Originally Posted by
FlyingBeanCounter
THis issue changes my behavior. I did 75 - 100 nights a year for 6 years.
No more. Now I will split my stays with Hyatt. Why give Starwood anything more than they will give me?
this is one of the dumbest things Marriott did in the large list of dumb things during this merger.
When people including myself chose SPG in the 2000s, no one knows SPG would merge with Marriott. So decisions are based on what info was available at that time. Some SPG members may have split their stays or concentrate everything with SPG.
There are always those the lucked out - if they split their bets between SPG and Marriott 5-8 years ago, suddenly they found their years counted double. On the opposite side are those that are unlucky, like those who would have gotten Lifetime status had they concentrated on SPG but they split their stay between SPG and the wrong chain like Hilton (or Intercontinental or other chains). These external factors we can't control and it's just part of life I think.
As for that Lifetime Platinum Premier, Marriott might just pull a AMEX and years from now would just open the Platinum Premier tier to everyone that passes a certain threshold. As the program design right now, the Ambassador Tier needs annual qualification and there is no lifetime status for that tier.