Rapid Travel Chai

Update: Marriott is eliminating the 10 elite qualifying nights for first meeting benefit, effective 1/1/20.

I’ve been on record that I don’t care much about hotel elite status beyond what a credit card will give me. When I care about hotel elite status, it is about breakfast.

Many of my stays around the world are at mom and pop places I find on Booking.com and Hotels.com. I like small, quirky spots.

Our hotel points are for getaways with my wife at more upscale properties. Breakfast or lounge access is a key benefit for us.

I ignored most of the Marriott-SPG merger developments. I figured I’d be far from Marriott Lifetime Platinum, the new free breakfast status.

I merged my accounts, and if this sticks, I am surprisingly close to the new criteria for Marriott Lifetime Platinum:

Marriott Lifetime Platinum Elite requires 600 Lifetime Nights + 10 Years Platinum Elite Status.

I have 396 Lifetime Nights + 7 Years Platinum Elite Status. This is attributed to:

1. A few corporate road warrior spells
2. A few years of Marriott Gold via United RewardsPlus
3. The Chase Marriott personal and business cards contributing, together, 30 Elite Nights per year (this will drop to one set of 15 per year from 2019)

I’m only going to do so much for free breakfast, so how will it make sense for me to add 204 Elite Nights and 3 Years of Platinum?

Let’s note that award nights count as Elite Nights now.

This year I am at 34 Elite Nights (30 from credit cards + 4 from award stays).

I have 2 7-night Travel Packages that will chip in a total of 14 Elite Nights either this year or next.

I also can do the Meeting Planner thing for 10 nights.

A 5-Year Plan

Here’s a rough plan:

2018 (still need 16 Elite Nights):

• Plan a meeting for 10
• Redeem my credit card anniversary certs for 2
• Have some cheap paid or award stays for 4

2019 (need 50 Elite Nights):

• Credit card for 15
• Plan a meeting for 10
• Two Travel Package Stays for 14
• Redeem my credit card anniversary certs for 2
• Have some cheap paid or award stays for 9

I will only be going out of my usual way for the meeting planning, and perhaps paying a premium on a few hotel stays, so the extra cash investment will not be high.

Having Platinum status through 2018 takes off pressure to use the Travel Packages in January while I still have prior year Platinum.

That will get me to 9 years of Platinum and 462 Elite Nights.

Patience

Then I sit and wait.

Each year will be good for 17 Elite Nights as long as I keep the credit cards and redeem the annual certs. I might even be adding some of the Amex SPG cards for their anniversary certs. In 5 years, doing nothing else, I’ll be at 550.

Then I’ll just need a 50 Elite Night year to close out the Platinum. I won’t be in a rush. Professional circumstances can make that possible on someone else’s dime next year, the year after, who knows. One long consulting engagement with a company that prefers Marriott can seal the deal.

I expect many devaluations in Marriott as in any loyalty program. I don’t expect Marriott to devalue the Platinum breakfast benefit now that they have finally gotten to a more unified benefit across their brands. If they do devalue, I haven’t gone to much extra expense.

Readers, is my rationalization solid or ridiculous?