Marriott’s Platinum breakfast benefit better than I thought, but more confusing than ever

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a plate of food on a table
Breakfast shown here is from the US Grant Luxury Collection (SPG) hotel where Platinum elites will continue to get free breakfast.

We were promised that Platinum Elites would get free breakfast when Marriott and SPG merge in August.  But, in my post “Marriott Platinum Elite Welcome Gift List Published,” I pointed out that you might not get free breakfast at a number of hotels when they don’t have a lounge, or when the lounge is closed.  Specifically, I wrote:

…there are several hotel brands where breakfast is not a guaranteed option when there is no lounge or when the lounge is closed:

  • JW Marriott Hotels do not offer a non-lounge breakfast option (but JW Marriott Resorts do).
  • Marriott Hotels do not offer a non-lounge breakfast option (but Marriott Resorts do).
  • Delta Hotels do not offer a non-lounge breakfast option (but Delta Resorts do).
  • Autograph Collection Hotels do not offer a non-lounge breakfast option (but Autograph Collection Resorts do).
  • Renaissance Hotels do not offer a non-lounge breakfast option (but Renaissance Resorts do).

In each of the above cases, as long as a lounge is open and available, this isn’t a problem, but it could be an issue on weekends when some lounges close.

Thankfully, it looks like I was wrong.  Loyalty Lobby has uncovered a document detailing lounge access rules for each Marriott / SPG brand, including details about what happens when the lounge is closed or non-existent:

a white and black list with black text

As you can see above, if a lounge is closed or doesn’t exist at all, most brands will provide breakfast in the restaurant.  There’s still a lot of detail missing here, though.  For example, we now know that at most brands if the lounge is closed in the US or Canada, you’ll get free breakfast.  But what if the hotel doesn’t have a lounge at all?  That’s addressed only for European hotels.  And what happens in Europe when the lounge is closed?  We don’t know.  It isn’t addressed. My assumption is that we’ll get free breakfast whether or not there’s a lounge and whether or not it’s open during your stay.  But if that’s the case, it’s not well spelled out here.

A simplified Platinum playbook… eventually

It’s absurd how complicated this is.  My goal is to produce a much simpler chart to make it easy to know when to expect free breakfast.  As things stand now, you have to consult the chart above, the chart below, and an astrologer or palm reader to make sense of it.

Once I get more concrete info from Marriott I’ll put together a simple chart.

In the meantime, for your confusion pleasure, here again is the previously published breakfast chart:

a white sheet of paper with black text

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