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Marriott Rewards and SPG Program Changes Announced 4/16/18 [Threads merged.]

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mas

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Having United Silver elite status is an important perk to us. It looks you will need plat. premier elite to get this perk. Don't know if chairman's club will qualify for premier.
 

krj9999

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I'm pretty confused by the new point charts and new credit card tiers.

100k points for a category 8 (whatever that means) peak free night? Really?
 

VacationForever

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OK... I need all the brains here to solve a puzzle for us. We intend to call Marriott desk tomorrow but I bet they won't know the answer.

Here is the verbiage on the new lifetime elite program and grandfathering.

In August, we’ll have three Lifetime Elite tiers, each with its own nights and Elite tenure thresholds. Once you achieve a Lifetime Elite tier, you’ll never go below it, and your points will never expire. If you have previously achieved Lifetime Elite status in Rewards or SPG, we will honor that Lifetime Elite status in the new program (see below). In addition, when you combine Rewards and SPG accounts we will combine your lifetime activity across both toward Lifetime Elite status in the new combined program. Members will have until year-end 2018 to complete stays in order to achieve the Lifetime Elite status thresholds to be grandfathered in at the previous thresholds for Rewards or SPG.

Existing Lifetime Elite members will receive the following status in August:

SPG:
  • Lifetime Gold members receive Lifetime Gold Elite status
  • Lifetime Platinum members receive Lifetime Platinum Elite status.
MARRIOTT REWARDS/THE RITZ-CARLTON REWARDS:
  • Lifetime Silver Elite members receive Lifetime Silver Elite status.
  • Lifetime Gold Elite members receive Lifetime Platinum Elite status.
  • Lifetime Platinum Elite members are grandfathered into Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite status.

We should be able to get to 500 nights on the Marriott Rewards end, with 2 million points. We won't get to 750 nights. Looking at the program, we should be able to obtain current Lifetime Gold Elite and be grandfathered into Lifetime Platinum Elite status. Is that correct?

We also have 95 nights on SPG end. We can bump that up to 100 nights and make mattress run if needed. There is verbiage above that talked about combining MRP and SPG accounts. If we add the 2 program nights, we can be at 600 nights in the new Lifetime Platinum Premier status, but not have the 10 years of Platinum Premier tenure.

Do you think think that the only path we have is grandfathering Marriott's Lifetime Gold Elite to the new program's Lifetime Platinum Elite status, since we won't have 750 nights (in the old program) with Marriott?
 

BocaBoy

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OK... I need all the brains here to solve a puzzle for us. We intend to call Marriott desk tomorrow but I bet they won't know the answer.

Here is the verbiage on the new lifetime elite program and grandfathering.

In August, we’ll have three Lifetime Elite tiers, each with its own nights and Elite tenure thresholds. Once you achieve a Lifetime Elite tier, you’ll never go below it, and your points will never expire. If you have previously achieved Lifetime Elite status in Rewards or SPG, we will honor that Lifetime Elite status in the new program (see below). In addition, when you combine Rewards and SPG accounts we will combine your lifetime activity across both toward Lifetime Elite status in the new combined program. Members will have until year-end 2018 to complete stays in order to achieve the Lifetime Elite status thresholds to be grandfathered in at the previous thresholds for Rewards or SPG.

Existing Lifetime Elite members will receive the following status in August:

SPG:
  • Lifetime Gold members receive Lifetime Gold Elite status
  • Lifetime Platinum members receive Lifetime Platinum Elite status.
MARRIOTT REWARDS/THE RITZ-CARLTON REWARDS:
  • Lifetime Silver Elite members receive Lifetime Silver Elite status.
  • Lifetime Gold Elite members receive Lifetime Platinum Elite status.
  • Lifetime Platinum Elite members are grandfathered into Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite status.

We should be able to get to 500 nights on the Marriott Rewards end, with 2 million points. We won't get to 750 nights. Looking at the program, we should be able to obtain current Lifetime Gold Elite and be grandfathered into Lifetime Platinum Elite status. Is that correct?

We also have 95 nights on SPG end. We can bump that up to 100 nights and make mattress run if needed. There is verbiage above that talked about combining MRP and SPG accounts. If we add the 2 program nights, we can be at 600 nights in the new Lifetime Platinum Premier status, but not have the 10 years of Platinum Premier tenure.

