Questions and Answers

My dad wants to switch his Hotel loyalty from Hilton to Marriott because one of the places he goes for work doesn’t have any Hilton properties and he will “earn more points” (not sure where he got that reasoning) I told him that he should try to get to Diamond so that he could get status quicker. However, a lot of his stays are 1 or 2 nights so, he has been getting status through stays not nights. On the Marriott website it says nothing about getting status through stays, just nights. Is there a way to get status in terms of the number of stays?

I believe Marriott only uses nights as elite qualification, as well as credit card spend on the co-branded card from Chase. I’d at least get the card. Each year you’re awarded 15 elite credits toward status (Silver Status) and every $3000 in spend gets an additional credit towards status. Furthermore, the additional benefits of Platinum (75 nights) arent that much better than Gold (50 nights). I’d tell your father to aim for Gold. Having their credit card means you’d get Gold status in just 35 nights!

Now that I think about it, Hyatt is doing away with qualifying based on stays when the new program rolls in (as well as the revenue based base points). There are no details about the integration of the Marriott, RItz Carlton and SPG programs but the 2 former only use nights as elite qualification. Im not sure I’d be surprised of the new combined program only used nights as elite qualification either. IHG Rewards also only qualify based on nights. That leaves Hilton the only program that has stays as a qualification method. I dont think I’d be surprised if Hilton overhauls HHonors to remove stays as a qualification method.