A LoyaltyLobby reader approached us with an issue that many other Marriott Bonvoy members are facing. Their Platinum or higher status years are not correctly counted towards the lifetime status.
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You can access Marriott’s page for the Lifetime program here.
READ MORE: Marriott Bonvoy Rate & Bonus Points And Miles Promotions
The reader sent us a long email thread with a representative from Marriott’s Office of Consumer Affairs that is mind-boggling. Marriott now claims that they no longer have access to pre-merger SPG information due to “complexities.”
Here’s the relevant reply 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.
Due to the complexities of the Starwood and Marriott merger in 2018, we can only provide Lifetime qualifying year data from December 2018 onwards.
We truly appreciate your loyalty and wish you safe travels.
Sincerely
REMOVED
Office of Consumer Affairs
Marriott International
Here’s the reader’s comment:
I am a Bonvoy Titanium member, with 11 SPG/Marriott Platinum+ years not counting 2021. Like many other readers, my account reflects fewer Platinum+ lifetime years (9) than I have earned.
I thought you might be interested in Marriott’s approach to resolving such discrepancies. Specifically, customer affairs expresses (below) that they are unable to access user data prior to the 2018 SPG merger; nevertheless, they express certainty in their count. In my case, I listed my status by year, have politely and repeatedly requested their by-year record of my status, and am met with crickets since their “can’t see before 2018” admission. Marriott’s response to a request for an audit / correction is therefore “trust us,” rather than “here are what our records show.”
If you believe this approach to customer service merits follow-up (if only to confirm that Lifetime Bonvoy customers are not entitled to confirmation of their records/status before 2018), please feel free to review the correspondence below. If not, then thank you for your time, and have a nice rest of your day!
Out articles surrounding this issue:
- Reader Email: Marriott Still Doesn’t Count Lifetime Years Correctly
- When Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime Status Years Change In 2021?
- Marriott Bonvoy Customer Service Response Regarding Adding Lifetime Years In 2021
- Reader Email: Marriott Bonvoy Missing Lifetime Year In 2020
- Marriott’s Nonsense Reply To Incorrect Account Data, Missing Lifetime Years And No Lifetime Tier Welcome
- Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Service Center Now Claims That Two Lifetime Years Are Added In 2022
- Reader Comment: Achieved Bonvoy Lifetime Platinum Status But Total Silence From Marriott !?
Conclusion
It would really surprise me if Marriott had deleted all the data that Starwood recorded of its guests even after “combining” the histories. Perhaps accessing the data requires an extra effort or is only possible by some Consumer Affairs team members?
I could understand that a reader could be wrong when counting these lifetime years. However, there are so many members that are adamant that theirs have not been counted correctly that I firmly believe that the ball is on Marriott’s court to resolve these issues.
My data is quite off too, but at least the lifetime years were enough to grant me lifetime Titanium at the time of the program merger.
If the reader lives in the EU/EEA area, they could always request Marriott to provide a data dump of all the information they have on record with the hotel company that can be hundreds of pages long. The request can be made by:
Contact our data protection officer responsible for your country or region via MarriottDPO@marriott.com. In your email, please indicate the country from which you are contacting us.
Marriott could always acquire the Starwood data from the hackers that stole it from the combined entity and posted it for sale on the dark web.
I am definitely one of the readers that emailed about this situation. I really need to look for the email conversations that I had with them. I am sure that I did not delete them.
I have been corresponding with Marriott since March about my 2020 lifetime year that should have been posted in 2021 based on my 2020 Titanium Elite status. At first the reps said they could see it and it would be coming. Then they advised that I enter a case. The case was addressed by saying I got the year in 2018, which makes no sense. Does anyone know of an escalation status in Marriott?
I’m also.told years before 1998 don’t count as there was no lifetime program before 1998.
I remember when SPG was Sheraton Preferred Guest and that merged with Westin for Starwood PG.
The only years of mine they count are those on Marriott accounts. Stupidly I went paperless so have no evidence to use against them without visiting all my calendars for the last 20 years.
I think Marriott is too cheap and not savvy enough to buy their data back from the hackers or dark web. Now if this was a franchisee who had issues with their property history, I’m sure Marriott would jump thru hoops to get that info restored, but guests/Bonvoid Members are not Marriott’s customers – as their CEO has pretty much said.
I’m being shorted as well, showing 6 years toward lifetime Platinum rather than 7 or 8 depending on whether they are counting calendar years. At this point, I think I’m likely to abandon my lifetime Platinum plans. Marriott is increasingly diffident at best towards customers in general and elite customers specifically. They’ve shown this time and time again and I’m not all that interested in handing money to a company that actively dislikes me as a customer.
I wish they would fix this issue because doesn’t build trust between members and Bonvoy. IMHO it is worth getting the last years in to get the lifetime.