Travel loyalty programs have increasingly become a global phenomenon over the years. What’s interesting is how the ways to earn elite status differ around the world. We often talk about how easy it is to earn elite status in the United States with credit cards. However, arguably it’s even easier in China, so here’s one…
Continue reading: The Marriott Platinum $25 Trick In China: No Wonder Everyone Is Elite!
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
As someone who extensively travels in China, the quality of breakfast, lounges etc are basically on another level to that of US and EU. You need to dish out 10x the price in western countries to even match the hard product.
So this doesn’t bother me cuz it’s not over crowded and the quality is superb in terms of dollar value.
I'm sure Marriott is fine with it. All these scammers are staying at Marriott properties instead of competitors. So Marriott's profits grow nicely! And the only people unhappy are other Marriott customers, who, of course, are also staying at Marriott properties and increasing profits. Win-win for Marriott.
Note to self: Stay anywhere but Marriott on my future trip to China.
Lollllll makes me happy!
Marriott does everything in their power to "bonvoy" us all in the rear end with their horrendous, worthless rewards program.
Anything (legal) that "bonvoys" them back, even a little, is a-ok with me!
Whether it's flights or hotels, I prefer programs where earning status actually requires loyalty. As a traveller with 120+ nights per year, I just don't see a reason to participate in programs that hand out status to everyone and their dog, because such programs can't reward the loyalty by very nature of that approach.
The worst part is that many programs won't even let the property known whether a guest is natural, or got status for free/for a fee, so properties have no way to differentiate between the regular travellers who are worth investing into and someone who stays twice a year but has a credit card.
I don’t see how this is better or worse than getting a credit card and suddenly having top-tier status. If they want status to be meaningful, then stop offering shortcuts and either make it all about nights stayed, or revenue spent. Any other way of getting status is just going to dilute things.
tbh, I think it is just worth of 25 dollars, as it is not a small amounts in China, some Marriott properties in China costs less than 25 dollars per night, this is still though not the cheapest one across the world. You just have to accept that you are living in a very expensive country that motel costs 10 times more than their 5 star hotel. The same as the elite status, again, we got it through credit card, the exact the same way they are doing.
@ David -- I hear you. I'm not saying giving away Platinum status with credit cards in the United States is great, but at least there's significantly more direct upside for Marriott there, given how much money the company makes from its co-brand credit card agreements. Meanwhile in China, it seems like Marriott isn't being paid anything for this (at least directly).
I thought everyone knew this. I just checked another site I saw on recent travels to Asia:
Marriott Platinum USD$ 25 for 2 years
World of Hyatt Globalist with your name and account # USD$350 for 2 years
World of Hyatt Globalist 1 year USD$100
Hilton Diamond USD $25 for 2 years
Star Alliance Gold USD$80 for 1 year
Accor Platinum USD$ 125 for 1 year
Ascott ASR Platinum USD$ for 1 year
these are just a few available
So just us in Europe are suckers and have to stay AND pay for actual nights... Marriott, are you reading this? Some creative solutions, here?
They must have hiked up the price .
Your friend Gary wrote about it a year ago and it was 20$
Wait until you hear of Hyatt Hearts… official program by hyatt via their wechat small apps.
What's so excited about this?
Chinese pay $75 per year for status to tech giant.
Americans pay $650 per year for status to credit card giant.
Americans paying around 8x more than Chinese is not unheard of.
There are many more killer "tricks" in China if you know where to look.
Why do you think Marriott cares about the product like you.
The only suckers are the owners at popular Chinese tourist destinations, places like Japan, Thailand, Vietnam or Australia. I'm sure GM within China already priced in the cost of feeding their products.
That is Great! All I want to see is people from China that do not belong in Lounges/Breakfast Bagging up the croissants, pastries, chicken wings and have seen them put Bowls of Rice & Noodles in their Bags (Purses).
At least make them come to Lounges in proper attire!
Also want to know how to get the star alliance gold for $80, asking for a friend
Can I have Marriot for 2, Hyatt for 1, Hilton for 2 and Star for 1 please Alex.
