If you earned Platinum (50 night) or Titanium (75 night) elite status with Marriott in 2021 you only have until January 7th to make your ‘choice benefit selections. If you miss the deadline, you miss out on benefits like suite upgrade priority and free nights.
A reader shares they have a missing stay from December 27 that would push them over the threshold to earn Titanium. The hotel assures they’ve submitted the stay and points. Marriott won’t accept a missing stay submission for 10 business days and that means the stay likely won’t credit until… after January 7.
So I checked with Marriott on “what happens then?” Would Marriott’s error, failing to post a stay, keep them from receiving the full benefits of their status, if/once the missing stay issue is rectified? And Marriott says no.
According to the chain,
In a situation like this, the member should file the missing stay report. If it is validated, we would be able to manually insert the members preferred Annual Choice Benefit at the higher elite status level even if the deadline has passed.
I’m not sure how easy it would be under normal circumstances to accomplish that, but that’s the official word. It is possible to get a choice benefit after the January 7 deadline in exceptional circumstances such as this one.
And Marriott looking into the particular stay for this reader (I love helping along great customer service!) but it’s good to know that the January 7 cutoff isn’t ‘hard’ for cases where stays don’t post in time.
I was in the same position and called Bonvoy at the advice of someone who had been able to get it resolved with them on the phone. They were willing to resolve on the spot, my status updated immediately and I was able to choose my benefit the next day.
Side note, the agent I was dealing with claimed that the issue was that the hotel I stayed at (Avalon Palm Springs, part of Design Hotels) was listed as excluded from the Bonvoy program. Odd claim given I used Free Night Certificates from my Bonvoy account to book. I pored through my (Bonvoy issued) confirmation, the hotel listing (on Bonvoy’s site) and the Marriott T’s & C’s that list excluded properties and no exclusions for this hotel are mentioned. The agent posted the elite night credit and said he was raising it to corporate as “hotels who don’t comply should be deflagged”.
Marriott stands to lose money deflagging hotels. It’s all high and mighty to say what hotels should be deflagged. A for profit company isn’t going to put their money where their mouth is.
I had the same issue after staying at the Westin Grand Sukumvit Bangkok for 13 nights in December, only to have only to have 5 nights of the 13 recorded. This left me 2 nights short of 73. After persistent calls and emails over several days this week, I finally was given the proper number of nights and beat the Jan. 7 deadline! Phew! One associate was particularly helpful and patient, and it was due to her efforts that I was awarded the proper number of nights and the opportunity to claim my Marriott Choice Benefit for 2021.
What about situation where you were at 73 nights and then had a 3 night stay Dec 30 – Jan 2. Two nights in 2021 and one in 2022. The one night in 2022 shows in 2022 totals.
The stay is posted, but how do I see that it would be 75 nights for 2021 for the 75 night tier choice? When would expect to get the email to select?
Found it – looks like it showed up under Titanium Benefits – and I was able to select. But no reminder email – I guess too soon since Jan 1.
That’s not just a Marriott issue. I finished the 30 nights with Hyatt (no mean feat if you spend the year in locked down Singapore) with an SLH stay checking out at Jan 1st. I checked beforehand with Hyatt if this was going to work – sure, no problem. Only after checking out I was told that I have to wait up to 30 days for my SLH nights to post (they posted thankfully after six days) and now need to wait another two weeks for someone to process the cross over nights. And then they „might“ process my status upgrade.
Honestly, so far I fail to see where Hyatt beats Marriott in Asia with the exception of being able to book suites outright on points – this is pretty helpful
Wow – thanks for this – as a newly minted Plat I had no idea I had to choose by January 7. VFTW is an invaluable resource.
This is so frustrating. No reminder email this year!!! So. No benefits for me.
I was in the same position, i.e. I had submitted a missing stay request that pushed me over 75 nights for 2021 and in the email chain regarding the missing stay, I specifically requested confirmation that I would receive my second Annual Choice Award prior to the January 7 deadline. Thus far, customer service has been extremely disappointing. On January 10, my account updated to reflect 5 suite night awards (which I would not have chosen) and I have subsequently been told that due to my failure to “choose” or respond to an email (which I did not receive in light of the missing stay and inaccurate number of nights tallied in my account) the suite night awards were automatically awarded and no changes can be made. I have only been Ambassador/Platinum and/or Titanium Elite (post-SPG merge) for 7 years now, but I would still hope for better customer service than the generic responses received.
I requested the 5 elite night credit as my award on January 6, 2022. Received an email stating the nights would be posted to my account within 48 hours. Four weeks later nothing has posted. Emailed Marriott and their response is that the nights did post….in 2021…when they were earned. WTF? What is the point of that? I already earned the status in 2021. Isn’t the point of the 5 elite nights to be used as a jump start on 2022? Just like the jump start nights you get for having a Bonvoy credit card. Am I missing something?