It has been unclear whether Marriott Bonvoy will follow Marriott Rewards or Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) soft landing policy (or introduce something new).
Marriott Rewards sometimes downgraded members by one level (you could always buy back the status too) while SPG didn’t offer any soft landings.
You can access Marriott Bonvoy’s page for status levels here.
READ MORE: Marriott Bonvoy Rate & Bonus Points And Miles Promotions
Earlier in the week, I wrote a piece (read more here) that my status downgrade for 2020 hadn’t taken place yet. I decided to dig deeper to find out if there is a policy in place for soft landings.
Here’s Marriott’s policy:
If an Elite member does not meet their existing tier’s annual requirements in a calendar year, they will downgrade one or two Elite tiers below their existing Elite level for the following year.
The member will continue to move down (downgrade) tiers each year if he or she does not meet the tier’s annual requirements.
For example, a Platinum Elite member with 40 qualifying nights in 2020 will move to the Gold Elite tier in 2021. If the member does not meet the Gold Elite requirements in 2021, they will then downgrade to the Silver Elite tier in 2022.
Conclusion
Bonvoy members who haven’t qualified for their 2019 status in 2020, should expect Marriott to process one or two category downgrade soon.
Marriott Rewards used to have unpublished rolling qualification in place where some members (like myself) weren’t downgraded for years even when they didn’t meet the official 75 nights requirement for Platinum status.
It is nice for Marriott Bonvoy to continue to offer soft landings for elite members.
one or two tiers can make a big difference. going from titanium to gold is quite different than from amb to titanium in terms of benefits. I would have expected a clearer policy when a one or two tier downgrade is applied
nothing is Clear at bonvoy except Devaluations!
And so it is with many other hotel programs devaluing their points.
not as fast and steady as Bonvoy!
Bonvoy is a program quickly being abandoned. I’ve shifted my stays to IHG and coupled it with their Premium card due to their current sign-up bonus. So far so good.
Why IHG? I abandoned them early last year, aside for meeting rooms while I have the 25x IHG spend bonus. I felt IHG had the worst loyalty program so I’m curious if I missed something.
The status should be extended for another year for the lousy benefits we get
Bonvoy ist absolutely free of charge. Even for classless freeloaders. Probably another business traveller who doesnt even pays for his own stays.
I’m happy with my platinum benefits. I am nice with everyone
If compare Gold status with Bonvoy and Hhonors, Bonvoy Gold are rubbish
Then, go with HHonors.
Perhaps you can grow a brain and compare matching levels between the 2 programs?
You can’t compare because the points earn and spend between the two programs are different.
I dind’t quite get how it’s decided who drops one tier and who two tiers. Is it up to Marriott or is there some sort of logic to it?
I was told by an agent last week that my account needed 22 more nights until platinum status. Now my bonvoy account online says I need 35? what happened?
Check your lifetime status. I didn’t have enough nights for platinum last year by about 5, but I’m also lifetime gold. This is the first year I have more years as “silver, gold, or platinum” than in the “platinum” only tally. I’m still listed as platinum for now, but to make it more confusing the web site actually gives me two different quantities for numbers of nights remaining to meet platinum status qualification. One in the “spedometer” graphic, another in the details table. It’s almost as if the first is saying how many more nights since I’m gold, the other based on total nights actually spent. There are definitely bugs in the system lately; they’re probably just trying to work them out and resolve inconsistencies introduced by the merger.
Reached out to Bonvoy. Will be soft landed to Platinum in 2020 (haven’t yet) as I hit requirements for Titanium last year
From Titanium, I dropped to Gold. Since when can we soft-land two levels down!?