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Marriott Rewards Elite Challenge Terms

Marriott Rewards allows members to earn Gold elite through a challenge requiring 12 nights in 90 days or earn Platinum after 18 nights in 90 days. You can register for an Elite Challenge with a phone call 801-468-4000.

If you are not yet a Marriott Rewards member, then you can sign up through a member referral and you both receive 2,000 points for the first 5 hotel stays.

Your elite status is bumped to the elite level you are trying to get for the three months after the month you enrolled in the Challenge according to Reports on FlyerTalk.

You can only apply for an elite challenge once every 12 months. You will need to wait another year if you do not complete the challenge in the time specified.

Your status reverts back to your old level if you do not meet the Gold Challenge goal of 12 nights or Platinum Challenge 18 nights in 90 days.

If you enrolled in a Gold/Platinum Challenge today, then you have the rest of March, April, May and June before your status drops back to Silver or general member.

Marriott Rewards Challenge Information

  • You do not necessarily need elite status with another program to enroll in Marriott Rewards Gold or Diamond elite challenge.
  • You will be upgraded to the elite level of your challenge (Silver, Gold or Platinum) immediately after enrollment in Marriott Rewards Elite Challenge.
  • Your elite status will last for the month you start the Challenge and three full months following your enrollment month.
  • FlyerTalk recent reports indicate your elite status will remain valid through February 2014 if you successfully meet the Challenge nights required, but it may only last through February 2013 if you enroll in the challenge before May 2012.
  • Silver = 6 nights. Gold = 12 nights. Platinum = 18 nights.

This data is based on information from FlyerTalk as reported by Marriott Rewards members regarding elite challenges in January to March 2012.

FlyerTalk threads on Marriott Gold/Platinum Challenges:

Marriott Rewards Gold/Platinum Challenge (thread started Dec 19, 2011)

Platinum Challenge (thread started Aug 8, 2011)

Marriott Rewards Taste of Gold/Platinum promotion (thread started Jan 16, 2012)

Gold/Platinum Challenge valid to Feb 2012 or 2013 (thread started Feb 18, 2011) and includes response from Marriott Rewards customer service on Challenge requirements for a person enrolling Feb 2011.

I just enrolled in the Platinum Challenge (thanks to everyone on this site) and this is the email I received:

From: RewardsProcedures [mailto:rewards.procedures@marriott.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 2:48 PM
Subject: RE: Marriott Rewards Program

Dear F……,

Thank you for your reply.

I would be happy to extend an offer to you to conditionally upgrade your status to the Platinum Elite level. This new status would be valid until the following terms have been met.

You must stay 18 paid nights beginning with the date the offer is accepted, through May 31, 2011.

Once you have stayed 18 paid nights, the Platinum Elite status will be extended until February 2013. To retain this status for all of 2013, you would need to stay the qualifying number of nights during 2012. The Silver Elite level requires 10 personal paid nights, the Gold Elite level requires 50 personal paid nights, and the Platinum Elite level requires 75 personal paid nights.

Should you be unable to stay the 18 paid nights during this trial period, your account would be returned
to your original status, and you would need to stay the normal night requirements to regain this Platinum Elite level.

Elite nights earned through promotions that appear as non-stay nights in your account do not qualify for this offer.

Please reply to this email if you would like to accept this offer, and I will process the information.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of assistance and for making Marriott your preferred hotel chain.

Sincerely,

Internet Correspondence Specialist
Marriott Rewards Guest Services

 

Related Loyalty Traveler post:

Making elite with Marriott, IHG and Hilton (1-18-2012)

 

14 Comments

  • Wise2u March 15, 2012

    You must have misread….You have EXACTLY 90 days from the day you call and request the challange to complete it. Your improved status is only good during those 90 days…and I don’t think that you get status until 2014 if you succeed, you should really call Marriott and get the info from a company rep instead of parroting misinformation found on FT.

  • Matt March 15, 2012

    So, can I enroll in a challenge to get the benifits for a stay and never have any intention of doing the challenge?

  • Ric Garrido March 15, 2012

    @Wise2u – You may be accurate on all your points. If the FlyerTalk thread has misinformation, then it should be explained more clearly there too. Sometimes I write a post to get feedback and clarification on particular points which usually happens quickly when I post inaccurate information.

    The Challenge information was taken from a variety of posters on the FlyerTalk thread in recent weeks.

    You have a valid point about calling Marriott directly for information. I did not do that in this case. My experience in dealing with customer service agents is the information provided is often incorrect and I find myself going to FlyerTalk for clarification. The anecdotes of dozens of FlyerTalkers often provides more accurate information than one or two company representatives who may not know the fine details of the loyalty program offers.

    It often tends to be a circular search between FlyerTalk and the loyalty program representatives to get to the accurate data.

    Marriott Rewards phone number listed on this post stated my wait time to speak with a customer representative is 46 minutes.

    I have edited this post to reflect your input. And I will follow up with Marriott Rewards.

  • Wise2u March 15, 2012

    after reading the FT threads you refer to it seems to be YMMV about completing the challange in 90 days. When I signed my wife up the only 2 things the CSR strongly stressed were: that we could only attempt it once in a 12 month period and we had exactly 90 days from the day we called in….she even suggested calling closer to my wife’s first stay, she made the challange with no problem, but I appreciated the warning. I got referral points for signing her up and she got instant Plat status…she even got 2 free night certs for the current megabonus. We were told if she made the challange, status would be good until next year, but it makes sense if you do it after July it would be stretched.
    I plan on getting her the credit card to help with more points and next years status….if it looks like it will expire we may use Hyatt to match the status and use them for a year or two.

  • Ric Garrido March 16, 2012

    I definitely recommend trying to get the nights completed within 90 days of enrollment. No sense in taking a chance that the period is longer.

    I had Marriott Gold from a fast-track opportunity in 2011 but I didn’t use the elite status. I would like to to have more stays in Marriott to really get the feel of the loyalty program benefits.

  • Stacey @VeryGoodPoints March 16, 2012

    When I need anything from Marriott customer service, I tweet or DM them. Much better service and Marriott Australia’s twitter team is the best.

  • Ric Garrido March 16, 2012

    @Stacey – Seems like Twitter is the way to get a prompt hotel customer service response these days. I think Marriott is one of very few hotel chains that I don’t have a direct contact for information.

    I did get a response from a Marriott executive once to a Loyalty Traveler blog analysis I made of a special rate offer for Hawaii that consisted of a charitable donation on behalf of the hotel.

    My analysis and advice was to pay a lower room rate for the resort and donate the money yourself directly to the charity due to the inflated room rate the Marriott resort charged.

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