Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
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Last night, Greg wrote about the updated program terms for Marriott Rewards (See: Marriott publishes the new rules re: point transfers, suite upgrades, etc.. (finally!)), and there were some positives for Platinum elites: from reservation guarantees to suite upgrades when available (and benefits we already knew about like breakfast at resorts and 4pm late checkout), Platinum status is looking great. There had long been a Marriott Platinum status challenge available, but it got shut down ahead of the merger (presumably to keep the IT easier to manage in migrating people….seems like that’s gone swimmingly). Good news: the Marriott Platinum status challenge is back.
The Deal
- You can now registter for a Marriott status challenge to earn elite status faster based on the following number of nights:
- 8 nights in 90 days = Gold Status
- 16 nights in 90 days = Platinum Status
- To register, call Marriott Rewards, at 801-468-4000, or SPG, at 888-625-4988. Be aware not all agents are aware of this promo. See more below.
Key Terms
- There is confusion as to whether or not award stays count. Most phone agents say no, some say yes, apparently a Marriott rep on the Chinese version of FlyerTalk says yes. My bet would be no, but I’d love to be wrong.
- Reports are mixed as to whether stays must be within 90 days or by 12/31.
- TPG reports that you can only register once every 3 years
- No current status required to register (though you may have to HUCA a few times to find an agent who knows this)
Quick Thoughts
The fact that phone agents are under-informed about this promotion is surprising (said no one who has dealt with Marriott customer service post-merger). Reports indicate that information is all over the map, but View from the Wing reported this matching opportunity last night and both TPG and God Save the Points appear to have received information directly from Marriott on this. The key details from all sources match: you can take Marriott up on a 90-day status challenge that requires 16 nights in 90 days for Platinum status.
Beyond that, it gets murky. Reports on Flyertalk indicate that a Marriott rep on a Chinese Flyertalk-like site has confirmed that award stays count, though reports from those who have spoken to agents are mixed on this point. I believe that past challenges have always required paid nights (while award stays do count toward status, challenges usually require revenue nights) and based on that I would expect paid stays to be required here.
That said, if award stays do count, that could be particularly interesting for folks with 7-night travel package certificates. Two 7-night certificates would get you pretty close to completing the challenge, and surely many readers are sitting on two or more certificates.
Keep in mind that TPG’s report says that Marriott will allow a challenge like this once every 3 years. I take that to mean that those who have previously completed a challenge in the past 3 years may not be eligible — and if you accept the challenge now, you won’t be eligible again for 3 years.
Also remember that not all agents are going to know about the challenge or understand it properly. If you call within the next few days few weeks few months, expect that you will likely need to HUCA (Hang Up, Call Again) in order to get on with an agent who knows all of the details. Even then, I wouldn’t take anyone’s word for it as to whether or not things like award stays count until reports start trickling in from people who have tried it. I imagine there will be mass confusion among agents between those who know prior challenges required paid stays those who look to the program terms to see that award nights generally count for status and those 3 agents who have apparently been trained about how this should actually work. At least one report said that you should call the Starwood line, but I think it’s anybody’s guess.
Still, with the suite of benefits for Platinum members, this could certainly be worthwhile if you have nights coming up within a 90 days cluster.
H/T: View from the Wing
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I got a CSR from Marriott to email me terms and conditions today. I had signed up for the Platinum Challenge in early September. She said that award nights prior to October 12th counted towards the challenge but that award nights afterwards did not. That is not at all clear to me from the terms and conditions (included here)
Platinum Elite Status Challenge Terms & Conditions:
– This promotion is for existing members of the Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards and SPG members – Registration is required – Existing Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards and SPG members with base membership, Silver Elite or Gold Elite status are eligible for this promotion; members at Platinum Elite tier are ineligible for this offer. – Upon making 16 qualifying paid nights within 90 days of date of registration, participant will receive Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards or SPG Platinum Elite status for up to one year, based on their loyalty program affiliation. After the first year, Platinum Elite status will be retained by staying the required number of qualifying nights under the terms of the Marriott Rewards, The RitzCarlton Rewards and the SPG programs. – Paid nights at a qualifying rate count towards the promotion. Nights spent while redeeming an award are ineligible and do not count towards the promotion. – The batch process for redemption stays for all who registered prior to October 12th will occur on a monthly basis. – If member does not make 16 qualifying paid nights within 90 days of their date of registration, member will be changed to the membership level which corresponds to number of nights stayed: Member tier for 0-9 nights stayed, Silver Elite tier for 1024 nights stayed and Gold Elite tier for 25 – 49 nights stayed. – Nights stayed prior to enrollment are not eligible for this offer. – A ‘stay’ is defined as consecutive nights spent at the same hotel, regardless of check-in/check-out activity. – Credit toward this promotion is given for night stays with participating Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards and SPG hotels which occur within the earning period.
