Considering that the Marriott purchase of Starwood is about to close (expected before the end of this month), I thought that it would be time to revisit the Silver, Gold and Platinum lifetime status requirements.
Marriott Rewards has had published lifetime program for a long time that they tweaked couple of years ago. Hilton recently introduced theirs (read more here). SPG (read more here) and Hyatt (read more here) also have theirs. Only IHG of the big five currently doesn’t have lifetime status program.
You can access Marriott’s web page for lifetime program here.
READ MORE: Marriott Rewards Rate & Bonus Points And Miles Promotions
SPG, Hilton and Hyatt all have number of years requirement at the top tier level or with the program before one can earn the lifetime status that is usually set at 10 years in addition to the number of nights and/or spend requirements.
Marriott Rewards only count the number of nights and points earned. Theoretically you can earn the lifetime status in just one year by earning lots of points and arranging numerous meetings at Marriott affiliated hotels.
Current Marriott Rewards Silver, Gold and Platinum lifetime status requirements:
You should note that all the points earned regardless of the channel are counted towards your lifetime balance.
Points earned by staying at hotels, bonus points, compensation points, purchased points and points earned using Marriott affiliated credit cards all count towards the lifetime points.
Same applies for qualified nights too. Elite nights, rollover nights, meeting rewards nights, and the nights that you earn based on the spend using Marriott affiliated credit cards all count.
Note that if you use points to buy back your status yearly (read more here) that will also DECREASE your lifetime points by the same amount.
Finding your lifetime nights and points counter:
Marriott Rewards has this info on their website but it is not very easy to find out. You must go to your account (access here) and then click the “Nights”.
Marriott currently has a bug on their website (read more here) that prevents displaying the total points earned. This function should return in due course, however.
Previous Silver, Gold and Platinum lifetime status requirements:
The Marriott Rewards greatly reduced the number of nights required for lifetime status back in 2013 and entirely removed the requirement of being a member for minimum of 12 years.
Conclusion
When I started with the loyalty programs in a more serious way in the early 2000’s, I had no idea that I would one day have lifetime status with number of programs. I have lifetime Star Alliance Gold (Premier) from United and Oneworld Sapphire via American Airlines (Platinum).
Should have lifetime SPG Platinum early next year that will end up converted to some status with Marriott Rewards and could get lifetime Platinum with Marriott too as soon as I hit the number of nights requirement (could do some “meetings”). Seems that I gained 60+ nights over the past 14 months with Marriott.
Doubt that I would ever have lifetime Hyatt Diamond status due to the base point requirement or Hilton Diamond. I am working towards lifetime Gold with British Airways that maps to Oneworld Emerald. Should take another five or so years to get the number of required Tier Points together.
