We recently learned that Marriott and Starwood will officially combine their two loyalty programs on August 18th. While this date is only a few weeks away, it fortunately does not impact earning status for this year or even lifetime status. As I wrote about a few days ago, you still have all of 2018 to earn your status. Come August 18th, however, there will be new requirements for earning status, so you can earn status based on the OLD requirements or the NEW requirements.
The big difference between earning status under the OLD requirements vs. the NEW requirements is that under the old rules only stays at Starwood or Marriott properties will count towards earning status in that particular program. With the NEW requirements, you can combine Starwood and Marriott numbers.
One major question that kept on coming up was whether or not combining your accounts in just a few weeks would exclude you from earning status under the OLD requirements. And the answer is NO! Marriott will not be combining Marriott and Starwood accounts and instead will be looking at their members to manually combine them. Some readers assumed that combining accounts meant that you could only earn status under the NEW requirements. But fortunately, that is not true. Combining your accounts will NOT impact how you can earn status for the year or lifetime status.
Heres a quick recap on how you can earn lifetime status under the OLD Requirements again.
You’ll need to earn your respective Marriott and Starwood nights and points by December 31, 2018.
Marriott Silver Elite Status
- If you’ve already earned Marriott Silver elite status, you’ll be bumped up to Marriott Gold elite status
*Future requirements will require 250 lifetime nights + 5 years of elite status
Marriott Gold Elite Status
- 250 Starwood nights + 5 years of Starwood Gold or Platinum elite status
- 250 Marriott nights + 1.2 million Marriott points earned
*Future requirements will require 400 lifetime nights + 7 years of Gold Elite status or higher
Marriott Platinum Elite Status
- 500 Starwood nights + 10 years of Starwood Platinum elite status
- 500 Marriott nights + 1.6 million Marriott points earned
*Future requirements will require 600 lifetime nights + 10 years of Platinum Elite status
Marriott Platinum Premier Elite Status
- 750 Marriott nights + 2 million Marriott points earned
- 750 COMBINED nights with Marriott and Starwood + 10 years of COMBINED Platinum elite status with Marriott and Starwood
*In the future there will be no way to earn this status
Ultimately, you can end up earning based on the old or new requirements, whichever works best for you! But just keep in mind that any status earned between August 18th and December 31st will not be reflected into your account until January.
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Lifetime Gold under the Marriott program is currently 500 nights and 1.6 million points, you have it the same as Lifetime Silver in the article.
Does that also mean that to qualify under spg conditions between Aug, 18 and Dec 31 nights for 3 rooms still count or only nights for 1 room?
@Chris1982 – You’ll only receive credit for 1 night
Thanks – although this is sad 🙂