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?
Yesterday, we published a post about problems with Marriott elite status (See: No joy from Bonvoy: Ritz cardholders downgraded to Gold). Specifically, many people had been downgraded from Marriott Platinum (50-night status) to Marriott Gold (25-night status). This was primarily happening to those who opened Ritz-Carlton credit cards last year to earn old 50-night status with Marriott (formerly called Gold) under the expectation that they would keep 50-night status with Marriott (now called Platinum) through February 2020 based on what we were told by our Marriott contacts. Good news: we’ve been told that this has been fixed. Sure enough, reports have been rolling in over the past few hours from people whose Platinum status had been reinstated (including many in the comments on our post from yesterday), but now it appears we have official word. If your downgraded status has not yet been reinstated (and you think you should have Platinum status based on the explanation in yesterday’s post linked above), I’d give it a day or two to let the dust settle before you panic — odds are looking good this has been (or is being) fixed, and that’s great news indeed.
If your status is not reinstated
If you do not see your status reinstated within the next day or two and you believe that you should have Platinum status, it may be worth an email to the Marriott Lurker on Flyertalk in order to inquire for further assistance (and please comment here if it isn’t resolved for you in the next few days so we can keep the pulse of the situation as well).
Kudos to Marriott on this one
While we’ll certainly call Marriott out for their shortcomings (and there have been more than a few since the merger and launch of Bonvoy), it’s also fair to give credit where credit is due. In this case, kudos to Marriott for a prompt fix. That doesn’t absolve them from responsibility to have built a system that would work given all of the lead time they’ve had in launching the program, but I’m at least encouraged to see a speedy response and resolution. At the end of the day, problems will happen; a prompt response is the first step in rebuilding confidence of customers. Here’s to more of that from Marriott to come.
Reminder: lock in today’s prices RIGHT NOW
Final note: don’t forget to book your 25K / 35K / 50K properties today. The price of admission goes up tomorrow. We don’t know when peak pricing will begin. See this post for places to book now for free night certificate stays. See this post for the good news on locking in current prices with a reservation tonight. See this post for a full list of properties changing in category. Go!
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Still gold here!!! This is a shame. I don’t see any kudos. Me and my wife are gold and giving up marriott.
I reached out to Marriott through several methods and continue to be told that I did not meet the minimum spend requirement for this card (even though I got the card in 2018 and that was not required). Anyone else still trying to get their status restored? My attempts are now being completely ignored.
yes I have the same issue – no joy despite the minimum spend not being an issue due to free gold status first year – don’t know if Nick is able to reach out to Marriott for those of us in this situation
Hi Nick,
Thanks to you I have had the good fortune of enjoying Platinum Elite benefits with the RC Luxury card. I am now approaching the one year mark of opening the card and I am trying to decide if its worth paying the annual fee again. My understanding is that my status will be good until Feb 2020. If I cancel my card, does the status go away?
Thanks.
Nope, you’ll keep the status until February 2020 either way.
Thanks for that quick reply! That’s awesome.
Probably still worth keeping the card though, given you get the annual $300 in airline credits which I have used well, and the annual 50k free night.
I had platinum elite due to $75k spend and was upgraded to titanium (75 nights).
Do we know what will happen going forward? Are we all downgraded to 25 night status (gold) as the base benefit and 50 night status (platinum) with $75k spend?
And of course, many thanks to Nick for your continuous help and attention in this matter. Thank you!
My status is showing restored on webpage but not app. Assuming that this will get sorted out.
mine is showing platinum both in app and on the webpage.
don’t worry. I’m sure it’ll be fixed very soon
I am still waiting on my end. Anyone else out there still stuck at Gold Elite? Hopefully they are getting the rest of us shortly.
Yes I am still gold
I was finally restored and have to echo a big thanks to the Lurker team (finally had success going directly through Twitter). Interesting side note–before going the Twitter route, I called in (thought why not–almost for entertainment value). Interestingly, the CS rep was knowledgeable and understood right away what was going on. She then explained that she was from the Starwood side before the merger and would have been able to correct it right there on the spot if they still had the old system. But, Marriott took away that ability and centralized everything (which is the exact opposite of what many successful companies do, by the way), so things like this are getting backlogged into some central research team. She transferred me to someone who supposedly had fast track authority above the research team (in the “Affairs” office), but this person eventually just tried to deal with the same person who was handling my case and couldn’t get him to respond either.
