Originally Posted by
Gadot
Antarius, Don't mean to be arguable. But when you signed on to the SPG award program, the fine print there said they (SPG) could change the rules at any time unilaterally. "you" agreed to it. Thus when SPG was bought by Marriott, SPG changed its rules to match the Marriott. If you are upset at it, it is not an issue with Marriott, it is between "you" and SPG. The terms and conditions you agreed with with SPG is binding and those said SPG could do whatever they wanted with the program. Example. I had over a million miles of the "old Delta" FF program which they extended for a short term when they changed to the new program. The old miles were about 10x more valuable. I used a lot but still had close to a million that became "new" miles. I had lifetime at the Crown room. When it changed to the sky room, guess what - no more Crown Room
Yes and no. They can change aspects of the program, but they cannot arbitrarily change everything. For example, they can make Platinum into Gold and add a new tier above Ambassador, effectively demoting everyone. Not much we can do about that.
You cannot, however, unilaterally change terms of a contract. If I book a suite, the hotel cannot just give me a closet and say, tough .... - we changed our rules. If I book a fully refundable fare, an airline cannot retroactively require me to pay a change fee. This is a case of the latter. SPG or Marriott T&C may say that they can do this, but courts do not share this opinion.