They treated me pretty well because I was not a DYKWIA like many of these Chinese status holders are.
Actual luxury brands are solid in China though so no harm in avoiding Bonvoy properties.
Explains a lot. I’ve often wondered why there’s a proliferation of Chinese travellers in lounges who simply don’t have a modicum of civility. I’ve often wondered how these people are spending more than 50 nights in hotels each year and still don’t have any idea how to behave.
The optimist in me hopes this gets the attention of Bonvoy LT. But then again, will they have the courage to end the scheme? I doubt it.
Not only with Marriott but also for Hilton and Accor base on what I see in Fliggy Hotel inside Alipay App
Well, there is the $650 af and the $6k spend, which would be $180 fee at 3%. Assuming a 50/50 split between amex and marriott, that is $415 revenue for Marriott the first year. Either way, $650 is a lot more than $25. Hotel margins are in the 10% range for mid tier hotels, and 5% for budget tier. So that's the equivalent of a loyal guest spending $4k at the mid tier level. Marriott is getting that level of revenue upfront even if the cc holder stays generated less than the $4k. They are giving a discount for getting your money upfront. Not saying this is 'right', but at the end of the day, it's how much revenue they are generating.
So, Marriott has this going on, Hyatt has the fake status run fiasco (really, there are some managers who need to be sent to jail over that one given the apparent scope of it)...I'm honestly surprised that nobody has decided to somehow "quarantine" China-based elites in their systems given these issues.
(Having said that, in defense of these antics, a lot of US status in various corners comes via credit cards - and those avenues don't really exist in large chunks of the world.)
Thank you Ben for letting me know of this, I'm downloading the Fliggy app right now.
Come on, didn't the reader let you know Marriott and Fliggy have a joint venture in China called Haozhu or Porcupine, which is a word play of Marriott and Fliggy in Chinese?
Marriott China probably asked Fliggy to do so, just like UrCove GM told me Hyatt China instructed them to put long stay discount plan.
Oh you have no idea how Bonvoy and Fliggy do promotion in China, $120 Westin giving out 8K points per stay, $50 Fairfields giving out 3K points per night is common here.
China is in historical deflation and economy downturn, especially property market, and it's just the properties and hotel groups fighting for survival.
Has anyone seen the videos of LV, Chanel, Hermes, etc handbags and products being made and shipped directly from China factories? The bags are not original, but good quality and much less money than the original brands.
So that's China. I worked there 20 years ago and I saw this coming. Can't do much about it.
So I'm not surprised at Hyatt and Marriott joining that road show.
I guess it really is a new world.
I'm not sure which hotels you are staying in on your visits to China but as someone that lives here and stays in a lot of hotels in China this really does not ring true for me. The breakfasts at most Chinese hotels are very paint-by-numbers uninspired food and the lounges have barely edible food and bottom shelf wine. It's free, so they have that going for them, but the quality is about as low as they can possibly go with a straight face.
I will give you that the hard product is usually much better than the US.
Even with all of these promos I still think most Marriott properties in China do not see many elite members. Most Chinese still prefer to book on OTAs and do not participate in loyalty programs. There is no $700 credit card / coupon book craze here.
Agreed, Andrew M. I would take a hotel breakfast in several European countries (e.g. Spain, Greece) over an equivalent property in China any time. Five star hotels in China in my experience have a large-ish buffet but which is made up almost entirely of mediocre quality items from cheap ingredients. Yes, there are some regions where hotel breakfast is an art form compared to Europe and especially the US, but that's SE Asia (Thailand in particular) and parts of the Middle East (e.g. Dubai), certainly not China.