Later that day, I received a reply from the Lurker team on Twitter, clarified a few questions, and they seemed to have solved it right there on the spot (so they must have greater authority than the front line CS reps). Lesson learned–if you have a problem with something in the Bonvoy program, then contact via Twitter.
Who did you contact on twitter? Thanks
I used the address @MBonvoyAssist and sent a message there.
me too
Big news! I just found my Platinum status reinstated! Spent $10k on the Ritz card opened a few years ago. Hope everyone in the same situation will see this as well.
My status just got reinstated as well. Much thanks to the lurker and Nick!!
Mine still has not been fixed. Calls to customer service have gone nowhere since no one seems to understand the card status.
Same here.
No luck here too, called customer service, opened a case, etc. sent a message to Marriott Lurker. Spent 10K on Ritz before August 2018 and was downgraded a few weeks ago to Gold. Sigh
Indeed, fixed now, thanks a lot everyone
Just got reinstated. Check your account and hope you also get reinstated.
I have been in touch with Chase regarding this for nearly two weeks. Chase reps always gave me self-contradictory responses. Sometimes they said I didn’t meet the spending requirement of $10k (but I’m sure I did), then they would say the requirement was $75k in 2018.
When did you meet the $10K spend? Check your statements.
Basically, they may be right depending on when you met the spend.
The spending requirement for old Platinum status (which was 75-night status in the old Marriott program) was $75K. The spending requirement for Platinum status in the new Marriott program (which is now 50-night status) is also $75K.
If you were a Ritz cardholder before 2018, the trick was to have spent $10K in 2018 before the merger (I believe the cutoff date was actually near the end of July). That got you 50-night status in the old program. That status was called Gold up until August 17, 2018. On August 18, 2019 that status got re-named Platinum.
So the Chase rep is probably right that you never met the Platinum spending requirement. You may have met the old Gold requirement, which got re-named Platinum on August 18th.
I don’t expect a Chase rep to understand any of that tough. Check back through your statements and do the math to see when you met $10K in purchases and we’ll go from there.
Hi Nick, thanks so much for your help and the classification above. It’s indeed clearer to call it the 50-night status instead of “platinum”. I got the card in Dec 2017, and had spent $10k in April 2018, expecting to get another year of the 50-night status.
I was actually wondering if the spending should be calculated for the calendar year. If only purchases in 2018 are taken into account, then I didn’t meet the $10k spending by August. If it’s membership year as in the terms, then I have met it before August.
Have you received any updates from Marriott? Thanks again
Hi Nick. Can you please help on this also? I just received a note from Marriott, after the Lurker passed it onto one of their Rewards Associates. The note disregarded any mention of the $10K spend and said that because I didn’t have 50 Elite nights last year, that’s why I was downgraded. They offered a challenge, but completely glossed over the $10K spend on the Ritz card option. I replied with details (including links to this post) and offers of documentation, but not optimistic given they didn’t even seem to be aware of this option. Is there someone else to contact? Thanks!
I just received a follow-up message to my response. They said a small minority of legacy Ritz card holders were incorrectly downgraded to Gold, and that they are working on it. No other details, but at least there seemed to be some awareness (I just spoke with a customer service rep about a different issue and she wanted to know more about the legacy Ritz card spend path in case anyone else calls–guess Marriott is relying on reps to find out information from customers in lieu of actually training them…)
Sorry for the slow response on this — that last response you got is almost word-for-word what we last heard from the top, so it sounds like the message is at least trickling down. I’ll reach out on our end again as well. Haven’t forgotten those of you still in limbo. Hoping for a timely resolution for everyone.
Thank you for all of your hard work on this! I’m sure you earned quite a few loyal followers–I was already a big fan of this blog and try to support it, but that has definitely been increased seeing how you have handled this and helped us when it seems no one else in the travel blogosphere is even aware of what happened (probably too small of a group that it affects). You, and the Marriott Bonvoy Lurker (who also has been great) seem to be the only folks who are trying to help.
