Originally Posted by
nall
The benefit was actually Starwood Gold, which the new Marriott gold benefit is very similar to. So I doubt Amex sees that as a devaluation.
The AmEx Plat gives you both Hilton and SPG Gold. The SPG Gold gets mapped to Marriott Gold. The REAL (old) Marriott Gold gets mapped to the new Marriott Plat. So AmEx Plat (along with the RC) get lost in this mapping game. All the AmEx Plat members get the new MR Gold (which is close to the old MR Silver). The Ritz limped to the new MR Plat for some time, then goes back to MR Gold. MR essentially downgrade the MR Gold.