elites leaving Marriott.

So Marriott may be thinking it is better to lose a few occasional stay UA elites and work on retaining their Marriott high stay elites.

Good point ... anyone asked Marriott? :)

Well, I just checked in yesterday and found myself at Gold and no room upgrade. Boo. :-(

So I called and immediately registered for Plat Elite status challenge. I will easily have 16 nights over next 45 days (90 for the challenge) and should hit 50 by summer. So for me at least, this actually increases the number of stays at Marriotts. I do really like the room upgrades!

I don't know how high or low the rate is, but these "taste of status" type challenges lose their effectiveness over time. If you make the matched status more or less permanent, there's little incentive for the matched elite to meet the stay or spend thresholds that are normally required to maintain status. So to the extent this program succeeded in "converting" UA Premiers to committed Marriott elites, that has probably already largely occurred. (Adding that this is my story . . . after being fired by Hyatt, I changed from an occasional Marriott customer to a 79 night Platinum Premier last year.)

Splitting hairs here, but this point it seems like an excessively generous (to Marriott) interpretation. They may in fact be making a good business decision by letting RewardsPlus slip to a devalued Gold tier, but given their track record of effectively managing the loyalty program for the past two years, I can't believe they did any thorough number crunch on this.

After five years, the comp'ed status hasn't converted me. I might stay at a Marriot once a year. I prefer Hilton and Accor properties.

Wow, I got matched from UA MP Gold to Marriott Gold and now it says that I am Marriott Silver. What is going on? Is this a mistake?

try matching again. Should be Gold. Strange if you are currently UA Gold to see it go to Silver :confused:

Marriott Demotion
 

Has anyone with GS just get demoted from Platinum to Gold for Marriott?

Yes, yesterday
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Thanks! It says, "Congratulations. You're eligible to receive complimentary Marriott BonvoyTM Gold Elite status."

Let's see ...

If I complete platinum challenge in June, is my platinum status valid until Feb. 2020 or 2021?

So...time to switch to Hilton? Get status there either with amex platinum (earn hilton gold) or via amex aspire card (earn hilton diamond)?

Gold at marriott seems to be quite lackluster. If hilton and marriott hotels are of similar quality and price, then the free breakfast and room upgrades at hilton seem to beat those at marriott. But perhaps marriott has better hotel availability (i.e. more hotels since it's now marriott + spg).