Do you think think that the only path we have is grandfathering Marriott's Lifetime Gold Elite to the new program's Lifetime Platinum Elite status, since we won't have 750 nights (in the old program) with Marriott?
Yes, I believe that is correct.
 

VacationForever

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One more thing... does anyone read this as major points devaluation? If I convert one of my timeshare weeks, it generates 125,000 MRP and it gets me at most 2 nights at a top tier hotel. Right now Cat 9 in Marriott end requires 45,000 points.

Free Night Award Chart

Category/Standard Effective August / Off-Peak Coming 2019 / Peak Coming 2019
1 7,500 5,000 10,000
2 12,500 10,000 15,000
3 17,500 15,000 20,000
4 25,000 20,000 30,000
5 35,000 30,000 40,000
6 50,000 40,000 60,000
7 60,000 50,000 70,000
8 Coming 2019 85,000 70,000 100,000
 

BocaBoy

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There are inconsistencies between the 2 links wrt Lifetime status. One states Lifetime Gold and Lifetime Platinum, while the other one does not have Lifetime Gold and instead has Lifetime Platinum and Lifetime Platinum Premier.
It is not an inconsistency. One deals with SPG tiers moving to the new program and the other with MR tiers moving to the new program. SPG currently gives Gold at 25 nights, so old Gold equals new Gold. Marriott gives Gold at 50 nights so old Gold equals new Platinum.
 

NiteMaire

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BocaBoy

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What about the travel packages?
Apparently they will continue because the materials (I think in a FAQ) say that the 10% United bonus still applies when converting points to United miles, including in a travel package.
 

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One more thing... does anyone read this as major points devaluation? If I convert one of my timeshare weeks, it generates 125,000 MRP and it gets me at most 2 nights at a top tier hotel. Right now Cat 9 in Marriott end requires 45,000 points.

Free Night Award Chart

Category/Standard Effective August / Off-Peak Coming 2019 / Peak Coming 2019
1 7,500 5,000 10,000
2 12,500 10,000 15,000
3 17,500 15,000 20,000
4 25,000 20,000 30,000
5 35,000 30,000 40,000
6 50,000 40,000 60,000
7 60,000 50,000 70,000
8 Coming 2019 85,000 70,000 100,000
It all depends on how the hotels are assigned to the various tiers. This is a huge item in determining how good the new program really is.
 

GetawaysRus

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Wow, this is a lot to digest.

If I've understood this new program, a few negatives stood out as I read the information:
1. I reached lifetime Marriott Gold earlier this year. Under the new program, I'll become Lifetime Plat. BUT Lifetime Platinum members in the new program apparently do not receive the annual choice benefit of 5 suite night awards or a gift. This is disappointing as that’s a primary Platinum benefit and one that most elites would want. I do like the idea of suite awards, but it looks like I'm going to have to earn it by maintaining 50 elite night credits per year.
2. My current (legacy) SPG AmEx credit card will earn only 2 Marriott points per dollar spent beginning in August. That is a major devaluation of that credit card. Currently it earns 1 SPG point per dollar spent, which is currently equal to 3 Marriott points per dollar spent.
3. Currently, if you have both the Marriott Premier personal credit card and the Marriott Business credit card, the 15 nights credit from each of these cards will stack, which yields 30 nights credit per year. Also, you get one additional nights credit for each $3000 spending on these cards. But if I understand the credit card info, in the future the maximum number of elite nights you can earn from credit cards is 15. In the new program there will be no way to spend towards additional elite status nights — the new rule across all card products is that you can earn 15 elite night credits total from cards.
4. As pointed out a few posts back by Vacation Forever, it's hard to see the value of converting timeshare weeks to Marriott points. (But that's been the case for some years already, in my opinion.)

I see no mention of what happens to timeshare owners.
- I am assuming that nights spent at Marriott timeshare properties will still count as elite nights towards earning Marriott status. Is that correct?
- Will the 5 night travel packages still exist?
 

