If you are Lifetime Platinum, like me, you should be especially outraged – and really give Marriott hell about this move, which I’ll get to in a second because I’m in <rant mode>.
But I also can’t see I didn’t see a status devaluation coming ever since they starting giving Platinum status away like candy with the Bonvoy Brilliant credit card (pay the annual fee and get Platinum status).
Keep in mind that historically, since the SPG merger, Platinum has been the base level premium tier (it was called Gold under the original Marriott program, pre-merger).
What I mean is that it is the tier that has confirmed breakfast (in some way – try to decipher the charts on what brands where have to give what!), lounge access when there is a lounge, guaranteed 4pm late checkout (excluding resorts and conference center hotels), and a guaranteed upgrade to a base-level suite if available at check-in for the entire length of your stay.
Whereas Bonvoy Silver and Gold members are theoretically entitled to a better room (higher floor, etc), Platinum is was where you were supposed to get Club Level or even a suite (Ritz excluded!) if available. i.e. the best room available at check-in, but excluding suites above the base level.
Just two days ago, we learned that Bonvoy added in the possibility of suite upgrades for Platinums at Ritz Carlton.
Well, Gary at View from a Wing has discovered that the very same change (which is actually from an April 30th change to the Bonvoy Terms and Conditions), took away more than it gave – in a big, big way.
As Gary notes, the terms changed (and the bolding is Gary’s but I’ll include as it makes it crystal clear) as follows:
Old Terms:
Complimentary Enhanced Room Upgrade for Platinum Elite Members. Platinum Elite Members and above receive a complimentary upgrade to the best available room, subject to availability upon arrival, for the entire length of stay. Complimentary upgrade includes suites, rooms with desirable views, rooms on high floors, corner rooms, rooms with special amenities or rooms on Executive Floors. At The Ritz-Carlton, suites are only included for Titanium Elite and Ambassador Elite Members and rooms with direct Club access are excluded. Enhanced Room Upgrades are subject to availability and are identified by each Participating Property. The Complimentary Enhanced Room Upgrade for Platinum Elite Members and above is available at all Participating Brands except at StudioRes, Limited Sonder Properties, Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Grand Residence Club, Sheraton Vacation Club, Westin Vacation Club, The Phoenician Residences, a Luxury Collection Residence Club, Scottsdale, and Ritz-Carlton Reserve.
Terms from April 30, 2025:
Complimentary Enhanced Room Upgrade for Platinum Elite Members. Platinum Elite Members and above receive a complimentary upgrade, subject to availability upon arrival, for the entire length of stay. Complimentary upgrade includes suites, rooms with desirable views, rooms on high floors, corner rooms, rooms with special amenities or rooms on Executive Floors. At The Ritz-Carlton, rooms with direct Club access are excluded. The Complimentary Enhanced Room Upgrade for Platinum Elite Members and above is available at all Participating Brands except at StudioRes, Limited Sonder Properties, Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Grand Residence Club, Sheraton Vacation Club, Westin Vacation Club, The Phoenician Residences, a Luxury Collection Residence Club, Scottsdale, and Ritz-Carlton Reserve.
Now, for sure Gary takes Marriott to task for this, pointing out that they already changed Suite Upgrade Awards to Nightly Upgrade awards, hoping you’ll opt to use those for upgraded rooms that aren’t suites, and for allowing hotels to get away with not honoring terms and conditions as they see fit, whereas those of us that remember SPG remember that SPG was so serious about hotel compliance with elite benefits that they got charged when a guest filed a complaint – making it advantageous to the property to fix any issues on site and avoid the fee for the support ticket.
And he’s right – I regularly tell people that ask me about whether they should be loyal to Marriott to not expect to get any elite benefits without a fight – and often not even then. It’s not even fun anymore – when often just a request for a “guaranteed” late checkout is denied unless you make a huge stink about it.
And Gary is also very blunt – as I think I’m known for as well – and while he was harder on Hilton with Thursday’s devaluation than I was, I’m going to get a bit more heated on this one.
Perhaps Gary has gotten so used to Marriott Bonvoy’s constant slide downhill that this change didn’t rile him up as much as me. Maybe he was in a good mood today.
But this is a BIG DEAL. A really big deal.
Marriott doesn’t let you earn a lifetime status above Platinum.
If you were SPG Lifetime Platinum, they give you lifetime Bonvoy Titanium (one level above Platinum) but that opportunity ended with the merger. And I guess it’s fitting that clicking the link to Lifetime Platinum benefits leads to a Not Found page.
I *finally* earned lifetime Platinum with Marriott (combined with SPG) last year. I know MANY of you have WAY more nights and years as Platinum, but this is far from a lack of loyalty.
But yet, now a key feature of my hard-earned status – suites when available – has been removed. I have no recourse if a hotel’s most basic suite is available and I don’t get it, because I’m no longer entitled to it.
It would be easy to make the argument that I should just go ahead and earn Titanium status “if you care so much” someone will surely say. I have a Marriott Bonvoy Bonvoy Brilliant and a Bonvoy Business credit card, so I do get a 40 night head start. The thing is, Marriott has slowly lost its grip on me “caring” about staying with them. I feel no sense of loyalty back from them like I did with SPG. It’s Hyatt that has, in many ways, become the new SPG.
At top tier Globalist, you get a real concierge (and while there are bad Hyatt “My Concierge” reps, there are far, far more complaints about bad Marriott Ambassador reps). And that would line up with Marriott’s top tier Ambassador status, requiring not just 40 more elite nights than Hyatt, but $24,000 in spend as well (so award nights count as elite nights but if you don’t spend enough, you stay Titanium).
And at Hyatt, I’m getting proactive upgrades to Standard Suites (a term of the program if available for the length of your stay), Suite Night Awards where I can advance upgrade into a suite for up to 7 nights (whereas Bonvoy gives you a choice to get 5 whole Nightly Upgrade Awards after 50 nights stayed – and that’s just 5 nights, not 5 stays!)
Plus, they don’t even confirm Nightly Upgrade Awards until 5 days in advance while Hyatt’s are at booking. And I almost never have to beg for a 4pm checkout like I do at Marriott.
But at least when staying at Marriott, I knew what my Platinum status entitled me to and even if I sometimes needed a manager, I usually got what was promised. Now, they’ve taken away a rather big promise, making the entire Platinum elite tier less valuable.
I understand why they might want to do this, quite possibly from hotels complaining that they don’t want to pay to clean every suite (which does take around twice as long for a housekeeper on average, driving up housekeeping costs) and the fact that giving Bonvoy Brilliant cardholders Platinum status probably drove up the ranks of Platinums so high that indeed every standard suite at a hotel (that followed the rules) was probably being filled.
So this saves hotel costs. And that should remind you that while in all cases both the hotel and the customer are the customers of hotel chains, Marriott is ever more treating the hotel as the main customer and you as the ancillary one.
If there’s little pushback on this change, and my guess is so few even knew it was a guaranteed benefit in the first place they won’t know what they lost, we may see more benefit losses to the “credit card tier” – and that really screws over those that actually earned it the hard way – whether as lifetime or on a yearly basis.
So, what do you think? Is my rage here justified? Or am I overreacting?
Thoughts?
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