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Has your Marriott Bonvoy status surprisingly dropped?

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If you have Marriott Bonvoy status, you should take a quick look online and see what it shows.

During Sunday, Marriott Bonvoy dropped the status of a lot of people – including myself – who thought that they had been rolled over.

More annoyingly, Marriott did NOT impose a soft landing despite giving the impression on social media and elsewhere that they would.

In my case, this means that I have dropped from Titanium Elite to Gold Elite, which doesn’t get you too far.

I had received various emails from Marriott saying that I was still Titanium Elite and the Bonvoy website was saying ‘Congratulations on remaining Titanium Elite.  You need xx more nights to retain this for 2021’.

For total clarity, I should have been downgraded – I am not saying otherwise – but the hotel chains will often keep you at your previous status as a goodwill gesture.

It is also fair to say that the Marriott Bonvoy rules do not promise a soft landing.  However, Marriott Rewards did offer this and many people thought that the old Marriott Rewards policy would continue.  An official Marriott spokesperson on Flyertalk had posted various times that he expected soft landings to occur.

In the old days (ie 2017 and prior) Marriott Rewards went one step further and let you pay to keep your old status via a programme called Elite Buy Back:

  • 7,500 Marriott Rewards points let you keep Silver Elite status for another year
  • 25,000 Marriott Rewards points let you keep Gold Elite status for another year
  • 40,000 Marriott Rewards points let you keep Platinum Elite status for another year

I accept that Marriott Rewards was a far weaker programme than Marriott Bonvoy, so you can’t make a direct comparison about the buy-back pricing.   If it still existed, I’m sure it would be a lot more expensive.

It does seem like terrible timing to drop many customers from the top tiers to virtually nothing, with no soft landing and no way to buy back their status.  It puts Marriott Bonvoy in a difficult position when travel does start to pick up.

Even without coronavirus, this would not have been a smart move.  22nd March – with a quarter of the year gone – is not the best time to tell someone that, erm, they have not actually retained their status after all and need to start from scratch.  Even if we are back to some sort of normality in September it will be too late to requalify.

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How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (May 2025)

There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.

We reviewed The Platinum Card from American Express in detail here and you can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points.

Category

Marriott Bonvoy

Comments (33)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Berneslai says:
    25 Mar25 March 09:36

    If I were you, I’d get back into FlyerTalk. They are no doubt missing the enlightenment of your opinions.

  • Alex W says:
    25 Mar25 March 09:38

    I have dropped from Gold to Silver. With no stays last year, that is presumably a soft landing. I thought I qualified for Gold having held Amex Plat last year. But it’s worth naff all anyway so hey ho.

  • D says:
    25 Mar25 March 09:55

    I’ve dropped from Titanium Elite to Gold Elite as well and was misled by Marriott. I had 500K AMEX points to transfer last year but couldn’t decide between Bonvoy and HH. I was planning a big trip to Maldives. With promise from Marriott I went for them as I am only Gold with Hilton.

    Dear Mr D,
    Thank you for contacting Marriott Bonvoy.
    In regards to your inquiry, you will only be downgraded to Platinum not to a basic member.
    Please feel free to contact me if I can be of further assistance.

  • AJA says:
    25 Mar25 March 10:20

    Perhaps it’s time to reconsider loyalty to any scheme. Just pick any hotel and any airline. I am beginning to think that travel won’t be possible at all this year. I also think with insurers adding Covid-19 as a known risk and effectively not insuring us we are going to have to make refundable bookings for anything.

    • RedEyeDonkey says:
      25 Mar25 March 10:42

      I’m hoping that will just be a temporary (and possibly sensible in the circumstances from their point of view to avoid all going out of business) move by insurers. H1N1 after all is just another ‘seasonal flu’ now after causing chaos in the first year (albeit nowhere near as much as this). Let’s hope this will fade into memory too over time – though I do wonder if the level of insurers losses from this leads to ‘pandemics’ not being covered in future at all…

      • marcw says:
        25 Mar25 March 11:50

        You have effective treatment (and vaccine) against H1N1. there`s nothing for COVID-19//SARS-Cov2.

  • Adrian says:
    25 Mar25 March 11:00

    Marriott have systematically reduced the benefits since taking over. The points hikes in the last 2 years, the constant changes to the terms and conditions (without letting members know), their arrogance may come back to bite them. Again no communication on the 2 grade fall from Titanium or the timing of it. I’d made reservations for later in the year based on lounge access and breakfast, thankfully refundable reservations. There are plenty of choices in the hotel industry and i’ll be giving Marriott a miss once I’ve used all my points, Bonvoy!

    • TGLoyalty says:
      25 Mar25 March 11:19

      Why do they need to give notice of something that isn’t in the Bonvoy terms and conditions anyway?

      Soft landing was never a confirmed benefit it was at Marriot’s discretion

      Rob has his status for now but from what i saw in updating the number of nights etc in the new year it wasn’t working properly for about 6 weeks.

    • RG says:
      25 Mar25 March 13:03

      Similar to the author, I fully expected to be downgraded as deserved from platinum to gold. Yet the start of March came and site continued to say ‘Platinum for 2020’, so assumed it was recognition of almost lifetime years at platinum.
      So similar to Adrian, I booked (vacation) hotels for later in year based on platinum status i.e. they included lounge and breakfast, which are big freebies. As now correctly dropped to gold, will go in and review bookings as they are now substantially different (i.e. no platinum benefits)
      Was unusual they had it wrong for two months – correcting everyone’s status seems to be something your system should be ready to do on 1 January

  • Ewen Bowman says:
    25 Mar25 March 11:56

    i have too been downgraded-what a ridiculous time to do it in my opinion. Rob have you gone down 2 tiers?
    i was once told by Marriott and i still have the email that like BA you only go down 1 tier per annu, if you have not achieved the correct number of points?

  • Chrisasaurus says:
    25 Mar25 March 12:22

    Sounds like Marriott have managed fully continuity so their customers can continue to be Bonvoyed through this crisis without even having to set foot inside a hotel…

  • Jason Cousins says:
    25 Mar25 March 13:44

    I have an AMEX Plat Card and I’ve been downgraded to BONVOY Silver, which is below the guaranteed Gold level. I think this is an IT balls up.

    • Rob says:
      25 Mar25 March 14:31

      If you fill in the online form on the Amex website it will get kicked up again. My Hilton dropped to Silver too so I need to do the same at some point.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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