Originally Posted by
Travelosopher
I agree completely. I'm SPG LTP, and I've been shifting some of my stays lately to Marriott branded hotels when it has made sense for me, assuming that all of my nights would eventually count equally in the combined program. Now I'm not so sure if that is the case......
All of your nights will indeed count in the combined program, but as you'll already match to LTP in the merge, they won't change anything. They won't retroactively count though.
Unfortunately, this is the result of making an assumption. Advice to stick with current rules until new ones are announced was widely discussed/advised here.