I have been Platinum for 5 years! I was downgraded to Gold when I got the Marriott Brilliance Card. I am not happy. I do not want to start over since I am a loyal customer, love the rewards and working on platinum lifetime, only 5 more years. They are staying my nights werent enough last year but when I merged my account I lost A LOT of nights. They also opened a case and said they would help me restore it but now they are saying they cant, this was obviously a glitch, how can I get this restored?
How many nights did you have last year? Do you have screen shots of your accounts before you merged them? How about emailed folios from your stays?
Just wanted to report that as of this morning, my status has been restored to Plat in the app. I always had faith that it would be and really appreciated the efforts of @Marriott Bonvoy Lurker II with my trip to Hawaii (that I’m currently enjoying as I type). Her efforts really made a difference for me given this whole RC card/status conundrum.
My status was also returned to Platinum this morning. Really appreciate the efforts of everyone, Nick, FM, Bonvoy Lurker, and etc.
I just wanted to clarify (I posted it above earlier), that I really appreciated everyone’s efforts (Nick – ty!). Although I feel like a noob in this whole game we play because I only have been paying attention for about 4-5 years now (doh!), in this particular instance and more than any time before, I felt a real sense of community and it has been really nice.
Hi EI Brendano, may I ask how much spending did you put on the ritz card in the last membership year? I got a response from Chase that only those who spent $75k can keep Platinum. My status is still gold. Thanks!
Hi js5416, i went back through my statements and checked and it was about 30k.
Thanks for checking, EI Brendano. I just spent a bit over $10k. Finger crossed. Congrats!
Who do I need to contact to get my plat status reinstated? is it through flyertalk or is there an email?
E-mailing is not going to help. Marriott is a mess. Can’t wait to burn through my accrued points and certificates and move on.
“Thank you for the email. The fix mentioned below is still in process. We would be glad to let you when we think it is completed, but we will not be manually correcting anyone’s status until it is.”
$10k spend legacy Ritz here. Waiting for reinstatement. In the mean time I noticed my silver united status is gone. I guess Marriott pushed out a refresh. To folks who’ve been downgraded to gold and upgraded back, did you get back your united silver also?
Marriott Platinum doesn’t come with United Silver. You need Titanium (75-nights) for that. The spend from $10K Ritz doesn’t get you that.
As for reinstatement, our Marriott contact told us today that they are aware and working to fix this. I get the sense that they are actively working on it.
Thank you Nick. I was restored today! Pity about United. I had silver up until March 1 or whenever it was that MR plat was lost. I guess we are good until Feb 29/20 w this status. Have you written about how to optimize the challenge? I won’t make the $75k spend or the stays so I’ll have to depend on player 2 doing a status challenge. I had a rep tell me the status from a challenge is only good for the remainder of the calendar year. Is that the case? If that’s true then it maybe best to take the Challenge in Oct and have the 90d end In January so to max out the plat status ? Thank you for doing this for us. You’ve saved our summer vacation!!!!
Just got word that they are working on this for those of you who did the $10K spend. No real news to share, but wanted to update those waiting on pins and needles to let you know it hasn’t gone unnoticed or dropped by the wayside. I’ve shared many of your comments and concerns directly. Hoping for a resolution for those in limbo!
Thanks for the update. Can you keep us updated??. I’m still at gold and did the 10k spend with ritz. They need to know this is costing us money and time. Time is. Money. What is the delay?.
Thanks for your efforts on this Nick. My status has been restored and I was one of the old RC card holders who spent the 10K. I think that pressure from both internal and external sources has really contributed to this getting sorted out.
Mine is still not reinstated
Mine is still stuck in gold. Only two days from my Maui trip. Expecting miracle to happen.
Emailed you this morning. Haven’t heard back.
Issue fixed after email communications. Just in time for our vacation trip. Very satisfied!
I just wanted to give a shout out to @Marriott Bonvoy Lurker II. Although things haven’t been completely resolved with restoring status, she went out of her way to help me with something related to a pending trip so that this situation didn’t adversely impact my wife and myself.
I was reinstated to Platinum but my husband is stuck at Gold. We both got the cards at the same time and did the same spend.
uggg