Originally Posted by
pinniped
It seems like the current variant of MR came into being in the late 1990's.
I think your are correct. Before this time, Marriott had one program from their FS hotels (Marriott Honored Guest) and different programs for their non-FS hotels (FFI Club, CY Club, maybe others as well.) In the late 90's I think they consolidated all their various programs into one company wide program. At the time I had lifetime CY Club Gold membership and they used to send me free breakfast and free suite upgrade coupons all the time.^