I don't share the negative LT elite POV.
Marriott TS itself a process of destination travel, just as MR for hotel only clients is a similar process. Both require investment of time & money to gain a perk over time. Strategy becomes an important factor.
MVC actually a good catapult to MR LT status of some level for any multiple week owner who realizes you're "married" to Marriott and want to do any of your hotel stays with Marriott properties as your TS nights also count and add up ( and TS stays initially did not count as a MR stay night ). Bottom line here is that TS is a long term process just as a businessman is a road warrior spending scores of nights on the road. Clever MVC owners realize they too were quasi road warriors & Marriott rewards you with perks and more MR points for stays. You get the MAR VISA cc and let time do the rest < yeah I know it's now Bonvoy or whatever they call it >
In those early years we add a day or two to some of our TS vacations to extend the happy moments or fly out night before to hit the ground running at the resort. You pay for it of course, but the business of America is business. We see this strategy as logical way to leverage your Marriott relationship & slowly work towards the perks whilst enjoying life.
The real rewards come with time and patience. LT elite means you never need qualifying nights to maintain status along with concierge lounge perks at the hotels. The more you travel and strategize the more integrated your travels become. We retire in the red rocks of AZ & use our LT Platinum Elite ( or whatever new name Marriott gave it ) to stay at PHX airport hotel before/after TS trips to Florida. We always get a quite room, often on the concierge floor and we take the $10 F&B credit to eat dinner or BF (we prefer a real BF to concierge lounge but do use lounge on occasion ). We get free parking to leave our car on the property. Our room and bed type are guaranteed and we get short notice reservation priority along with extended checkout late afternoon if needed.
Other benefits also. When you travel regularly, there always comes a time when something will go wrong with a flight/hotel/car etc. So one of the things we got off of our "travel mistake bucket list"
was mixing up the date of a hotel reservation when driving from AZ to NJ. Get to the property & they say there's no room. I'm always calm & respectful, but I'm getting ready to get tough and mention my Plat status room guarantee and then . . . . . . . we realize we book the room for the night before and were a day late arriving ( error caused making reservation on smart phone & hitting wrong button for the date -- I will never use the phone again). The property had no rooms as a convention grabs all the hotels. My being LT plat was noted & the associate calls around to nearby Marriotts & finds a CY with a room for $350 but get our senior discount rate of $160 for our missed night.
Perks and privileges of LT Plat are not something to gripe about. We don't always get a room UG, but then again, we're one of tens of thousands of elites who are in motion. Now that we're retired, our years of MVC & Marriott travels do indeed payoff in terms of comfort, ease, perks.
I like drinking out of the Marriott glass & consider the glass is full in the larger context of changes made to MVC with the Trust & MR devaluations ( which are a normal part of business life & you learn t change strategy ). We're yet to tap our war chest of untouched MR points & 1.4 mil FF miles from our years of travel.But now that we're retired in cozy AZ red rocks, we do begin to plan big trips as it's time to dig into our bag of travel perks sans worries about devaluations etc. We're still living and breathing and that's what counts.
travel safe,
barry