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I've never paid much attention to the details of MR. Need to catch up! A few questions:
  1. MVCI supposedly gave us (lifetime?) Gold status, we're executive level. Was it lifetime, or no?
  2. If I had lifetime anything, where do I see it, where is the word lifetime on MR website?
  3. My account shows lifetime: 1,953,000 points and 423 nights, does this really mean anything in light of MVCI Gold level I think they gave me?
  4. Does that get me anything come August? (I think this part is TBD)
 

VacationForever

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I've never paid much attention to the details of MR. Need to catch up! A few questions:
  1. MVCI supposedly gave us (lifetime?) Gold status, we're executive level. Was it lifetime, or no?
  2. If I had lifetime anything, where do I see it, where is the word lifetime on MR website?
  3. My account shows lifetime: 1,953,000 points and 423 nights, does this really mean anything in light of MVCI Gold level I think they gave me?
  4. Does that get me anything come August? (I think this part is TBD)
Answer:
1. MVCI Gold status is renewed every year, and it is not lifetime.
2. Log in to your marriott.com/rewards site and click under "nights" it will open up how many nights and points you have in your lifetime and for current year, and what lifetime status that you have achieved. It is at the same place where you found under your question (3).
3. Since MVCI is not lifetime, I find that it is valuable to get whatever lifetime status as possible since one day we may ditch all our timeshare and still stay at hotels on an ad hoc basis.
4. MVCI will need to tell us/you as to whether Gold = Platinum in the new world. I highly suspect they will.

For me, since I will technically be at 498 nights by end of the year, I have taken my Marriott Visa out of the drawer and plan to put 6K on it to get me an additional 2 nights to get us to the Old Gold Lifetime so that I can achieve Lifetime Platinum. I won't make 750 to make Platinum lifetime to get me to the future Platinum Premier Lifetime.
 

DEScottzz

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Need help regarding this. We are scheduled to sign documents tomorrow to purchase 4000 points from MVC. One of the reasons we decided to go to 4K instead of 3500 was the added benefit of obtaining lifetime Gold status with MR. We had recently obtained this with stays and credit card usage, but the ease of having it permanent was a huge selling point for us. Then, today we read about the upcoming changes. Yes, our gold status with MR will go to platinum. But tomorrow we are signing a contract stating we will have gold status via MVC. Our sales rep can’t answer if it will be changed to Platinum. Any opinion on insisting it’s added as an addendum before signing and paying?
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That's what I'd do. Or else just wait until the new tiers become official.
 

Steve Fatula

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Answer:
2. Log in to your marriott.com/rewards site and click under "nights" it will open up how many nights and points you have in your lifetime and for current year, and what lifetime status that you have achieved. It is at the same place where you found under your question (3).

For me, since I will technically be at 498 nights by end of the year, I have taken my Marriott Visa out of the drawer and plan to put 6K on it to get me an additional 2 nights to get us to the Old Gold Lifetime so that I can achieve Lifetime Platinum. I won't make 750 to make Platinum lifetime to get me to the future Platinum Premier Lifetime.

I see, the trick is under nights. So, that means I am lifetime silver, and need 77 nights by year end since I have plenty of points for current gold lifetime. Looks like timeshare stays count as nights. No way I am getting 77! Oh well. But I probably will take the new Chase card for the 100,000 MR points. That will fund an airfare for a Thailand trip next year. We'll see how the new lifetime works on the new program.
 

dneveu

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You do need tenure if you have not already achieved the lifetime status.

  • LIFETIME SILVER ELITE
    250 Lifetime Nights + 5 Years* Elite Status
    • Points Never Expire
    • All Silver Elite benefits
  • Benefit_Lifetime.svg

    LIFETIME GOLD ELITE
    400 Lifetime Nights + 7 Years* Gold Elite Status or Higher
    • Points Never Expire
    • All Gold Elite benefits
  • Benefit_Lifetime.svg

    LIFETIME PLATINUM ELITE
    600 Lifetime Nights + 10 Years* Platinum Elite Status
    • Points Never Expire
    • All Platinum Elite benefits
As the new lifetime requirement no longer includes points, but rather includes # years of achieving a designated status level, Is there any way to see online how many years we have achieved at particular elite status?

Also do you have to be at level to be grandfathered in by August or by 12/31/18? This will make a difference for some people. Previous Articles said lifetime status designation would not occur until 2019, so i thought we had till 12/31/18 to qualify for a lifetime status. Is that correct?
 

