Originally Posted by
Counsellor
it is very frustrating not to get authoritative responses (or even helpful ones) from Marriott.
A suggestion: Back when they were separate, Starwood had a "Starwood Lurker" named William Sanders, who was extremely helpful with information and advice. I was never clear whether he was an "official" spokesman or an unofficial one, but his information was the real McCoy so he was obviously coordinating his answers with Starwood.
He "came over" with the merger and is posting on other sites with the handle "
Marriott Bonvoy Lurker" and he has posted on
FlyerTalk with that handle as recently as yesterday. May I suggest you direct your questions to him and see if he can get this sorted out. He was a wonderful and valuable resource as Starwood Lurker, so he may be here as well.
William is the "Messenger" for Marriott long before the final merger took place. Ever since Mar or Apr 2018, he was fielding questions regarding the merger in that capacity. In fact he stressed several times, ANYTHING he posted had to be reviewed and approved, by the "Merger Team".
You can count his posts as official as they can get. The sad part is, even so you still cannot take it as gospel because Marriott would change its mind and rescind the positions previously conveyed to the members, via William the messenger.
SPG also had the SPG Champion one could contact on certain issues regarding stays not posting nights count not correct etc but they cannot help with TP. I doubt this team would even still exist now when SPG site is completely killed.
OT
if you pay close attention, when you book SPG property on Marriott site (the only way really), the URL CHANGES. For that matter, this may PRECLUDE the current 10% portal rebate because it excludes SPG site, and I am sure everyone knows the cash back portals rely on tracking in order to make sure your purchase meets the criteria - so they get paid, and give you some back as the cash back.