Originally Posted by
iflyjetz
That 30,000 is from Starwood alone. At one point, Hyatt was matching everyone, including Hilton Golds, to Diamond. They matched quite a few lesser chains' status - I'd have to dig through the match thread but some matches were quite insane.
In all, I wouldn't be surprised if the total number of matches were 60,000 or more.
This does not surprise me as you said they were matching Motel 6 for God's sake, so was everyone else. Huge knee jerk reaction to Hilton doing it to them. At the end of the day all of those matches be it Hyatt Hilton etc will come to a crashing end this year and early next. Then those people in fact all of us will be looking around to determine which program is best for them. That's just a fact of life. As these programs narrow people are going to have to do things the old fashion way, earn it by their loyalty. Entitlement days are over, and I for one am happy for it. I as a businessman have always been a supporter of revenue based rewards. I pay either full fare of instant upgrade fare on my airline ( and their just happy I do) and I don't book the cheapest room and stand there at the checkin counter telling the agent how I deserve the Presidential Suite because I am a "loyal" traveler !! I mean really? It never fails when I checking into the PHV and there's an American checking in on reward nights telling the clerk they deserve a suite. I cringe.
That's my opinion.