Originally Posted by
3Cforme
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I'm not one who puts much credence in the 'less competition' argument. There's marginally less competition among loyalty programs with SPG eventually eliminated but Marriott's total share of rooms is still far from an oligopoly position worldwide (or U.S.-wide).
Fair point on the number or properties and rooms. But I'd say if you look at from the number of actual competitive rewards programs that promote customer loyalty, eliminating (merging) one of them makes for less competition.
As others have pointed out, that's what happened in the airline industry. With all the mergers, we still had seats and flights, but one less airline to earn rewards with. There has to be some correlation to decreasing benefits, whether it's a strong or weak correlation, I'd really just be guessing.