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The Marriott SPG merger has opened up a wealth of new opportunities. Program members who link their accounts get instantly matched to their highest status level:
- Marriott Gold = SPG Gold
- Marriott Platinum = SPG Platinum
And they now have the ability to transfer points in either direction:
- 1 SPG Starpoint = 3 Marriott Rewards points
I am actively maintaining a list of great opportunities that the Marriott SPG merge make possible:
Marriott SPG Complete Guide to Sweet Opportunities
In this post I’ll expand on shortcuts to Platinum elite status made possible with this merger…
Platinum = Nearly Top Tier
Platinum status, in either chain, is only nearly top-tier. Marriott has a higher, secret, status named Platinum Premier. They do not publish the requirements or benefits of this level, but one awesome perk that I know of (but isn’t documented) is that Platinum Premier members match to United Gold status via RewardsPlus. Regular Platinum members match to United Silver (which is still a great perk!).
SPG meanwhile makes no secret of their many levels of Platinum status. Above regular Platinum there’s Platinum 50, Platinum 75, and Platinum 100. Each represents the number of qualifying nights spent at SPG properties. Above regular Platinum benefits, Platinum 50 elites get to choose extra benefits (including suite upgrade certificates); Platinum 75 elites earn more points per dollar for stays and get to choose their check-in time; and Platinum 100 elites get SPG Ambassador service. More details can be found here.
That said, basic Platinum status, with either chain, is very nice to have. So, here are some shortcuts to getting there…
Shortcut 1: $75K Spend
The Ritz Carlton card offers automatic Gold status for the first year and then lets you maintain Gold status each year thereafter with just $10K of credit card spend. Further, they’ll grant you Platinum status with $75K spend. The Ritz and Marriott rewards programs are identical programs with different names, so Ritz Platinum = Marriott Platinum. When signing up for the Ritz card, you can even enter in your Marriott Rewards number so that you’ll get status directly with Marriott. Then, of course, you’ll automatically get status with SPG as well.
Shortcut 2: Status Ladder Climb! Requires 9 stays.
Marriott sometimes offers status challenges to those who call to ask for a status match. Unfortunately, they’re selective as to who will get approved for a status challenge and the selection criteria is not well known. I do believe, though, that having recent Marriott stays is very helpful.
In order to get Platinum status through a challenge, you need to get approved for either the Taste of Platinum or Road to Platinum Challenge. Both require completing 9 stays in approximately 3 months. The main difference is that the “Taste of” challenge offers temporary Platinum status during the challenge (which cannot be used to match to SPG Platinum), but the “Road to” challenge does not. If you complete either challenge, you’ll get Marriott Platinum status which will match you to SPG Platinum.
In order to get approved for either Platinum Challenge, you need to have Marriott Gold status first. Otherwise, at best, they’ll offer you a Gold challenge. So, the “ladder climb” goes like this:
- Acquire Marriott Gold status. There are plenty of shortcuts to do so:
- Sign up for Ritz Carlton card, or
- Sign up for Amex Platinum card to get SPG Gold status and automatically match to Marriott Gold, or
- Spend $30,000 on an SPG credit card within a calendar year to get SPG Gold status and automatically match to Marriott Gold, or
- Enroll in RewardsPlus. If you already have United MileagePlus Gold status or higher, that status will grant you Marriott Gold status
- Request a status match or challenge to Platinum. It is very unlikely that you’ll get an outright match, but you may get approved for a Platinum challenge.
- Call Marriott Rewards (1-800-721-7033), or
- Fill out Marriott request form online (here)
- Complete the challenge by completing 9 stays in the specified time-frame. Note that a multi-night stay only counts as 1 stay even if each night is booked separately. One work-around is to change hotels each night so that each night counts as a separate stay.
Shortcut 3: SPG Platinum Challenge. Requires 18 paid nights.
Acquiring SPG Platinum status through stays usually requires 25 stays or 50 nights at SPG properties. An alternative is to sign up for the SPG Platinum Status Challenge which only requires 18 paid nights.
