joanna j

Does anyone know new transfer ratios after both programs merge on August 1?

sdsearch

The programs aren't completely merging in August 1. People have until December 31 to combine accounts, and until they combine accounts, only some things change (such as the replacement of "starpoints" with "points" at Starwood). But there will still be Starwood accounts and Marriott accounts until the end of the year at least.

So nothing about DC CR->Marriott transfers necessarily needs to change, since there's no "re calibration" happening with Marriott accounts.

It's only the DC- CR>Starwood transfers that obviously need to change, or at least be explained. Ie, they could leave it at the current transfer ratio to the retired "starpoints", and count on Starwood to convert "starpoints' to "points" upon receipt from DC CR. Or they could misunderstand the nature of the merger (by not realizing that Starwood accounts and Marriott accounts will both exist separately for some people until at least the end of 2018), and simply end Starwood transfers in August, and thinking that only Marriott transfer are needed. In which case no transfer ratios would need to change at all.

But we know nothing of what they're planning to do. AFAIK, they haven't put any notices into statements about this the way Amex has. And time is getting very short...

joanna j

Thank you for clarifying.

mia

As of 8.1.2018 the USA transfer ratios have not changed:

DC to Starwood is 1250:750
DC to Marriott is 1250:1500

...will look again on the 18th.

sdsearch

Plus, Starwood will issue new member number in a new format on the 18th. I wonder if Diners Club will accept those after that? Does Diners Club do checking on the member number format, or do they just send it on to the partner to check?

uppereastsider

Serious question - but is anyone at BMO or Diners Club even aware of the SPG/MR merger and actually planning for this change? Feels like the lights are on, but no one's home over there.

sdsearch

I've asked the SPG representative over in the SPG forum whether they've let BMO/Diners Club know about the Aug 18 changes, and a big silence there as well.

The issue with BMO/Diners Club is that, AFAIK, it's the only bank (and one of only two partners) that transfers to SPG (or earn SPG Starpoints for certain activity) yet doesn't issue an SPG card. Amex (Membership Rewards) also transfers to SPG, but since it issues SPG cards as well, of necessity they're very closely tied in with SPG. But for BMO/Diners Club, SPG is just one partner of many, nothing special about the relationship.

The only other non-Amex transfer-to/earn-with-SPG partner I see listed on the SPG site is Audience Rewards, and just like BMO/Diners Club, it shows no clue of the upcoming change from Starpoints to points on the Audience Rewards website:

https://partner.audiencerewards.com/...way/offers.cfm

joanna j

Today I spoke to CS at BMO/Diners Club since my transfer to SPG is late. I was told that they cannot do anything until 4 weeks has passed. They said that it was business as usual with SPG. So i do not know if i will ever see my transfer posted anywhere

DanDaddan208

I spoke with DC today, hoping to move some points to SPG and then over to Marriott for an upcoming stay. DC is aware of the upcoming change but has no information regarding rations. They recommended I wait for a few weeks until things play out and then call again.

sdsearch

I think I saw somewhere that Marriott/SPG has said that Marriott <-> SPG transfers will be discontinued starting Aug 18. If so, the only way to get Starwood points to Marriott after Aug 18 would be to merge / combine your Starwood and Marriott accounts. However, you may not need to move, since you may able to book Marriott properties with Starwood points after Aug 18 anyway.

But I don't understand what you were calling about. You could have still transferred today online to SPG, but I don't know if it'll work tomorrow, let alone in a few weeks. By "play out in a few weeks", that could simply mean that Starwood redemptions as such will disappear and only Marriott redemptions would remain at that point.

sdsearch

Well, at this hour, Diners Club now appears alone in still claiming online you can transfer to SPG Starpoints. The Audience Rewards website above has been taken down, and there's no longer any mention of SPG (or Marriott) that I can find on the Audience Rewards website.

DanDaddan208

The ratios are completely different. If I transferred at 1000:750 would 750 points hit or would they be converted at the SPG->Marriott rate which would mean 1000:2250.

sdsearch

If the transfer was done before Aug 18, it would have converted 1:3 after reaching SPG, because it was would have been clear that a pre-Aug 18 transfer was in Starpoints.

The key thing to understand is that you wouldn't have been transferring to 750 points, you would have been transferring to 750 Starpoints. It's Starpoints that converted 1:3 to just "points" on Aug 18.

No front line Diners Club agent can tell you such stuff, because they aren't familiar enough with how the SPG transition is taking place. That's why they have you the bogus suggestion to wait until "they sort everything out".

That ratio is (and always was) likely to disappear once they sort everything out.

So by taking the agent's advice to wait things out, you can presumably give up on this ratio, and just accept the Diners Club -> Marriott ratio (which you can do at any time).

And now that's post Aug 18, it's less clear if transfers done now will work correctly than transfers done before Aug 18. In other words, transfers done before Aug 18 were clearly in Starpoints, based on the date of the transfer. But Aug 18 onwards, Starpoints no longer exist, so it's not clear if a transfer coming into SPG that originated after Aug 18 will be flagged as "this was Starpoints, multiply by 3 before depositing". So I would it's too late now to safely transfer to SPG, even though the Diners Club site still claims you can do it.

I did a transfer back on July 26 which didn't get into my SPG account as of Aug 17. (And now the SPG account info is very broken on the new site, so I can't even tell if I got in this weekend .) But at least since I originated back in July, I can prove it was in Starpoints if proof is needed, because there nothing other than Starpoints (at the SPG account I transferred to) back in July.

joanna j

My DC transfer appeared in my spg account today. Log in to check

sdsearch

Yes, my DC transfer (from July 26th) appeared in my SPG account on the evening of the 20th I think (it gave the 20th as the posting date), and was 3x the number of Starpoints I'd selected at the DC site. I just forgot to mention it until now, sorry.