Originally Posted by
Horace
The status matching that began in 2016 always promoted, "Link your accounts and get your status matched, instantly." It was never about just having having the same benefits; it was about getting the corresponding status. Anyone who linked their SPG and Rewards accounts, and logged on to either system, would see that status.
Exactly, which is why it was so surprising to hear arguments from people claiming that SPG Golds never actually had Marriott Gold status but that Marriott had merely agreed to recognise benefits for SPG Golds showing up at their hotels, as if they
were Marriott Golds. So those people who had looked at their Marriott App on their phone and saw Gold, got greeted as Gold at check in, and received countless emails from Marriott referring to them as a Gold member, could be forgiven for being surprised to hear on August 1st that they were never Marriott Golds after all, it was only a dream, a shadow play. And we can also imagine their reaction if they then received the official explanation that their Marriott status had suddenly been discounted because the people in charge had analysed just HOW it is they became Gold in the first place, and ruled that it was the MANNER in which they acquired Gold status in Marriott - and not the actual fact of possessing Gold status itself - that mattered.
It's all so ludicrous. Imagine having to be the person whose job is it to explain this once the changeover happens.
The methodology behind account linking was always that your status in one program will mirror your status in the other - with auto-promotion to the higher status across both if there was any discrepancy between the two.