Originally Posted by
Rowyourboat
As a professional software engineer, I think it is complicated to add code to give SPG members the benefit. You have to merge all the accounts in the Marriott database, then do error checking and validation to find the right users, and then update their records to be LPPE. It's definitely not months of work, so they should finish soon, but they probably didn't want to add one more complexity to an already complicated merger.
It has been pretty smooth overall given the scale of the merger. I'm impressed they had their booking systems back online so fast as that is their #1 priority. There will definitely be hiccups for a while but I'm happy with how it went overall.
As a 20+ year IT professional I was not impressed with the results of the IT work here. Personally I think they over complicated it by converting the whole SPG histories to look like the Marriott format (points tripled and rolled up by stay). They could have just did a one line transaction to triple the points and move into a Marriott like account and gave us a separate button to see legacy SPG history (which could go away after 2 years). Think of the one line when you did a points transfer SPG to Marriott. I think that seeing my SPG history with points tripled is not how it happened anyway, and with my activity still missing details, it is more confusing than helpful. Some stays are not there, some not showing elite points, and no stay since the 8/18 merger shows at all (though the total point balance is going up). I think my total points is correct but with no detail since 8/18 it is hard to know.
I also have 7 missing 2018 nights and one award stay booked prior to merger now says I owe points for an e-cert when I already paid the points.
All in all, I’m pleased with the new program, the extra hotel options for booking, and the preserved elite benefits, but the IT job could have been a lot better.