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
Thanks for all of the reports one way or another. I’ll reach back out to Marriott for an update on the situation for those who spent $10K before the deadline. I’m sure it’s not any consolation to anyone stuck at Gold, but I completed $10K spend in July 2018 (previous cardholder) and my Platinum stuck — so I’m at least 80% confident that this can be fixed for those who dropped to Gold. I’ll report back with whatever I hear.
Much obliged Nick! Your efforts are very much appreciated. I called the Marriott Platinum line the morning of the downgrade (3/3) and they opened up a case for me and also communicated with @Marriott Bonvoy Lurker II on FT who indicated that she was forwarding my info to the appropriate team (this was in the early morning hours of 3/5). Would think there might be some traction by this point, but hoping to see things change today.
I am still stuck with Gold and CS rep said something that I had to spend 10K before anniversary date on my Ritz card (which was in March) and not before August. I spent 10K in July and was Plat before downgraded
Echo the comment about all of your hard work on this and bringing it attention (I am surprised none of the card peddling other blogs seem to be mentioning.
I hsd a trip that started yesterday and is at a Marriott conference center. I contacted the lurker on flyertalk and she was great-sent a note to the hotel snd let them know what is going on. I also contacted the hotel. They upgraded me to the concierge level (a platinum benefit). Haven’t tried to get other benefits yet but hopefully those hold to at least lessen the inconvenience. So if you have an upcoming trip, then reach out to marriott cs or the lurker and also the hotel.
Still stuck on gold.
Thank you Nick. I am sill stuck at gold
Thanks for keeping us informed, Nick. I got the Ritz card in 2016, and met the $10k spend in June or July 2018. Status was just downgraded to Gold and is still stuck at Gold today. Hoping it will get fixed soon! P.S. I also have Amex Platinum card, the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus (soon to be Bonvoy, I guess), and had the SPG Amex card. I wonder if those cards are confusing Marriott’s status system.
I’m still stuck at gold. 2017 opening, $10k spend in July 2018.
I’m in the same boat – had RC card for years and fulfilled the 10K spend requirement within the first 2 months of 2018….long before anything was ever mentioned about RC card changes.
Really hope this gets sorted promptly…time is running short for me before a Hawaii trip. Its a bit disconcerting that many of the long time RC cardholders that met the spend requirement are still at Gold status.
Nick & Greg – Thanks a million for getting Bonvoy to rectify this so quickly. You provide the best information of all the points/miles bloggers and excellent advocacy as well. Much appreciated.
Is anyone else still at gold status? It appears I may have been overlooked somehow
Yes
Me too – Still GOld
Still gold and they told me I’m not getting reinstated ♀️ I’m done with Marriott!
My platinum elite from starus challenge was supposed to end February 28, likewise my complementary United silver. As of today i still have silver and marriott status is now titanium elite. Do you think with the merger they overlooked this and will soon correct it or do you think i have it another year?
Let’s all raise another big stink in 2020…
My status is back to platinum (with another year towards lifetime platinum added, too)! Thanks for looking into this! I have a weeklong stay in Hawaii coming up for which this will definitely come in handy.
Opened my Ritz in 2017 and spent $10k before 8/2018; my status is back to Platinum today after being at Gold yesterday.
Mine has not come back
Mine hasn’t either.
Mine still not fixed
Mine is still Gold 🙁
Greg and Nick, thanks for pushing this! My platinum from opening the Ritz Carlton card is back. Hope those with the $10,000 spend issue get a similar result soon. Gritti Palace here we come!
It seems that people who’ve had the Ritz card for over a year and spent $10K last year before August got downgraded but haven’t been upgraded back (yet?)
yup, I agree. My platinum has NOT been restored yet.
same here.
I was a long-time Ritz card holder and reached the necessary 10K spend before August. The status was downgraded to Gold, and has not been upgraded yet. From some of these comments, it sounds like they are dealing with the folks who opened up cards last year and hit the 10K spend first? Hopefully they don’t miss the long-time card holders.
My platinum is back! Thank you for inquiring. That was fast!!
so now we are trusting the load of crap lurker posts?…wasn’t that the biggest source of misinformation and outright lies on social media about EVERYTHING having to do with the merger?…good luck with that
I’m not suggesting you trust anything other than whatever you believe. In this case, our Marriott source (not the lurker) confirmed to us that it was fixed and that matched with both reports we’ve received here from readers and reports on flyertalk. I know that many people on flyertalk had eached out to the lurker, so I was merely suggesting that might be a good point of contact if your status doesn’t restore is expected.
Is it also the same for AMEX Platinum since it offered to match to Gold SPG in older program?
No. They said from the beginning that would only be Gold in the new program.
The difference is that Amex Platinum offered SPG Gold, which was not a free breakfast status and only required 25 nights. Marriott did allow you to match that to 50-night status for a while, but that was always kind of a gift since old SPG Gold was only 25-night status. Again, we knew long ahead of August that Gold from the Amex Platinum would maintain 25-night status in the new program.
The difference with the Ritz card is that it gave old Marriott Gold for the first year (or in subsequent years when you spent $10K) — that was a free-breakfast, 50-night status. As that free-breakfast, 50-night status was a benefit of the card for the first cardmember year, it made sense that Marriott would maintain that as 50-night, free breakfast status in the new program (now called Platinum). Since someone who opened the card a year ago would still be in that first year, they should therefore have Platinum today. Since Marriott’s member year runs March to March, we expected that status to be valid through February 2020. That’s also what they had told us and now what appears to be happening.
So that’s a long way of saying no — Amex Platinum only gets Gold (25-night status) in the new program.
My Platinum status from spending $10,000 before August has not been restored yet. I opened Ritz in Nov 2017
My wife’s Platinum status (from opening the card last summer) has been restored. However… my Platinum status from spending $10,000 before August has not.
I opened the card Sep 2017 and did spend $10,000 before August 2018. But my platinum have not come back yet.
My status went away 2/1/19 so I was an early warning detector. Got reinstated. Went down to gold over the weekend. Back up to platinum elite as of right now. I don’t have any stays until July so hopefully we’ll know for sure by then…Thanks to you guys for giving me the Ritz Carlton idea in the first place and helping to wrestle this to the ground.
Ha ha ha who really gives a rats fourth point of contact! I’ll be at the Park Hyatt basking in what discreet luxury is all about!
My Platinum is back. And it’s a good thing because if it wasn’t then I was done with Marriott forever. Hopefully this stays until February 29, 2020.
Kudos? Sorry, Kudos for what??
For fixing it promptly. Obviously, it shouldn’t have broken, but a 1-day turnaround on the fix is better than no fix or an eight week turnaround, either of which seemed equally likely to me yesterday.
So the moral of the story is that one way for a business to receive a kodus is to serve its customers so terribly that they get used to having issues and don’t expect to see a timely resolution. Then when the business has a new issue and fixes it faster that the timeline people got used to, it will receive a kodus!
Marriott Annoy(ed), really hoping the fix is in before my upcoming stay. Thank you guys, though, for communicating with us & Marriott & helping us thru their latest Ploy. You are the BEST!
[…] Update: 10:31pm Eastern 3/4/19: Good news — we’ve received word that this has been fixed. See a full update here: Bonvoy restores joy: Platinum status being reinstated. […]
Thank you for everything you do. Still has not been restored as of today. Very frustrating….