There are a number of downsides to this challenge compared to earning status through 25 stays or 50 nights:
- You must complete the challenge in a 3 month timeframe
- Reward nights do not count towards the challenge
- Amex SPG credit card nights do not count towards the challenge
However, it is now quite easy to request this challenge as there is a dedicated SPG Status Challenge website with all the information you need to contact Starwood for this challenge.
Shortcut 4: Qualify on stays and use Amex SPG credit cards to help. Requires 21 stays.
Marriott Platinum status usually requires 75 nights per year. You can automatically get 15 nights towards that requirement with the Marriott Rewards credit card, but that still leaves 60 nights required. Those 60 nights can be achieved through actual stays or through very high Marriott credit card spend which offers 1 elite night per $3K spend (if you go that way, you’re almost certainly better off spending $75K with the Ritz credit card).
Thanks to the Marriott SPG merger, a new option for getting Marriott Platinum status is to qualify for SPG Platinum status. By limiting SPG stays to 1 night each, it is possible to achieve Platinum status with as few as 25 stays. And the Amex SPG credit cards can reduce that number further…
Amex offers both personal and business SPG credit cards. Both automatically give the cardholder 2 stays and 5 nights towards elite status. This means that if you have both cards, you get 4 stays and 10 nights towards status.
Another reason that SPG Platinum status is easier to achieve is that SPG allows you to earn multiple night and stay credits at once by booking multiple rooms. If you travel with friends or a large family and book multiple rooms under your own SPG account, you’ll earn night and stay credits for each room (up to 3 rooms).
Wrap Up
All of the shortcuts described above existed before. But, now, each of these shortcuts leads to Platinum status in both programs, Marriott and SPG, rather than just one. The most interesting of these opportunities, to me, is option 2, but I don’t know how readily Marriott will offer Platinum challenges. If you try for it, please report your results in the comments below!
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Also, to add to my post above, to get gold with SPG you only need 10 stays or 25 nights. I did not need status match because I was already a MR gold, but I figured out that Following the above strategy I would gave achieved SPG gold after just 2 nights, remember a stay can be 1 night or any amount of night you stay consecutive. But got Platnium really fast using This strategy.
Thanks Rick. I’m surprised that you got 8 stays from the 2 credit cards. That’s great!
To get to Platinum status fastest get SPG Amex and Business Amex in January of any year. SPG Amex gives you 2 stays and 5 nights per year. That will give you 4 stays. I did it last year. You then get another 4 stays and 5 nights in February. At least I got the additional. That gives you 8 stays and 10 nights. To reach platinum with Spg you only need 25 stays or 50 nights. A stay is any stay, Can be one night or as many you stay. Staying 1 night per stay gives you platinum after 17 stays or (if you stay is one night) just 17 nights. With linked accounts and status match you get Platinum with Marriott.
Hi Greg,
One thing I don’t think I have ever seen a blogger comment on in regard to Marriott credit cards is getting 30 elite nights per year by having the personal and business cards. I have had both for 2 years and each year have received 30 nights. why doesn’t anyone acknowledge that? I read the rules on this and it seems to me that it is not supposed to happen as the card terms state that you can only get nights for one card but they do not directly reference having one personal and one business so I wonder if they are referring to having two of the same card. Your thoughts?
I can’t say why other blogs haven’t acknowledged this. In my case I didn’t know about it until recently. I had assumed that the terms were correct when they said that you’d only get 15 nights. Anyway, for those who achieve Marriott elite status through stays, this is obviously a great benefit for those who have both the personal and business Marriott cards.
Greg I’m not clear on Challenge status expiration. For example, what would be the difference between completing the 9 stays in December 2017 vs. January 2018? Would it likely expire in both scenarios January 2019? I saw one unverified report that if waiting until February or March to finish the 9th stay would extend into January 2020.
I might be wrong, but I think Marriott bases it on the date you start the challenge, not when you complete it. I think that if you start the challenge in December 2017, your status would be good only until Feb 2019. But if you start the challenge in January 2018, your status would be good until Feb 2020.