[…] 海外ブロガーの情報での確認ですが、ステータスチャレンジが再開したようです。 […]
Do you know if people who took the SPG challenge previously are eligible?
I have a full copy of the terms and conditions on this I got via email from a CSR. It specifically says:
“Nights spent while redeeming an award are eligible for credit towards this promotion”
Hi Mark, can u please put a link up for the T&C you got for the status challenge?
Any news about a platinum premiere challenge? It would nice to be able to also get united silver status.
Also if I got the Ritz card in December of last year and now have platinum status as a result, how long is my platinum status valid? Until Feb 2019? I’m guessing not 2020..?
I expect that to be valid until February 2019 unless you did 10K spend this year. Technically, you earn status in 2017 for the 2018 year which will end February 2019. If you did 10K spend this year to renew your 50-night Gold status before the merger, then you should have Platinum until February 2020.
No news about a platinum Premier Challenge and I would tend to doubt we’ll see one. A platinum challenge should be enough to attract valuable customers from other chains as it has most of the same benefits top-tier members would expect.
@ Nick — don’t really trust the systems to track this correctly given how many issues they’ve had so far. Could you update this post or do another post when/if people report successful challenges?
Sure thing.
Hi Rick, a quick question.
I was Gold before and Gold after the merger.Does it make sense? From what I read, I am supposed to be Platinum in the new combined program. Please let me know. Thanks
Were you Gold with SPG or Marriott?
Gold with Marriott you should be mapped to Plat…
SPG Gold remains Gold in the new program..
It depends on how you earned that gold status. If you earned it from SPG (such as through having the Amex platinum card), then you would be gold in the new combined program. If you earned it from Marriott (such as having high United status or the Ritz card), then you would be platinum in the new combined program.
I seem to be on a different wave length when it comes to this new challenge. It’s now 18 nights instead of 9 stays i.e. previously 8 nights only, we’ve gone from definite upgrades to definate maybe upgrades and the promised breakfast benefits at most hotels has been squeezed. What am I missing which makes this challenge so great?
I take it you have to do 18 nights without having the use of the Prem elite benefits unlike Hilton’s taste of diamond challenge?
It’s 16 nights, not 18 (the screen shots you may have seen in other posts are from old challenges).
Did you see last night’s post? Marriott has update the upgrade language to pretty closely match Starwood’s. It now says you get an upgrade to the best available room, including suites. It doesn’t even say “standard” suites (though in practice it wouldn’t be surprising if some properties interpreted it that way). Breakfast is definitely far more confusing than it should be.
Still, you get free breakfast at the following chains: Aloft, Autograph Collection, Courtyard with lounge, Delta, Four Points, JW Marriott, Le Méridien, Marriott, Protea, Renaissance, Sheraton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Tribute Portfolio, W, Westin.
Lounge access and other brands get confusing — but free breakfast at places like St. Regis, the Luxury Collection, JW Marriott, Le Meridien, etc will be a nice benefit for people who like to use their points to stay at high-end hotels. Finally getting breakfast at resorts — where so many people want to use the points they’ve earned on the road for work all year long so their kids can enjoy the beach/pool/etc — is a nice addition for many. Those looking for a family stay at a Courtyard, on the other hand, get the short end of the stick for sure. I think it’s crazy that Marriott made the breakfast benefit so confusing as to require a chart, but here it is:
https://frequentmiler.com/2018/06/14/marriott-free-breakfast-simplified/
Whether or not this is worthwhile depends on whether you intend to stay with Marriott over the next year and what you think of their elite benefits. I’m more excited now that they have updated the terms of upgrades to align with what Starwood used to offer Platinums. I’m also happy with 4pm late checkout (I am a big Hilton fan, but the lack of a guaranteed late checkout has me booking with Hyatt or Marriott when I know I’ll *need* a late checkout since I can’t count on it at Hilton). Would I mattress run 16 nights for it? Definitely not. Do I think you’d be wrong to stick with Hilton? Nope. But do I think some people will be happy to see this challenge return? Yes.
To answer your final question, no — you don’t get Platinum benefits before completing the challenge. Marriott stopped doing that years ago, as did Hyatt (apart from a brief window a couple of years ago when Hyatt status matched people to Diamond without any challenge — lasted a few hours on Twitter basically).
If I did the Marriott Platinum challenge last year (9 stays) and had Platinum status at merger time and now have Platinum Premier Elite, does my current status lasts until Feb. 2019 or Feb. 2020? Can’t find status expiration anywhere on the app or desktop.
Feb 2020.
Nick – can you please elaborate on how does it last to 2020?
I’m just wonder if their IT issues are fixed enough to properly track this or even if tracked properly to credit the customers properly with their status?
Good questions. It certainly wouldn’t be shocking if the answer to either or both is no.
I think this would be a good time for them to start their weekly twitter trivia again. Maybe with their IT problem we can end up with 2k instead of just 1k a week.