And (most) Europeans pay $ thousands to obtain Plat status through the regular stay requirements. (very few European countries have cc schemes with Marriott)
I'm in China and I not going to comment on the discussions above. Let me just clarify one fact missed in this whole thread before everyone downloads the app and pull the trigger: it's not $25, but $150 (188 + 888 CNY) because a Taobao VIP account is required to be linked to the Friggy account and a Taobao VIP account would cost 888 CNY to purchase (unless one has spent thousands on Taobao in the past 12 months). anyhow, IMHO $150 is pretty steep for an entry ticket to the Marriott Platinum challenge. Employees from large companies get it for free. BTW, this is simply a status match challenge between Taobao VIP and Marriott Platinum that, unlike most, comes with a $25 fee. In fact, if it were actually free like other status matches, I doubt it would even be news.
americans also get other other perks from the credit cards such as free cert and dining credit, but the China market gets their own perks *wink to each of his own
not sure where you stay in China, I travel at leasde 2-3 times in nanjing/Hangzho for over a month stay ususuallybut breakfast buffet and honoring the perks to upgrade you has be phanomenol for me , I travel at leasde 2-3 times for over a month stay ususually. Whereas in us , you are lucky they even give you a food credit for a bagle. and a corner room for be awya from elevators as Titanum member. oh and not to mention useless upgrade award with slim chance even upgrade to an barely enhanced room...
Let's not kid ourselves, at least the Platinum status means something overseas in Asia. You go to a courtyard in China and they have a nice lounge. On top of them, they offer a full breakfast buffet for two (and sometimes 3)! You will never see that in the domestic US market or in Canada.
thats very bad though. In europe we work hard to get the elite status the old fashion way. (hotel stays) and in China you buy it for just 25USD? pissing me off
888 CNY? Are you kidding? I’m confident nobody in China buys 88VIP for 888 CNY—most people already have 88VIP and signed up long ago. There are about 50 million 88VIP users in China; you can look it up. With 50 million people on 88VIP, grab someone off the street and chances are they’re 88VIP. They don’t need to buy it—they already have it. So this isn’t a barrier at all. This promo is basically RMB 188 to buy, no question.
I’ve heard that Fliggy and Marriott have a joint venture, and that there are issues of corruption and collusion among some of its employees. They’ve deliberately tolerated the over-issuance of Marriott Platinum status and run extremely aggressive promotions because the company’s incentives are so high. In other words, the JV’s employees don’t feel accountable to Marriott International, and they don’t care if Marriott’s global loyalty program collapses—they’re only chasing short-term gains. I wonder what Marriott headquarters makes of this.
50 million out of 1 billion is nowhere near grab someone off the street. That’s a 5% chance. You’d have better luck running into Taylor Swift in Kentucky.
China still has about 930 million people who have never flown, so you wouldn’t be finding them on the street either. I’m talking about people who shop online and have flown before—the probability there is over 50%.
Two comments here:
1. I think it depends on your goal. The risk with redoing your account all the time is (1) Marriott enforcing their rules and (2) the partnership with Fliggy ending. If you are trying to obtain lifetime, then this does not help and it could be a waste rather than just going for liftetime to begin with. As you said, the big problem is hotels being unable to properly deliver the benefits.
2. In some way I don't think it is much different than the Amex card that gives the Platinum status. Consider the card charges $695, but give $300 in restaurant money toward any restaurant worldwide and an 85 point certificate, which could be redeemed easily for a room over the balance.
As to the other comments about the quality. I think it is relative to the city and relative to the property. You can't expect the same quality breakfast or lounge at lower brands, but even higher brands that have better quality the price is much less than in the US or EU. Consider in China's major cities, brands like St Regis are only a couple of hundred dollars a night. Even in the US and EU there are good and bad properties and some go with the location. Airport properties for example do not expect a return visit.
Honestly, this befalls onto Marriott, if they actually cared about those loyal, then people who earned status the hard way would be more appreciated. Because hotels now have to suffer by not following the rules and try to skirt, who gives a crap about the load of fake elites out there? The hotels want to play games so it's only fair for customers to play back and cause this influx. Now hotels understand what loyalty is and should weep in their demise of playing games. Marriott needs to appreciate true customers and remove this stint only after hotels stop getting away with loopholes. But that's in a fair world and that will never happen as America is full of greedy bastards.