Stumbled across this article – and I am glad I did! Went ahead and filled out the Marriott Request for Platinum status (currently am Gold with 51 nights – actual stays). They responded the next day with this:
Dear Rick Kee,
Thank you for contacting Marriott Rewards.
On behalf of Marriott Rewards Guest Services, please allow me to extend the offer of a Platinum Elite Status challenge. If you accept this offer, your account status would be upgraded to Platinum Elite after the following terms have been met.
In order to achieve this status, you must accumulate nine separate paid stays beginning with the date your account is registered for the offer, through 12/31/17. This is a one-time offer, and would be effective within three business days of your acceptance of this offer.
Once you have accumulated nine separate paid stays, your account status would be upgraded to Platinum Elite through January 2019. To retain this status for all of 2019, you would need to accrue the qualifying number of Elite nights during 2018. The Silver Elite level requires 10 Elite nights, the Gold Elite level requires 50 Elite nights, and the Platinum Elite level requires 75 Elite nights.
Should you be unable to accumulate nine separate paid stays during this trial period, your account would remain at your current status, and you would need to stay the normal night requirements to achieve this Platinum Elite level.
A “hotel stay” or “stay” means all consecutive nights a Marriott Rewards member registers and personally pays and stays at any participating hotel. For example, one or multiple consecutive nights stayed in one hotel qualifies as one paid stay.
To be eligible for this offer, each stay would need to be individually booked in the name on your account, you must check into the hotel, and you need to pay the hotel directly for the stay. You are not eligible to earn credit for stays in another name (even that of a friend or family member), stays booked as part of a group or package, or stays booked and paid through a third party.
This information is visible by clicking on the following link for the Marriott Rewards online terms and conditions.
http://marriott.com/rewards/terms/earning.mi
Incidental credit, redemption stays, timeshare owner stays during a designated owner week, stays in ExecuStay, and stays at Marriott Executive Apartment properties do not earn credit toward this offer. Also, Elite nights that appear as non-stay nights in your account do not qualify for this offer.
Please reply to this email if you would like to accept this offer, and I will register your account.
Thank you for the opportunity to be of assistance and for making Marriott your preferred hotel chain.
Best Regards,
Nancy G
Internet Correspondence Specialist
Marriott Rewards Guest Services
[…] For more details, please see: Marriott SPG 4 New Shortcuts to Platinum Elite Status. […]
[…] Get Platinum status before your stay (see: Marriott SPG 4 New Shortcuts to Platinum Elite Status) […]
The SPG challenge allows up to three rooms on a single night to count towards the challenge (ie. stay one night with three rooms booked and you actually get three night credits). Does the same apply to the Marriott challenge?
I don’t know for sure, but I’d guess that it does not apply to Marriott
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i have 5 rooms booked at ritz maui in april and a few nights earlier in april. as far as marriot night challenge, how many of the rooms will I be able to use to qualify. all total at ritz I have 30 nights booked.
I might be wrong, but I don’t think that Ritz stays count towards the Marriott challenge, and I don’t think Ritz has its own challenge. You could always call Marriott Rewards to ask though.
I am currently a gold SPG member but am going to be doing many stays over the next few months. I called the Gold Member line and asked if I could get a Platinum challenge and they put it on my account. I have to stay 18 nights in the next three months, which should not be too hard with what is on my plate.
[…] Marriott SPG 4 New Shortcuts to Platinum Elite Status […]
I was wondering if I take the challenge to platinum, am I eligible to the Elite Status Buy Back program and spend 40,000 Marriott points to keep platinum status?
Unless they’ve changed things, yes. As long as you complete the challenge, it should work. I got my status from a challenge several years ago and having been buying it back each year. Of course there’s no guarantee that they’ll bring back the Elite Status Buy Back in 2018 or beyond.
Also Does this mean that the SPG cards might go away?
We don’t know what will happen long term with the SPG cards