Marriott Platinums Now Get Ritz-Carlton Suite Upgrades, Theoretically

Marriott Bonvoy has just tweaked its upgrade policy a bit. It’s good news, though I’d expect the practical implications to be limited.

Marriott expands suite upgrades at Ritz-Carltons

On paper, Marriott Bonvoy has a generous elite upgrade policy, whereby Bonvoy Platinum, Bonvoy Titanium, and Bonvoy Ambassador members, receive suite upgrades subject to availability at most brands. The one exception is that historically, Ritz-Carlton suite upgrades have been limited to Titanium members and above.

That’s no longer the case. Marriott Bonvoy terms & conditions have been updated regarding the room upgrade benefit for elite members. Historically, the terms stated the following when it came to Platinum upgrades:

At The Ritz-Carlton, suites are only included for Titanium Elite and Ambassador Elite Members and rooms with direct Club access are excluded.

With these updates, the terms state the following:

At The Ritz-Carlton, rooms with direct Club access are excluded.

As you can see, this means that Bonvoy Platinum members are now eligible for space available suite upgrades at Ritz-Carlton properties.

The practical implications of this are limited

As mentioned above, Marriott Bonvoy’s upgrade policy is generous on paper. The challenge is the huge amount of elite inflation we’ve seen, which limits the value of the “subject to availability” benefits.

Given that in most situations there are a lot more people eligible for suite upgrades than suites available, Marriott has a secret way that it prioritizes upgrades, so Platinum members members have lower upgrade priority than Ambassador and Titanium members.

So I’m happy to see Marriott Bonvoy update terms to add Ritz-Carlton suite upgrades for Platinum members, since it makes the policy a bit more consistent and logical, and aligns upgrade policies between luxury brands. However, I wouldn’t expect this will suddenly lead to some goldmine of suite upgrades for Platinum members.

The Ritz-Carlton properties that had the availability or desire to upgrade Platinum members probably already did so before this policy was implemented. Meanwhile at most properties, it’s not like there’s availability anyway.

Bottom line

Marriott Bonvoy Platinum members now officially receive suite upgrades at Ritz-Carlton properties, subject to availability. Historically, this was limited to Titanium members and above, so it’s nice that this carve-out has been eliminated. That being said, I wouldn’t expect this to materially change the number of times that Platinum members get upgrades at these properties.

What do you make of Marriott updating the Ritz-Carlton suite upgrade policy?