Same here. So... every SPG account has to be assigned a new account number, which will then disappear when the two accounts are merged, perhaps after just hours of coming into existence?

When UA-CO combined, it was simple and straight forward. First you linked the two accounts, and then the UA account number disappeared. You didn’t first get a new different CO account number that was “linked but not merged” to your existing CO account number. I had assumed this would be the same.

Until reading this thread, I never knew that “merging” was a separate process from “linking”, and this adds yet another account number into the mix. This seems to add a whole lot of unnecessary confusion to a process that is already daunting to the average person.