The planned August program merger between Marriott and SPG has led to some short term opportunities (see this post for a list of opportunities). One such opportunity is the ability to earn 15 Suite Night Awards in 2018.
Today, if you earn 50 elite nights with SPG within a calendar year, you get to pick a Choice Benefit. The most valuable option, in my opinion, is to select 10 Suite Night Awards.
In the new combined program, you’ll get one Choice Benefit selection at 50 elite nights and another when you reach 75 elite nights. That sounds better than the current SPG program, but it’s not. With each Choice Benefit in the new program, you can get only 5 Suite Night Awards. So, in the new program, you need to hit 75 nights to get as many Suite Night Awards as you can get at 50 nights today.
That said, this year only there’s an opportunity to earn up to 15 Suite Night Awards. Here’s what a Marriott representative wrote to me when I asked about this:
If an SPG member has 50 nights before July 27, 2018 and chooses Suite Night Awards as one of their Choice benefits, they will receive 10 Suite Night Awards. The member will have the option to choose an additional choice benefit when they achieve 75 nights, and at that time, if they choose Suite Night Awards – they will receive an additional 5 Suite Night Awards.
So, if you have the opportunity to earn 50 elite nights with SPG before July 27th, you can get a total of 15 Suite Night Awards this year by earning 25 more elite nights by December 31st. The nice thing is that the 75 elite night objective will include any elite nights you’ve earned from Marriott as well.
More about Suite Night Awards
- A Suite Night Award is a one-night confirmable upgrade to a standard suite or select premium room, depending on the hotel’s availability of those rooms.
- The number of Suite Night Awards used must match the entire length of stay; it cannot be used for part of a stay (e.g., the first two nights of a five-night stay).
- Once Suite Night Awards are requested to be applied to a stay, Marriott will begin checking upgrade availability 5 days in advance of your stay, up until 2pm on the day of your arrival.
- If your Suite Night Award request doesn’t clear, you’ll get the awards back to be used later.
More about the Marriott SPG program merger
See: Marriott SPG Ritz Transition Guide.
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Do you know if anyone has reported issues since last weekend with applying suite upgrade nights to pre-existing reservations? I have 10 nights and tried to apply to each of my eight existing reservations (and keep getting the message “your suite awards cannot be applied to this reservation.”
I’m sure that many people have had that problem. The real question is whether anyone has done anything within the merged program and has not had issues. The merger has gone really, really badly in my opinion.
Greg, WRT getting15 Marriott suite nights in 2018, I followed the script as outlined above and have been unable to get Marriott to confirm 15 suite nights versus 10. Did this end up working out for you? If so, could you share any tips or your point of contact that helped you out?
I didn’t try to do this. What happens when you go to the page to pick your choice benefit for 50 night status? Does it show 5 SNAs or 10? If it shows 10, then you should be able to separately pick 5 more for your 75 night status choice
I am unable to apply my suite night upgrades to upcoming reservations at SPG hotels booked prior to the merger. When I click on the upgrade button, I am directed to a login page which errors out when I put in my correct information. Interestingly, upcoming reservations at Marriott hotels booked prior to the merger seem to work fine.
Yeah, almost anything involving a legacy SPG property has been either difficult or not possible. You’d have to call to have any shot with something like that, and I’m not sure whether or not phone agents are able to do it. There’s been similar difficulty initially over attaching free night certificates, and I don’t believe anyone has been able to attach the 7-night certificates to SPG properties yet.
I’m verifying all this with Marriott and am waiting their response.
I achieved lifetime gold two years ago and I achieved fast track to platinum in May (until the end of 2019). However, with the new system, I didn’t automatically move from platinum to platinum premier but instead they used my lifetime gold to move me to lifetime platinum. Therefore, I did the 9 stays in 3 months and only benefited from it until August 17. I will be discussing it with Marriott as it is totally unfair.
The other thing I asked is that if I am presently lifetime platinum, there is no benefit to me for accumulating nights as there is no other lifetime tier above me. The only benefit would be if I reach 75 nights in one year.
Lastly, from the thread below, even if I am lifetime platinum, I won’t benefit from Suite Night Awards (as per Dan).
Please let me know if I am incorrect in any of the above.
Thank you.
1) Marriott is still working through issues with elite assignments. It’s quite possible that they’ll fix your status in the next few days without you doing anything about it. Yes, you should have Platinum Premier if you did the Platinum challenge with Marriott (not SPG).
2) The only benefit to accumulating 50 nights per year would be the choice benefits (such as 5 suite night awards)
3) Correct. You can’t get suite night awards unless you reach 50 elite nights within a year (and then again at 75)
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. :o)
[…] Earn up to 15 Suite Night Awards with Marriott SPG this year only […]
greg. just wanted to thank you for asking my question. u da man! so many things to do before AUG 1st! time to gun it for the finish line! this is the last opp.
[…] (which I find to be puzzling), there are some short term opportunities available with the program. Frequent Miler notes one of these opportunities for Starwood Platinum members. Historically Starwood Platinum […]
[…] (which I find to be puzzling), there are some short term opportunities available with the program. Frequent Miler notes one of these opportunities for Starwood Platinum members. Historically Starwood Platinum […]
Thanks for this, I was wondering how SNAs worked. I thought one award was used for an entire stay. These are now harder to use than I thought since I use the 7night certificates.
If I get 75 nights with SPG by July 31, will I get to select the 50 night benefit through SPG and then the 75 night choice benefit with Marriott come August 1?
OR does this only work if you have less than 75 nights come July 31/August 1?
It should work either way I believe. You definitely need the 50 SPG before July 27th to get the first 10. But if you hit 75 before then, you should still get the additional 5 when you get Marriott 75-night status in August.
If I complete the Road to Plat challenge by July 31st, will I have any SNA?
The suite night awards aren’t simply a function of being an SPG plat, they’re directly related to how many nights you’ve stayed. You’ll have to stay a full 50 nights by July 31 if you want the ability to get 15 suite night awards next year (the last 5 will come when you actually reach 75 nights).
I am wondering if the sna can be redeemed at both spg and Marriott after august
Yes. But not all Marriott brands initially will be eligible for SNAs—Ritz Carlton, for one. The major Marriott brands will be eligible. Some like Design and a few others never will have eligibility (Design doesn’t with SPG now, either.)