Originally Posted by
yulsee
Did Marriott hire a travel hacker or flyertalker to counsel them about weeding out the free loaders or is this resulting from complaints/snitching from DYKWIA on Other People's Money or rich members who wanted to keep the riffraff away from their lounges and luxury properties ?
Marriott Rewards members and SPG members who played by the rules were not "freeloaders." Some rules changed when the programs were merged. Others changed since then. That's not surprising.
For example, rollover elite nights were were a published program feature of Marriott Rewards. A few years ago, I only achieved 75 nights because I had rollover elite nights from the prior year. But that didn't make me a freeloader.
In the Marriott Bonvoy program, it's both harder and easier to achieve status. It's harder because some bonus elite night opportunities are no longer part of the program. It's easier because Marriott Bonvoy now has 7,000+ properties in the program due to the Starwood acquisition, new-builds, and re-flagged hotels.