Platinum Membership Questions

[22go]

As platinum rewards members do we receive the 500 reward points gift at every time share stay? What about a hotel stay where we used points to book the night? Is the gift given if 800 DC points were used to book a few nights?

Are night credits given for the rooms booked with the 800 DC points?

I am finding each time share and hotel seems to do this differently.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Ann in CA]

We have always received the 500 points from our MVCI stays. Haven't used any DC points, so don't know about that, but on our recent Marriott Visa free night we received 200 points. (not 500, as it was a Spring Hill Suites)

 

[SueDonJ]

We've gotten Elite Night credits and MR bonus/gifts points for most of our stays involving cash, Weeks and DC stays (including the 800 PlusPoints.) The only ones we haven't been given credits/gifts/bonuses for is when we've had more than one room booked for a single night. Even that, though, is hit-or-miss, because some hotels have credited while others haven't. I think the rule is that they're not supposed to credit double nights, so when they didn't it wasn't worth arguing with them. Also, we haven't gotten Elite Night credits for stays using MR Points although we did get the bonus gifts and points for incidentals charged to those rooms. I think that's how those rules are supposed to happen.

I seem to remember that there are a few hotels/timeshares that don't participate in the program at all - every once in a while a post shows up on TUG or flyertalk about those. If you haven't gotten credits and think you should have, you could post the name of the place to see if anyone's familiar with the rules there.

 

[kjd]

My personal experience with platinum is that it's nice but I don't see much additional value over gold. It does offer a better point structure for paid overnights but you'd have to have a lot of paid stays to make a big difference over gold. The 500 points welcome gift or a can of soda from the store is sort of a joke. Some people may use the special platinum phone number. I have used it and found no real advantage to it. At a few hotels platinum might give you a room on the concieige floor but so might gold.

I'll probably fall back to gold in 2012 but I'm thinking it's not that big a deal. I must say that I do tend to stay in Fairfields, Courtyards, Spring Hill Suites, where the distinction between gold and platinum is hardly noticeable.

 

[sfwilshire]

Some people may use the special platinum phone number. I have used it and found no real advantage to it.

Maybe I've just been lucky, but the couple of times I've called the Platinum line I've received outstanding customer service. The last time was to ask to change my Megabonus offer for summer since I couldn't meet the nights requirements for the one I had. The gentleman was SO helpful, did exactly as I ask, offered additional assistance that I hadn't even considered, and even gave me his direct extension should I need anything else. You can believe I've got that info saved in my phone directory.

We always use Marriotts (usually Residence Inns) for any overnight stays on the way to and from timeshare weeks. We've been lucky a couple of times to get upgraded to a 2br unit, which is more comfortable for our family of four. I've also been upgraded to a 2br a couple of times when traveling alone, which is a bit silly, but I did change bedrooms in the middle of the night in one of them once when the traffic noise in the first bedroom disturbed me.

Sheila

 

[rthib]

The big advantages for Platinum are mainly if you travel frequently on paid stays.

The ability to use the Platinum override to get a room in otherwise soldout locations is worth it for me.

Also, the fact that I can change my megabonus level is also a plus.