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It seems like a potential nice benefit for those of us who were Gold Elite and will now be Platinum, is under the new benefits, we will get 50% bonus points. Before it was only 25%. Otherwise, I see they took away benefits from Gold but will upgrade to Gold members to Platinum and so on.
 

bazzap

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This is what I read
Marriott Rewards
Lifetime Platinum Elite Grandfathered into Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite
but
SPG
Lifetime Platinum Elite stay as Lifetime Platinum Elite
So great for us who have the Marriott Rewards status, very disappointing I suspect for those who have the SPG status - I wonder why?
 

frank808

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But lifetime platinum requires 600 nights and 10 years of platinum.
I have 900+ nights and 6 or 7 years as platinum. I dont have enough mrp to qualify for lifetime gold or platinum. I think it would have taken me another 5 years to hit the 2 million mrp for the old lifetime plat designation. But i have enough years now to qualify for lifetime gold come 2019 and another 3 years i'll hit lifetime plat (if the threshold does not change by then).

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Need help regarding this. We are scheduled to sign documents tomorrow to purchase 4000 points from MVC. One of the reasons we decided to go to 4K instead of 3500 was the added benefit of obtaining lifetime Gold status with MR. We had recently obtained this with stays and credit card usage, but the ease of having it permanent was a huge selling point for us. Then, today we read about the upcoming changes. Yes, our gold status with MR will go to platinum. But tomorrow we are signing a contract stating we will have gold status via MVC. Our sales rep can’t answer if it will be changed to Platinum. Any opinion on insisting it’s added as an addendum before signing and paying?


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It is not lifetime status for having dc points and enrolled weeks. It is annual and you will get the status as long as you have enough weeks and dc points to stay in the chairmans, presidential, etc status. If you no longer own the weeks or points that give you the chairmans status in dc pointa program, you will drop status in marriott reward point program.

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I'm interested and slightly suspicious of the new points charts. If existing individual hotel category designations don't change, we are looking at a considerable points inflation at the car 4/5 level (the cat I usually book on points).
 

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This reminds me of when my company changed our pensions back in 1999. How it impacted you was based on age and years of service. Everyone was so focused on the pension changes that no one paid attention to significant changes to retirement medical that was elinmated. This might have has less importance but important just the same.

Lifetime loyalty ptrserved or upgrade in the case of lifetime gold based on a cutoff date of achieving lifetime. If you haven't earned it by then, new rules apply. What is unclear is how we spend our reward points. Lesser benefit to many but important never the less. The category system is being revamped and how hotels land is going to be key to how devalued points are. Currently a Cat 5 hotel is 25000 points. It goes up to 35,000. That is a 40 percent devaluation. When in moves to 30k./40k.average still the same. Given each cat now goes up 5k and significantly more in the future, it might not be pretty. How will travel packages shake out...TBD.
 

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As the new lifetime requirement no longer includes points, but rather includes # years of achieving a designated status level, Is there any way to see online how many years we have achieved at particular elite status?

Also do you have to be at level to be grandfathered in by August or by 12/31/18? This will make a difference for some people. Previous Articles said lifetime status designation would not occur until 2019, so i thought we had till 12/31/18 to qualify for a lifetime status. Is that correct?
In the Q&A. SPG and Marriott Reward members are use the current criteria to gain their lifetime status until 12/31/18.
 

VacationForever

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This is what I read
Marriott Rewards
Lifetime Platinum Elite Grandfathered into Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite
but
SPG
Lifetime Platinum Elite stay as Lifetime Platinum Elite
So great for us who have the Marriott Rewards status, very disappointing I suspect for those who have the SPG status - I wonder why?
Because SPG Elite requirement is lower than Marriott Elite for the same name status. SPG Elite requires 25 nights to get Gold while Marriott requires 50. SPG Elite requires 50 to get to Platinum while Marriott requires 75 to get Platinum. So SPG Platinum Elite has been equal to Marriott Gold Elite requirement.
 

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I'm pretty confused by the new point charts and new credit card tiers.

100k points for a category 8 (whatever that means) peak free night? Really?

I wouldn't worry about this too much until we see the hotel categories assigned. You could be right. But, my guess is that the higher categories will be RC's and St Regis hotels-as everything is now in one program. Category 8 marriott hotels, SHOULD go to category 6 or 7 to maintain the same point spread. Otherwise, the value will not be properly distributed among the categories.
 

VacationForever

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I got an official reply from Marriott Rewards:
"We do not have any changes planned for the travel packages. Please visit members.marriott.com for further information."
 
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