Originally Posted by
DJ_Iceman
I just have to reply to the previous posters who (to oversimplify) are claiming that SPG was wonderful and Marriott is ruining everything. My experience was SPG over the years ranged from lackluster to downright bad. I never got the benefits I was supposed to, and both individual properties and the corporate folks were either clueless, unhelpful, or both. Marriott has always treated me fairly, given me the published benefits without issue, and time and time again gone above and beyond the published benefits. If Marriott customer service is declining after the merger, from my perspective that's because Marriott is becoming SPG-ized, not the other way around.
I was primarily a UA flyer during the UA+CO merger then switched to AA after the AA+US merger and what I see here with SPG and Marriott is quite similar to what I observed on the airline side of things. You have some folks that will blame any issue on the other party of the merger, declare that they are destroying the awesomeness that was their preferred per-merger party followed quickly by the folks on the other side who basically make the same arguments in the opposite direction. End of the day you simply cannot make everyone happy, change is disruptive and can be difficult to accept. SPG loyalists preferred SPG because they liked that program and the same goes for those that were loyal to Marriott. Most people will come to accept the changes eventaully, some will find other programs that work better for them and we will have a vocal group that will do neither of those and complain endlessly. Its just what it is...:/