moretimeoffguy

I want both my and my wife's Marriott points to reside in my account. No easy way of doing this. Or is there? With the SPG merger I thought I might:

1) Link my own Marriott and SPG accounts (no downside or "gotchas" here, right?)

2) Link my wife's Marriott and SPG accounts

3) Wife transfers all her Marriott points into her SPG account

4) Wife transfers all her SPG points into my SPG account

5) I transfer all my SPG points to my Marriott account

With step number 5, would I get a 5K bonus for every 20K of SPG points I transfer to Marriott? Thinking not; otherwise, that would be fabulous--presuming all the earlier transfers are "lossless".

From what I understand, it's still a 3:1 ratio going into SPG, and 1:3 going from SPG back to Marriott. No loss, but perhaps no gain points-wise.

ehallison

1-2) No gotchas

3-4) For our family, my husband is looking to increase lifetime points in the Marriott program. So we have been doing the opposite of what you propose - transferring my SPG to Marriott, to transfer to his Marriott. Not sure if that's a consideration for you. Right now, that process increases the lifetime points of the transferee in the Marriott program, not sure how it works in SPG because it's not transparent. And who knows how lifetime points will be counted when the programs are finally merged.

5) No, you don't get a bonus for transferring from SPG to Marriott. The 5k bonus is for airline transfers.

karlpenney

How easy is it to transfer Marriott points between spouses?

hhoope01

Transferring points directly between two Marriott accounts is fairly easy upto 50K points per year. If you want/need to transfer more, then you either do the same as what the above posters are doing (not too hard once you have all the accounts and linkages set up.)

One other way relies on the fact that Marriott will allow more than 50K to be transferred between accounts when the points are needed for an award. So you could make a large hotel award reservation for however many nights would eat up all your existing Marriott points plus the points in your spouses (or someone else's) account. Call MR tell them you have an existing reservation (make sure the reservation can be cancelled of course.) They will email you a form to fill out with your accounts info and the other person's account info. It will need to be signed by both of you and then faxed back to Marriott. Once you've done that, they will transfer however many points is needed for that award. After they have done that, you can cancel the award with all points going back to your account.

Personally, linking and transferring through SPG accounts is an easier process and doesn't include having to call Starwood or Marriott to do. So that is the way I have been doing it myself recently. And as a Marriott LT Plat, I'm not really concerned with my LT balance any longer.

One point as ehallison states point transfers either direction between SPG and Marriott doesn't have any affect on Lifetime points accruals right now.
Transferring directly between two Marriott accounts will decrease the LT points for the source account while increasing the LT points for the recipient account.

Oxon Flyer

You'll need to bear in mind that MR<-->SPG transfers can only be done in certain increments, and that SPG<-->SPG household transfers can only be done in increments of 1,000 Starpoints. So unless you have a very round number of MR points, you will not be able to transfer all of your points using this method.

SanDiego1K

I have consolidated all our Marriott and Starwood points in my Starwood account. I then disperse back to Marriott when I want to do an award booking. Marriott to Starwood and back is instantaneous. Starwood to Starwood takes several days.

ehallison

Yes, we've always thrown points from my account to my husband's so that he could get the LT points. Now my account is in a very strange NEGATIVE lifetime point balance of -8000. I have no idea how the math on that worked...

moretimeoffguy

Thanks everyone. My wife has around 100K Marriott points. We're not seeking status at this time.

moretimeoffguy

@SanDiego1K, thanks. I'm now considering consolidating all into one Starwood account. Given what you've said, that sounds like it provides maximum flexibility. With the caveat @Oxon Flyer provided: that I may end up with some orphaned miles. At least if the programs remain separate forever. Will have to do the math on the increments and see what looks best for now--I'm sure I'm missing something in my decision making process without looking at the *actual* steps involved, e.g. doing "mock" transfers.

Any news on when and/or if the MR and SPG loyalty programs will become one? I may still lose out on some spousal miles. But it may not be a huge concern.

SanDiego1K

They will become one, perhaps in 2018. No date has been announced.

moretimeoffguy

Thanks SD. Any bullet points on the potential consequences of a merge of the two loyalty programs? As it pertains to my situation at least. There must be threads out there on general speculation.

SanDiego1K

None. Marriott has not tipped its hand. Its first action of the 3:1 ratio between Starwood and Marriott has been extremely positive but beyond that it's a pure guess.

hhoope01

And if you want to see what "pure guessing" looks like you can check out the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...an-linked.html. It is a very long thread with lots of guessing throughout it.

With that said, I'd say there are a few other "data points" that might also be "clues" to how Marriott might be looking at bringing the two programs together. They provided reciprocal elite status between the two programs. It seems most tend to think SPG Plat > Marriott Plat but Marriott Gold > SPG Gold. So Marriott's linking those elite levels to each other could show how Marriott thinks about the different levels in each program.

Also, soon after the merger was finalized, Marriott modified their elite check-out benefit to more closely align with the SPG benefit. Could be an indicator that the new combined program might not be as one-sided as many are lamenting.

There are probably a few other, but the above two are what I could think of off the top of my head.

osugrad2x

I was thinking of doing this, if my wife has no points now and she transfers her spg into marriott then to me shouldnt her LT just be 0 still? or will it be negative since she had 0 before transferring from spg?

hhoope01

Based on ehallison's post, I think you have your answer. While no one knows exactly how Marriott will finally "combine" each of our SPG and Marriott accounts, I'm guessing that once they are finally merged together, her LT points balance will be back to 0 or higher.