SkiAdcock

"The transaction is subject to Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide shareholder approvals, completion of Starwood’s planned disposition of its timeshare business, regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. Assuming receipt of the necessary approvals, the parties expect the transaction to close in mid-2016."

Even if it's approved, I doubt anything will happen btwn the 2 programs merging before 2017. When Marriott acquired others (AC, Delta, Protea) it took a while & those weren't the size of SPG.

BTW - FTers on the SPG forum are really unhappy about this.

Cheers.

TMM1982

Perhaps now is the time to transfer my SPG into AA for the extra 20% bonus so I can book the Etihad Residence.

scubadu

1) IMHO, one probably should not "hoard" loyalty program points for "later years" that is just crazy. Devaluations and things such as this very situation are ever present, inherent risks. Loyalty points are not money, they are a depreciating asset; always.

2) Whether I likes this merger or not, I'm pretty sure the fact that people built up substantial loyalty point balances is definitely not going to have any bearing, whatsoever, on whether this is approved or perceived as anti competitive.

Good luck, but my recommendation would be to start burning the SPG points now. Make someday today.

Regards

iflyjetz

Most were also unhappy about the rumor of a merger with Hyatt.

I'm not happy about Marriott buying out SPG but I'd rather have this than SPG merge into Hyatt. The good thing for me is that I'm already Marriott LT Plat; I needed another 4 years as Plat to get SPG LT Plat - no need to chase the LT Plat carrot anymore.

joshua362

As an employee of several public entities who have taken over some 15 companies only to be finally taken over and forced into early retirement, mergers are always about the top 5 guys and the Board cashing out their stock based compensation and taking departure bonuses. Time and time again. It will be spun how great an opportunity this is for employees, consumers and the world, yet this is the real truth. Its easier to take the money and run rather than spend the time and effort to independent on the make the money the hard way!

joshua362

Yes, you are right of course. SPG historically didn't devalue as frequent and bad as the others and circumstances prohibit frequent personal travel. Now I know should have blown 55,000 SPG's for a MSG Suite for Dead & CO but the Mets were in the World Series that night. Stupid me...

bmchris

How is integrating 2 large companies easy? You have cultures, operations, financials etc.

It's not just about the top guys. It's also about beating the competition. By doing this, cutting expenses, rationalizing properties etc., they will be better able to compete with Hilton, Hyatt etc. So it should also be good for shareholders.

I honestly cannot think of any industries that are not consolidating, or at least thinking of consolidating. It's the norm - not the exception.

jalves

Looking forward to seeing what this will do for those with status in both camps. I'm gold in both Marriott and SPG. Wonder if I'll wind up with Platinum in a merged plan.

rasheed

Agree with others that this is a big surprise. Because Marriott is doing so well, promotions have been very minimal, and there is no reason they will need to do much to retain ex-Starwood folks. Sorry, I think that is speaking the truth.

This particular deal choice seems to indicate that Starwood was really in trouble and the comparison I would make is when AA bough TWA. There is going to be not much good that comes out of this for big Starwood points fans. Some of the Starwood point valuations were extremely high and apparently unsustainable. Marriott members already understand the point values (not as bad as Hiton points in my opinion), but there is also not so much churning and point transfer activity in the Marriott program I suspect compared to SPG.

There are other chains on the block for sale as well including Fairmont/Raffles/Swissotel group so this is not the end for sure.

Rasheed

Horace

Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson was on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning. SKIFT has an article about it:

http://skift.com/2015/11/16/marriott...globalization/

Sorenson on Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest, as quoted by SKIFT:
Sorenson on the 30 brands, as quoted by SKIFT:
There you have it: One loyalty program and around 30 brands, many of which overlap.

anotheran2

As a LTP on Marriott and LTG on SPG and like everyone else here, I think SPG points are going to be so devalued and there are going to be huge restrictions at hotels. I think even Marriott points will be devalued again with this merger.

I really hate marriott points because it's so much harder to use. It's just going to get even harder now with less competition and more members

benberg2013

And maybe they'll raise the qualification requirements, in order not to have too many Elite members.

pinniped

As someone who has been generally happy with both programs for what they are good at, I'm sad because the best parts of SPG are likely gone forever. Namely, good Platinum recognition (at most hotels) and really usable awards of varying types including small last-minute awards.

Marriott is a great program if (a) on-property benefits are less important to you than max earnings, (b) you don't care for resort hotels, and (c) you earn enough points and like to redeem weeklong awards via the Travel Packages.

I enjoyed being active in both programs because they are so different...they complement each other. Now I may ramp up Hyatt as my 2nd program, although it's uncertain whether I'd get to Diamond without working pretty hard at it...

This creates one monster mother of a hotel company.

Not that it mattered to me, but I would assume that Delta partnership is dead since Marriott has put a lot of energy into the United partnership.

benberg2013

^

TomBrady

im good with it