Greetings all! I've been a Marriott Rewards member for about 11 years, ever since my first business trip to the sprawling metropolis of Indianapolis at the age of 22. I stayed about 85 or so nights in 2005 in my only true Platinum year, and have been riding those coattails ever since. I've always had a Marriott Visa, and as soon as I thought of it upgraded to the Platinum. However, after ten years at job with light travel, I've now moved to a company in which I'll be flying to a domestic or international destination every other week.
Since then, I've ran about everything I can ($40k year, including work expenses that are reimbursed) through the Marriott Visa, but I was surprised to see that I presently have 408 nights (about 200 of those are likely 'actual' nights), and 900,000k points. Still at Gold - even though I haven't stayed 50+ nights ever since that one year - I called today and asked for the Platinum challenge (9 stays before Oct 31st), which I will probably have knocked out by the end of August. I estimate that I'll have my 500 nights taken care of quickly, and with the 50% points premium, 1.6M points before the end of 2016.
I guess there's not a question coming - just a future heavy Marriott patron saying 'hi', but - to me, this seemed really easy to make Gold lifetime. Like, really easy. It'll take me a bit to bridge the gap between life Gold and Platinum, but it feels like I traveled a bit ten years ago at the start of my career, I'll travel a bit for the next year, and *BAM* I'm already here. But truth be told it was probably the ten years of every-little-bit as I ran most charges through the Visa that helped the most.
I'm certainly going to enjoy it for the duration, but considering the massive number of reimbursable expenses I'm going to run through my CC in the near future, and the corresponding conversion to 'nights', are these lifetime levels too easy? Or am I just maximizing the benefit of the situation I find myself in?