Reader Email: Marriott Still Doesn’t Count Lifetime Years Correctly

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a message about an ongoing issue that many of our readers have, which Marriott claims to have fixed; the number of lifetime years is not rightly recorded on some member accounts.

Readers are encouraged to send us questions, comments, or opinions by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll try to cover them here several times a week.

You can access Marriott’s page for the Lifetime program here.

Here’s the email from the reader:

I have a case with Marriott regarding my incorrect lifetime qualifying years which you might be interested in. And I would hope you can give me any advice on how to resolve this matter with Marriott, because I am living in Taiwan and it is not convenient to take any legal action against them simply because they didn’t do the job right.

I have been a Gold Member with SPG from 2014 and upgraded to Platinum (SPG50) in 2017, since then I have maintained my Platinum or Titanium status from 2017 until now.

Attached please see the one of the proofs I have which was sent to Greg in my previous reply and he wrote back to me and basically stated there will be no further review. And trust me, the supervisor I spoke to was actually arguing with me at the end, saying I have been wasting her time and she will end the call. But that was the only number I can call and I can’t believe that was how they treat their customers. I told her it was not her fault for needing to deal with me on this matter, but isn’t this her job? In the end, I wish to get her name, but she said she wouldn’t waste her time spelling it to me, even though English is not my first language. Each time I wanted to speak, she just answered back right away.

I really miss SPG, I really do.

A reader forwarded us a discussion they had with the member services:

First reply from Marriott:

We appreciate your patience as we looked into your Lifetime qualifying years request. After extensive research into your account, we have verified that there are no missing qualifying years toward Lifetime Elite status. Your account is correct. Your current qualifying year totals are: 6 Silver Elite years, 6 Gold Elite years and 3 Platinum Elite years. Below is what we found in our records.

As of December 2018, your account reflected 4 Silver Elite years, 4 Gold Elite years and 1 Platinum Elite year. Since then, you have achieved 2 years of Platinum Elite status or higher. In recognition of your importance and your patience we are depositing 5,000 points into your account. We apologize for the time it took to conclude this matter.

Reader’s response with screenshots:

After speaking to an associate with Titanium Service, she suggested that I attach an email archive here showing that I have been a Platinum member since 2017. I recall I achieved my Platinum status by staying 25 stays and above and eventually made it to the SPG50 level by the end of 2017. Just for your information, the requirement of SPG50 was to stay over 50 nights in 2017.

So in this case, the correct record of my elite qualifying years should be 7 Silver Elite years, 7 Gold Elite years and 4 Platinum Elite years, not including the year 2021 which I assume Marriott will update the count in early-2022.

Please see attached PDF for your information and hopefully, this error can be resolved efficiently. If you require further information, please do not hesitate to let me know. Thank you.

Response from Marriott:

Thank you for your reply. I understand your frustration. Please rest assured that your account has gone through a thorough and extensive review by our technical team who have verified there are no missing qualifying years in your account up to and including 2020’s Year. I apologize for the time it took to complete this review.

Thank you for your loyalty and patronage to our company.

Reader’s response:

Thanks for replying to my email.

The problem is I was indeed a Platinum Member in 2017 with SPG, so therefore it is your company’s responsibility to make another review on this matter. Please do not bullshit me that you have completed an extensive review. I have all the email archives which I can prove my case.

Please escalate this matter to your higher management if you do not have the authority to do so.

Further email to Marriott:

I just made a call to the Titanium Service, and have been treated rudely at the end by a supervisor. She refused to provide me with a written email of her response and asked me to stop wasting her time. She also told me that OCA Americas is the highest authority and the Marriott’s corporate office, so there is nothing she can and will do about it.

I stayed in W Taipei in 2017 and even the General Manager knew I was a Platinum Member with SPG. I shouldn’t be punished by having one year short of the lifetime Platinum year because your IT department did not do their job properly during the merge. If this cannot be resolved on your end, further legal action will be taken into consideration.

Attachments that the reader forwarded:

My reply to the reader:

So, you have qualified for Platinum status from 2017?

2017 qualified – 1st year
2018 qualified – 2nd year
2019 – qualified – 3rd year
2020 – qualified – 4th year
2021 – qualified – 5th year

Have you qualified in all these years?

Reader’s response:

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

My account currently shows I have only 3 years of Platinum and 6 years of Gold by 2020 for the lifetime qualifying years.

My membership status:

2014 – SPG Gold

2015 – SPG Gold

2016 – SPG Gold

2017 – SPG Platinum (50 nights and above)

2018 – Platinum

2019 – Titanium

2020 – Titanium

2021 – currently Titanium with 63 nights

I forwarded the case for further review by Marriott, but I have not heard back what the outcome is.

It is tough for me to believe that all the readers who claim that Marriott is shorting their lifetime years would be wrong when I have the same issue.

The number of lifetime years is way inflated on my legacy Marriott account (I would have still have made it to the lifetime Titanium even with the correct ones). In contrast, my legacy SPG one, now obviously Marriott Bonvoy, is a lifetime Titanium too, but a year or two short from the lifetime stats (would not make a difference either – so not worried).

Marriott claimed that issues with lifetime status had been fixed:

Marriott Bonvoy Claims To Have Corrected Lifetime Years Count On Member Accounts

Issues readers have had with the Lifetime program:

Conclusion

Something must have gone wrong with the data integration from SPG to Marriott, or the lifetime stats are “stuck” for some, as this otherwise makes absolutely no sense at all.

Marriott Bonvoy is adamant that lifetime years shown on members’ accounts are correct, but I know from my account (legacy Marriott & SPG) that this is not the case.

It is unfortunate that readers, and us too, are sent mixed messages about what is going on.

Some have been told that Marriott is aware of the issue and working on it, while others are told that there are no issues at all, and if there ever was one, it has been resolved by now.