Upgrades have anecdotally improved, although for me given pretty good upgrades in the past it's hard to tell whether it's just an impression or not. Service has massively decreased since the merger for me and has not picked up, so at this stage I am tentatively planning on deliberately choosing other hotels for the remainder of 2019 to pick up some other points and to move down to Titanium for 2020. I'll need to make a final decision in the next month or so, but my Marriott spend is down $20K YTD.

Marriott retains the best programme on paper, but suffers too high a proportion of service failures and them not bothering to follow through on service recovery is a real annoyance as a frequent traveller. My life is relatively complex from an administrative perspective as it is, and I can do without choosing a hotel provider which I know will cause me hours of follow-up on a high proportion of stays. I'll continue to visit Marriott hotels where they are the best in the city or where I particularly like them (and for many I hope to retain good upgrades as a long-time frequent visitor), but I tentatively plan to prioritise my stays to either Hyatt or the programme where I'm lowest on points to give me flexibility.